Cameras SLR : Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Digital SLR Cameras

Executive Summary about : Cameras SLR  By Philip Ryan

The 1Ds Mark III marks another high-end success for Canon, though you’ll need a lot of spare cash if you want to own this ground-breaking camera.

cameras slr

Canon’s 1Ds series of cameras exists in a class of its own. With pixel counts well above anything else offered in a 35mm-format digital SLR, an attention to detail that addresses the needs of high-end professionals, and a price tag that’s thousands of dollars more than the nearest competition, it continues to push the limits of digital photography. The 1Ds Mark III, the latest in the series, brings the megapixel count to a whopping 21.1 and is every bit a precision instrument.

This camera is a dream machine for the serious/professional photographer.

• 21MP full-frame CMOS
• 14bit Colour (16,000+ tones vs 4096 with most cameras)
• Dual DiGiC III
• Large 100% coverage viewfinder
• Exceptionally low noise, even at high ISO
• Highly Responsive
• Ergonomic
• Supports CF and SD
• Great build quality
• Water and Dust resistant
• AF Micro adjustment, customises AF to up to 20 lenses
• Vertical grip
• Intuitive button layout and menu designs

Design

Canon’s 1Ds series body design, with its long, relatively straight grip, seems somewhat blocky compared with the sculpted designs that Nikon and some other manufacturers use. Both cameras have longer vertical grips. Speaking of which, as in previous models,

Canon duplicates the buttons and dials around the shutter button on the vertical grip, though they omit the exposure compensation and ISO buttons. To Canon’s credit, in my field tests I found that the vertical grip’s shutter on the 1Ds Mark III was less prone to accidental pressing than the one on the Nikon D3.

Menu and Info buttons move above the screen, while the playback button drops to below it. The Select button from the Mark II N is now obsolete, thanks to the Mark III’s Set button, which is mounted in the middle of the large scroll wheel, much like the scroll wheels found on the EOS 40D and 5D. While the Mark II had three two-button combinations of the buttons to the left of the pentaprism, Canon eliminated two of those combos by including the aforementioned dedicated ISO button and putting both AF and Drive under the same button.

The small scroll wheel near the shutter controls one while the large back scroll wheel adjusts the other. You might also notice that there’s no clearly marked white balance button. The FUNC button handles that, but it would’ve been nice for Canon to mark it. They also moved the white balance shift to the menu only, so the Mark II’s WB +/- button is replaced by the AF-On button, which triggers the autofocus and can come in handy if you don’t like the standard half-press of the shutter button to activate focus. If you don’t enjoy the screen that comes with the camera, Canon also offers a choice of 15 optional focusing screens to which you can switch.

Features

The feature everyone will mention first about the 1Ds Mark III is its 21.1-megapixel Canon CMOS sensor. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is followed by a small discussion of the camera’s 14-bit per channel analog to digital conversion, which theoretically allows for 16,384 levels of brightness compared to 4,096 levels with the 12-bit Mark II when shooting RAW.

You can’t dial down to 12 bit on the Canon, so if you shoot RAW, expect files in excess of 30MB each. Outdoor photographers will appreciate the 1Ds Mark III’s dust reduction system. It shakes the sensor whenever you turn the camera on or off to shake dust from the IR-cut filter in front of the sensor. If you end up with any persistent marks on the sensor you can have the camera map the sensor and plot their locations, so you can remove them automatically with the included Digital Photo Professional software.

Following the current trend, the 1Ds Mark III includes a Live View shooting mode, which lets you frame images with the big 3-inch LCD on the back of the camera instead of the optical viewfinder, should you choose to do so. Canon also warns that increased temperatures can lead to increased image noise.

Canon has increased the number of cross-type autofocus points from 7 in the Mark II to 19 in the Mark III. Cross-type AF points typically provide a higher level of sensitivity compared to standard horizontal-only points. Those 19 cross sensors are joined by 26 “assist points” for a total of 45 AF points. Careful scrutiny of Canon’s manual shows that the number of active cross-type points decreases drastically if you use a lens with a maximum aperture slower than f/2.8.

When you step down to a lens with a maximum aperture of f/4, only the centre point functions as a cross-type; the rest function as horizontal only. To determine a proper exposure, the camera uses a 63-zone TTL (through the lens) metering system. The system offers full-frame evaluative metering, centre-weighted average, and partial and spot metering. Canon calls this last option “multispot metering.”

