After driving a Ferrari, even a Porsche seems cheap.I got my hands on a used 1D Mark III in September of 2013. My copy came to me in virtually new condition (at least I could not tell it had ever been used) with 12,000 to 15,000 clicks on it.
I didn't set out to buy a 1D Mark III. My idea originally was to pick up a 1D Mark II, which was selling for under $500 in some cases. But I found out that the Mark III had live view and the automatic sensor cleaning and felt some extra money was well spent, and still do. It was only until I was in the middle of the purchase that I learned about the autofocus issues. My camera has apparently made two trips to Canon to get this fixed, and the report is that on the second visit they got things right.
A lot of people with a Canon 5D Mark 2 also own a 1D Mark 3 and they say that the two complement each other nicely. The 1D offers a rugged and fully weathersealed body along with fast operation (which includes a much more sophisticated focus system.) A common statement is that the 1Diii is designed to "always get the shot". It performs well at high ISO (ISO 6400 is actually useful, ISO 400 shows no real noise).
The Mark III originally sold for $4500. In August of 2013 you could pick up used units with 100,000 shutter actuations for $950 on certain websites. Most Ebay sales of used units were $1200 for "buy it now". New 1D Mark III bodies were being sold on amazon.com for $6000 by "Wall Street Photo". In short, in 2013 you can buy good used copies of this body for less than 1/4 of their original price.
Some comments on the 1D Mark III
10 megapixels are more than enough for most people. It's not about the number of pixels in the end, but the quality of the pixels, the lens and the photographer's skill.
The mkIII is the 40d on steroids
The EOS 1Dmk3 has fulfilled what its built for - durability and speed. Fast AF speed and shutter lag are its main advantages. It is built for event photographers who need their cameras to be "on the ball" always.
This camera is all about speed and build quality, don't buy it for anything else. If you need gorgeous image quality, rather go for a 5D II (about same price), but if you need an unsinkable tank that can take any job in any kind of weather, it's your choice, best for the money.Hey, remember that a lot of people paid 4500$ for this body. I think that it goes very well with a 5D II, each bringing their specialty and creating a nice and well balanced kit.
With the Canon sanctioned fixes my mkIII was working like a champ. I miss it dearly and I can't wait to buy another one! (he sold it to buy the 5Dii).
They say once you have owned a 1D you never go back and I think that's no lie. Best camera I ever owned.
This is the mother of all cameras. This isn't a jack of all trades, instead it's a master of ALL. Don't listen to those morons who say that the 1dmkIII is for sports and wildlife only. It's also Canon endorsed for weddings, and can take landscapes of such quality it will leave you gasping for breath. This really is a seriously FAST camera. It focuses instantly and has so many,many,many (a lot of) customisable functions.
One last issue which unfortunately can happen when you use such a body - you may find security personnel looking to limit usage as it is often assumed (well at least here (South Africa) it does) that you may be a Pro working without permission ;-)..I have heard that a great white lens can be as good as a press pass in some places. So if I put the 70-200 on this body I will either get thrown out or they will move people out of my way at events ...
Seems ideal for HDR - set to 10fps and limit to 3 consecutive shots and bracket +-2 stops. Don't know why they don't include this in the firmware so it doesn't drop the mirror between shots - surely 20fps would be easy to get if you only want 3 ... ... I think most of my non-sport photos will end up being shot this way.
Steve Jobs is rumored to have said that "the most user-friendly quality any technology can have is speed." By that measure, this camera is VERY user-friendly.
The camera is very quick doing everything. It's always ready.
The sensor has 7.2 micron square pixels, but the lenslets above the pixels now have smaller gaps between them, making them gather light like a 8.4 micron pixel would.
Why not a mirror lockup button?
A cool thing is the lens focus microadjustment capability (see below). You can store a focus "fudge factor" for each of your lenses (for up to 20 lenses) in the camera to fine tune focus.
This is the first 1D body with a 14 bit ADC. This makes for much more versatile raw files and was a significant motivation for me to get this instead of a much cheaper used Mark II or IIn.
It is interesting to note that the autofocus system works with all sensor active only with lenses that are f/2.8 or faster. So I may be glad I own the 70-200 f/2.8 and the 24-70 f/2.8 instead of the f/4 versions. With an f/4 lens you get only the center focus point, which is also the case with a 1.4x converter in combination with the 70-200 f/2.8.
Many people feel that it is well worth doing.
Note that the 70-200 f/2.8 with and without the 1.4x converter are treated as different lenses!Production cameras with the new autofocus assembly have a blue dot next to the bar code.
Here is a link to what Canon said about the issue in March, 2008. Note that they say this was a QC issue on some early production cameras (in range of serial numbers between 501001 and 546561). Serial numbers after 546561 contain the updated mirror mechanism. They also report a firmware fix (you need firmware version 1.2.3 or later) for a low light focusing problem.
It is also said that many Mark III focus issues reported are user error. Apparently there are a lot of settings (Custom Functions) that can be screwed with that affect the way autofocus works (or doesn't work). Lots of information online about this.Firmware version 1.2.3 improves autofocus problems in low light.
Firmware version 1.2.5 fixes a number of problems, including:
Firmware version 1.3.0 adds support for the WFT-E2 II wireless file transmitter (released in 12/2009)
The latest firmware on the Canon website (as of 8/2013) is 1.3.2.
Firmware 1.3.1 fixed a focusing issue with a specific lens. Firmware 1.3.2 fixed some issues with power drain with no lens mounted on the body, as well as Err 70 when no lens is mounted.
One fellow was having trouble getting long lenses to focus on bugs. He found that turning off focus assist points nicely solved this problem (making the camera use only the center focus sensor).
The same fellow next went on a crusade to get his JPEG images the way he liked them. The following is what he did, but reading and experimenting would be strongly advised.
Do a search on YouTube on "1D III settings", there are some excellent videos that cover every custom setting and explain why they set their camera up the way they do.
If you plan on shooting BIF (birds in flight), you probably ought to spend the $20 and buy this guide by Arthur Morris. There is probably no better source.
Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org