Canon 1D Mark IV Performance

Generally very fast, even for a professional digital SLR.

The Canon 1D Mark IV turned in a very fast startup time, making it difficult to measure. Sensor cleaning was enabled on start-up and shut-down. At start-up pressing the shutter button aborts sensor cleaning, as it should. The Canon 1D Mark IV's buffer clearing times are very good, but of course depend on the image quality and size, as well as the speed of the memory card.

The Canon 1D Mark IV's mode switching times are very good, with the exception of Record to Play, which is about average.

The Canon 1D Mark IV's full autofocus shutter response is very fast, at 0.104 second using our standard single-point AF test. Enabling "Short Release" in Custom Function 4-14 actually increased lag a bit, to 0.108 second. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a very short lag time of only 0.049 second. Shutter lag in Manual focus was a bit slower, at 0.077 second, and in Continuous focus mode it was 0.088 second.

The Canon 1D Mark IV's AF lag time in Live View mode was longer (as expected), but not as slow as some SLRs in this mode. We measured 1.084 seconds using "Quick Mode" (phase-detect AF), and 1.255 seconds using Live Mode (contrast-detect). Prefocused, the Canon 1D Mark IV's shutter lag was pretty fast in Live View mode, at only 0.113 second.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance. We also use the same Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro with every camera (on all platforms except Four Thirds/Micro Four Thirds and Nikon consumer models lacking an in-body focus motor), to further reduce variation, and because our tests showed that focus-determination time with this lens was close to the fastest, across multiple camera bodies from different manufacturers. Being an older design with a non-ultrasonic motor, it wouldn't be the fastest at slewing from one focus setting to another, but that's exactly the reason we measure focus determination speed, which is primarily a function of the camera body, vs focus adjustment speed, which is primarily a function of the lens.

Shot-to-shot cycle times in the Canon 1D Mark IV's single-shot mode were extremely fast at 0.29 second for Large/Fine JPEGs, 0.27 second for RAWs and 0.30 second for RAW + L/F JPEGs.

Continuous mode speeds were also blazingly fast, at 9.95 frames-per-second for JPEGs or RAWs, and 9.94 frames-per-second for RAW + L/F JPEGs. Measured buffer depths were good but not great at 46 L/F JPEGs, 25 RAWs and 17 RAW + L/F JPEGs. (Note that in our cycle time testing we shoot a target consisting of a fine-grained digital noise pattern, designed to be very hard to compress. This gives us worst-case buffer capacity numbers: You're likely to see greater buffer capacity when shooting more normal subjects.)

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, the Canon 1D Mark IV's download speeds are good, but not particularly fast.

Bottom line, the Canon 1D Mark IV is one of the fastest digital SLRs on the market today. We only wish the buffer size was bigger to better accommodate the fast frame rate. At 10 frames-per-second, it only takes about 2.5 seconds to fill the buffer when shooting full size RAWs.

Battery
Good battery life for a professional SLR.

The Canon 1D Mark IV uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Battery life is good when using the optical viewfinder, but much lower than some competing professional models (For example, the Nikon D3S is rated at 4,200 shots). Also keep in mind the Mark IV does not have a built-in flash, so that's one reason why the number is much higher compared to SLRs with a flash. We recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the Canon 1D Mark IV is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Canon 1D Mark IV accepts both CompactFlash Type I/II and SD/SDHC memory cards, and does not ship with a card.

We strongly recommend buying a fast, large capacity CompactFlash memory card for the Canon 1D Mark IV: at least a 2GB card, preferably a 4 or 8GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings, or when shooting RAW files or video. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)