Canon EOS 1D Mark IV tested

Too much video

I'm a bit baffled - this was a very informative review, but the 'conclusion' went on at length about the HD video pros and cons. This is one of the best DSLRs around, and surely the main use is for making superb stills. If the video functionality is so vital, buy a good camcorder. They are quite compact (way smaller than the 1D), and made for the job.

hothouse hybrids

This camera is just that. It does everything it is designed to do well- better than a big Panasonic or Fuji digicam (love the way you are wincing in embaressment!) yet examine carefully what is on offer, and what is claimed.

Here we interestingly have a man claiming the ability to shoot HD APS-H video whose depth of field is nugh zero, blind, WOW! Big wow- so will the next model be without a viewfinder? Nah!!!

The 1D series sells on reliability and on speed, and on its promise to add length to your lenses etc.

But they dont do anything very well. An HD video pro camcorder does HD video better and you will have a proper viewfinder an approved engineering of files- not these variables that are alrering with every sucessive model. And you can buy one of those and a 1Ds MkII for less than the price secondhand of one of these new without a body.

I mean, lets face it, this is very expensive for what you get. A half frame slr with 16 very small very cramped and noisy megapixels, no real wide angle coverage at all, and weighing exactly the same as another 1Ds model that gives far better image quality.

This is for duffers and slowcoaches surely, these machine-gunning bursts of fear-induced where is the decisive moment going to be typehacks froim hell!?

Where is the class and the skill and the art in that?

Anytime I get into that same mode even if I dare 4fps for a second or two, it is always the first image that is the best- and IF there was another one, well, it must have occurred somewhere in-between frames.

And what use are such pictures? You may as well shoot video and choose your moment afterward(s).

Or give it to a monkey or three......