Digital Cameras - Canon EOS-1DS Digital Camera Review

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(Review updated to final status, based on a production model and with a full set of test images on 11/22/2002)

Ask a photographer, be they professional or amateur, to name the first couple of camera manufacturers that they can think of, and chances are that one of those would be Canon. Ask the same photographer what the Canon name means to them, and many would suggest that they associated the name with innovation, the company having brought such technological advances as Eye-Controlled Focusing (Canon EOS 5, 1992) and the USM ultrasonic motors used in the more recent Canon EF lenses, which are extremely quiet and very fast.

In the digital realm, Canon's progress has been marked by cautious advances, but excellent products when they finally make a step. In the consumer realm, their digital cameras offer good value and exceptional color and image quality. A bit over two years ago, they introduced their first digital SLR, the EOS-D30, and have since then brought to market the EOS-1D and EOS-D60.

With their first digital SLRs, Canon announced a "prosumer" model first, with the D30, followed later by a super-rugged design for professional photographers, the EOS-1D. This year (this article is being written in late September, 2002), they've repeated that pattern, announcing the D60 at the PMA show in February, and now the EOS-1Ds at the international Photokina show in late September. The EOS-1Ds is sure to raise some eyebrows, given its full-frame, 11.1 megapixel CMOS sensor. The resolution catapults us beyond the previous 6 megapixel limit for digital SLRs, and the full-frame design means there's finally a way to shoot true wide angle digital photos with Canon lenses.

In virtually all other respects though, the EOS-1Ds is identical to the 1D, making it a painless process to switch between the two cameras. - In fact, readers already familiar with the 1D can skip most of this review, as most of it will be identical to what I wrote when I reviewed the EOS-1D. (Scroll down this page to see a concise list of differences between the two models.)

As the flagship of Canon's digital line, many of our readers will already be quite familiar with the Canon EOS-1D professional digital SLR. The EOS-1Ds is clearly based on the same body design, and most of its operation is identical to that of the 1D. There are a few differences apart from the 1Ds' larger sensor though. These are all discussed in greater detail in the body of the review, but I thought it would be helpful to readers to see have them listed here for more convenient, concise reference:

For professional Canon shooters accustomed to working with Canon's top-of-the-line EOS-1v film SLR, and particularly anyone already acquainted with the EOS-1D, the EOS-1Ds will be immediately familiar, with a body design and control layout that is virtually identical to its predecessors. Obviously, Canon's goal was to produce a camera that carries the same look and feel as both the 1v and 1D, and they've succeeded very well. Apart from a few operational differences, the higher resolution and larger sensor (no focal length multiplier), the 1Ds is essentially identical to the earlier 1D model.

One notable carryover from the EOS-1v and 1D designs is the remarkably rugged and environmentally sealed magnesium alloy body. While Magnesium alloy bodies are de rigueur in high-end professional cameras these days, the environmental sealing of the 1Ds is something else again. With all its myriad flaps, knobs, buttons, and switches, it never occurred to me that it might be possible to actually seal a digital SLR against the elements. That's exactly what Canon did with the EOS-1D and 1Ds though, with more than 70 O-ring and gaskets protecting the internal mechanisms. You still won't want to take it scuba diving without a housing, but it will certainly be able to stand up to shooting in driving rain, blizzards, or dust storms.

The EOS-1Ds' lens mount accommodates the full line of Canon EF lenses, employing the same highly-praised 45-point Area Ellipse autofocus system first seen in the 35mm EOS-1v, and seen again in the EOS-1D. This sophisticated system allows you to manually select the autofocus area from a 45-point ellipse, or set the camera to determine focus area based on the subject. You can also opt for One-Shot focusing or select the AI Single Servo AF, which tracks rapidly moving subjects as fast as 80 mph (based on Canon's testing). The TTL optical viewfinder uses a pentaprism design to display the full view of the lens, along with an information readout that reports all of the most important exposure information, including aperture, shutter speed, resolution size, and exposure compensation.

The 2.0-inch, TFT color LCD monitor provides both image playback and on-screen menu viewing, and has a brightness adjustment for bright or dark viewing situations. An image information display reports in-depth exposure information, and includes a histogram showing the tonal distribution throughout the image. Additionally, a highlight feature "blinks" any blown-out highlights in the captured image. I've found this blinking highlights feature exceptionally useful on past Canon digicam models.

The EOS-1Ds offers total exposure control, with Program AE, Aperture Priority, Depth of Field AE, Shutter Priority, Manual, and Bulb exposure modes available. In Program AE, you can select from a range of equivalent exposure settings simply by turning the Main dial on top of the camera. Aperture and Shutter Priority modes offer limited manual control, while the Manual mode gives total control of aperture and shutter time to the photographer. In Depth of Field AE, you can specify a depth of field that you'd like to maintain, while the camera finds the best exposure to achieve that goal. (Handy if you're trying to eke out the last iota of shutter speed, wanting to keep the aperture as large as possible, while still holding focus.) Bulb mode simply extends the Manual mode to include unlimited shutter times. Here, you can keep the shutter open for as long as the camera has power. (Quite unusual, as most digital cameras set a fixed limit on maximum bulb exposure times.) A Noise Reduction menu option engages Canon's very effective Noise Reduction technology for any exposures longer than 1/15 second.

The EOS-1Ds employs a 21-Zone Evaluative Metering system, which divides the image area into 21 zones of different sizes, with a honeycomb pattern in the central portion of the frame. Each of the 21 zones is assessed to determine exposure, using an algorithm that takes contrast and tonal distribution into account, going much further than with simple averaged metering. Other metering options include Center-Weighted, Partial, Spot, Multi-Spot, Spot AF, and Flash Exposure Lock. Exposure compensation is adjustable from -3 to +3 exposure values (EV) in one-third-step increments. If you're unsure about the exposure, an Auto Exposure Bracketing feature captures three shots at different exposures. The EOS-1Ds also offers White Balance and ISO Auto Exposure Bracketing options. (This last should be particularly interesting for pros, who may want to bracket without disturbing the aperture or shutter speed settings.)

Ten white balance modes are provided, including Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, Custom (manual setting), Color Temperature, and Personal White Balance. Color Temperature covers a range of color temperatures from 2,800°K to 10,000°K, in 100-degree increments, and Personal White Balance lets you download as many as three white balance settings from a host computer. The EOS-1Ds' extensive menu system offers a variety of Color Matrix options, for both sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces, and a Custom Functions menu so you can completely customize the user interface. A Personal Functions menu option also lets you download image attribute settings (including a custom tonal curve) from a computer.

An external flash hot-shoe and PC sync socket offer two external flash connection options. Canon recommends using its EX series of flash units, though some third-party units are compatible as well. The Flash Exposure Lock button locks the exposure for the flash, and a Flash Exposure Compensation button alters the flash exposure from -3 to +3 EV in one-third-step increments. You can also alter the ambient exposure compensation without altering the flash intensity.

The EOS-1Ds offers a Continuous shooting mode through the Drive setting, which captures a maximum of three frames per second. (The actual frame rate and number of frames in a sequence will vary depending on CompactFlash space, image size, and the amount of image information to record.) The 1Ds has a buffer capacity of 10 frames in normal JPEG mode. This is a notably smaller buffer capacity than the EOS-1D, but the lower frame rates of the 1Ds somewhat reduces the demand for longer sequences. The Drive control on the camera also accesses two different Self-Timer options, with delay times adjustable via the LCD menu system.

The EOS-1Ds captures images at either 4,064 x 2,074 or 2,032 x 1,352-pixel resolution, with JPEG compression levels of Fine and Normal available. (Amazing that the minimum resolution of the camera is nearly 3 megapixels.) A RAW image option is also available, recording the full pixel information from the CCD without any processing other than lossless compression. The EOS-1Ds includes an IEEE-1394 "FireWire" interface and cable, providing a very fast connection to a computer. Canon's Solution Disk software and a copy of Adobe Photoshop LE are included with the camera, for use on both PC and Macintosh computers. For power, the EOS-1Ds uses an NP-E3 rechargeable NiMH battery pack or an AC adapter (both accompany the camera). A CR2025 lithium coin cell serves as backup for the camera's calendar and clock settings.

Laden with features and capabilities (not to mention pixels), I doubt the EOS-1Ds' target audience will find it's heft and size much of an issue. The sturdy EOS-1Ds body is ready for any situation, with a magnesium-alloy frame, and the same exceptional weatherproofing we saw on the original 1D. Its user interface is customizable and straightforward (once you get the hang of it), and its extensive controls provide an unusual ability to customize the camera to your particular shooting style and imaging preferences. Designed for professionals who want the convenience of digital imaging with the look, feel, and interface of Canon's already successful pro 35mm line, and better than film resolution, the EOS-1Ds appears ideally suited for commercial, portrait, and other shooters needing the ultimate in resolution and image quality.

Building upon the very successful EOS-1D, Canon ups the ante with the EOS-1Ds and an amazing 11.1-megapixel, full-frame CMOS sensor. (The earlier EOS-1D was an exceptional camera in other respects with its 4.0-megapixel CCD, and extraordinary 8 frames/second shooting speed.) Weighing in at a hefty 44.6 ounces (1,265 grams) without the battery, lens, or CompactFlash card installed, the Canon EOS-1Ds is more than a handful. Its magnesium-alloy body is exceptionally tough and durable, ready for heavy use. Size and portability weren't top design considerations for the 1Ds. Instead, Canon opted for maximum speed, ruggedness, and compatibility with the EOS-1v film camera, and the EOS-1D digital SLR before it. The EOS-1Ds has the same dimensions as its predecessor, measuring 6.1 x 6.2 x 3.1 inches (156 x 157.6 x 79.9mm ), and definitely requires a two-handed grip.

