I got try the camera for a few minutes in Germany today and I am absolutely amazed of how good it felt in my hands! I thought it might be heavy and bulky, but not at all, it is very ergonomical and I didn't find it that heavy either. The funktions are almoast endless, you could spend 2 days just getting to know all the things the thing can do. the 5 pics a second at full resolution is also pretty impressive. I am already sure that I want to be one of the first to call this Camera my own! I can't wait for the release!

In every way Canon has done it again. This camera is lighter, faster, and produces bigger, better files than the mk2. If you make a living shooting pictures, buy it, you may never have to upgrade again. If Photography is your hobby or passion and you can afford it this should be your last camera.

My five favorite improvements in no particular order.

Faster and more accurate autofocus

Less noise at high ISO making 3200 a viable choice.

File quality that beats many 22MP medium format digital backs.

Live preview, it's cool, fun, and useful.

Improved handling due to lighter more balanced feel

Yes I know number three will get me in trouble but the price, faster handling, and much broader lens selection make it great choice in the 22 to 30MP range. The 39MP backs are clearly more detailed and smoother but this Canon will push many a P25 and H3D-22 onto ebay in the next year.

Canon has set the standard again the mk3 is truly brilliant. The only better deal may be the well cared for used mk2's easily found on ebay.

Well if you are looking at this fine piece of Photographic equipment odds are you have been to the Canon website and read the specs. I will touch on a few of the items I have noticed since I purchased mine and have been using it.

1st. The feel, just like the 1D M3, this beast is solid. Not too heavy, but solid in the hand. And here in Alaska, I do put the weather sealing to a test, and just like my trusty 1D M3, the 1Ds passes with flying colors.

2nd. Yes its 21.1 MP, but that should not be your main consideration to buy it. Yah 18x12 @ 300Dpi out of the Camera is nice, but nost people dont print over 16x20, and I have sold a lot of prints from my old 20D at that size or even upto 20x30, as long as you shoot it right in the first place. But this is also a drawback as well. Because of the large file size, esp in Raw, and most, if not all, buyers of this body will/should be shooting in raw, be aware that you will need larger CF cards for it. At least 8gig, I use 12Gig for mine, extreme 3's and they work great! Also be aware if you use the internal high iso noise processing, it slows down the buffering a lot!!!

3rd. Full Frame, just like the earlier 1Ds models its a ful frame sensor. That means 2 things, not only does a 17mm or 14mm lens again be a true wide angle lens, but also with the larger sensor the pixels are more refined and this gives better color and less grain.

4th. The colors of the images in the files. WOW Again the 14bit processors are great!!! Esp for raw, where you can import it in as 16bit for the finer details. One draw back is if you use Photoshop, you will need CS3 to do the raw Conversions, unless you use the Canon program.

5th. You are approaching the image quality of a Dig MF camera, with the portability of a Dslr! Not to mention you can use all the Canon EF lenses, and this camera really should only be used with L series lenses when possible, except for the fisheye as its not made in an L series but the quality is very good anyways. As the Quality of the optics is what affects the quality of the image the most, other than settings in the camera, ie shutterspeed and AV, ISO, etc...

6th. Wonderful Accesories for the camera. I love my wft-e2a. I use it on my 1D M3 a lot and it works great on the 1ds as well. Its a great way to control your camera remotely or to send your files to a remote computer for processing and such while you are still shooting.

This Camera is great. I have used the new nikon d3, and its a much improved camera over the past models, but it does not compare to the top of the line Canon!!!! This camera will not let you down. The noise if shot right is not even noticed until iso 1600 and then you still got to look. ISO 3200 is still great (about the same noise/grain my buddy had on his d200 at iso 400!!!!!)! If you are a Pro and need a camera that can perform the best and give wonderful results, this is it. It kicks butt compared to anything else in the DSLR market!!!

I've had the 1Ds Mark III for over a month now and have shot in churches, outdoors and in the studio. It excels in every environment. The first thing you'll notice is the immensely big, bright viewfinder. It barely feels like looking through something! The LCD display is very good as well. Build is very solid. I've used it with the Canon 85mm 1.2 II L and the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS L. Both deliver outstanding results and are hand-holdable. The new automatic dust-removal system is very good, leaving only a couple of spots against the blue sky when shot at small apertures, when there used to be countless on the 5D. Image quality is fantastic, and the images are huge, making cropping while retaining a big image easy. The menu system is very easy to operate, custom functions offer a plethora of options. Shutter sound is wonderful, and at 5fps very fast for 21MP. It's expensive for sure, but definitely worth it.

One would reasonably have expected an $8,000+ camera to be well designed and well engineered. Sure, it is "Ok" but "ok" for a much lower price.
Specifically:

1. It has an unacceptably high incidence on "Err99" error codes which disable the camera altogether until it is sent back to Canon for repair.

