Ok, the price of this thing is absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, Canon was now nice enough, only a little over a year later, to release a lower level product with equal Megapixels (the forthcoming 5D mark II), and do serious damage to my asset value (this camera). Thanks.

My previous high end camera is the Canon 5D.

It is clear to me that, other than the improved sensor, which gives the latest chip (DIGIC IV), higher Megapixels (21.1) and higher ISO (6400 natively), a very slight speed improvement (3.9 fps) and a bigger, nicer screen on the back (3", 1 million dots), it's pretty much the same camera as the 5D. Thanks to the Megapixel war, Nikon & Sony have turned up the heat on Canon a bit, so they went higher in those specs than they probably would've otherwise. This is great for the consumer, if those are the only specs you're looking at. And hopefully it will eventually obliterate Canon's ability to put pricetags like the one on this camera on anything (see my first sentence).

Of course, I did BUY this camera, nevertheless. Because I could afford to do that. If you can't, then look at what you can, because a lot of insane specs sit at much lower price points.

With that out of the way, let's just view it from the perspective of a mid-range user that might want to move up - someone with a 5D or a 10-50D, who might be trying to decide what else he will get from this camera versus just going for a 5D mark II instead, because either is a very valid option:

- 45 point AutoFocus. What's so great about this? Let's say you've seen it, and you realize it's a bunch of little points congested in the center instead of the 9 on the 5D mark II and their 6 "assist" points. That's just a lot of marketing - 45 is a much bigger number and makes it look much better, right? No, not really. It really IS that much better. I do a lot of bikini/fashion/glamour photography, and therefore I shoot a lot of shots that are of one very, curvy female (ok, yea, I know, I know - it's tough. But SOMEONE has got to do it, and I'm taking the bullet for you guys on this one, OK? LOL). Anyway, as you might realize, a very or at least somewhat shallow depth of field is frequently, in fact is most often, desirable for these types of shots. Curves create a complicated task, and the truth is, the Automatic choice of focal points on the 5D gave spotty results without VERY strict attention to focusing. Consequently, I gave up on it, and set my focus to the Center point and used focus/recompose. This works great most of the time. If the Depth of Field gets TOO shallow, you have to be VERY precise when using this method, which gets very tiring, on both your concentration and your hands/body. However, with the 1Ds Mark III, the advanced AF can be set to automatically detect, and it gives excellent results, with a very low mistake ratio. In observing the points it chooses while I'm shooting, it appears to me that it is very good at recognizing contours, and subtle depth differences, and this is where it achieves it's greatest advantage.

- Focal performance with high end lenses. L lenses perform better with any Canon camera. Even moreso with this. FAST lenses, in this case f/2.8 or faster, perform especially well with this camera. This still ties into the focusing system, yes, but it is worth noting that the better lenses take yet another performance leap on this body. This is no accident, rather by design. I say you lose part of the reason (not all of it, make no mistake) for having the L glass if you don't have a high end body.

- Dual Memory Cards. Yea, it could just as well be two CF cards instead of a CF and an SD, but whatever. I buy a lot of memory cards anyway. And this is more a convenience than anything. It's nice to be able to write large JPEGS to one and RAW to the other. And if you are shooting with someone who needs the photos immediately and HAS an SD card, this could be a huge plus. It, of course, accepts SDHC also.

- Greater flexibility in writing JPEG files. If you shoot mostly or only RAW, this might not matter. But, the fact is, while the 5D and the 10D-50D models allow to write two different quality levels at each JPEG size, this camera has a separate "quality" level that ranges from 1-10, much like Photoshop's 1-12 range. When you look at Canon's site and see the estimate for JPEG's of 6-8MB (it was something like that), it was only an average estimate. They've since removed it (probably because the amount of possibilities are too great to post). I have set mine at the maximum quality of "10." My JPEG's are generally between 10MB-13MB in size. One note, however, as I attempted to photographer a fast moving stage event, and was taken back that I had problems with lag in shooting quickly, as it is advertised at 5fps. I believe you would need to step down to a 7 or 8 quality, whatever their test for "average" is, to achieve these speeds along with it's buffering ability. I used a Sandisk Extreme III card. Since that speed of card has performed exceedingly well on a 50D that I own, at a pro football game, I think it's safe to say the card wasn't the factor. I was blazing off shots on the 50D at 6.3fps for several seconds and it hardly went into using the buffer it was so fast. The "writing" light was barely ever lit whenever I checked right after a long flurry. And that is a 15MP camera - it was set on Large/Fine, which are about 6MB shots, in this case.

- Best weather sealing is on these bodies. If you need it, it's worth it. I think the others are fairly resistant anyway, but the comfort of not worrying much about conditions is nice.

- The display system on the larger body. Less information is pushed up to the top. The display on the bottom portion is easier to look at, and it's nice to have the memory card info visible down there.

