Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

In keeping with my standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For full details on each of the test images, see the EOS 1Ds Mark II's "pictures" page.

For a look at some more pictorial photos from this camera, check out our Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II Photo Gallery.

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

• Color: Good color overall, JPEGs have problems with highly-saturated reds. (Use RAW mode, DPP software for critical work.) The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II produced quite accurate color overall, though it tended to undersaturate yellows, and had difficulty with out-of-gamut colors, particularly reds. For the most color-critical work, particularly if your subjects involved very bright reds, I strongly recommend shooting in RAW mode and converting the images to JPEG using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. (As opposed to using JPEGs from the camera, or converting the RAW images using EOS Viewer Utility.) Apart from its handling of extreme red/orange hues though, the 1Ds Mark II's color was quite good, and very natural-looking. The camera's range of white balance settings was flexible enough to handle most of my test lighting, producing good results outdoors and in the studio. The Auto white balance setting had a very hard time with the very warm-hued household incandescent lighting of my "Indoor Portrait" test though, although both the Manual and Kelvin white balance options handled it very well. Skin tones were slightly pink and reddish in places, and the blue flowers of the bouquet in the Outdoor Portrait were a bit more purplish than in real life. A good performance overall, and color saturation held up quite well at high ISO settings, something not all d-SLRs manage.
  
  
• Exposure: A slight tendency to underexpose, higher than average positive compensation required indoors and out. Excellent tonal scale and contrast control. The EOS 1Ds Mark II handled my test lighting quite well, though its exposures were typically a little dark (except for the DaveBox, which was overexposed by about a third of a stop.) However, dynamic range was really excellent with excellent detail in both bright highlights and dark shadows. Indoors, the camera required higher than average positive exposure compensation, with similar performance on the "Sunlit" Portrait. The EOS 1Ds Mark II had no trouble distinguishing the subtle pastel tones on the Q60 target of the Davebox, and handled shots with challenging lighting better than most.
  
  
• Resolution/Sharpness: Exceptional resolution, 2,200 - 2,400 lines of "strong detail." The EOS 1Ds Mark II turned in a stellar performance on the laboratory resolution test chart with its 16.7-megapixel CMOS sensor. It didn't start showing artifacts in the test patterns until resolutions approaching 2,000 lines per picture height vertically and horizontally. I found "strong detail" out to at least 2,200 vertically, 2,400 horizontally. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 3,000 lines.
  
  
• Image Noise: Generally very low noise, very unobtrusive grain patterns. The EOS 1Ds Mark II produced low image noise, even at the higher ISO settings. Even at ISOs 800 and 1,600, though noise levels were a little high, the tight grain pattern kept the noise from being too distracting, and the resulting images looked surprisingly good, even at very large print sizes. (To my eyes, ISO 1600 shots looked just fine when printed at 13 x 19 inches on the Canon i9900 printer in our studio. - They were slightly soft, and noise was visible if you got right up on them, but at normal viewing distances for a print that size, they looked just great.)
  
  
• Night Shots: Excellent low-light performance, slightly warm color balance. Bright exposures at the lowest light levels of our test, with low noise overall. Effective autofocus to 1/8 foot-candle and below. The EOS 1Ds Mark II produced clear, bright, usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of our test, with good color across the ISO range. (The darkest shots at ISO 50 were somewhat dim, but still reasonable.) Noise was fairly low in most shots, and even at ISO 1,600 and 3,200, image noise was lower I'd normally expect. Color balance was slightly warm with the Auto white balance setting, but within an acceptable range. (And using the Kelvin or Manual white balance options would have completely eliminated any color bias.) The autofocus system worked down to light levels a bit darker than 1/8 foot-candle, three full stops below the levels of typical city street-lighting at night. The camera has no built-in AF-assist light, but can use the very bright AF-assist lights on dedicated Canon flash units. All in all, excellent low-light capabilities.
  
  
• Viewfinder Accuracy: A very accurate digital SLR. The EOS 1Ds Mark II's digital SLR viewfinder was right about 100% accurate. (The LCD monitor in this case is reserved for image playback and menu viewing.)
  
  
• Shutter Lag and Cycle Times: Excellent shooting speed, very good buffer depth. By any measure, the Canon 1Ds Mark II is a fast-shooting camera, with near instant startup times, absolutely top-drawer shutter response (0.18 second in full autofocus mode), and excellent shot to shot cycle times (almost two frames/second in single-shot mode, nearly four frames/second in continuous mode), with a surprising buffer capacity (16-17 large JPEGs, 11-12 RAW files) in light of its enormous image size. There really isn't much to fault here, although it must be said that its lower-resolution sibling the 1D Mark II makes it seem positively pokey when compared with its own 8.5 frame/second performance. Still though, an amazingly nimble shooter for all of its physical bulk.
  
  
• Battery Life: Really excellent battery life. Canon made great strides in power consumption with the 1Ds Mark II over the previous 1Ds model. When the camera is on but the shutter button isn't being pressed, it goes into a "semi-sleep" mode, and power drain drops to only 50 mA, which would translate to almost 30 hours of run time with a fully-charged battery. Even in its "full-on" active state, battery life is 9.7 hours. Pros shooting in continuous mode with a power-hungry IS lens could need a spare battery, but for the vast majority of users, the standard NP-E3 pack that comes with the camera should be more than sufficient.
  
  
• Print Quality: Excellent print quality. Slightly soft out of the camera at 13x19, but takes unsharp masking in Photoshop very well. High ISO images also usable for unusually large prints. Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5000 here in the office. (See the Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)
  
  In the case of the Canon 1Ds Mark II, it's easy to see the impact of its incredible resolution in prints made from its images. Right out of the camera, JPEG images are a tad soft at 13x19 inches, but they take unsharp masking in Photoshop or other imaging programs very well, delivering amazing levels of crisp detail. The acid test is always high-ISO images, but once again, the 1Ds Mark II rose to the challenge very well. Shots at ISO 1600 were a bit softer at 13 x 19, but the noise levels were low enough, and the noise pattern fine-grained enough that the resulting prints actually looked quite good. - I'd personally be more than happy to display them on a wall, even for pretty close inspection. (The slightest texture in the print paper would entirely mask the little noise that was present.) Color in prints was very good also, the slight loss of saturation in yellows and yellow-greens really not being that evident in "real world" photos. All in all, a really excellent performance.
  
  

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Select a topic Reference: Datasheet EOS-1Ds Mark II Test Images EOS-1Ds Mark II Imatest Results --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Comparison, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II vs EOS-1Ds 3. Executive Overview 4. Design 5. Viewfinder 6. Sensor, Noise Reduction, and Optics 7. Exposure 8. The "Red Problem," Description and Workaround 9. Flash 10. Shutter Lag / Cycle Times 11. Operation & User Interface 12. Control Enumeration 13. Camera Menus 14. Image Storage & Interface 15. Video & Power 16. Included Software 17. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on EOS-1Ds Mark II Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index

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