All you have to do is press the FEL button to add another spot reading while you’re in spot AF mode to begin with. In our field tests, the 1Ds Mark III yielded remarkably accurate exposures and was rarely fooled by tricky scenes, but the 3D colour Matrix Metering found in Nikon’s D3 — with its 1,005-pixel sensor and onboard database of comparison image data — barely edges out the 1Ds Mark III’s evaluative mode when it comes to very tricky situations. If you’re really worried about highlights, though, you can activate the Mark III’s Highlight Tone Priority custom function, which makes use of the camera’s 14-bit digital conversion to extend the upper portion of the dynamic range to help preserve highlight detail. Some of the buttons, such as the aforementioned AF-On button, can be changed to perform slightly- or very-different functions.

As usual, the 1Ds Mark III is made to work with a very wide variety of Canon’s optional accessories.

Image quality

The 1Ds Mark III can capture beautiful, amazingly detailed images. One of the nicest things about the 1Ds Mark III is its low noise. Even then, the 1Ds Mark III maintains very vibrant colours, ample shadow detail, and plenty of fine detail. If you want extremely clean images you should probably stick to ISO 400 and below, but I was happy to shoot with not-very-reckless abandon even with the sensitivity range widened.

The Canon 1Ds Mark III isn’t for everyone. The bigger question is whether current 1Ds Mark II owners should step up. Ultimately, you have to ask if you’ve been disappointed in, or felt limited by, the 1Ds Mark II’s performance and image quality.

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Cameras SLR : Canon EOS 450D Digital SLR Review ( also called the Canon Digital Rebel XSi )

Executive Summary about : Cameras SLR By www.dpreview.com | Lori Grunin | Mark Goldstein

Slr Camera

It doesn’t stand out for its feature set or design, but the Canon EOS 450D delivers on performance and photo quality. Featuring a 12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor, EOS Integrated Cleaning System, 3.0″ LCD with Live View mode and a new 9-point AF system, the model presents consumers with an unprecedented level of image quality and versatility at this end of the market.

The EOS 450D employs features already proven in Canon’s professional EOS-1 series cameras, including the DIGIC III image processor and a redesigned menu system that enables features such as direct control of Speedlite flash units from the camera LCD.

The EOS 450D features:

• 12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor
• Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• 3.5 frames per second
• 3.0″ LCD with Live View shooting
• 9-point wide-area AF system with f/2.8 cross-type centre point
• Picture Style image processing parameters
• DIGIC III image processor
• Digital Photo Professional RAW processing software
• Compact and Lightweight body
• Fully compatible with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites

Built for better photos

The menu system inherited from professional EOS cameras uses a simplified tab structure that does away with scrolling. Highlight Tone Priority boosts the dynamic range at the highlight end, providing better tonal detail from wedding dresses, cloudy skies and other bright objects. The new Auto Lighting Optimiser corrects brightness and contrast during image processing, while improving skin tones in portraits by ensuring correct exposure for faces. Photographers can also enable additional noise reduction for shots captured at high ISO speeds.

Features

The biggest operational advantage the 450D offers over competitors is My Menu, which it inherits from older models. With My Menu you can build a go-to list of the most frequently accessed menu settings — in our case, for instance, Format and Live View settings.

For instance, you can change ISO sensitivity with either the dial or the navigation buttons, but can only navigate metering choices via the nav. On some counts, the 450D offers some pretty nice specs, highlighted by the 12-megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor (for Canon’s traditional 1.6x focal-length multiplier) and 9-point user-selectable autofocus system.

We also mark the switch from CompactFlash to SDHC in the plus column. Also, the 450D includes Canon’s Auto Lighting Optimizer, which automatically adjusts contrast and brightness in case the image you captured isn’t quite perfect. For example, shutter speeds range from 30 seconds to 1/4,000 second with a flash sync speed of 1/200 second and the camera employs a 35-zone TTL metering system. Canon also offers the BG-E5 battery grip.

The inclusion of an image-stabilising kit lens doesn’t quite compensate, since additional optically stabilised lenses tend to cost more in the long run. Though it offers a Live View shooting mode with contrast-detection AF, Live View’s usefulness is limited without support from an articulating LCD.

Furthermore, all the manufacturers seem to incorrectly think the equivalent of Canon’s Picture Styles, custom contrast, sharpness saturation, and colour tone, are more important in this market segment than the ability to save groups of custom exposure, white balance, metering, drive mode settings, and so on.

Live View

Available for the first time on a Canon consumer D-SLR, Live View mode makes it easier to shoot from awkward angles, such as ground-level macro shots or when shooting from a tripod. Live View is a great addition on paper, but don’t expect a point-and-shoot experience as the contrast AF mode is infuriatingly slow, and the Quick AF mode is of most interest to macro and studio photographers.

The new EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS kit lens is actually more beneficial than Live View, providing much needed image stabilisation, although obviously Canon’s system is still lens-dependent and therefore more restrictive than that of Sony, Pentax or Olympus (which instantly work with any lens).

