Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III Review
by Philip Greenspun
There has never been any question that the Canon EOS 1Ds produces the best quality images of any handheld digital camera on the market. The only question has been whether or not you wanted to pay $8000 and crush your shoulders under the weight of this monster.
What do you get with the Mark III incarnation of the EOS 1Ds? The weight, with battery but not lens, has come down from a ridiculous 3.5 lbs. to a painful 3 lbs. Resolution is up to 21 megapixels (from 12 in the original 1Ds and 16 MP in the Mark II version). That is 5600x3700 pixels, large enough to make superb prints at 20x30" and acceptable prints beyond 30x40". Read More »
A lot of you have written in wanting to write articles to make
photo.net the best photography learning resource on the web.. In order
to guide this process, we've written a forward looking editorial plan.
If you would like to
participate send an outline of the article you are interested in
writing along with a proposed schedule editorial-plan@photo.net.
We'll be happy to provide feedback as you write it.
The Process
HTML: start with our standard
template; use a text editor rather than a word processor (i.e.,
don't use Microsoft Word)
Money: we forgot to make any (sadly); your contribution will be
voluntary like all the others on the site :-(
Copyright: you keep it; photo.net gets a royalty-free perpetual
license to publish your article and accompanying photos but if you want
to publish it elsewhere you still own all other rights
Photos: unless it is a camera review you can simply upload any
photos that accompany an article into the photo.net
image sharing service, then reference the small size as IMGs from
your HTML file, each one a hyperlink to the large size
FAMILY
Overview of family photography, listing all the different kinds of
projects.
Photographing new-born babies.
Photographing toddlers.
Photographing kids at school (links to the sports photography
section).
Graduation (high school and college; have a lot of scanned images of
the MIT graduation).
Photojournalistic approach to family photography.
Formal family portraits.
Family vacation photography checklist (what to bring and what
pictures to make sure to get, e.g., "the packed car pulling out of
the driveway").
Amusement/theme park photography (we already have a bunch of scanned
pix from Disneyland).
Artistic family photography (cover artists such as Sally Mann, links
into the history section and individual photographers' pages).
Family photo project suggestions: (1) our summer, (2) siblings in
the same pose every N months or years (reference the famous Brown
Sisters project by Nixon).
SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOGRAPHY
What drives a person to photograph 1000 acne-plagued kids in one day?
(explain the curiosities of the "long-roll" camera and the
economics; discuss the digital future (or present))
JOURNALISM
Introduction to the field of photojournalism.
Newspaper journalism (focus mostly on career aspects, breaking into
the field, how it works day to day).
Magazine journalism (similar but for magazines where freelance is
the general rule).
SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Introduction (already written and in place on photo.net)
One article per major sport, including tips on where best to stand,
what the right equipment is. Cover high school, college, and
professional level games. For college, offer tips on how to light
the stadium with studio slave strobes. For professional games,
focus on how to get credentials to get in.
DANCE PHOTOGRAPHY
Overview (covering all forms but concentrating on ballet and other
classical dance photography).
Studio photography of the dancer.
Tribal and native dance.
MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Just an introduction right now, including a career guide. It is to
be hoped that this will attract comments from working medical
photographers.
LEGAL/EVIDENCE PHOTOGRAPHY
Just an introduction right now, including a career guide. It is to
be hoped that this will attract comments from working legal
photographers.
ANNUAL REPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Introduction/Overview to this important market for the best
photographers
PORTRAITS
Introduction/Overview (already written by philg)
Environmental Portraiture
Window-light portraiture
Color portraiture, special considerations
Make-up techniques for portraiture.
Home studio portraiture (a few strobes)
Professional studio portraiture (fancy strobes, mention the
possibility of renting strobes).
Executive portraiture (this is a good business, taking pictures of
important business people for magazines, annual reports, and
companies' misc. needs).