The resemblance between the EOS-1Ds, EOS-1D, and the film-based EOS-1v is more than close -- the three cameras are virtually identical. All of the conventional controls (AF, Mode, Drive, ISO, Exposure Compensation, etc.) are exactly the same, except for the obvious differences, such as those digital controls that simply don't apply to a film camera, and the lack of a film compartment door -- but everything that can be the same is. This extends even to the Custom Function options. In some cases, Canon has left an "empty" function on the 1D, simply so the function numbers shared with the 1v and 1D will be the same. If you're comfortable using an EOS-1v or 1D, you'll be able to transition to the 1Ds with almost no learning curve, and switching rapidly back and forth between any of the three models should involve no confusion.

One of the most welcome aspects of the EOS-1Ds' design is that it needs little protection from the elements. A feature inherited from the EOS-1v and carried forward through the 1D, its weatherproof body features rubber-sealed compartments and controls (with no fewer than 72 sealing components), making the camera ideal for shooting in any type of inclement weather -- driving rain, snow, dust storms, or mud -- it should make little difference to the 1D. Though it's not certified for submersion, I'm willing to bet you could give it a quick dunk with no ill effects. This is a huge advantage over other pro digital SLRs on the market today (October, 2001), and I think it will be of major significance to practicing pros.

Though the lens mount itself also doesn't feature any environmental sealing, Canon introduced a lens mount with the EOS-1v, continued on the 1D, and now on the 1Ds that accommodates a rubber sealing gasket on the lens body. The combination of gasket seat (on the camera) and gasket (on the lens) makes for a water and dust-tight seal between the camera body and lens. Canon tells us that all future L-series lenses will likely incorporate this type of gasket. (It doesn't interfere with the lens mount on older Canon SLRs, but it doesn't provide the sealing that it does on the 1v, 1D, and 1Ds.) For now though, there's a pretty complete range of focal lengths available with the sealing technology. (Missing only the focal length range from 35-70mm.) A list of current EF-mount lenses incorporating the gasket appears above right.

The front of the EOS-1Ds is simple in design, essentially identical to the preceding 1D model, featuring only the lens mount and a few controls. A small release button on the right side of the lens (as viewed from the front) releases the lens from its mount, allowing you to remove it completely. The hefty hand grip is big enough to provide a secure hold on the camera, even with a lens attached. At the bottom of the hand grip is a secondary shutter button and Command dial, for use when holding the camera vertically. Also visible from the front of the camera is the main Shutter button, mounted at a sloping angle from the top panel, as well as the front of the battery compartment. (The latter being the low bulge along the bottom of the camera that also serves as the vertical-orientation hand grip.) Hidden on the right front side is the ambient-light White Balance sensor, covered by a white diffuser window. This sensor helps the camera determine the proper color balance, using its "hybrid" white balance technology. Finally, the Depth of Field Preview button can be seen on the left side of the lens mount, with the self-timer lamp above it.

The right side of the camera (as viewed from the rear) holds the secondary Flash Exposure Lock button; the On/Off switch, which activates the secondary camera controls; the secondary function dial; and the secondary shutter button. At the top of the right side is one of the eyelets for attaching the neck strap.

Lining the opposite side of the camera are the Flash PC socket, Remote Control, and Digital input jacks, each covered by a flexible synthetic rubber flap. At the bottom is the battery compartment and its release controls–a rotating latch and a release button, both of which must be activated to open the compartment door. Though I found this system a little difficult to operate at times, it does ensure that the battery stays in place, and won't accidentally end up on the ground. Also on this side is the other neck strap eyelet.

The EOS-1Ds' top panel holds several camera controls, including the Mode, AF, Drive, ISO, Metering/Flash Exposure Compensation, LCD Illumination, Exposure Compensation, Flash Exposure Lock, and Shutter buttons. A small Command dial is located just behind the Shutter button, and is used to adjust camera settings. (The Command dial is used by itself to set aperture and shutter speed in some modes, or works with the plethora of other buttons to engage the actual setting changes.) The external flash hot shoe crowns the camera's top panel, and a small, black-and-white LCD monitor reports camera information such as battery power, exposure mode, aperture, shutter speed, and exposure compensation, among others.

The remaining camera controls are located on the back panel, along with the LCD monitor and optical viewfinder eyepiece. A diopter adjustment dial and the optical viewfinder eyepiece shutter flank the eyepiece on either side. A removable soft rubber eyecup (included in the box with the 1Ds, but not shown above) attaches to improve viewing in strong ambient lighting. In the center of the back panel is a large Quick Control dial, which also selects camera settings when turned on (a small switch above the dial turns it on or off). While it does work in conjunction with some of the camera's buttons, the Quick Control dial primarily serves as part of the user interface for the LCD menu system. Camera controls on the back panel include the Assist, AE Lock, AF Point Selection, Sound/Protect, Menu, Select, Display, Erase, Quality, and White Balance buttons. In the lower right corner are the secondary Assist, AE Lock, and AF Point Selection buttons, for use when holding the camera vertically. The 2.0-inch LCD monitor displays image playback and menu screens, and a secondary, black-and-white LCD panel just below it reports more camera information. Also on the back panel is the CompactFlash card slot, released by turning the small release key just below it.

The bottom panel of the EOS-1Ds holds only a tripod socket and a strap attachment eyelet used for the short strap shipped with the 1Ds, that wraps around the user's right hand when he/she grips the camera, providing a more secure grip. The tripod mount is directly below the centerline of the lens, reducing parallax errors between shots when panning.

A TTL optical viewfinder is the sole mechanism for composing images on the EOS-1Ds, as the 2.0-inch LCD monitor is purely for image review and menu navigation. (This is typical of most SLRs - The light path is either through the eyepiece or onto the CCD, with no provision for a "live" LCD viewfinder display.) Fortunately, the optical viewfinder on the EOS-1Ds offers a true 100 percent field of view, a relative rarity, even among high-end SLRs. The optical viewfinder has a glass pentaprism design, using a mirror to reflect the view from the lens, just as in a traditional film-based SLR viewfinder design. A full information overlay along the bottom of the viewfinder window reports the current exposure settings, including shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, and ISO, among other information. A circular black outline at the center of the viewfinder window indicates the central spot-metering area, although the 1Ds is capable of spot metering at a number of locations within the field of view. A large black elliptical outline marks the boundaries of the autofocus area. A total of 45 discrete autofocus sensors are distributed within this ellipse, and may be used singly or in combination (described in the "Optics" section of this review). Active AF points illuminate red when the Shutter button is half-pressed.

The amount of information conveyed by the EOS-1Ds' viewfinder readouts is quite impressive, all the more so because the display is actually quite uncluttered and easy to understand. The illustration below (courtesy Canon USA) shows all the internal viewfinder displays and their functions. (Readers familiar with the EOS-1v film SLR will immediately recognize the strong similarities between this display and the one used on that camera.) Because the 1Ds' sensor is larger than that on the 1D, the active frame area occupies a wider field of view in the viewfinder. Another consequence of the CCD sensor in the EOS-1D being smaller than a 35mm film frame is that the AF ellipse and spot/partial metering sensors there cover more of the image area than they do on the film-based 1v model. Because the CMOS sensor in the 1Ds almost exactly matches the 35mm frame, the metering and AF sensors cover almost exactly the same area as on the EOS-1v. On the 1Ds, the spot and "partial" metering areas cover 2.4% and 8.5% of the frame respectively, very close to the 2.3% and 8.5% on the 1v, but considerably smaller than the 3.8% and 13.5% we saw with the original 1D.

On the left side of the viewfinder eyepiece, a diopter adjustment dial corrects the viewfinder display from -3.0 to +1.0 diopter units to accommodate eyeglass wearers. The viewfinder has a moderately high eye point, meaning that the view should be reasonably clear, even with fairly thick eyeglasses. (In addition to the rather wide range of diopter adjustments available on-camera, Canon also offers dioptric correction lenses for the viewfinder ranging from -4 to +3 diopters in 10 steps. These clip on externally, and act in addition to the built-in diopter adjustment, for a total range of -7 to +4 diopters. - If you can see well enough to find the camera, you should be able to see through the viewfinder. ;-) On the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece is a small lever that opens and closes a shutter behind the eyepiece. This prevents any additional light from filtering into the camera through the viewfinder eyepiece during long exposures on a tripod. The EOS-1Ds also features a removable eyecup that fits over the viewfinder eyepiece, handy for high ambient light environments.

The 2.0-inch, TFT color LCD monitor is used only for image playback and menu viewing, and is made up of approximately 120,000 pixels. A brightness control offers five brightness levels, helpful for viewing in excessively dark or bright situations. Images can be displayed with or without the relevant image information, and the EOS-1Ds offers four- or nine-image index display modes. A very useful feature is the optional Highlight Alert, which flashes overexposed sections of the image gray/white during playback. An optional histogram display is handy for assessing overall exposure, though I've personally found the blinking highlight display much more useful for showing blown out highlights. (The problem with a histogram display is that blown highlights usually represent only a small percentage of overall image area, meaning it's hard to pick them up on the histogram readout. A blinking area on the LCD playback display is pretty hard to miss.) By activating Enlargement Mode option through the Personal Function menu, you can enlarge captured images to check on framing and detail. (Perceptive readers will note that that's a view of the LCD display from the original 1D above right - The playback screens on the 1Ds are identical.)

Active Mirror Technology
The ultra-fast EOS-1D required special "Active Mirror" technology to reduce the "settling time" when the mirror flipped up out of the way for each shot, and again, when it flipped back down. The result was very short viewfinder blackout times between exposure, as sort as 45 milliseconds. I don't know if the 1Ds uses this same technology or not, but it does seem to have a pretty short viewfinder blackout period when the shutter fires.