Image quality is on a par with the EOS 400D, with noise-free images up to ISO 800 and a very usable fastest speed of 1600, so usable that I don’t understand why the EOS 450D doesn’t also offer ISO 3200. Performance is also excellent, with no shutter-lag to speak of and fast processing times even when shooting in RAW mode. The 3.5fps continuous shooting mode is a little faster than the EOS 450D’s predecessor, although in RAW mode the total number of possible consecutive shots has dropped from 10 to 6.

As for the Canon EOS 450D, it is an excellent camera, especially with the image stabilised 18-55mm lens, and it still offers a fantastic introduction to DSLR photography, just like its more illustrious predecessors.

Canon Digital Cameras SLR : Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera

Posted By Agus Mardiana

A little bigger in so many ways, the Canon EOS 40D is nevertheless familiar. Canon made important additions, some to keep up with the market, and others to meet needs expressed by users. The final product is a mostly improved high-end digital SLR camera that, while not a compelling upgrade for most 20D and 30D owners, is a great digital SLR camera.

canon slr camera

Product Features and Technical Details

Product Features

1. 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality poster-size prints
2. Large 3.0-inch LCD display with enhanced Live View and broadened color gamut
3. 6.5 frame-per-second continuous shooting capability (for bursts of up to 75 Large/Fine JPEGs or 17 RAW images)
4. sRAW mode; 35-zone metering system; integrated Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit
5. Powered by BP-511A, BP-511, or BP-512 lithium-ion battery pack; stores images on CF cards

canon slr camera

Technical Details

1. Color: Black
2. Type: Digital AF/AE SLR
3. Recording medium: CF Card Type I and II and external media (USB v2.0 hard drive, via optional wireless file transmitter)
4. Image format: 0.87 x 0.58 inches (APS-C size sensor)
5. Compatible lenses: Canon EF, EF-S, TS-E, and MP-E
6. Lens mount: Canon EF mount
7. Lens focal length conversion factor: 1.6x
8. Image sensor: High-sensitivity, high-resolution, single-plate CMOS
9. Pixels: Approximately 10.10 megapixels
10. Total pixels: Approximately 10.50 megapixels
11. Aspect ratio: 3:2 (horizontal: vertical)
12. Color filter system: RGB primary color filters
13. Low-pass filter: Fixed position in front of CMOS sensor
14. Recording format: DCF 2.0 (Exif 2.21); JPEG, RAW, and RAW+JPEG simultaneous recording possible; multiple options for recording images on memory card
15. Image format: JPEG, RAW (Canon CR2)
16. File size: JPEG/large: approximately 3.5 MB (3,888 x 2,592); JPEG/medium: approximately 2.1 MB (2,816 x 1,880); JPEG/small: approximatley 1.2 MB (1,936 x 1,288); RAW: approximately 12.4 MB (3,888 x 2,592); sRAW: approximately 7.1 MB (1,936 x 1,288)
17. Folders: Automatically created by camera
18. File numbering: Continuous, auto reset, manual reset
19. Color space: Selectable between sRGB and Adobe RGB
20. Interface: USB 2.0 high-speed mini-B port; NTSC/PAL for video output
21. White balance settings: Auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, white fluorescent light, flash, custom WB setting, user-set color temperature
22. Auto white balance: Yes, taken from imaging sensor
23. Personal white balance: White balance bracketing: 3 consecutive images written to CF card for each firing of shutter; up to +/- 3 levels in 1-step increments; white balance shift: blue/amber bias and/or magenta/green bias +/- up to 9 levels; manually set by user
24. Viewfinder type: Eye-level SLR with solid glass pentaprism
25. Coverage: Approximately 95 percent
26. Magnification: 0.95x (-1 dpt with 50mm lens at infinity)
27. Eyepoint: Approximately 22mm
28. Dioptric adjustment correction: -3.0 to +1.0 diopter
29. Mirror: Quick-return half mirror (transmission: reflection ratio of 40:60)
30. Viewfinder information: AF (AF points, focus confirmation light), Exposure (shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, AE lock, exposure level, spot metering circle, exposure warning), Flash (flash ready, flash exposure compensation, high-speed sync, FE lock, red-eye reduction light), Image (monochrome shooting, maximum burst, white balance correction, CF card information)
31. Depth-of-field preview: Enabled with depth-of-field preview button; possible in Live View function
32. Eyepiece shutter: None
33. Autofocus type: TTL-CT-SIR AF-dedicated CMOS sensor
34. AF points: 9 cross-type AF points, including center AF point; fully functional with f/5.6 or faster lenses
35. AF working range: EV -0.5 to 18
36. Focusing modes: Autofocus (One-Shot AF, Predictive AI Servo AF, AI Focus AF), manual
37. AF point selection: Automatic, manual
38. Selected AF point display: Superimposed red illumination in viewfinder; also visible on top or rear LCD panel when AF point select button is pressed
39. AF-assist beam: Intermittent firing of built-in flash
40. Metering modes: 35-zone TTL full-aperture metering: evaluative, partial, spot, center-weighted average
41. Exposure control systems: Program AE (shiftable), shutter-priority AE, aperture-priority AE, auto depth-of-field AE (non-shiftable), full auto (non-shiftable), programmed image control modes, manual exposure, E-TTL II autoflash program AE
42. ISO speed range: Equivalent to ISO 100 to 1,600 (in 1/3-stop or whole increments)
43. Exposure compensation: +/- 3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-half increments
44. AE lock: Auto: applied in One-Shot AF mode with evaluative metering when focus is achieved; manual: by AE lock button in all metering modes
45. Shutter type: Vertical-travel, mechanical, focal-plane shutter with all speeds electronically controlled
46. Shutter speeds: 1/8,000 to 30 seconds (1/3-stop increments); X-sync at 1/250 of a second
47. Shutter release: Soft-touch electromagnetic
48. Self-timer: 10-second and 2-second delay
49. Remote control: Canon N3 type terminal
50. Flash type: Auto pop up, retractable, built-in flash in pentaprism
51. Guide number: 13/43
52. Recycling time: Roughly 3 seconds
53. Flash-ready indicator: In viewfinder
54. Flash coverage: 17mm lens focal length
55. Flash metering system: E-TTL II autoflash
56. LCD monitor: 3-inch TFT color
57. Pixels: Approximately 230,000
58. Coverage: 100 percent
59. Brightness control: 7 levels
60. Image display format: Single image, 4-image index, 9-image index, jump, magnified zoom (approximately 1.5x to 10x), histogram, AF point display, auto rotate, rotate; live view: view image before shooting on LCD monitor; live histogram and live simulation of exposure level possible with C.Fn IV-7-1
61. Highlight alert: In the single image display and info display, over-exposed highlight areas will blink
62. Protection: Single or all images in memory card
63. Erase: Single image, select images, all images in CF card or unprotected images
64. Direct printing from camera: Yes, with Print/Share button
65. Compatible printers: CP and SELPHY compact photo printers, PIXMA photo printers, and PictBridge-compatible printers (via USB cable, included with camera kit)
66. Settings: Print quantity, style (image, paper size, paper type, printing effects, layout), trimming, tilt correction (compatibility varies, depending upon printer in use)
67. Power source: Dedicated battery pack, AC adapter
68. Number of shots: Approximately 1,100 images (normal shooting, no flash); approximately 800 images (50 percent flash use)
69. Battery check: Automatic
70. Item width: 5.7 inches
71. Item height: 4.2 inches
72. Item depth: 2.9 inches
73. Item weight: 26.1 ounces
74. Warranty: 1 year parts and labor

