Photo Credit: courtesy of IStockphoto

There are many internet reviews that break down every nuance and operation of DSLR's. Most of these will repeat the camera manufacturers specs verbatim for you as well as post the company press release. Additionally, there are a bunch of sites that talk about how to use the gear to take great action snaps of your cat. This review isn't going to cover any of that well trodden ground (although it is tempting to post some shots of my dog).

At Image Mechanics, we deal in high volume commercial digital capture. We mainly shoot tethered to a computer then we process and deliver thousands of images every day. When we write reviews, they are slanted towards how the equipment hinders or aids us in this task. With a few minor exceptions, the Canon 1Ds Mark III definitely falls into the later category.

For a list price of eight grand, the 1Ds Mark III gives you a megapixel count that rivals medium format in a sturdy, easy to use camera with amazing image quality. The chip size is 21.1 megapixel (5616 x 3744) which is 26 percent larger than in the previous 1Ds Mark II and the LCD viewscreen is a whopping 3 inches. The camera also adds a second internal processor to speed up image capture and rendering. As for the sturdiness of this camera, I had first hand experience of how rugged it is on a recent Pfizer shoot in NY with Karen Morgan shooting dogs. Someone knocked the camera off of the Magliner cart and it fell about 3 feet to the concrete floor. Ouch! The only lasting damage was a small ding on the bottom corner. Everything still worked 100 percent after a good chip cleaning. Wow! I thought it would at least be knocked out of alignment or need to go in for repair, but it tested fine and has stayed in production. This is a very sturdy camera that can take a beating.


CARD SHOOTING
The MarkIII supports the new UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) CF cards, which allow twice the data transfer rate of conventional cards. For a brief explanation of UDMA, read the FAQ at the bottom of this link. What the acronyms add up to is that the write speed while shooting is noticeably different between the Sandisk Ultra III (without UDMA capabilities) and the Sandisk Ultra IV's which are UDMA capable cards. In a real world shooting situation, you will rarely hit the buffer using the Sandisk Ultra IV or other UDMA CF cards. The write time is under 1 second per image for up to 19 frames then it hits the buffer. Clearing the buffer only takes 10 seconds.

Here is a quote from a previous blog article about using the 1Ds Mark III while shooting to cards:

"With a shoot-to-card workflow, the Mark III is unstoppable. Even with files that large, at no point did [the Photographer] complain about hitting any sort of buffer. And he liked to hammer it........we were dealing with three to four thousand images each day."

TETHERED SHOOTING
When I first read the specs for the Mark III, I was disappointed in the choice Canon made to switch from Firewire to USB. The first problem for most professional photographers is the fact that Apple USB drivers are slower than Windows drivers and the majority of pros use Macs. Even if you just compare the specs by reading the fine print, USB is only as fast for small files and short bursts. Firewire is faster for larger file transfers like 25-megabyte raw files and sustained copying. Try copying a 5-gig folder of images onto an empty external USB hard drive and then repeat the test on an external firewire drive (make sure the hard drives are the same RPM speed). The firewire transfer will be faster than when using USB. I hate even having this conversation because we should be talking about how screaming fast tethered shooting is when connected via eSATA or even firewire 800! Don't give us bigger files and then slow down the transfer rate. This is the same decision making that made the new WFT-E2a wireless transmitter use 802.11 B/G specs instead of N (we will get to that in a minute). Now here is the reality check. Most people buying a high end DSLR are not professionals. They are doctors and lawyers and other photo enthusiasts with money to burn. Those users will never shoot tethered nor will they have eSATA cards in their computers. Hardware and software companies say they make pro photo tools but they know that the pro slice of the buying public is much smaller than the advanced amateur market. I realize that there are always compromises in life but that doesn't mean that I like it.

