The lion that squeaked?

I'm surprised that hardly anything has been mentioned about the 1Ds Mark III on this website. You'd almost think the camera wasn't released yet. This is the camera I was thinking might make me jump to digital. I know that availability is an issue, but I thought there would be more talk about this camera with the quality of photographers here. Is this an indication, at least in the landscape photography world, that the camera isn't all that it's cracked up to be?

Actually, I think that the lack of talk about the camera has more to due with the environment here. From visiting other websites (forgive me, for I have sinned ), this site is a lot less technogeek oriented than other sites. There is much more of an emphasis on photography and a lot less on the technology to get there.

I don't consider this to be a bad thing, since most of the nastiest arguments I have seen have been based on the latest 24-70 mm wonderzoom being the greatest thing since sliced bread, but then it doesn't resolve 125 lp at 56 mm and doesn't hit autofocus in 3.2 nanoseconds. I am here for photography, not a technology argument about photography which I so often see elsewhere.

I agree with Dan. One of the things that drew me to be a member here is the lack of equipment-heads. Equipment is important, because it is the tools we use to reflect our view of the world, but it's the craft/artistry that interests most people here.

That being said, there also is some equipment talk on NPN, and I'm happy to see that when it happens it's at a higher level of expertise and professionalism than on other photo Web sites. You have to sort through equipment advice to try to separate the wheat from the chaff on those other forums, while you can take what you get here to the bank.

Dan and Steve, I agree with you both entirely. I've seen some reviews at a couple of other websites, but I place greater importance on people's views here. That's why I've been waiting for some comments from our members as I feel their thoughts would be more practical. We'll see what pans out.

I was curious about this too, and though I'm a Nikoniak, I checked with a couple of Canon users. Neither felt the new model offered enough to make them dump their current models and jump onboard the new one- no matter the specs.

After recent years of advancement in DSLRs in general, I've been kind of waiting for the day when the latest newest model of any brand wasn't enough to carry along consumers. Is this it for Canon? If so, I'm betting that Nikkon will garner a bit of a jump into the D3 for its full-frame sensor, but they 're going to have a really hard sell convincing D3 users to move to a someday D4.

Speculation, but it's an interesting question to me, at least.

Most of the tech talk about equipment on this site is applicable to all brands. There are some requests as to which lens perform best. And, nothing beats learning from those who have already suffered in real conditions.

I bet there are more posts about which tripod and head to use than which camera system.

I have the camera and I moved from a 1Ds2. It was worth the move. Yes there are differences but at the end of the day it's a tool and should be seen as such. What I would say is there is good improvement in noise and detail with this camera.

Part of the problem is that they are not in general supply at the moment and those that have them are using them and evaluating them as we go. You will need the likes of RG etc to get one before you get some 'indepth instant' reviews rather than 'as we go' reviews.

see Quick auto focus test