2. It has an unacceptably high rate of viewfinder misalignment incidences where the viewfinder shows the horizon to be horizontal but the horizon in the image taken isn't.

3. It fails to operate the programming of Canon's own 580 EX flash (the non-version-II).

4. Resolution may well be 21 megapixels, but that is only 25% more in each the two linear dimensions compared to the 5D that costs a fraction of the cost. (square root of 21/13).

5. The image "noise" at high ISO settings is much higher than that of the much lower priced 5D. This is inevitable since the imaging array of the 1Ds has more pixes within the same area, so each pixel is smaller. For high ISO settings I have to revert to the 5D. This limits the camera's usefuleness to bright light situations only.

6. The artificially inflated price (by limiting supply, in the classical supply and demand argument) is outrageous. Canon needs to be taught some humility and customer-relations as soon as other brands offer similar full frame resolutions.

A friend has been doing portraits with a special 20x24" Polaroid camera for many years. Polaroid has announced that they are stopping production of the film, so we decided to see if an image from the 1Ds Mark III could be used as a substitute. We created some images with the 1Ds Mark III in the same studio as the Polaroid, using some basic Canon lenses, such as the 50/1.4. We sent the RAW files off to Pictopia to have 20x30" prints made. The resulting images didn't have the interesting artistic variation of the Polaroids, but they were more detailed.

The image quality of the camera is undeniably great. The user interface is more complex than the Nikon D3, for example, with deeper menus. Canon gives you dozens of options for what to do with the two memory cards, for example. The camera sorely needs a "help" button.

What else could this machine use? A built-in GPS and built-in WiFi.

Do you need it? Not unless you are going to make some truly huge prints and you are intending to be disciplined about tripod and lens. Pictopia made us some 20x30" prints from the EOS 5D (13 MP; one quarter the price) that looked great.

Excellent tool for the professional photographer. As a pro with years of experience using 1D series cameras, moving up to the 1Ds was effortless but extremely rewarding. Was making money off of prints from the camera within 72 hours. Build quality and image quality is exceptional. Responsiveness for action sports is accurate, fast and very reliable. Even in low light situations where I am using it at ISO 3200 and f2.8 and wider so that I can use shutter speeds at 1/500 and 1/1000 in high school gymnasiums and pools. So far, studio shots have been blowing me away with the image clarity, contrast and color - especially with L series lenses. Just wish I didn't have to pay the price of a used small car for it and it's impact on increasing my equipment insurance.

This is the best 35mm digital SLR I have ever used. The portability of a DSLR with the image quality of P22 maybe even P32 back and with out the hassle. Highly recommended for the Canon user that can afford to make the jump. Kudos on shipping as well, got it a day early, was one of the first - thanks.

When Dell sells this on occasion for $6,700, why spend $1,000 more here? Which goes to say that if Dell can sell it for $1,000 cheaper and still make money, why is this camera so expensive here and elsewhere? There's no doubt the camera is the best camera ever made but the price is too high. Shop around and save money.

It's definitely an improvement over the 1Ds Mark II, which means it's the best 35 mm format digital out there, period. Auto dust removal is a huge plus - FINALLY - and picture quality, especially noise suppression, is noticeably improved. Downside: Canon's firmware and software and control buttons and dials, which have always been needlessly convoluted and confusing, are, if anything, even MORE convoluted and confusing on this model than the Mark II. How anybody could screw up anything so simple so thoroughly is beyond me. Oh, and another thing - what they call ISO 100 is more like ISO 64 - just so you know. Overexpose everything a half or 2/3 of a stop to compensate. But after all that is said and done, it does make absolutely gorgeous pictures - nipping at Hasselblad's $35,000 medium format heels. Go ahead, mortgage the house and splurge - you won't regret it.

I have a 5D that has been moved to backup duty since acquiring this beauty. The problem I was having with the 5D was that many of my images were getting rejected by the stock agency I shoot for due to excessive shadow noise. I spent hours cleaning up noisy shadows in post, and still got some rejects. Not so with the 1Ds. It produces absolutely clean, perfect, huge files straight out of camera with little or no post work. Even when you turn on the extended ISO and crank it to "Hi" (essentially ISO 3200), The images it produces are just outstanding. It may be a bit big and heavy for the casual user, but pros shouldn't be bothered by it. It is actually not much bigger or heavier than a 5D with a battery grip installed. I like the live view when shooting macros on a tripod. It really helps get the focus just perfect. Battery life is awesome. I shot about 1800 RAW files over a 4 day shoot and still had juice left without charging. Bottom line, if you have the cash, and want the best camera this side of a hasselblad H3d-39, then go for it! You can see some images that I shot with this at my site [...] (the battleship was shot with this and the 16-35)

Great camera. Wonderful images. Fast, responsive, wonderful viewfinder. Good dynamic range. I wonder why amazon.com's dpreview.com web site has chosen not to publish their review of Canon's flagship despite being announced over a year ago.