Last night I have had a look at the Canon 1D:::

[andylo]

Missus and myself went to have a look of the second hand 1D available in the shop...

The 1D Mk3 priced nearly the same as the brand new one... out

1D Classic.... nah

1Ds Mk II is out of the price range neither.

Then there is this 1D MkII N....

Unfortunately the battery only have minimal charge and it only allows less than 5 mins play around.

I thought it would be fairly straight forward to use (consider I can close my eye and navigate thru the general setting correctly on my 500D) I would have thought it just a slightly changes on the 1D with extra buttons to make life easier....

I tried for couple of minute to do basic setting and then I look like a total tool in front of the guy who was serving me

So I have to ask him kindly to show me how to use it....

Fortunately he's a nikonian and it takes him another 30 seconds or so to found out what is what So I don't feel too bad at this stage.

Anyway, I was just about to start playing with it, I nav. thru the menu items and it has a lot more to choice from, and the setting I am familiar has break down to much more detail fine tuning

And just before I can start taking a pic or 2 to try -- battery run out

I have return the camera to the gent's hand and I said to him I will come back later and thanked for his kind service.

This 1D thing is 1 scary beast to control, but I am excited

[RaoulIsidro]

If you can get the DC mains power adaptor that comes standard with the camera, you can have inlimited power time for studio work. Otherwise, you can still buy the antedeluvian NMh battery from dealers, but its a bit pricey.
The 1D2n is a little on its own in terms of image capture, because it is a 1.3 crop sensor.
It is not Full Frame, and it is not APS-C size either. Its "in between".
It can only take EF lenses and not EF-S lenses.
Nice toy, but I would settle for a 5D classic hands down. That's just me.
Cheers and best to your purchase!

[Hays]

For me personally I will go with 1 series rather than 5D. I think the price wise is about the same. 5D will gave you a bigger sensor, but 1D will gave you a tank and the picture result is very nice.
Happy hunting mate.

[Tannin]

The old 1 Series bodies (1D, 1Ds, 1D II, 1D IIn, 1Ds II) had horrendous ergonomics. They were notorious for it. The idea was sound enough - Canon believed that pros needed the security of knowing that they couldn't have a vital shot ruined by an accidental change to the settings - but the implementation was terrible: essentially, they designed the camera such that you couldn't change anything by accident because you had to use both hands to do just about anything at all.

That all changed completely with the 1D III, which took the fundamental ideas behind the simple, practical 20D ergonomic design and refined them to produce a camera body with truly excellent feel and logic. The later 1Ds III and 1D IV follow in its footsteps, as do (to a lesser extent) the semi-pro Canons.

But the earlier 1 Series models .... the best word for them is "yuk!"

[JM Tran]

The old 1 Series bodies (1D, 1Ds, 1D II, 1D IIn, 1Ds II) had horrendous ergonomics. They were notorious for it. The idea was sound enough - Canon believed that pros needed the security of knowing that they couldn't have a vital shot ruined by an accidental change to the settings - but the implementation was terrible: essentially, they designed the camera such that you couldn't change anything by accident because you had to use both hands to do just about anything at all.

That all changed completely with the 1D III, which took the fundamental ideas behind the simple, practical 20D ergonomic design and refined them to produce a camera body with truly excellent feel and logic. The later 1Ds III and 1D IV follow in its footsteps, as do (to a lesser extent) the semi-pro Canons.

But the earlier 1 Series models .... the best word for them is "yuk!"

I actually prefer that old system of pushing 2 buttons at once to change things, I didnt mind it, can change things as fast as normal dials on other cameras, it just takes getting used to, and I see it as a fail safe system whenever someone else picks up the camera and messes with it during a shoot

[andylo]

I think I am being pretty sure what I want is a MkIII. (Not more MkII or N etc....)

Hopefully can found something good soon Quite excited.

[Analog6]

You actually can change things by accident, I've done it on both the 1DMKIIN and the 1DsMkII - but to this day I have no idea how I achieved it! I do not find their ergonomics 'horrendous' at all though, they feel really good in the hand and are a delight to use. And the pro build, waterproofing etc are a real reassurance.

The N is a really nice camera, same crop factor (1.3) as the 1D range, great for sport (I have shot 18-21 frames in a burst on surfing shoots) and top quality images. There were issues with the 1D MkIII so make sure you get a good one. Check on POTN forum for extensive discussion of the issues.