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Canon EOS-1D Canon leaps into the professional SLR arena, with the fastest digital SLR on the planet! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet EOS-1D SAMPLE IMAGES! --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on EOS-1D Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & Conclusion Review First Posted: 12/08/2001

Test Results

There's no question that the EOS-1D is a professional camera, and it has the image quality to live up to that billing. I've now had the chance to test a full-production model of the EOS-1D, and found its image quality (particularly color and tonal balance) noticeably improved relative to the prototypes I'd tested previously. You can find quite a number of test images posted on our Sample Pictures page for the1D, with a lotof analysis and comment there as well. In this section, I'll just summarize my findings. I sometimes include some cropped images here in the test results section, but this time there's just too much to fit, so I'll just *really* recommend you click on over to the Sample Photo Page! - Besides my usual battery of standardized test images, you'll also find a gallery of photos snapped by writer gal Stephanie Boozer (an unsung IR hero who helps me with a lot of the gruntwork on many of these reviews)...

As I mentioned earlier, relative to the CMOS-based EOS-D30 introduced last year, I found that the EOS-1D actually had lower image noise. This was a little surprising, as I felt that the D30 images looked smoother to my eyes, but concluded that this was an effect of the somewhat different tonality of the two cameras. No question about it, in repeated measurements, the EOS-1D came up the winner in the noise department.

Two areas I was happy to find improvement in relative to the earlier prototype units were the color management and tone curves. I felt that the color was truer on the production model I based this review on than in either of the prototype firmware releases I'd worked with earlier. Even more importantly, the tone curves of the production unit yielded much more pleasing photos, with much lower contrast and more consistent exposure. While the last iteration of prototype firmware did a good job of preserving highlight detail, the resulting photos tended to be quite dark in the midtones. - I always felt they needed a good bit of post-exposure twiddling to produce what I felt was proper tonality. With the production unit though, the images generally came out spot-on, very nicely balanced.

Of course, the 1D does permit users to completely control the camera's tone curve themselves, by downloading a custom curve to the camera from the driver software. This capability is unique in my experience, and struck me as a remarkably powerful option. - I'll bet we see this feature copied in other pro digicams in the near future. Unfortunately, the software interface by which custom tone curves are arrived at is still rather user-hostile, and enormously time-consuming to operate. I'd hoped for a major revamp of the user interface for the tone-curve adjustment option, but there'snot yet any sign of revision there. That's too bad: This is just too powerful a capability to leave locked behind an awkward user interface!

On this first production unit of the EOS-1D, color is excellent, and the five different "color matrices" with their different gamuts and saturation characteristics are very welcome. I particularly applaud the support of Adobe RGB as a color space, and am intrigued by the low-saturation sRGB space, wondering if that might be an avenue to even broader-gamut color, in color-managed environments.

Thanks to the noise reduction technology perfected over the last year in Canon's consumer camera line, the EOS-1D is a fantastic low-light shooter. I've only just received a wired remote release for the camera, so my efforts thus far at super-long exposure night shots were marred by excessive camera shake, but I can report that I was able to capture eminently usable images with two minute (!) exposure times, in conditions too dark for me to even walk around comfortably. The EOS-1D literally sees (much) better in the dark than you do! I missed having an AF-assist illuminator on the camera, but dedicated Canon speedlights provide this function. - I'll try some really long nighttime exposures with the wired remote release as soon as I get the opportunity, hopefully within the next week.

The EOS-1D's optical viewfinder was exceptionally accurate, testing out just shy of the 100% claimed for it by Canon. (I actually measured frame coverage at 99%.)

As measured on my ISO 12233 test target, resolution on the EOS-1D was right in line with its 4 megapixel sensor, although images shot with the camera's default settings showed a characteristic softness I first saw in the D30. This is apparently because the camera's default behavior is to apply little or no in-camera sharpening to the images, an approach I find entirely appropriate for a professional digital camera: Better to have the photographer explicitly sharpen the images post-exposure than run the risk of too much sharpening applied in-camera, and impossible to correct after the fact. I found "strong detail" in the resolution target images out to about 1,100 lines per picture height horizontally, and 900-1,000 lines vertically, with extinction of the target patterns occurring at around 1,500 lines.

In this section of my reviews, I normally also summarize test results involving lens performance. In the case of the EOS-1D, optical characteristics will obviously vary depending on the particular lens being used, so the optical distortion measurements I'd normally report here really aren't applicable. (Likewise flash range and coverage.) Suffice to say though, that the Canon lenses, particularly the "L" series glass are of exceptional quality.

Overall, the EOS-1D delivered excellent-quality images, at an amazing frame rate. Whether due to my own earlier carping about the overly-contrasty tone curve of the prototype units, or as a result of Canon's own internal evaluations, they've significantly improved the 1D's tonal rendition, and appear to have further tweaked the color management as well. The result is a camera that shoots beautiful photos and an absolutely unprecedented frame rate. Unusual speed, unusual power, unusual flexibility, and excellent images. -- Canon did themselves proud on this one.

Conclusion
In typically Canon fashion, the EOS-1D was a long time coming, but delivers an impressive punch now that it's here. There's no question that Canon has staked new ground in the no-excuses professional digital SLR category. The EOS-1D is not only the fastest pro digital SLR, but arguably the most rugged and most configurable. Color and resolution both look very good, very much up to the standard you'd expect from Canon. I complained about the default tone curve in the prototype units I tested, but the production model performed quite well in this area, Canon apparently having tweaked the tone curve one last time. - And of course, Canon has thoughtfully provided the capability to adjust the tone curve (however laboriously) to exactly suit your preferences. Other aspects of the camera are very welcome, including particularly the ability to use both RAW and JPEG files with no perturbation in the workflow. - I really like the concept of having a JPEG "finished file" available immediately, with a RAW-format "digital negative" available as backup in the event of exposure slips or second-guessing on color matrix settings. Priced competitively, it won't deliver quite the shock to the market that the earlier EOS-D30 did, but certainly answers the demands professional Canon shooters have been making for a camera worthy of their affections.

The obvious question many of our readers and prospective purchasers will ask is how its 4 megapixel sensor compares with the 6 megapixel one in the Nikon D1x, and the 5 megapixel one in the (just now forthcoming) Olympus E-20N. Frankly, this is an issue to be decided by the ultimate users of the camera, not "ivory tower" reviewers like myself. ;-) While resolution is one of those things (like money or good looks) that's hard to have too much of, I do think that the 4 megapixel resolution of the 1D will be very appropriate for Canon's target market of photojournalists & sports shooters. Commercial photographers looking for high-resolution images for double-truck catalog or fashion spreads may want more, but they're more likely to buy a high-resolution studio camera anyway. Bottom line, I think Canon's going to be able to sell every EOS-1D they can produce. All in all, a great showing from Canon in the pro digital SLR market!