Monthly Archives: September 2010

An Absence of Yellow

River

No Gears – Danger of Death

It’s much harder to take photographs when wearing glasses.

More photos: Bath – September 2010

More photos: Victoria Park – September 2010

A pre-enjoyed Canon 1D Mk III arrived for me today in the worlds largest box. I’d been looking to upgrade my 30D for a year or so since the 7D was announced, but couldn’t decide what to get.

Originally the 7D looked like the obvious choice apart from the price, more recently Canon announced the smaller and lighter 60D and I quickly ruled that out, and the 1D Mk IIn was still an outside contender. Whilst deliberating between the 1D IIn and the 7d, the 1D Mk III popped it’s head up and announced it’s candidacy for the post of “Richie’s new camera”. The specs looked right, and the price wasn’t too dissimilar to that of a new 7D.

In the end, after trawling ebay for a while, I paid a bit extra and bought one from Mifsuds as it comes with a 3-month warranty. The peace of mind that provides when spending a fairly large chunk of money is probably worth the extra.

The camera I bought is a fairly early version, dating from the first half of 2007, but seemingly with very little wear. I’ve no idea how many actuations there have been, but the file count was around 8500 and may or may not have been reset. It still had the original firmware loaded so may not have had much use.

First impressions are good. It’s built like a tank, works perfectly, and ISO6400 is still quite usable. The ability to auto-focus with a f8 lens means I can now use a 1.4x TC on my 100-400, or 2x TC on my 300/4 should the need arise. The biggest downside is that it won’t fit in the hard case I store my kit it, it’s too tall, looks like I’ll need another case.

Worryingly, I now qualify for Canon Professional Services.

He had a large spider to keep him company.