Sensor
One of the first notable characteristics of the EOS-1Ds's optical system is its unusually large CMOS sensor. The chip on the 1Ds measures 35.8 x 23.8 millimeters, almost exactly matching the standard 35mm film frame size of 36 x 24mm. This is a very significant development, because it offers photographers with Canon lenses the opportunity to shoot true wide angle digitally for the first time. (Because the sensor is the same size as a 35mm frame, there's no "focal length multiplier" caused by the sensor's cropping of the 35mm image area.) For the first time, a 16-35mm zoom behaves like a 16-35mm zoom, rather than the roughly 20-44mm equivalent focal length range that lens would have on the original 1D.

The EOS-1Ds' sensor has a total of 11.4 million pixels. Of these, 11.1 million are "effective" pixels, the rest being lost to dark current calibration and edge effects around the periphery of the array. After processing, the resulting images measure 4,064 x 2,704 pixels at full size, or 2,032 x 1,352 at half-size. This is a new high for Canon, although as I go to "press" with this review, word has already leaked of a full-frame 13.9 megapixel camera by Kodak, using the Nikon F-series lens mount.

Lenses
The EOS-1Ds features a Canon EF lens mount, which accommodates the full range of Canon EF lenses. I normally cite the aperture and focal length of a digicam's lens in this part of the review, but because the EOS-1Ds accepts a wide range of lenses, these characteristics will vary depending on the lens in use. My evaluation model was accompanied by Canon's 100mm Macro lens with a maximum f/2.8 aperture setting.

Antialiasing Filter (?)
Essentially all of today's digital cameras use "antialiasing" filters in front of the sensor array to reduce color aliasing in images containing high spatial frequencies (high-contrast, closely spaced lines). These filters work by slightly blurring the image -- technically, by knocking off the high spatial frequencies, while hopefully leaving the lower frequencies undisturbed. The problem of course, arises in trying to balance the need for antialiasing with the desire to maintain good image sharpness. Too strong a filter produces soft-looking images, while too weak a filter results in color "twinkles" and "jaggies" appearing in the fine details. Some high-end cameras leave the choice up to the user, with a removable antialiasing filter that allows the user to choose whether or not to use it, based on specific shooting conditions.

Canon claimed to have taken a different approach with the original 1D, deliberately choosing an antialiasing filter with a higher cutoff frequency, and relying on fancy image processing to eliminate or reduce any aliasing that might creep in as a result. How well does it work? It's a little tough to say, as differences in sharpness and detail can be so subtle between cameras. Compared to other 4-megapixel cameras I've tested, it did indeed seem to deliver about as much detail as any of them, and also displayed an absolute lack of color artifacts and aliasing in my resolution target shots.

At press time, I didn't know whether Canon had employed the same antialiasing technology in the 1Ds or not, but I can attest that it likewise showed virtually no color aliasing in the resolution target images.

Autofocus
The EOS-1Ds employs a fast autofocus system, with a myriad of focusing options. At the heart of Canon's advanced AF is an unusually large AF frame. (The region over which the AF system can take readings to determine focus. - Because of the larger size of the sensor in the 1Ds though, this AF area covers about 25% less of the total frame area than it did on the EOS-1D.) As with the EOS-1D and 1v, no fewer than 45 autofocus points cover a significant portion of the overall field of view. As shown in the diagram at right, seven of these are "cross" sensors, sensitive to both horizontal and vertical detail, while the remaining 38 respond to texture in the horizontal axis only. The EOS-1Ds selects the specific AF point automatically (based on the closest subject with reliable autofocus characteristics), or the user can select a specific AF point manually. The AI Servo AF system can also track moving subjects anywhere in the AF frame, if they're initially locked-in via the central AF area.

In the Manual/45-point mode, you can select any one of the 45 AF points manually, and the camera will use that point exclusively in its focus determinations. Selection is made by using both the front and back Command dials.

No two ways about it, 45 focus points are probably a lot more than you need for manual selection, and choosing just one of them could be more time-consuming than you'd like, particularly in a fast-paced shooting situation. Custom Function menu item 13-2 simplifies the AF choice, reducing the number of available AF points to 11, and arranging them in a cross pattern. Selection is again made using both the front and back Command dials.

When speed is really the issue, Custom Function menu option 13-3 further reduces the available AF points to nine, all located around the periphery of the AF frame area. The advantage of this is that only the Quick Control dial is needed to select an AF point, rotating the selection point around the edge of the AF area as it is rotated. This allows for a much faster selection, and is particularly useful for situations where the photographer is dealing with an off-center subject.

The "Assist" button on the top of the camera's rear panel offers another important speed-related feature: You can "memorize" any individual focusing point (whether at the center of the AF area, or more likely an off-center one pertinent to your particular subject), and then quickly return to it by pressing the Assist button.

Sometimes, you may want to use more than one focusing point (for example, if your subject is fast-moving, low-contrast, or if you're working in low-light conditions). For these situations, Canon provides the Focus Point Expansion option, available as Custom Function menu items 17-1 and 17-2. In these modes, you can still manually select a single focus point, but the camera then looks at up to six surrounding points to determine focus. Only the selected point lights up in the viewfinder, but as many as six other points are used to determine focus.

In addition to being able to select the AF area, you can also set the camera to One-Shot AF or AI Servo AF. One-Shot AF is intended for stationary subjects, and locks in focus on one area. In Al Servo AF mode, the camera tracks moving subjects, keeping the subject in sharp focus no matter where it appears in the frame. (As fast as 186 mph or 300 km/h, until the car is as close as 66ft/20m, when using the 300mm f/2.8L IS lens, according to Canon.)

Canon's current USM lenses allow direct manual focusing at any time, regardless of the operation of the AF system. (The mechanically-coupled manual focusing overrides any AF setting.) A few early USM lenses had "electronic manual focus", and the 1D supports manual "tweaking" of the focus setting with those lenses, if you hold down the shutter button after the initial autofocus is achieved.

A Depth of Field Preview button on the camera's front panel lets you check the depth of field and focus for the current aperture setting. The preview is displayed in the viewfinder, and is helpful for determining how much of the scene will be in focus.

Just like the Canon EOS-1D, the EOS-1Ds' AF technology is very impressive. It's both flexible and very fast, well-suited to the demands of professional sports shooters and photojournalists.

Wide Range of Exposure Options
With a design mimicking the 35mm EOS-1v model and the EOS-1D before it, the EOS-1Ds offers full manual exposure control, as well as a complement of partial manual and automatic exposure modes. For example, you can choose between Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Depth of Field AE, Manual, and Bulb modes. The majority of these are fairly self-explanatory, as Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual modes provide varying degrees of manual and automatic exposure control. While available apertures vary with the lens used, shutter speeds range from 1/8,000 to 30 seconds in all modes except Bulb, which keeps the shutter open as long as the Shutter button is depressed. (Interestingly, Bulb mode has no time limit, other than the available charge in the battery, claimed in the manual to be good for about 1.5 hours!) Canon's optional RS-80N3 remote switch and TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller allow you to take long time exposures without having to hold your finger on the Shutter button. One interesting note is that in Program AE mode, turning the Main dial on top of the camera cycles through a range of equivalent exposure settings, allowing you to pick the best exposure with an emphasis on either aperture or shutter speed, while letting the camera determine the exposure. (This is commonly referred to as a "program shift" or "vari-program" option.)

Depth of Field AE Mode
Canon's unique Depth of Field AE (DEP) mode works well when shooting scenes with subjects that are separated from each other. (An example might be a shot with one person standing in front of another.) Quite often, you'll want to stop down the lens enough to guarantee that both of your subjects are in focus, but won't know just how small an aperture is needed. You'll also want to keep the aperture as large as possible, to reduce shutter times. Without the tedious use of a depth-of-field table, it can be difficult to accurately determine the best aperture and focus point to use. The EOS-1Ds takes the guesswork out of situations like this, with its DEP mode. In this mode, the camera calculates the maximum aperture that can be used to keep both subjects sharply focused. When DEP is selected, the 1Ds uses only a single autofocus sensor in the center of the field of view. You use this sensor to "show" the camera which two objects you want to have simultaneously focused, and the camera does the rest. You center the viewfinder on the first object (near or far, it doesn't matter) and half-press the Shutter button. The viewfinder displays "dEP 1" to indicate that it's measured the distance to the first object. You repeat the process with the second object, upon which the viewfinder shows "dEP 2." The camera computes the maximum aperture that will hold both subjects in focus, and sets the lens focal distance accordingly. Half-pressing the Shutter button will show the aperture and shutter speed the camera has selected. Fully pressing the Shutter button takes the picture. If six seconds past before the shutter is pressed, the camera forgets the DEP points, letting you set a new pair.

Noise Reduction System
The remaining exposure mode is Bulb, which simply allows you to take long exposures for unlimited periods of time, depending on the type of power source (Canon estimates a fully charged battery pack will allow for a 1.5-hour maximum exposure time, however, the AC adapter allows unlimited exposure times.) The EOS-1Ds automatically employs a noise reduction system in exposures longer than 1/15-second (this function can be turned off through the Record menu when shot-to-shot cycle time is an issue). To reduce image noise, the camera 1Ds captures a second, blank, image with the shutter closed, which is then compared against, and subtracted from, the original to remove the noise. (I was somewhat surprised to find that the noise reduction system worked even in Bulb exposure. The top LCD readout displays "busy" if you try to take another shot while it's capturing the dark frame reference image. Very slick! It's the first time I've seen a noise reduction system that works with such extremely long exposure times.) To prevent any camera movement during long exposures (from holding down or releasing the Shutter button), it's best to work with the accessory remote control and attach the camera to a tripod.

In my testing, I found the EOS-1Ds' noise reduction system very effective. It won't work miracles with a warm camera (image noise roughly doubles for every 8°C rise in temperature), but it does an excellent job of eliminating image noise under normal shooting conditions. Depending on exposure times and sensor temperature, you can still end up with a few "stuck" pixels in bulb exposures, but the level is far below what it is with the noise reduction turned off. (And for dealing with those remaining stuck pixels, I highly recommend Mike Chaney's Qimage Pro, a program with an amazing ability to remove spot noise without disturbing the underlying image.

