PMA Australia, 1DmkIII

Got to go to PMA Australia today, lots of fun and got to see and play with all sorts of fun stuff. Treid to take some shots with the 1DIII on my CF card but the canon people said no, one said yes but as I was about to go ahead another said no - so sad :-(

anyway when they handed it to me I almost told them they had the wrong camera - it felt so light. and the new user interface is so 20D like it makes it appear cheap to me. I was quite bothered by it actually, the wheel is the same as the 20D and it has a set button, and two button pressing is alot less- anyway I didn't like that part.

but live view and remote shooting sounded great as well as all the other features it sports - but I left the stand thinking that I am happy with my 1DmkII and have no real desire to upgrade - perhaps if I had some images I would change my mind

played with some nikons, I really like the way they change AF points, but don't like the sensors - one day canon will use their brains and use a simple AF selection method.

Anyway had a great time, and it was worth going to for sure. I also tried the M8, always wanted to try one - but I decided that unless the subject was dead I would never be able to focus, so no go for me

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your mini-review. It makes far more sense to me compared to comparison charts, and lists of numbers. All the manufacturers could do far better, but once everybody had the perfect camera, why buy another? Bad for business, being perfect.

Best wishes,

Ray

Daniel Harrison said:

one day canon will use their brains and use a simple AF selection method.

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Well, Canon did have that eye controlled AF selector. I was a Nikon user back then so I don't know how effective it was, but assuming it was, that is as simple as it gets no?

Ray West said:

Bad for business, being perfect.

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How true! Companies have learned that the hard way. Back when I bought my first home, I needed a vacuum cleaner and was strapped for cash, so I went to a second hand store. The clerk advised me to buy this quite old Electrolux vacuum cleaner, which was quite expensive considering its age. He assured me that this is the finest vacuum cleaner ever made so I bought it.

Now, part of Electrolux's sales training involves the salesmen going door to door selling the high-end models. 10 years after I bought mine (which was already quite old), all I had to do when they came knocking was say "sorry, I already have a 740D", and they'd hang their heads and walk away Electrolux never made a vacuum cleaner that good, not because they couldn't but because they didn't want to.

eye control not necessarily wonderful

KrisCarnmarker said:

Well, Canon did have that eye controlled AF selector. I was a Nikon user back then so I don't know how effective it was, but assuming it was, that is as simple as it gets no?

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Not altogether simple and not altogether effective. It suited people who had better eyesight and so did not need glasses. It also needed to be slow to latch onto a new selection or else it would always change focus when you simply intended to review the entire scene for composition.

Well done Daniel, at least you got your hands on the new toy. My aging 40-something eyes did appreciate the big screen, and the big text with the image info. The Nikon's AF selection points are much easier to move about (especially for sports) without having to take your eye away from the camera, this bothered me about the Mk3 as it's less intuitive to change AF point for a newcomer. Maybe after a bit of playing with the new camera I will be able to do it just as quickly, although different to the way I work now.