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Rangefinder
Magazine First Exposure: by John Rettie
If price is no object and/or the return on investment can be easily justified, most professional photographers would naturally opt for the EOS 1Ds. But when you can buy five 10D bodies for the price of a single 1Ds it’s obvious one needs to look seriously at the output from both cameras and weigh the pros and cons of each body. That’s one of the reasons why I’m reviewing both cameras in one feature.
It should be pointed out that Canon is still selling the 4.1-megapixel EOS 1D, which retails for a street price of $3999. It uses the same body as the 1Ds but has a different image sensor and operates at a faster rate, making it ideally suited for sports photographers who are looking for speed of operation as much as out and out resolution. While the 1Ds has a new sensor, the 10D gets a new body but the same sensor used in the D60, which it replaces. Another interesting aspect of these two cameras is that they both use CMOS image capturing sensors, rather than a CCD as in the 1D and most other digital cameras. EOS 10D The most obvious difference is that the 10D gets a magnesium alloy body instead of composite plastic. It looks familiar as it follows the EOS design cues. It also accepts the BG-ED3 battery grip that has been available for the D30 and D60. I tested the camera with this grip as I find it makes the camera easier to hold, especially with a long lens, and doubles the battery capacity as there is room for two batteries in the holder.
Like the D60 before, the 10D has a 6.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that produces a 3072x2048 image. The sensor’s size is smaller than a 35mm frame so there is a 1.6X multiplier effect when using lenses designed for a 35mm camera. Although the sensor is identical to the one in the D60, Canon has designed an all-new Digic imaging engine that it claims produces better colors and less noise. The camera can also be set to capture colors using the Adobe RGB space, which has a wider color gamut than the more common sRGB. White balance can be custom set, used on auto or one of six presets. Just as the camera can automatically bracket exposures it can also bracket white balance by capturing three images with three different white balances. The biggest complaint about the D30 and D60 was the
less than optimum auto focusing system. Canon has rectified this by using
the 7-point AF
system similar to that found in the EOS Elan 7 camera. The 10D also gets
an upgraded evaluative exposure sensor with a triple metering system.
Officially, the 10D is a camera aimed at amateur photographers. That’s
why one finds no less than 12 different shooting modes, ranging from
fully automatic to fully manual. The camera also gets a pop-up flash
as well as a hot-shoe and a
I received my 10D the day before I set off for a two-week trip to New Zealand to cover two auto racing events. It was an abusive test, as the World Rally Championship event I photographed for three days was alternately dry and dusty and wet and muddy. On several occasions the camera got covered in fine dust and then it rained producing specks of mud all over the camera body and lens. At first the camera appeared to survive this abuse but three weeks later, during yet another day of photography in the rain, the camera did quit. The Canon repair center said water had entered the body and caused corrosion. Fortunately it was only a two-dollar part that had to be replaced though labor costs for the non-warranty repair were over $200. It’s a shame that the body is not as weather-proof as the 1D or IDs. I found the focusing worked fine, although it was noticeably slower with non-L lenses. Exposures were generally spot on, although bright highlights on a car sometimes confused the metering. Because the sun was constantly coming and going I elected to use the TV (shutter priority) setting rather than rely on a manual setting. The most annoying aspect of the camera turned out to be the time it took to wake up from sleep mode. From pushing the shutter to the camera focusing took a couple of seconds. It might not sound like much when you’re photographing a landscape, but I missed a couple of shots on the first day as the rally cars only come by once every two minutes so the camera was going into sleep mode quite often. I learned to tickle the shutter release every now and again to avoid it going to sleep after that. I also changed the length of time before it goes to sleep from one to four minutes. Apart from this I was very happy with the 10D’s performance. Not once did it fail to fire fast enough when I was shooting a sequence. It can shoot at 3 fps and it has a buffer of nine images before they need to be written to the storage card. Personally, I like the built-in flash as I used it several times when I quickly needed some fill-flash, although the light is cut off by some lenses when extended and also by large lens hoods. However, it sure beats having to keep a bulky flash on the camera at all times for the occasional need.