Actually, after all this discussion of the EOS-1Ds' noise reduction system, I have to say that the camera's unprocessed images (noise reduction turned off) are surprisingly "clean." To be sure, there are a fair number of hot pixels in images shot with 30 second exposure times, but the level of them is quite a bit below what I recall seeing with the original 1D, or most CCD-based cameras, for that matter. - I'd say that dark-current noise is one of the areas where CMOS sensors show a decided edge over CCDs.

Metering Sensors

To determine exposure, the EOS-1Ds uses a 21-Zone Evaluative Metering system, which divides the image area into 21 zones of different sizes, with a honeycomb pattern in the central portion of the frame. The full Evaluative Metering mode determines the exposure by assessing each of the 21 zones and evaluating contrast and brightness across all of them to determine the best exposure value for the entire frame. The 21-zone system also offers Center-Weighted and Partial metering modes. In Center-Weighted metering, the camera reads the exposure from the entire scene, but places emphasis on a large area in the center of the frame. Partial metering works along similar lines, but only places emphasis on approximately 8.5 percent of the center area.

Spot Metering Options
In addition to the Evaluative Metering options, the EOS-1Ds also offers a range of Spot metering choices. Normal Spot metering bases the exposure on a reading taken from the very center of the frame, and is usually chosen for use with high-contrast subjects. Alternatively, in some autofocus modes, you can choose to link the Spot metering area to one of 9 or 11 active AF points. When you use Custom Function menu 13 to limit the selectable AF points to either 9 or 11, the manually-selected AF point is linked to a 2.4 percent Spot Metering sensor, centered on that point. Another option is to choose the Multi-Spot metering option, which bases the exposure on as many as eight separate readings from different parts of the image. In Multi-Spot metering mode, the central spot metering sensor is activated, and a meter reading is taken every time you press the "FEL" button on the top front of the camera. As you take successive readings, the exposure readouts in the viewfinder show the current aperture and shutter speed settings the camera has computed, while the vertical exposure level indicator shows the relative light levels corresponding to each of the points you measured. This is a pretty powerful exposure option, giving the photographer great control over the final exposure. The exposure level indicator gives you a pretty good idea of how much dynamic range the shot requires, and you can choose to give more weight to a given area of the image by taking multiple readings there. Very slick, a great feature!

Exposure Lock
As you'd expect, the EOS-1Ds also offers an Exposure Lock option, which lets you lock exposure independently from the autofocus determination. You simply center the frame on the part of the subject you want to expose for, and press the AE Lock button, marked with an "*" on the camera. What's interesting though, is that this same AE Lock capability is extended to flash exposures when using Canon Speedlights. When shooting with an external flash, a Flash Exposure Lock option (the same FEL button used in the Multi-Spot metering mode) works with Spot metering to determine and lock the flash exposure. While not a multi-spot system, you can select a specific portion of the image on which to meter for flash exposure, just as you can with non-flash shots using the AE Lock button. You can also lock non-flash exposures, by pressing the AE Lock button marked with an "*" on the camera body.

Exposure Compensation
Exposure Compensation is adjustable from -3 to +3 exposure values (EV) in one-third-step increments. An Auto Exposure Bracketing option is available when you're not sure about the best exposure. Three images are captured in succession -- one at the metered exposure, one overexposed, and one underexposed. The amount of exposure variation can vary as much as +/-3 EV steps. In addition to aperture or shutter-speed based bracketing, the EOS-1Ds offers a unique ISO speed bracketing option. In this mode, the camera leaves the aperture and shutter settings at their predetermined values, and brackets the exposure by varying the ISO light sensitivity of the camera. I'm not pro shooter myself, but this feature has elicited some interest from folks like Rob Galbraith, who says that ISO bracketing just might convert him to automatic exposure bracketing.

ISO Sensitivity
The EOS-1Ds' light sensitivity is adjustable from 100 to 1,250 ISO equivalents, which is expandable to 50 to 1,250 ISO equivalents through an on-screen menu option. You can experiment with a range of ISOs, by using the ISO Auto Bracketing function to capture three images at different ISO settings. The first image is taken at the set ISO value, followed by one at the next lowest value, and one at the next highest value. For example, bracketing the ISO around the 200 value results in a series of images taken at 100, 200, and 400 ISO equivalents.

A natural question that will occur to many readers is how image noise levels with the EOS-1Ds compare to those from the original 1D and Canon's other CMOS-based cameras, the most recent of which is the six-megapixel EOS-D60. The results of my testing in this area were quite interesting: See the subsequent Test Results section of this review for the details. Basically, the 1Ds did worse than the D60 at low ISOs, but better at higher ISOs and long exposure times. I was also quite impressed by how fine-grained and unobtrusive the noise was. This seems to confirm my earlier experience with CMOS sensor noise, in comparing the noise between the EOS-1D and EOS-D30. There, the 1D tested as having lower numerical noise values, but the D30's images seemed cleaner to my eye. It seems that the noise from Canon's CMOS sensors has such a fine, tight grain pattern that it is less visually obvious than noise from conventional CCD chips.

10 White Balance Modes
The EOS-1Ds offers 10 White Balance modes from which to choose, including Auto, Daylight, Shade, Overcast, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, Custom, Color Temperature, and Personal White Balance. Custom is the manual white balance option, which determines the white balance setting from a previously-captured image of a gray card. This method differs from the customary use of a white card held in front of the lens. (The D30, D60, and EOS-1D also used this approach.) While slightly less convenient for on-the-fly white balance adjustment (you have to shoot the test image, then go back into the menu system to select it as the white balance reference), the advantages are actually manifold. First, you can easily store several different reference images on the camera's card, letting you quickly switch between different custom white balance settings. This can be very handy in environments where you need to quickly switch between radically different lighting environments. (Consider sports shooting, where you may want one custom setting for the stadium lights and another for the fluorescent lighting of the locker room.) Another advantage of Canon's custom white balance approach comes in scenarios where multiple photographers are covering the same event. The same set of white balance reference images can be loaded onto each shooter's CF cards, making for perfect color consistency between all the cameras and shooters. (A great help for post-event image workflow!). Here's a list of the available White Balance modes:

Hybrid Auto White Balance
Here's a feature I'd been expecting to turn up in digicams for a while now, and that first appeared on the EOS-1D -- white balance determination that's independent of subject color! Normally, digicams compute white balance by analyzing the image captured by the sensor. This is fine if the subject has no predominant coloration of its own, but fails miserably for subjects with dominant color casts. (For instance, a model wearing a red dress against a maroon background would trick the camera into thinking the scene lighting was very reddish. The result would be an inappropriate cyan correction being applied to the image, to counterbalance the red.) In the EOS-1D and 1Ds, Canon has integrated an incident illumination sensor on the front of the camera that ties into the white balance system. This gives the camera additional information about the lighting, which is unaffected by subject coloration. A great idea, kudos to Canon for implementing it!

White Balance Bracketing
White Balance Bracketing is another useful feature that Canon included in the EOS-1Ds. You can set the camera to shoot three images at the same exposure level, varying the White Balance setting between shots by up to +/- 3 steps, each step being equivalent to 5 Mireds (Micro-reciprocal degrees). Mireds are a bit of an arcane measurement, but represent the units most directly applicable to the mathematics of color adjustment, their main benefit being that they're additive. A filter that shifts 3200°K light by 100°K will produce a much different shift (measured in degrees Kelvin) with 7000°K light, hence the use of mireds to describe the shift, rather than degrees Kelvin. (For example, 5 mireds at 3200°K is a shift of only 52°K, while 5 mireds at 7000°K is a shift of about 257°K.) This is all a little convoluted for the uninitiated, but pro photographers are accustomed to working with mireds in calculating filter factors, and professional color meters generally offer a mired scale for calculating filter corrections.)

White Balance in Degrees Kelvin
I also liked Canon's provision of a Color Temperature white balance option, which allows the user to select the desired color temperature in 100-degree increments from 2,800°K to 10,000°K. I'd actually like to see the lower end of this range extend a little further, since household and commercial incandescent lighting tends to be more in the range of 2,300°K to 2,800°K. Still, the Color Temperature white balance is very handy, particularly if the shooter has access to a color temperature meter.

"Personal" White Balance Settings for Rapid-fire Custom Changes
Finally, the Personal White Balance feature allows you to create as many as three different white balance settings on a computer and load them into the EOS-1D for quick use. This strikes me as another great option for pros who have to shoot under highly variable lighting, or for groups of pros needing consistency between their setups. Not quite as flexible as the Custom option, because the Personal settings must be downloaded to the camera from a host computer, but arguably more powerful, not to mention having the advantage of allowing you to switch between three distinct custom settings very quickly.

"Color Matrix" options
We're (finally) starting to see a move away from the tyranny of the sRGB color space. sRGB produces bright, saturated color on computer monitors, but has a woefully restricted color gamut. Bottom line, sRGB is fine for consumer-level devices, but is really unsuited for color-critical professional applications. Nikon took a step away from sRGB in its D1x and D1h models, by providing support for the so-called Adobe RGB color space in addition to the default sRGB. With the EOS-1D and now the EOS-1Ds, Canon goes a step further, offering no fewer than five color-space options through the Record menu. Canon calls these "Color Matrix" settings, and they offer an interesting range of possibilities. The table below lists their attributes.

For the pros likely to buy this camera, I call particular attention to Color Matrix settings 4 and 5. Setting 4 is matched to Adobe RGB, although Canon's documentation is careful to point out that the files created in this mode do not contain any ICC tag information identifying the color space as such. This means that you'll have to explicitly set the color space in your color management software to achieve accurate results. Color Matrix setting 5 is a little mysterious, as there are some indications Canon intended it to be a special wide-gamut color space, but now treats it simply as a low-saturation sRGB.

