With the recently announced release of the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV many photographers, myself included, have a major dilemma ahead of us. It’s not that this won’t be a great camera; it appears to be a fantastic upgrade to its predecessor, the Canon EOS 1D Mark III, and it would be very hard not to love it.

The problem is that Canon really muddied the waters in the SLR market with the recently issued Canon EOS 7D.  Although these two cameras have different target markets, their feature sets overlap in many areas and a lot of photographers will find both to be very attractive.

The main difference between the 1D series cameras and the rest of the SLR’s in the canon family is that the 1D’s are designed to be much more rugged, much more weather proof, and built to much tighter tolerances.  These things definitely have value, but how much is going to be a personal opinion.  For the price of the 1D Mark IV you can pick up 3 of the 7D’s.  It will be very compelling for many people to buy a much cheaper camera that has most of the high end features of a more expensive model.  In fact many people will never even take advantage of all of the high end features found in the 7D, never mind the few extra offered by the Mark IV.

My personal dilemma is that what I really want is a  mix of the two cameras.  I’ve been looking forward to buying a new camera for almost year, but none of the available cameras fully met my needs, and I was happily and patiently waiting for the right camera to show up.  Now there are two cameras that get me most of the way there, but neither takes me all the way.  Unfortunately it appears that the less expensive model is missing a couple of the main features that were on my “must have” list:

• Autofocus that works with lenses (or combinations of lenses and teleconverters) having a maximum aperture as small as f/8
• Auto Exposure Bracketed (AEB) sequences of more than 3 images

The 7D also falls short of the Mark IV on my list of “high wants”:

• expanded usable ISO range
• integral battery grip
• only 1 memory card slot

The 7D does have a couple of features that I wish the Mark IV includes:

• built-in popup flash with wireless E-TTL Speedlite master flash transmitter
• dedicated Live View/Video mode start/stop button

While these features would be really nice to have, I can easily live without them.

Putting all of this together, I’ve decided that my next camera will be the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV.  The Canon EOS 7D looks to be a great contender, but for me it just doesn’t quite match up where it counts. 

What would you decide if you were in my position??

For interest’s sake, here is a table I put together showing a comparison of the key specifications for both cameras:

	Canon EOS 1D Mark IV	Canon EOS 7D
Sensor	16.1 Megapixels APS-H, CMOS 1.3x Crop Factor	18 Megapixels APS-C, CMOS 1.6x Crop Factor
Processor	Dual DIGIC IV	Dual DIGIC IV
Autofocus System	Redesigned 45 point AF 39 cross-type points Range: -1.0 to 18 EV	Brand New 19 point AF 19 cross-type AF points Range: -0.5 - 18 EV
ISO	100-12,800 default, 50-102,400 extended	100-6400 default, 100-12,800 extended
Shutter	10 fps max 300,000 actuations	8 fps max 150,000 actuations
Metering	63 metering zones linked to all 45 AF points EV 0 to EV 20	63 metering zones linked to all 19 AF points EV 1 to EV 20
Memory Card	Dual card slots 1 CF, 1 SDHC	Single CF card slot
Battery	LP-E4 (same as 1D Mark III) Integral Battery Grip	LP-E6 (same as 5D Mark II) BG-E7 Battery Grip
Movie Mode	up to 1080p Video 30, 25, or 24 fps	up to 1080p Video 30, 25, or 24 fps
Lenses	EF Lens Mount (no EF-S lenses)	EF-S Lens Mount (all EF and EF-S lenses)
MSRP (Body Only)	$5499 USD	$1699 USD
Release Date	Expected December 2009	October 2009

Today Canon announced the upcoming release of the next camera in the professional EOS 1D series, the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV. Although this camera physically appears to be almost identical to it’s predecessor (the 1D Mark III), the new camera brings a host of new and upgraded features to the table.

The most notable new feature is the addition of high definition 1080p video and a jack for an external stereo microphone, while the biggest improvement over the previous release is the vastly expanded ISO sensitivity, which ranges all the way up to a whopping 102,400 in extended mode.