NUDES
Introduction/Overview (already written by philg)
Studio lighting for nudes
Posing guide for nudes (catalog of poses to give people ideas)
Nudes in the landscape
Nudes in the city
Nudes by window light
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
How to supplement the professional photographer at your friend's wedding
(creative use of black and white or C41 black and white film; extreme
wide
angles, photojournalism when the regular photographer is doing all
posed,
etc.)
How to be the photographer at your poor friend's wedding (caveats about
practicing at a couple of other weddings first, testing all equipment
and film used and testing the lab itself first)
The business of wedding photography (overview)
Standard wedding photography.
Photojournalistic wedding photography.
Formal wedding portraits taken in a studio before or after the
actual wedding (popular in Asia).
How to use assistants in a big wedding project (splitting up the
work, guaranteeing that if one person's camera fails there is still
adequate coverage).
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Exterior.
Interior, natural and artificial light (and mixing them).
Gardens. (done!)
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
A basic how-to article would be good with a gallery at the bottom of
the best artistic aerial imagery. Try for a balance between
practical aerial photography and artistic. Links to the best
artists on the Internet.
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
An overview article.
An article on photographing comets.
Photographing the northern lights, including travel suggestions.
WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY
An overview on the special situations, equipment challenges, an
artistic ideas.
PICTURES IN THE RAIN
An overview on the special situations, equipment challenges, an
artistic ideas.
LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
An overview with exposure tips. City scenes, Moonlit landscapes,
all the stuff in the exposure calculator wheels.
DOG PHOTOGRAPHY
An intro article containing tips on technique, something about
finding clients for commercial jobs photographing dogs, then an
artistic gallery (I already have a collection under /photo/dogs.html
).
PET PHOTOGRAPHY (other than dogs)
An article on cats, one on birds, anything else we can think of.
SHIP PHOTOGRAPHY
An intro article containing tips on technique, something about
finding clients for commercial jobs photographing ships/yachts/etc.,
then an artistic gallery.
PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY
Overview of new ways to use this format, with particular emphasis on
city scenes and vertical pictures (everyone has seen the landscape
horizontal).
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHYANIMALS IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
We already have a bunch of stuff in the photo.net nature section.
ZOO PHOTOGRAPHY
DIGITAL IMAGING
Introductory stuff
How does digital imaging work? (explains the idea of sampling the
world and storing RGB for each pixel, talks about the need for a
sensor, the possibilities for storage, the opportunities for
manipulation; file formats, scanning and PhotoCD, printers and
film recorders. )
A real intro tutorial would contain the following chapters:
1) basics of taking a picture with a digital camera, getting
it printed, emailing it to a friend, and uploading it to the
Internet for sharing
2) options for printing
3) thinking about image library management -- can you be sure that
your grandchildren will be able to find the photos you're taking
now? (alternatively: what are the electronic equivalents of the
family photo shoebox?) -- break this into two parts, one on
Internet-based approaches and one about desktop stuff, including
backing up to writable CD or DVD
4) good photography with a digital camera--focus on lighting and the
fact that 8-bit JPEGs don't can't handle too much contrast
5) image editing and manipulation
Computer-based image manipulation
Introduction to PhotoShop
Introduction to the GIMP
Hand-colored black and white from color originals in PhotoShop
(already written by philg; should be revised for latest version
and also include sections about how to do it in with the GIMP,
with Adobe PhotoDeluxe (cheaper thing that is bundled with digital
cameras)).
How to salvage a scratched negative or slide.
How to salvage an out-of-focus or otherwise unsharp image.
Digital Cameras
Introduction/Overview
Managing a library of images produced with a digital camera.
Reviews of software tools, such as Canon Zoom Browser EX (included
with their cameras).
Reviews divided into (1) pocket point and shoot digitals, (2)
semi-pro cameras with sort of flexible controls, (3) professional
cameras with interchangeable lenses.