Tonality and Custom Tonal Curves
Canon recognizes that different pros may prefer different tone curves, and has thoughtfully provided a means to implement custom curves via the host computer. Canon's included File Viewer Utility (which really does much more than just display the contents of image files) lets you create a custom tonal curve and then download it into the computer. This tonal curve then becomes available via the "Parameters" option in the LCD record menu.

While I really like the ability to custom edit the EOS-1Ds' tonal curves, I unfortunately can't say the same for the software interface Canon provides to perform the task. This was one of my biggest complaints about the EOS-1D, and there don't seem to be any substantive changes in how the application provided with the 1Ds behaves in this regard. It's one of the most unfriendly applications I've encountered in recent memory -- not so much because it's particularly difficult to understand, but because it provides essentially no feedback on the effects of the adjustments you're making, or for that matter, on the correspondence between the tonal curve controls and what part of the visible tonal range they affect.

The screenshots below show the tone-curve editing window and a preview image of my horribly contrasty "outdoor portrait" test shot. (Before I get taken to task yet again for how horrid the lighting is on this image, please note that the awful lighting is deliberate, intended to be a stress-test of how well cameras handle extreme contrast and harsh highlights. Of course you'd never set up a serious shot like this, but I wanted a test subject that would stretch the limits of the cameras I tested. This lighting certainly does that.) These screenshots were taken using the software that was included with the EOS-1D. The behavior I describe below is the same, but there has been an important cosmetic change made: The tone curve is now plotted using a semilog coordinate system, so it now resembles the "DlogE" curve most film-savvy photographers will be familiar with.

NOTE that in the following, the "default" exposure and tone curve examples were taken from an early prototype EOS-1D, not any final product. The point here is to simply show how the tone-curve editing feature works, and what it's results are, so please regard the photos as illustrative examples only, and NOT representative of the production cameras' actual performance!

The top shot in the table at right shows a default exposure and tonal curve from a prototype camera, while the bottom one shows a considerably modified tonal curve, and the preview image resulting from it. (Click on the images to see them 1:1 at their original size.) I can't say I'm completely happy with the result, but that's a reflection of my limited skills, lack of time, and how time-consuming the tool is to use, much more so than any lack of power in the tool itself. This is all really straightforward, but as usual, the devil is in the details. First of all, the preview images aren't generated in real-time, but rather they take a good 15 seconds or so (on a 500 MHz G4 PowerMac) to be generated when you request them. By the time you wait for the preview to appear and make a few adjustments to the curve, it can easily take 30 seconds for iteration of the curve. Worse, you have only a vague idea of what part of the image's tonal curve you're actually affecting when you're making adjustments. The cosmetic change I mentioned above that changes the display at right into a more conventional-looking S-curve helps a great deal, but the correlation between the tone curve and any given part of the image is only approximate at best. I suggested in my 1D review that Canon add an eyedropper control to the tonal curve function, so you could click on a portion of the image and see where that particular point fell along the curve,. This would let you quickly see what you needed to adjust and by about how much. As it is, you end up "flying blind," reduced to guessing and then waiting for the preview image to find out whether or not you guessed right. I didn't find such eyedropper control in this year's iteration of the software, and it still needs it every bit as badly as it did a year ago. (Soft applause for the semilog coordinates though, which at least produce a familiar-looking S-curve.)

Once you have a tonal curve you like, you can apply it to the image as you convert it to a JPEG, save it to disk to apply to other images, or (this is the cool part) download it to the camera, where it can be applied as part of the custom parameter sets. (Note though, that all three sets of custom parameters share the same tonal curve. The camera has room for only two tonal curves, its default and one custom one.) It's entirely possible that more experience twiddling with the curves would leave you more comfortable about what to move and by how much, but it looks to us like this would take a long time to achieve. Bottom line, I'm happy to see the custom tone curve capability included in the EOS-1Ds, but suggest that you allow a lot of time for playing with it! (A long weekend wouldn't be too much.)

Flash
Though the EOS-1Ds doesn't feature an onboard flash, the camera does have an external flash hot-shoe as well as an external PC socket for connecting a strobe. The hot-shoe accommodates all Canon EX series speedlights, as well as a variety of third-party flash units. A Flash Exposure Lock button lets users lock the flash exposure in advance of the shot, and a Flash Exposure Compensation option adjusts the overall flash power from -3 to +3 EV in one-third-step increments (only for Canon EX series speedlights). Automatic flash exposure bracketing is also available. A High Speed Sync option synchronizes the flash with all shutter speeds available on the EOS-1Ds, from 1/8,000 to 30 seconds. When using a Canon EX flash unit, you can also sync up wireless slave units for greater coverage, with no connecting wires, special codes, or anything. Full TTL flash metering is available even with multi-flash wireless setups. (Canon's series of dedicated Speedlights has a remarkable range of capabilities, really deserving of a review of their own, rather than the very brief treatment I'm giving them here. Unfortunately, I really don't have the time or space to go into all their functions, and the details of how they integrate with the EOS-1Ds.)

The EOS-1Ds has a Continuous Shooting mode, activated through the camera's Drive setting. The maximum frame rate is three frames per second, with a maximum continuous burst of 10 images per series. The maximum number of images depends on the amount of available memory card space. Additionally, the number of images that the camera can capture in a series appears in the lower right corner of the viewfinder. (Continuous drive mode is one of the areas where the differences between the 1D and 1Ds are most apparent. The huge amount of data associated with each of the 1Ds' images mean that its frame rate is only 3 fps, vs the 1D's incredible 8 fps. The 1Ds' buffer memory also holds only 10 frames, to the 1D's 21. It's actually surprising that Canon managed to maintain the frame rates and buffer depth they did with the 1Ds though, given that it's dealing with nearly 3x the data of the original 1D.)

The EOS-1Ds offers two Self-Timer modes, 10-Second and Two-Second. Both modes are accessed through the Drive button on top of the camera, the same button that activates the Continuous Shooting mode.

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is almost never reported on, and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, we now routinely measure it using a special electronic test setup.

While the original 1D was clearly the fastest pro SLR I've tested to date (as of September, 2002), the 1Ds is amazingly quick, given the amount of data it's moving around. Shutter lag times are roughly comparable between the two cameras in full autofocus mode, depending on the lens used. In manual focus and prefocus modes, the 1Ds is slightly slower than the very fast 1D, but it's quite competitive with the current crop of 6 megapixel SLRs.

I didn't observe the odd behavior with respect to memory card speed with the EOS-1Ds that I found in the 1D: Cycle times in continuous mode showed none of the dependence on card speed that I saw in the original 1D. There was also no advantage in terms of maximum run lengths with high speed vs low speed cards - Both types gave maximum run lengths of 10 shots in continuous mode.

In single-shot mode, I found that the EOS-1Ds seems to have a "two stage" buffer memory. You can rattle off 10 shots in rapid fire, with a roughly 0.4 second cycle time between them, upon which the camera slows to cycle times of about two seconds for another 7 shots. After this total of about 17 shots, the cycle times stretch to over 6 seconds.

I also found some puzzling behavior in single-shot mode with regard to the focus setting: The 1Ds was noticeably faster between shots with the lens set to autofocus than when it was set to manual focus. Using autofocus, the shot to shot cycle time was about 0.4 seconds, but with the lens set to manual focus, this time stretched to an average of 0.52 seconds, and became much more variable. (A standard deviation of about 14%.)

The EOS-1Ds' user interface is certainly one of the most complex I've encountered, with extensive external camera controls that have multiple functions, and duplicate controls for vertical shooting. I admit that I had to refer to the manual on a number of occasions to fully understand what each control did. However, once I became familiar with the layout and began to memorize each button's function(s), camera operation was straightforward and quite efficient. This is definitely not a camera for a casual user, but professional shooters will find it very fast and flexible to operate. Dual controls for the Shutter button, AE Lock, AF Point Selection, and the Assist button enable you to comfortably operate the camera horizontally or vertically, a mandatory option for pro photographers. The combination of control dials and buttons lets you adjust most of the camera's settings without venturing into the LCD menu system, a great time-saver in fast-paced shooting situations. For those times when the LCD menu is unavoidable, the menu system offers straightforward navigation, once you get the hang of Canon's user interface. (A silly thing, but it took me an inordinate amount of time to get used to the operation of the "Select" button and the Command dial. Once I became acclimated, it was very fast.) Following are a few illustrations of the camera's operating controls and readouts, courtesy of Canon USA, with callouts and other modifications ©Imaging Resource. (This illustration is of the EOS-1D, but the controls on the 1Ds are identical.) I then step through all the controls in my usual fashion, followed by descriptions of the camera's various menu screens.

LCD Data Readouts
The EOS-1D uses two monochrome LCD data readouts to report camera status, and provide a visual user interface to the various knobs, dials, and buttons. As with the D30, you can actually control quite a bit of the camera's operation, without venturing into the menu system on the color LCD screen. This not only saves power (by avoiding the hefty drain of the large LCD screen), but makes the camera much quicker to operate. Here are the details of the information provided by the two LCD readouts, on the top and back of the camera:

Shutter Button: Located on the top of the camera body, sloping down toward the front panel, this button sets focus and/or exposure when pressed halfway. A full press fires the shutter.

Depth of Field Preview Button: Hidden on the lower left side of the lens mount (when looking from the front), this button previews the depth of field in the viewfinder. Pressing the button stops the lens down to the selected aperture, letting you visually check the depth of field.

Lens Release Button: On the right side of the camera's front panel, this semicircular button releases a latch so the lens can be removed.

FE Lock / Multi-Spot Metering Button ("FEL"): Situated on the top panel of the camera, just behind the Shutter button, this button controls the flash exposure lock and Multi-Metering functions, just like its vertical grip counterpart. Pressing the button when a Canon Speedlight is in use locks the exposure based on a test flash. In Multi-Spot Metering mode (with the flash off), this button selects up to eight metering points for exposure calculation.