According to Vincent Laforet, on this camera “6400 ASA is the new 1600 ASA – maybe even the new 800 ASA”. Check out his video “Nocturne” which was shot using the 1D Mark IV locked at ISO 6400. The video is a bit cheesy but the image quality is amazing!

Here is a summary of some of the other specs for this camera:

• Sensor: APS-H (1.3x) Crop Factor
• Processor: dual DIGIC IV
• Resolution: 16.1 Megapixels
• ISO: 100-12,400 by default, 50-102,400 in extended mode
• Autofocus: 45 user selectable points (39 cross-type)
• Shutter: 10 fps max, shutter rated to 300,000 cycles
• Metering: 63-zone sensor, 0 to 20EV range
• Memory Cards: 2 card slots (1 each for CF and SD/SDHC)
• Battery: Canon LP-E4 (same as in the 1D Mark III)

The camera is due out in December of 2009 and will list at an MSRP of $4,999. Ouch.

If you want to learn more about this camera you should check out the initial information posted at Imaging Resource or you can visit the official Canon EOS 1D Mark IV product page. Canon has posted some sample still images and videos that are also worth a look.

No sniplet called Amazon-Canon1DMarkIV-Graphical

This will be the third and final article in an ongoing series I’ve been writing about the recently announced Canon EOS 7D. As I have previously mentioned, I am very excited about the 7D because it looks like it will be a very impressive camera. The features it brings to the Canon camera lineup will only get better and more exciting as newer cameras are released. The competition between Canon and Nikon over the last couple of years has been fierce and it seems that Canon regained their lead with the 5D Mark II and now the 7D extends that margin. Competition has been very good for our industry and I have no doubt that Nikon will reply shortly…

I really like the look of the 7D; however, I have also stated that I probably won’t buy one. Here are a few reasons why I might consider buying the 7D after all:

1. The Hype: Canon fans around the world are very excited about this camera. I haven’t seen hype like this for a camera since the Nikon D3 was released. That was the first time in a long time that Nikon had sent a camera out that was really competetive with anything Canon had, and the Nikon users were on fire for months afterwards. Sure the 5D Mark II release was exciting, but everybody knew it was coming. In many ways the 7D trumps the 5D and it has tongues wagging all over the interwebs.
2. The Timing: In a perfect world I would wait for the pending expected successor to the 1D Mark III (presumably the 1D Mark IV) to be released, but nobody knows for sure when that will be. The pundits on the rumour sites are pointing to a spring 2010 release. I can probably wait that long, but I definitely don’t want to wait until fall 2010.
3. Improved Autofocus: I am becoming increasingly disappointed with the autofocus performance of my 40D, especially in lower light situations. The new 19 point AF system on the 7D looks amazing and I can only assume that it will be vastly better than the technology built into the 40D.
4. High ISO Performance: I used to be an absolute nut about image noise, taking my shooting to such extreme lengths to avoid ISO 400 even, never mind taking it up to ISO 800. I’m much better now and I actually use ISO 800 all the time; however, I’m really looking forward to having a new camera that has a useful ISO 1600. From the test images I’ve seen and the reports that I’ve read, the ISO performance of the 7D is very good.
5. 1.6x Crop Factor Sensor: There are lots of things to love about full frame cameras like the 5D (most notably the low image noise, the extreme wide angle field of view, and the beautiful bokeh), but crop sensor cameras have one thing that really trumps all of that for me: longer equivalent focal length. I mainly shoot birds and wildlife and for that purpose focal length is king. At this time I simply can’t afford (or justify) to buy the 500mm f/4L, 600mm f/4L, or 800mm f/5.6L Super Telephoto lenses that I really want. For now I would really prefer to stick with a crop sensor camera. Hopefully the 1D Mark IV will stick with the APS-H (1.3x) format currently in use in the 1D Mark III which would be an acceptable trade-off for me between the 1x of the full frame sensors and the 1.6x of the APS-C sensors.

I’m ready to buy a camera right now, but I really want the next camera in Canon’s professional 1D series. Hopefully that release will come soon, but if it doesn’t then the Canon EOS 7D is a very tempting piece of equipment. It will be interesting to see what the reviews are like as the production models start to actually appear in the wild.