One very convenient new feature is the automatic rotation of vertical images to a portrait mode for viewing, even when the vertical grip is not being used. It performs this function in the camera so that images can be reviewed in the correct orientation on the camera. The files are tagged with this information but it’s only understood by some programs, such as Photo Mechanic and Canon’s own software, at this time. Strangely, Photoshop will only orient vertical images correctly when they are opened through Photoshop’s browser not when they are opened directly. Reviewing images on the LCD on the back of the camera is much easier than before, as the LCD appears to be brighter. Images can be magnified up to 10X in order to check focus and detail in a picture. The screen covering the LCD is prone to nose grease and scratching and there is no means to add a cover. Like all newer cameras there’s no need to go into a special viewing mode to review images. Once an image has been reviewed the camera is ready for shooting again as soon as the shutter button is pushed. Image quality is excellent. I was especially impressed by shots taken at 400 ISO as noise levels are minimal. The camera’s default settings do not apply any sharpening to images so there is a need to apply USM in Photoshop for really crisp images but that’s normal for all digital cameras and should not be considered a complaint. Images can be captured in RAW and JPEG mode at the same time. For some reason the JPEG images are contained in the RAW file so it kind of defeats the purpose of having two files. On the D1 the JPEG is a separate file and can be accessed by any image editing program.
One other gripe I have about the 10D, which also applies to other Canon cameras, is that a new folder is automatically created after every 100 shots. On several occasions I have ended up with two folders of the same name containing different images shot on a couple of cards. You have to then be careful not to overwrite one of them accidentally when uploading to a computer. In addition, on a big shoot it means you have to move images into one folder unless you want to scroll through lots of folders. Finally, battery life seems to be excellent. I never ran the two batteries flat, even on a day when I shot 1100 images during an eight-hour period, using the built-in flash for about 100 shots. I did plenty of chimping as well, yet the battery level indicator did not go below one-quarter full. As the battery grip can run on a single battery, one really only needs a third battery as a back up. This is certainly an area that has seen dramatic improvement compared to “older” cameras. EOS
1Ds There is no getting away from the fact that the 1Ds is a heavier camera, but it sure does have a rugged feel to it. It’s also well protected against dust and water with lots of seals and gaskets, which is just what I needed for my last few shoots! Although the 1Ds is only rated at about the same 3 fps as the 10D and only has a buffer of nine images, it was perfectly fine in my testing, which did not include any sports-action photography.
While it’s nice to be able to use lenses at their intended focal length, I do not find it’s too inconvenient unless you need a super wide-angle lens (22mm or less). When I tested my 17–35mm f/2.8 L-series lens at 17mm with the 1Ds, I found some chromatic aberration in the corners when shooting brightly lit objects. This would seem to confirm the argument proffered by many engineers that lenses need to be designed differently for digital image capturing compared to film. In order to get optimum quality from a 35mm lens, where the full optical circle is being used, new lenses will need to be designed. Ironically when regular lenses are used on the 10D, only the center portion of the lens is being utilized, so the falloff in quality near the edges is almost non-existent. Back to the 1Ds. Finally, Canon has added the ability to zoom in on an image during playback, which is missing on the 1D. RAW files automatically have a jpeg file captured at the same time for quick viewing. Image quality from the 11.4-megapixel CMOS sensor on the 1Ds is outstanding. The 4064x2704 pixel images contain enough detail for producing large prints. All in all it’s probably fair to describe the 1Ds as almost good enough to replace a medium format camera. Conclusion: As I said at the beginning, if initial purchase price is no problem, the 1Ds is obviously a better buy, especially if you’re going to use it in less than optimum conditions. It delivers excellent images. However, unless you’re planning on producing big prints, few clients will notice the difference. If you need the 1Ds to use ultra-wide-angle lenses, be aware that chromatic aberration can be a problem in contrasty lighting conditions. I know there are many reasons why the number of pixels per millimeter is not the most important consideration in sensor quality but there’s no denying that the image quality obtained by the 10D is as good or better than that of the mid-range EOS 1D, thanks to more pixels. When you consider that the 10D only costs 70% more than an equivalent film camera (EOS 3) it’s a real shame that the 1D can’t be equipped with the same sensor as the 10D and sold at the same price differential over the EOS 1V film body. If it were, it would only cost $2700 instead of the current $3600 (street) price being charged. Then it would be a no-brainer to opt for the 1D with its rugged body and faster operational speed. In the meantime, if you cannot get an acceptable ROI on a 1Ds the 10D could prove to be a good deal, especially as you can buy five for the same price as a single 1Ds. John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder. Further Information: |
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During the past year Canon has announced two new digital
SLR camera bodies while other manufacturers have only managed to introduce
one during the same period. Although both cameras are based around Canon’s
35mm EOS system of lenses and accessories, they are at opposite ends
of the price spectrum. The newest is the 6.3-megapixel EOS 10D with a
street price of just $1499 and the other is the 11.1-megapixel EOS 1Ds,
which has a street price of around $7999.