Main Dial: To the right of the FE Lock / Multi-Spot Metering button, this dial controls a variety of camera functions when turned while pressing a control button. Depending on the exposure mode, turning the dial on its own adjusts some of the functions listed on the top LCD panel, such as aperture or shutter speed. In Program AE mode, turning this dial cycles through a range of equivalent exposure settings.

LCD Panel Illumination Button: Directly behind the FE Lock / Multi-Spot Metering button, this button activates a blue background illumination for both the rear and top status LCD panels. You can turn off the illumination by pressing the button a second time. Pressing the button once leaves the light on for six seconds, and the light will automatically shut off if the shutter is opened. (A custom menu function lets you leave this backlight on during bulb exposures, handy for watching the display that shows the cumulative exposure time.)

Exposure Compensation / Aperture Button: To the right of the LCD Panel Illumination button, this button controls the exposure compensation in conjunction with the Main dial (in all exposure modes except Manual). Pressing the button blanks all the top-panel LCD readouts except the exposure compensation indicator, and connects the Main dial to the exposure compensation adjustment. Pressing the button again or half-pressing the Shutter button registers the exposure compensation setting you've selected, and puts the camera back in shooting mode. In Manual mode, pressing this button while turning the Main dial controls the aperture setting. (A little awkward, frankly.)

Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation Button: The first button on the far left side of the top panel (when looking from the back), this button changes the current metering mode when pressed while turning the Main dial, cycling through Evaluative, Partial, Spot, Center-Weighted, and AF Point-Linked Spot metering modes. When pressed while turning the Quick Control dial on the back panel, the flash exposure compensation is adjusted from -3 to +3 exposure values (EV) in one-third-step increments. (Note that this only applies to Canon dedicated Speedlights.) Pressing this button in conjunction with the Shooting Mode button while turning the Main dial adjusts the camera's Drive mode, cycling through Single Frame, Continuous, 10-Second Self-Timer, and Two-Second Self-Timer modes. Finally, pressing this button in conjunction with the AF Mode button while turning the Main dial sets the ISO sensitivity.

AF Mode Button: The next button on the left, just in front of the Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation button, this button sets the autofocus mode when pressed while turning the Main dial, cycling between One-Shot AF and Al Servo AF (which focuses continuously to track moving subjects). Pressing this button while holding down the Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation button and turning the Main dial adjusts the ISO setting. Additionally, holding down this button while pressing the Shooting Mode button and turning the Main dial activates the Auto Exposure Bracketing mode and sets the amount of exposure variation.

Shooting Mode Button: The last button on the left side of the top panel, this button sets the camera's exposure mode when held down while turning the Main dial, cycling through the following modes:

When pressed in conjunction with the AF Mode button while turning the Main dial, this button activates the Auto Exposure Bracketing mode and adjusts the amount of exposure variation. Pressing this button while holding down the Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation button adjusts the camera's Drive mode, cycling through Single Frame, Continuous, 10-Second Self-Timer, and Two-Second Self-Timer modes.

Diopter Adjustment Knob: Located on the camera's back panel, to the left of the viewfinder, this dial adjusts the optical viewfinder display to accommodate eyeglass wearers.

Eyepiece Shutter Lever: On the opposite side of the viewfinder, this lever opens and closes a small shutter inside the eyepiece, which prevents incident light from affecting the exposure when the camera is mounted on a tripod. (Normally, the photographer's eye prevents ambient light from entering the viewfinder eyepiece.)

Assist Button: Directly to the right of the Eyepiece Shutter lever, this button registers the selected AF point when pressed in conjunction with the Flash Exposure Lock button. Pressing this button with the AF Point Selection button switches between the normal AF mode and the registered AF point. Very handy for quickly switching between a specific AF point and normal multi-area AF operation. The operation of this control may be modified somewhat through Custom Function menu 18.

AE Lock ("*") Button: To the right of the Assist button, this button locks the exposure when pressed. (The AE Lock is canceled six seconds later, or when a shot is taken, whichever comes first.)

AF Point Selection Button: Directly to the right of the AE Lock button, this button selects one of the 45 AF points when pressed while turning either the Quick Control or Main dials. (The Quick Control dial selects vertically, while the Main dial selects horizontally.) Pressing this button simultaneously with the Assist button switches between the normal AF mode and the registered AF point.

Quick Control Dial Switch: In the center of the back panel, above the Quick Control dial, this switch turns the dial on or off, as a precaution against changes being made if it is accidentally turned.

Quick Control Dial: The large dial in the center of the back panel, this dial controls a variety of camera settings when turned while pressing control buttons. During image playback, turning this dial scrolls through captured images, and it is a primary user interface element for navigating the LCD menu system.

Main Switch: Directly below the Quick Control dial, this switch turns the camera on or off. In its third position (marked with a little speaker icon), the beeper is enabled, to signal when focus is achieved.

CompactFlash Cover Release Switch: Located at the bottom left corner of the CompactFlash compartment, this switch unlocks the compartment door, allowing you to remove the CompactFlash card.

Protect / Sound Recording Button: The first button in a series lining the left side of the LCD monitor, this button assigns or removes write protection for selected files during image playback. Also in Playback mode, this button lets you record as long as 30 seconds of audio to attach to an image file, by holding down the button for two seconds. (Very handy for pros needing to keep track of what's recorded in various shots.)

Menu Button: Directly below the Protect / Sound Recording button, this button displays the LCD menu system.

Select Button: The third button in the series on the left side of the LCD monitor, this button selects menu settings while in the LCD menu system (when pressed while turning the Quick Control dial). When playing back images, this button selects individual images for manipulation.

Display / White Balance Bracketing Button: Just below the Select button, this button controls the LCD display mode when playing back images. A full press of the button turns the display on or off. Holding down the button while turning the Quick Control dial cycles through the image playback display modes, including Info (with histogram), Single Image Display, Four-Image Display, and Nine-Image Display. When the LCD monitor is disabled, holding down this button while turning the Quick Control dial allows users to create new image storage folders. In Record mode, pressing this button in conjunction with the White Balance button activates the White Balance Bracketing mode.

Erase Button: The last button in the series, this button erases selected images or folders.

Quality Button: Located below the LCD monitor, this button cycles through the file resolution and quality settings when pressed while turning the Quick Control button. Pressing and holding this button with the White Balance button for two seconds returns the camera's settings to their defaults.

White Balance Button: Directly to the right of the Quality button, this button cycles through the available White Balance settings when pressed while turning the Quick Control dial. When held down in conjunction with the Quality button, this button resets the camera settings to their defaults. Holding this button while pressing the Display button activates the White Balance Bracketing mode.

Vertical Grip Operation On/Off Switch: Located on the right side of the camera (when looking from the back) and near the cluster of vertical grip controls, this switch turns those controls on or off. Disabling the controls prevents accidental activation when shooting with the camera in a normal horizontal orientation.

Vertical Grip Shutter Button: Directly below the primary Shutter button, but on the bottom panel of the camera, this button performs the same shutter functions when shooting with the camera held vertically.

Vertical Grip Main Dial: Like the Main dial on top of the camera, this dial controls a variety of camera settings when rotated while holding down a control button. Located just behind the Vertical Grip Shutter button, this dial controls several functions on the top LCD panel when turned by itself, such as aperture or shutter speed, depending on the exposure mode. When turned while in Program AE mode, the dial cycles through a range of equivalent exposures.

Vertical Grip FE Lock / Multi-Spot Metering Button ("FEL"): Just behind the Vertical Grip Main dial, this button locks the exposure when an external flash is used. Like the main FE Lock button, when no flash is in use, this button sets the metering points for the Multi-Spot Metering mode, which averages the exposure from as many as eight separate readings.

Vertical Grip Assist Button: Just like the Assist button at the top of the back panel, this button (located in the lower right corner of the back panel) registers the AF point when pressed in conjunction with the Flash Exposure Lock button. It also switches between the normal AF setting and the registered point when pressed simultaneously with the AF Point Selection button.

Vertical Grip AE Lock Button: To the right of the Vertical Grip Assist button, this button locks the exposure for a maximum of six seconds when pressed once.

Vertical Grip AF Point Selection: The final vertical grip control in the lower right corner of the back panel, this button performs the same functions as its main counterpart, allowing you to select an AF point for use by holding down the button and turning the Quick Control or Main dial. Pressing this button with the Assist button selects between the normal AF mode and the registered AF point.

Battery Compartment Release Button: Situated on the left side of the camera, when looking from the back, this button unlocks the battery compartment door handle, which can be turned to release the battery.

Camera Menus
The EOS-1Ds offers four menus, all of which are available at all times by pressing the Menu button.

Custom Functions
The EOS-1D and 1Ds are quite probably the most configurable cameras I've seen to date at any price point. The combination of Custom Menu and Personal Function options is almost overwhelming. An amazing range of the camera's operating functions is subject to user configuration, with no fewer than 21 "Custom" function menus and 24 "Personal" functions. (The numbering for the "Personal" functions runs to 31, but there are several numbers within that range that aren't used. Canon did this so the Personal Functions on the EOS-1Ds and EOS-1v would align with each other. There are some personal functions that are relevant to the 1v which do not appear on the 1D or 1Ds, and also some that aren't shared between the 1D and 1Ds. The Custom Functions listed below are common to all three cameras.

To help you manage the EOS-1Ds' configurability, you can group both custom and personal functions into "custom function groups," letting you quickly switch between different sets of them for different shooting conditions or photographers.

Personal Functions: A wide variety of secondary camera options can be controlled via the "Personal Functions" menu system. These are options that are less integral to basic camera operation, but that fall more into the realm of personal preferences. (Examples include things like setting the continuous shooting speed, enabling or disabling metering modes, whether or not to illuminate the LCD panels during bulb exposures, etc.)

