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Canon EOS-1D

Canon leaps into the professional SLR arena, with the fastest digital SLR on the planet!

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Page 1:Overview
Review First Posted: 09/24/2001

NOTE: This is our original "preview" of the EOS-1D. See our latest, FULL Review for complete information on this camera!

As of midnight today (0:00 EST, 9/25/2001), Canon has announced their long-anticipated "professional" digital SLR, the EOS-1D. Given the significance of this announcement, we've taken the unusual step of preparing this extensive preview of its features for our readers. We'd hoped to get our hands on a physical sample prior to the announcement date, but events in New York the previous week prevented our doing so. (We still wouldn't have been able to show you sample photos from it, as the only unit currently in the US doesn't have its image processing into final production trim yet. We had hoped to be able to show more detailed product shots though, to illustrate our discussion of features, and perhaps to perform some of our own performance tests on the new device.)

Background
While many pros flocked to Canon's EOS-D30, announced last year, Canon made clear from the outset that it didn't consider the D30 to be a "professional" SLR. Despite its widespread acceptance among professional photographers, few argued that the D30 lacked both the ruggedness that they needed for hard usage, and the speed demanded by sports ,photojournalism, and other applications needing high frame rates. Despite these limitations though, the D30's compatibility with the extensive line of Canon lenses, its beautiful picture quality, and its surprisingly affordable price led to many units finding their way into professional gear kits around the world.

Now, Canon has finally dropped the other shoe, and announced their official "Pro" digital SLR. As we'll see, the EOS-1D advances the state of the art for pro SLRs in several areas, and in some cases, quite dramatically. They've also introduced a number of thoughtful features for image handling, color management, and data tracking that we think will be significant for professional workflows. We can't draw any conclusions on the camera until we have receive one for testing, but if Canon simply delivers their usual image quality and lives up to the published specs for the product, it looks like they'll have a runaway best seller.

Looking over the detailed specs Canon provided us before the release, we divided the features and improvements into six key areas: Speed, Image Quality, "General" (an admittedly catchall category), Color, Ruggedness, and Operating Details. First though, for those of you who want to dive right into the specs themselves, here's a link to a table showing the comparison between the 1D, the earlier D30, and Nikon's D1x and D1h.

Physical Views
We'll have a complete description of all the EOS-1D's controls and functions when we receive our review unit. In the meantime, here are some "Beauty Shots" to whet your appetite!