canon slr camera

Review By Shawn Barnett

Look and feel. When it comes to viewing images, composing in Live View, or changing menu settings, the large LCD is great to have.The Canon 40D’s Rear Command dial and the Multi-controller joystick are roughly where they are on other models, including the 30D, EOS-5D, and EOS-1D Mark III.

Prominent on the back of the Canon 40D is one new button heretofore only seen on the 1D Mark III: the AF-ON button. By default when shooting in Creative zone modes (Program, Shutter, etc.), it works much the same as a half-press of the shutter button.

On the right, the major difference is a special area on the Status LCD dedicated to constant display of the current ISO, also optimized for the word “Auto,” another interesting addition to the 40D’s “Creative Mode” abilities (Auto ISO is the default in Full Auto and Scene modes).

Image quality. As is typical of this particular line of Canon digital SLR cameras, images from the Canon 40D are excellent. High ISO images printed at 13×19 inches are usable from ISO 100 to 800, with little noticeable noise, and little evidence of noise suppression. Impressive.

I managed the time to shoot in my basement studio, and the results are quite crisp, made easier by the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens. There were very few out-of-focus shots, which was a surprise after all the other experiences I had, but most cameras I test do well with my simple studio lighting setup.

The troubles I had with the Multi-point AF system disappeared when I switched to my usual single-point shooting mode, and I’m guessing that most photographers considering the 40D will care as much about the Multi-point AF problem as if I said that the Landscape mode underexposed by one stop (it doesn’t; that’s just an example). Most of the 40D’s target audience won’t use either mode.

However, if you do use Multi-point AF on occasion, and especially if you’re already used to a 20D or 30D, be prepared for an occasional mis-focus now and then. The older models weren’t perfect, to be sure, but the 40D’s behavior often caught me by surprise.