These functions are enabled or disabled via the host software provided with the camera. The default is for none of the personal function options to be available: You'll have to connect the camera to the computer and turn them on using Canon's File Viewer Utility before they'll be accessible on the LCD menu system. The menu displays in this mode are unusually informative, as Canon has made excellent use of the high-resolution LCD panel to show explanatory information. Accordingly, I'll simply show screenshots of each Personal Function menu in the table below. (Note that the differences between the 1D and 1Ds here are that the 1Ds doesn't have Personal Function 13, and Personal Function 19 (continuous shooting speed) obviously has a different range of settings available. Also, the EOS-1Ds has function numbers 30 and 31, which don't appear in the menu system of the original 1D.)

The EOS-1Ds stores images on a CompactFlash Type I or II memory card, and is compatible with IBM MicroDrives. The EOS-1Ds does not come with a memory card, but accessory cards are currently available in sizes as large as 640MB. (One gigabyte in the case of the largest IBM MicroDrive.) CompactFlash cards cannot be entirely write-protected, but the EOS-1Ds lets you write-protect individual images via the Protect option of the Playback menu. Write-protecting an image only saves it from accidental erasure or manipulation, not from card formatting, which erases the entire card.

The EOS-1Ds offers two image sizes: 4,064 x 2,704 and 2,032 x 1,352 pixels. Two standard JPEG compression levels are available as well, Fine and Normal. The compression levels corresponding to Fine and Normal can be adjusted via the host software, and loaded into the camera as part of custom parameter sets. There's also a RAW mode, which records all the information from the sensor, without any processing. The camera can be configured to save both a RAW and JPEG-compressed image at the same time, for every shot captured. Given a large enough memory card, this looks like a very useful operating mode, giving you a ready-to-use JPEG file as well as a "digital negative" in the form of the RAW file. As noted earlier, RAW-format images can be processed on the host computer to change White Balance and even Color Matrix settings. Exposure can also be adjusted by as much as +/- 2 EV on a RAW file. Canon includes a utility for processing and viewing RAW files as part of its Solution disk.

Following are the approximate number of storable images and the associated compression ratios for a 256MB CompactFlash card. (As you can see, you're going to want some large memory cards for this camera!) File sizes and compression ratios shown here are based on the default JPEG compression settings used by the camera. Higher or lower compression ratios used as part of custom parameter settings would obviously increase or decrease file sizes. The numbers in this table are based on actual file sizes I observed with the 1Ds, not the projections of card capacity the camera shows on its status LCD, which tend to be a bit conservative relative to the actual card capacity.

Interface software and an IEEE-1394 "FireWire" cable also accompany the camera, for high speed connection to a PC or Macintosh. Testing on my 867 MHz Mac G4, I clocked the download time of the 1Ds as a bit slower than that of the original 1D, at about 719 KB/second.

Lost Images? - Download this image-recovery program so you'll have it when you need it...
Since we're talking about memory and image storage, this would be a good time to mention the following: I get a ton of email from readers who've lost photos due to a corrupted memory card. It's tragic when it happens, there are few things more precious than photo memories. Corrupted memory cards can happen with any card type and any camera manufacturer, nobody's immune. "Stuff happens," as they say. A surprising number of "lost" images can be recovered with an inexpensive, easy to use piece of software though. Given the amount of email I've gotten on the topic, I now include this paragraph in all my digicam reviews. The program you need is called PhotoRescue, by DataRescue SA. Read our review of it if you'd like, but download the program now, so you'll have it. It doesn't cost a penny until you need it, and even then it's only $29, with a money back guarantee. So download PhotoRescue for Windows or PhotoRescue for Mac while you're thinking of it. (While you're at it, download the PDF manual and quickstart guide as well.) Stash the file in a safe place and it'll be there when you need it. Trust me, needing this is not a matter of if, but when... PhotoRescue is about the best and easiest tool for recovering digital photos I've seen. (Disclosure: IR gets a small commission from sales of the product, but I'd highly recommend the program even if we didn't.) OK, now back to our regularly scheduled review...

Power is supplied to the EOS-1Ds via an NiMH rechargeable battery pack or the included "DC Coupler" (AC adapter) accessory. The NP-E3 battery pack and DC coupler both accompany the camera, along with an external battery charger. According to Canon, a freshly charged NP-E3 battery pack should produce as many as 600 shots at normal temperature. (At low temperatures, battery capacity can be significantly reduced.) The (approximate) amount of battery life remaining is displayed on the top LCD status display panel. An Auto Power-Off feature automatically turns off the camera after 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, or 30 minutes, depending on the time set through the settings menu (you can also turn this off). A CR2025 lithium battery serves as the backup power supply for the camera's internal calendar and clock.

Working with the DC coupler, I performed my usual measurements on the EOS-1Ds' power consumption in various operating modes. (Really, runtime in various operating modes makes a lot more sense than the "number of shots" figures published by the manufacturers and some other sites. The number of shots is certainly important to a photographer, but shooters expecting 600 shots from the EOS-1Ds would be sorely disappointed if they tried to capture all those shots over the course of an 8-hour shooting day.) Here's what I found for the 1Ds' power consumption numbers:

Overall, the 1Ds' run time numbers reflect the huge capacity of its hefty 1650 mAh, 12-volt battery pack, and are considerably higher than those of the original 1D. This is doubtless due to the lower power consumption of the CMOS sensor in the 1Ds. Runtime in "standby" mode (capture mode, but with the camera in the "semi sleep" mode it goes into after two seconds of inactivity) is over ten hours, but active capture mode drops this to only about three hours. Furthermore, the power demands of fast-acting autofocus lenses with large optics are considerable. (Current drain spikes to over 1 amp when a Canon USM autofocus lens is focusing.) Likewise, the 1Ds' shutter mechanism consumes a noticeable amount of power. Overall, the EOS-1Ds has very good battery life, but a practicing pro should definitely plan on purchasing a second NP-E3 battery and packing it along. For extended studio work, the DC coupler will be a lifesaver.

Two software CDs come with the EOS-1Ds, one containing Canon's Solution Disk software for both PC and Macintosh platforms, and a second containing Adobe Photoshop LE 5.0. The camera connects to the computer via an IEEE-1394 "FireWire" interface cable. The Solution Disk software package includes Canon Utilities, RemoteCapture (for operating the camera from the computer), and the necessary drivers. I mentioned the Canon software earlier, calling particular attention to the ability it provides the user to customize the camera's tone curves. I hope to revisit this review to add some further information on the software package, but at the moment, time prevents it.

Not Included: "Brainware"
Every manufacturer includes some level of needed software with their cameras, but what's missing is the knowledge and experience to know what to do with it. For lack of a better term, I've called this "Brainware." There's a lot involved between snapping the shutter, and watching a beautiful, professional-quality print spool off your printer, and there's sadly very little guidance as to how to get from point A to point B.

Fortunately, Uwe Steinmueller of OutbackPhoto.com has come up with an excellent series of e-books that detail every step of the process, show actual examples of files moving through the workflow, and the final results. If you want to get the absolute best prints possible from your digital files, you owe it to yourself to purchase one of the Outback Photo Digital Workflow books.

In keeping with our standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the EOS-1Ds' "pictures" page.

As with all Imaging Resource product tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how EOS-1Ds' images compare to other cameras you may be considering.

The big, easy story with this camera is of course its resolution. With 11 megapixels on a full-frame sensor, the EOS-1Ds provided a stellar performance on our "laboratory" resolution test chart, showing "strong detail" all the way to 1,700 lines/picture height horizontally, and about 1,600 lines vertically. (Note though, that you need to take these numbers with a grain of salt, and figure that they could easily be +/- 100 in either direction. - When dealing with closely-spaced, nearly parallel lines as on the ISO-12233 res target, it's very difficult to consistently "call" the point at which aliasing begins to obscure the target detail. For this reason, I generally don't specify resolution much closer than in units of 100 lines, eschewing the sophistry of ratings like "1745 lines," etc.)

While resolution is the most obvious strong point of the 1Ds, it did quite well in other areas as well. Throughout my testing, the EOS-1Ds produced good, accurate color, although its default saturation was a little low for my personal tastes. - Most pros will appreciate color that isn't over-saturated, and users wanting more saturation can select Color Matrix 3 for "vivid" colors matching high-saturation color film. The Auto white balance typically did a good job although it was just slightly warm in many cases, but the Manual setting was by far the most accurate, handling our full range of light sources very well. The Manual option also performed well under the difficult incandescent lighting of the Indoor Portrait (without flash), and produced very accurate colors in the large color blocks of the Davebox target. The camera had just a little trouble with the awkward blues in the flower bouquet in the outdoor test shot, darkening the tone and shifting the color slightly toward violet (a common failing among many cameras I've tested), but much less so than most cameras I've tested.

Probably the biggest surprise the 1Ds held for me though, was in the area of image noise. Despite the large physical dimensions of the sensor, in the back of my mind I was really expecting to see higher image noise from such a high-resolution chip. In actuality, the 1Ds' pixels are of fairly typical size for pro SLR sensors, making them no more prone to noise than pixels of lower-res cameras. As it turned out, the noise contest between the 1Ds and the D60 is a bit of a mixed bag, with the D60 winning in some areas, and the 1Ds in others. Here's a brief table, comparing brightness and standard deviation values for two neutral gray swatches of a MacBeth chart between the 1Ds and D60, both captured at ISO100 under pretty bright daylight lighting:

Clearly, the D60 wins the noise derby hands down, but the 1Ds is no slouch either. Where the 1Ds really comes into its own though is at higher ISOs and under low light conditions. Check out the results below, with the two cameras operating at ISO 400, and shooting at a light level of 1 foot-candle. (About equivalent to typical city streetlighting.) Under these conditions, the 1Ds walks away from the D60. Very interesting, very impressive for such a high pixel-count sensor.

With an excellent noise-reduction system, nearly unlimited bulb exposures, and ISOs extending to 1,250, the 1Ds is a phenomenal night shooter. It had no trouble down to the 1/16 foot-candle limit of my testing, and its auto white balance system even managed to produce very good colors, a real achievement under such dim shooting conditions. Even at ISO settings of 800 and 1,250, the image noise really wasn't objectionable, helped I think by its very fine grain structure.