- The LCD changing of shooting modes. This might not be something better to some, because if you're used to the other Canon bodies, it can be a bit off-putting at first. But once you get used to it, it's definitely better. Moreover, the simplicity of having the modes you need and no "dumb user" modes, which the 5D had largely eliminated while keeping the dial anyway, is still nicer on here. (e.g. - why do I need a "Sports Mode" when I can set my focus to AI Servo, and then set a high shutter priority speed, and make ISO adjustments as needed to accomodate light changes - or just shoot Aperture Priority with the lens wide open and make ISO adjustments? Whichever).

- Specifically if comparing to one of the new 5D's, my bet is that there will be a very noticeable lag in the 5D mark II compared to this camera, since it is only running one processor versus two on this camera.

This is definitely the best of the best.

I have a 5D that has been moved to backup duty since acquiring this beauty. The problem I was having with the 5D was that many of my images were getting rejected by the stock agency I shoot for due to excessive shadow noise. I spent hours cleaning up noisy shadows in post, and still got some rejects. Not so with the 1Ds. It produces absolutely clean, perfect, huge files straight out of camera with little or no post work. Even when you turn on the extended ISO and crank it to "Hi" (essentially ISO 3200), The images it produces are just outstanding. It may be a bit big and heavy for the casual user, but pros shouldn't be bothered by it. It is actually not much bigger or heavier than a 5D with a battery grip installed. I like the live view when shooting macros on a tripod. It really helps get the focus just perfect. Battery life is awesome. I shot about 1800 RAW files over a 4 day shoot and still had juice left without charging. Bottom line, if you have the cash, and want the best camera this side of a hasselblad H3d-39, then go for it! You can see some images that I shot with this at my site [...] (the battleship was shot with this and the 16-35)

This is the best 35mm digital SLR I have ever used. The portability of a DSLR with the image quality of P22 maybe even P32 back and with out the hassle. Highly recommended for the Canon user that can afford to make the jump. Kudos on shipping as well, got it a day early, was one of the first - thanks.

One would reasonably have expected an $8,000+ camera to be well designed and well engineered. Sure, it is "Ok" but "ok" for a much lower price.

Specifically:

1. It has an unacceptably high incidence on "Err99" error codes which disable the camera altogether until it is sent back to Canon for repair.

2. It has an unacceptably high rate of viewfinder misalignment incidences where the viewfinder shows the horizon to be horizontal but the horizon in the image taken isn't.

3. It fails to operate the programming of Canon's own 580 EX flash (the non-version-II).

4. Resolution may well be 21 megapixels, but that is only 25% more in each the two linear dimensions compared to the 5D that costs a fraction of the cost. (square root of 21/13).

5. The image "noise" at high ISO settings is much higher than that of the much lower priced 5D. This is inevitable since the imaging array of the 1Ds has more pixes within the same area, so each pixel is smaller. For high ISO settings I have to revert to the 5D. This limits the camera's usefuleness to bright light situations only.

6. The artificially inflated price (by limiting supply, in the classical supply and demand argument) is outrageous. Canon needs to be taught some humility and customer-relations as soon as other brands offer similar full frame resolutions.

I've had the 1Ds Mark III for over a month now and have shot in churches, outdoors and in the studio. It excels in every environment. The first thing you'll notice is the immensely big, bright viewfinder. It barely feels like looking through something! The LCD display is very good as well. Build is very solid. I've used it with the Canon 85mm 1.2 II L and the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS L. Both deliver outstanding results and are hand-holdable. The new automatic dust-removal system is very good, leaving only a couple of spots against the blue sky when shot at small apertures, when there used to be countless on the 5D. Image quality is fantastic, and the images are huge, making cropping while retaining a big image easy. The menu system is very easy to operate, custom functions offer a plethora of options. Shutter sound is wonderful, and at 5fps very fast for 21MP. It's expensive for sure, but definitely worth it.

In every way Canon has done it again. This camera is lighter, faster, and produces bigger, better files than the mk2. If you make a living shooting pictures, buy it, you may never have to upgrade again. If Photography is your hobby or passion and you can afford it this should be your last camera.

My five favorite improvements in no particular order.

Faster and more accurate autofocus

Less noise at high ISO making 3200 a viable choice.

File quality that beats many 22MP medium format digital backs.

Live preview, it's cool, fun, and useful.

Improved handling due to lighter more balanced feel

Yes I know number three will get me in trouble but the price, faster handling, and much broader lens selection make it great choice in the 22 to 30MP range. The 39MP backs are clearly more detailed and smoother but this Canon will push many a P25 and H3D-22 onto ebay in the next year.

Canon has set the standard again the mk3 is truly brilliant. The only better deal may be the well cared for used mk2's easily found on ebay.

I just wanted to add a comment regarding cost. Now that my second mk2 has found a new home I can evaluate the true cost of an $8000.00 dslr. I paid $7300.00 each for my mk2s. Sold them for an average of $3620.00 making the cost if you add in an extra battery and firewire cables for three years around $4000.00 each. I anticipate this kind of return for the mk3s and considering they will work in a high demand professional environment for three years or so I'd say the mk3 is a ridiculous bargain.

By the way both of my mk3s have performed flawlessly and were spot on with regards to viewfinder alignment.

PRO: Easy to use and focus. Superb photos. Strong construction

CON: High Price but fair component pricing