UNDERWATER
Introduction/Overview (already written by philg)
Macro photography underwater
Renting and using the Nikonos RS system
The Nikonos V system.
The Motomarine system.
Using flash underwater
Choosing an SLR housing for underwater photography
World's best locations for underwater photography (need clear water,
little or no current (so it is easy to stay near the same spot and
fiddle with camera), not terribly deep (so that you don't run out of
air or bottom time too fast). Recommended dive boat and resort
operators (Cozumel is supposed to be great, Mike Ball in Australia
is very good, Lizard Island in Australia is a good base for a
photographer traveling with a non-diver)
MICROSCOPY
Overview of taking pictures through microscopes.
DARKROOM
Basic black and white darkroom photography.
Basic color darkroom (color negative).
Making Ilfochrome prints.
Hardcore black and white printmaking.
Platinum prints.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
Zone system black and white photography.
Black and white infrared photography.
Color infrared photography.
Subminiature and spy photography.
TRADITIONAL POST-PROCESSING
Hand-coloring black and white prints.
Manipulated Polaroid prints.
Collaging (start with photographs of some compelling examples, then
have a good section on practical repositionable archival adhesives,
then move on to the aesthetics).
Preservation of photographs.
Restoration of damaged photographs.
HISTORY
Overall chronological history of photography, starting in early 19th
century. This would be about 40 pages printed out and cover both
aesthetic and technical/process subjects. Hyperlinks to the more
specialized articles.
Technical history of photography, again starting in early 19th
century. About 30 or 40 pages, concentrating on imaging methods and
also on advances in equipment/optics/etc. Divide into sections by
time period, e.g., "1900-1925".
Artistic history of photography. One article per photographer.
This project will require writing to the estates and other copyright
owners and getting permission to reproduce examples. If we can't
get permission, the second best thing to do will be to carefully
maintain links to images that are available on the Internet already
at museum and gallery sites, etc. There will be several ways to
navigate these articles: (1) by time period, (2) by country (all the
English photographers listed on one page, with hyperlinks down to
the full articles), (3) by preferred subject (e.g., portraits, urban
street life, rural life, landscape, journalism), (4) alphabetically.
At a minimum, for the preceding artistic history, we must cover the
most important photographers: Ansel Adams, Atget, Brassai,
Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Sebastian Salgado, Cindy Sherman,
Stieglitz, Weegee, Winogrand. But the real way to get the list is
to get a copy of The Photo Book
(/books/buy-one?isbn=0714836346; each page = one
photographer) and use that (also a good way to collect the readers'
thoughts on these people and insert hyperlinks from a photographer's
name within a bboard posting to the relevant page in this section).
TRAVEL
We already have an overview of what equipment to take for travel
photography.
For each country on the planet, we need a section that explains how
to go there and take pictures. This section will include
1) itineraries (1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days), listing
the major sites (illustrated with a sample photo) along with
the itinerary. Ideally the itineraries will build on each
other, so the 14-day itinerary would say "the 7 day itinerary
plus the following 7 days of new stuff"
2) when is the best time of year to go and options for people
caught going there during the wrong time
3) sources of rental equipment, film, professional camera parts,
high quality processing.
4) hyperlink to FEDEX page that will show pickup locations in the
country (so that film can be FEDEXed back, without getting
Xrayed, for development)
5) recommended hotels (good location for morning photography,
high-speed Ethernet-based Internet connections in the rooms)
6) recommended tour operators, guides, and other sources of
ground-based assistance
7) Web form for checking the fares from major US and international
cities to the proposed starting point of the itineraries (user
types in dates and departure city on our server, then gets
results back directly from Travelocity or Expedia or whatever).
8) capsule history of the country (1-3 pages of bulleted items)
9) misc. tips and suggestions, e.g., "Don't take pictures of
Aborigines in Australia; it is offensive to them."
For big countries such as the US or Australia we should have
subarticles that contain the same content but are for one region or
city.
