english
françaisToday I was invited by Canon to one of their event session where they presented the Canon 1D Mark IV and the Canon 7D to pros. It was an opportunity to discover and try the Canon 1D Mark IV and some lenses in the best of conditions i.e. in a studio with models, with a one to one presentation of the camera and with very few people crownded around you. It was really perfect!
So I got to try the Canon 1D Mark IV a bit. As it was a pre-production model I couldn’t put a CF card of my own, so I won’t be able to comment on the ISO performances, the detailed image quality or to show you samples.
In terms of construction, the body is everything you would expect from a high-end professional camera. Those already owning a 1D Mark III will feel very at ease with it. It fits in your hand very well, it’s really comfortable and it feels robust and solid. It’s heavy, a real brick! But this is to be expected from a camera of this caliber.
The AF feels great. There is a high level of customization you can set it up the way you want and it is very accurate and very fast. Out of the 45 points of focus, 39 are cross shaped! The focus zone is still located in the center of the frame though but it’s not really a bother. As I said the AF is very precise, very responsive, the camera answers in a fraction of a second and you are able to follow a moving subject very easily. The rate of shooting is impressive given the resolution and the buffer handles the load very well. I even have the feeling that this camera could focus in a cave! As I couldn’t see any images on a computer screen I can’t comment much more on the performances of the AF and on its impact on the images, we’ll have to wait for a real test with a production model for this.
The video mode feels good also, it is possible to shoot in full HD at 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps and the image quality seems on par with what Canon delivered with the 5D Mark II. However, as the body is bigger and heavier, you will definitely need a rig if you plan to handhold it for filming.
All in all, the first impressions are very good. Though I know this will probably never be a camera for me (I need to be able to handhold my camera with one hand when I shoot and this one is definitely too heavy for me to do that), I definitely want to see and try a production model to actually review the image quality and the ISO performances.
This session was also the occasion to try two lenses I had my eyes on: the 200mm f2 and the 24mm f3.5 Tilt-Shift. I mounted the lenses on my 5D Mark II and I took advantage of the studio setting with a gorgeous natural light and grabbed a few shots with the models (yeah I know my job is so tough).
The 200mm is impressive, it’s not as heavy as I though it would be, it is definitely heavier than the 70-200mm f2.8 I have but it is still manageable. I need to be more careful when I shoot with it and I can’t be as mobile as with the 70-200mm but for situations when I don’t need to run it should be okay. It focuses very fast, and I am impressed by the image quality. The 70-200mm already delivers wonderful images, but the 200mm is just better. I really like the colors right out of the camera and you just can’t beat this f2 aperture: the background is so buttery, you’d want to smear it on a bagel!
The 24mm is equally good, it definitely require a bit of practice to be able to shoot with the Shift on the fly but the results are so worth it.
Here are a few shots from the day.