Over the course of my shooting, I felt that the camera tended to underexpose some shots slightly in Program mode, but only a little tweaking with the exposure compensation adjustment was required to correct for this in most instances. The one notable exception was my "indoor portrait" shot, which required a dramatic compensation of +1.7EV to produce an appropriately exposed image. I've seen this behavior from time to time on that shot, but am a little mystified as to why the 1Ds was tricked into such a drastic underexposure with that one shot, when I really didn't see it happen with other subjects.

Along with the exceptional low light performance, I was most impressed with the 1Ds' dynamic range. Possibly more than any other camera I've tested to date, the 1Ds did a superb job of holding onto highlight detail while simultaneously preserving excellent detail (with low noise) in the shadows as well. While I don't currently have any good way of quantifying it, it does seem that there's a fair bit of "headroom" in the RAW files from the 1Ds as well, as I was able to pull back highlight detail that was easily a full f-stop or more overexposed.

The EOS-1Ds also performed well on our viewfinder accuracy test, showing just about 100 percent frame accuracy. Though the outside edges of my measurement lines were just barely cut off, framing was near perfect.

The EOS-1Ds' optical performance and capabilities will vary with the lens in use. That said, with a 100mm macro lens attached, the camera captured a somewhat large minimum area of 4.03 x 2.68 inches (102 x 68 millimeters). - One impact of the full-frame sensor is that the camera always "sees" a larger area than its small-sensor cousins. This is no surprise of course, but do keep it in mind when thinking about things like telephoto and macro shooting.

Throughout my testing, I was continually impressed with the EOS-1Ds' performance. Words like "incredible," "amazing," and "superb" kept coming to mind. Resolution, detail, and color were all superb, with excellent performance in the low-light category as well. The level of detail in the outdoor house shot and resolution target was really outstanding. Overall, an excellent job.

The EOS-1Ds represents breakthroughs in two separate areas for Canon shooters. On the one hand, it has by far the highest resolution sensor available for the Canon lens mount. This will likely open new doors for Canon SLRs, as there's plenty of resolution here for even the most demanding two-page catalog spreads, or large-format commercial portraits.With the advent of portable SLRs like the 1Ds, these cameras are now encroaching on terrain that was previously the exclusive province of "studio" cameras.

This is also the first Canon-format SLR with a full-frame 35mm sensor. It is thus now possible to shoot true wide angle digital photos with Canon-mount lenses. (There's no focal-length multiplier to contend with.) This opens up a whole new range of applications and shooting scenarios, and will make it all the easier for photographers converting from film.

I was very impressed with the prototype 1Ds when I first played with it, but my admiration for the camera has grown dramatically now that I've tested a production model in depth. The more I looked at its images, the more I was impressed by the combination of resolution, dynamic range, and low image noise. Clearly one of the best cameras on the market at this time - If you're looking for a full-frame, high-resolution D-SLR for your Canon lenses, your wait is over. Very highly recommended!

	*	11-megapixel (!) sensor delivers 4,064 x 2,704-pixel images
	*	Full-frame (35mm) sensor permits true wide-angle shooting
	*	Full support for RAW file format in-the-box
	*	Highly configurable to suit individual shooting needs/styles.

Feature	EOS-1Ds	EOS-1D
Body	Identical (15 grams heavier though)	-
Sensor	11.1 MP CMOS	4.15 MP CCD
Sensor size	35.8 x 23.8 mm	28.7 x 19.1 mm
Image Dimensions (Pixels)	4064 x 2704, 2032 x 1352	2464 x 1648, 1232 x 824
Sensor Filtration	RGB	RGB
Exposure Metering Coverage	"Partial" metering - 8.5% of viewfinder, at center. Center Spot - 2.4% of viewfinder at center. AF point-linked spot - 2.4% of viewfinder	"Partial" metering - 13.5% of viewfinder, at center. Center Spot - 3.8% of viewfinder at center. AF point-linked spot - 3.8% of viewfinder
ISO speed range	100-1250 in 1/3-stop increments Can be expanded to ISO 50	200-1600 in 1/3-stop increments Can be expanded to ISO 100 and 3200
Shutter speeds	1/8,000 - 30 sec, bulb X-sync at 1/250	1/16,000 - 30 sec, bulb X-sync at 1/500
Continuous shooting speed	3 frames/second max	8 frames/second max
Maximum burst during continuous shooting	10 shots	21 shots (JPEG) 16 shots (RAW)
Custom Functions	21 Custom Functions, 67 settings 25 Personal Functions (PF13 eliminated, shutter priority release during continuous drive won't override focus-priority)	21 Custom Functions, 67 settings 26 Personal Functions
Cycle time, shutter lag, buffer clearing	Slightly slower in all modes, but not as much as I'd have expected, given the huge difference in file sizes.	-
Rated battery life	20 deg C, ~600 shots 0 deg C, ~450 shots (With fully-charged NP-E3 battery pack)	20 deg C, ~500 shots 0 deg C, ~550 shots (With fully-charged NP-E3 battery pack)

Color Setting	Description/Characteristics
Color Matrix 1	Default color matrix. Normal saturation, sRGB color space.
Color Matrix 2	sRGB color space, but hue and chroma optimized for reproduction of skin tones. (A little warmer, more saturated in the reds and pinks.)
Color Matrix 3	sRGB color space, extra saturation. Intended to reproduce the characteristics of high-chroma slide film.
Color Matrix 4	Adobe RGB color space, normal hue and chroma within that space. Much wider color gamut than sRGB, which means images will look dull on sRGB monitors. Excellent for use in color-managed workflows, particularly ones going to print as final output.
Color Matrix 5	Mysterious low-saturation color space. Apparently sRGB-based, but color saturation is lower than normal.

EOS-1Ds Timings
Operation	EOS-1Ds Time (secs)	EOS-1D Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	1.32	.91	Very fast startup.
Shutdown	.54	.53	Time to finish writing large/fine file.
Play to Record, first shot	.30	.22	Very fast - only normal shutter lag, camera is always ready to shoot.
Record to play	1.03	0.9	Quite fast, time for display of large/fine file.
Shutter lag, full autofocus, "awake"	.093	.201	AF time will obviously vary greatly with lens. (Two different lenses used here, 28-70mm L-series on 1D, 100mm f/2.8 macro on 1Ds.)
Shutter lag, full autofocus, "asleep"	.222	.226	AF time isn't affected much when the camera is in it's "semi-sleep" mode, although the 1Ds showed more of a difference, perhaps due to the 100 mm lens being faster-focusing.
Shutter lag, manual focus, "awake"	.083	.054	The 1Ds is slower here, although it still offers a respectable shutter response time. I found the time to be somewhat variable (~8% variation between shots), with the shortest times I measured being 0.78 secs.)
Shutter lag, manual focus, "asleep"	.257	.257	On both the 1D and 1Ds, shutter lag in manual focus got quite a bit longer when the camera goes into its "semi sleep" mode after about 2 seconds of no control actuation.
Shutter lag, prefocus	.059	.039	This is the time when the camera is prefocused by half-pressing and holding the shutter before the shot itself. Both cameras are very fast here, but the 1D again edges out the 1Ds. (The 1D time is really blazing, the fastest I've measured on a camera.)
Cycle time, single shot mode	0.40-0.52	.2	Both cameras are very fast in this mode. I felt that the original 1D was more limited by how fast I move my finger to punch the shutter button than by the camera itself. With the 1Ds, the camera was clearly the limiting factor, but it's interesting that the single-shot cycle time is so close to its speed in continuous shooting mode. This is very fast for single-shot operation. I did find an odd behavior though, in that cycle times were both longer and more variable when the lens was set to manual focus than autofocus. The EOS-1Ds appears to have a "two stage" buffer memory: See the text below.
Cycle time, continuous "H" mode	n/a	0.127 (7.7 frames/sec)	Here's where the original EOS-1D runs away from every other SLR. In it's high-speed continuous mode, nothing can touch it. The EOS-1Ds has only one continuous mode, equivalent to the low-speed mode on the 1D.
Cycle time, continuous "L" mode	0.33 (3 frames/sec)	0.33 (3.0 frames/sec)	3 fps as claimed. On the 1D, fast cards can give much longer runs before having to wait for the buffer to empty, while on the 1Ds, the run length is 10 frames, regardless of card speed or image resolution setting.

Image Capacity vs. Resolution/Quality 256 MB Memory Card		RAW	Fine	Normal
Full Resolution 4,064 x 2,704	Images (Avg size)	22 11.2 MB	38 6.7 MB	83 3.0 MB
Full Resolution 4,064 x 2,704	Approx. Compression	3:1 (Lossless)	5:1	11:1
Half Resolution 2,032 x 1,352	Images (Avg size)	-	102 2.5 MB	-
Half Resolution 2,032 x 1,352	Approx. Compression	-	4:1	-

Operating Mode	Power (@ 13v)	Est. Minutes (1650 mAh NP-E3 pack)
Capture Mode, "semi-sleep"	146 mA	628
Capture Mode, "awake"	494 mA	185
Image Playback	386 mA	237

Camera/ Parameter (ISO 100, bright conditions)	1Ds	D60
Luminance	98.04	96.22
Luminance s.d. (noise)	1.28	0.70
Red	94.50	93.81
Red s.d.	1.77	1.73
Green	99.74	97.50
Green s.d.	1.46	0.95
Blue	97.71	95.68
Blue s.d.	1.59	1.27

Camera/ Parameter (ISO 400, one foot-candle)	1Ds	D60
Luminance	138.23	129.51
Luminance s.d. (noise)	2.18	2.82
Red	131.63	123.16
Red s.d.	2.81	3.64
Green	141.45	132.28
Green s.d.	2.43	3.04
Blue	139.63	132.12
Blue s.d.	2.62	3.55