Tethered shooting speed tests on an Apple 3-Ghz 8-core w/8GB RAM and a hardware RAID 0+1:

Time from shutter release to first quick preview appearing: 4-5 seconds
Additional queued photos: 3 seconds between each photo transferring
Maximum frames per minute: 33
Time before buffer clears: 3 seconds between shots - 12 shots = 36 seconds
Frames to hit buffer: 12


Lets talk about what Canon did right for tethered shooting. They greatly improved the shooting experience by providing a cable clamp. Long time readers know the lengths we have gone to in order to secure the cable to the camera during a shoot. Canon came up with a brilliant idea to use the electronic cable release port to secure the cable clamp. It is a very nice design that works well. I still think that the cable going into the camera should be right angled not straight to help relieve tension, but the new system is much better than the old one. One thing you might want to consider is getting a short USB cable and using a longer cable with a repeater built into it. Attaching the short cable to the camera and using the clamp will give you the sturdy connection you need and plugging into the repeater provides a break away point. If someone trips on the cable, the repeater junction will disconnect instead of taking the camera down with it or ruining your camera's USB port.


SOFTWARE
The EOS Capture software has evolved nicely. Because we capture into Lightroom or use Adobe CS3 Bridge, all I want camera software to do is get the image from the camera to the computer. The new streamlined EOS Capture has an improved interface.

WIRELESS SHOOTING WITH THE WFT-e2A
The software for the new WFT-E2A is much more intuitive and easier to use than the previous WFT-E1 Utility. The device now sits on the side of the camera instead of screwing into the bottom like before like we suggested. The big problem with this wireless implementation is the bandwidth choice. Again, Canon chose to go with 802.11 B/G implementation, which is older and slower technology as compared to 802.11 N. This choice makes even less sense to me than the USB cable choice. Anyone who needs wireless connectivity and is willing to pay $800 can afford to upgrade their wireless router.


The wireless transfer time Ad-Hoc connection (computer to computer network) RAW: 10-12 seconds depending on RAW file size, which varies from about 19 to 28 megs. The buffer works the same as tethered, once the buffer is hit, the camera needs to clear the latest transfer before you can shoot another frame. This makes for a pretty slow RAW wireless workflow. One work-around would be to shoot RAW + JPG writing the RAW file to card and sending the JPG over the wireless for client editing. JPG over wireless only takes 1 or 2 seconds. You can also use the camera tethered to import RAWs at the same time the WFT is uploading JPGs somewhere else. Doing this doesn't seem to affect the tethered transfer too drastically; only adds a second at most. The key to getting this to work is to make sure the EOS Utility is set so that images are saved to both card and PC (since the WFT reads files from the CF card). This means that the card will have to be replaced or formatted every time it fills up, even while being tethered.

The WFT-E2A will also shoot to 10/100 ethernet. This allows you to shoot tethered for longer distances (150' ethernet cable lengths). This method gets you up to 41 frames per minute with an average transfer time under 2 seconds per image. Still not screaming fast but pretty respectable if you need longer cable runs or your camera's USB port blows out.

SUMMARY
The 1Ds Mark III is a jump forward as well as a step back. You can't beat it for a card workflow but the USB transfer bottleneck keeps it from realizing it's full potential. A recommended workflow with this camera would be to use a short pigtail USB cable fastened to the camera with the cable clamp and tethered via a longer USB repeater for the initial test shots. Then I would pull the repeater and shoot to a card (this saves connecting and reconnecting the cable clamp). The 1Ds Mark III is a very capable camera that should put pressure on medium format chip makers to up their game. I will be interested to see what happens to this market segment when Sony joins the fray later this year with their 25-megapixel camera, which is aimed squarely at the pros.


As managing partner of the full service digital capture company, Image Mechanics, Michael Britt works at the leading edge of digital technology. An impromptu photo show in the 4th grade set the stage for a life devoted to the craft of photography. He worked in film and television, shooting unit stills and galleries for over 10 years and served as a computer consultant for renowned photographer Michael Grecco. At Image Mechanics he was instrumental in developing their revolutionary digital capture workflow and continues to brand the company’s unique style. As a workflow specialist, Britt has consulted on Aperture, been tapped by Adobe to write the manual for Lightroom, and contributes to several online communities including the Image Mechanics Blog - DeathToFilm.com.