Canon EOS1D mrk4 — Production Model

Honestly, I didn’t believe it possible, but my trusted camera-dealer pushed lots of buttons, made lots of phonecalls, twisted arms, maybe killed someone, I really do not know… but he made it happen. So I got a production model Canon 1Dmrk4 in my hands just before Christmas.

Now, I will respect the holidays and for the next three days I won’t touch it. But, what might be of interest: I will be heading to Germany and Austria to cover the Four Hills Tournament in ski-jumping, flying over the 27th and staying for about ten days and I will be putting the camera into a real field test over there. Ski-jumping is actually pretty good for this as the movement is all the time basically the same, regardless of who is jumping. Consi­dering that there are four compe­ti­tions plus the training days, I should end up with a pretty good idea of what the camera can do in those circums­tances in terms of AF. Also, some of the venues are later on in the evening, providing a good testing environment for the higher ISOs.

I most probably will NOT shoot any video, but those who are interested (and have not yet done so), please check Vincent Laforet’s blog.

I will post examples in Photos­helter and provide a password so you can download images (water­marked, with EXIF) shot in different ISOs in differing lighting condi­tions and let you draw your own conclusions.

The tour begins with the training session in Oberstdorf the 28th so stay tuned after that. And as usual: feedback, questions, etc. is highly appreciated.

(UPDATE 10th Jan. 2010:) Sample images from the tournee can be found in this gallery. Password is “mrk4demo” with no quotes. You can download if you want to get the EXIF-data. Images are copyrighted, water­marked and should not be distri­buted further.