PhotoCamel - Your Friendly Photo Forum - View Single Post - Original 1D - Still a good buy? And good for 13x19 prints?

Alice Morrison · 07-25-2005

For me, it would not be a good buy, and that has nothing to do with the fact that it's four megapixels. I had a 1D and was frustrated with its color. Out of the box, the camera has a well-documented, or at least well-known, color cast, especially to jpeg images saved in camera. I found, however, that the color cast showed up even with RAW photos.

One can find custom color profiles for the camera that lean the unit more toward red than green, but here, too, I never really felt secure with the color. Perhaps it was just me, but I also found the 1D worse than any camera I have used in the studio, also because of color issues. I tried to improve things by using a custom white balance and experimenting with all of the white balance settings. Nothing worked to my satisfaction. I have, however, seen photographers produce beautiful pictures with the 1D, and some of these photos come from the studio. So perhaps your experience will be different from mine. As a general knock-around camera, however, I think this is a poor choice. You would be much better off sticking with a 20D.

I was very pleasantly surprised with the improvements in the 1d Mark II, and if you can justify the cost at all, I would heartily recommend choosing that instead. Having said that, however, you must know that you will experience much more depreciation with the Mark II than you would if you purchased a 1D today.

Finally, a word about the resolution. It's true that four megapixels is not a deal killer. The 30D, at three megapixels, still takes beautiful pictures. But at times four megapixels will be limiting. With my higher-resolution cameras, I frequently find myself shooting at a lower resolution because I simply do not need the maximum resolution, and I take every opportunity I can to reduce the amount of storage required by high-resolution photographs. But then again there are times when I definitely need and appreciate the higher resolution. With the 1D, you won't have the option. You'll shoot in four megapixels, and there will be times when you're happy with that, and there will be times when you're not.

07-25-2005	#3 (permalink)
Alice Morrison Llama Posts: 548 CamelKarma: 40 Gallery \| Blog	Re: Original 1D - Still a good buy? And good for 13x19 prints? For me, it would not be a good buy, and that has nothing to do with the fact that it's four megapixels. I had a 1D and was frustrated with its color. Out of the box, the camera has a well-documented, or at least well-known, color cast, especially to jpeg images saved in camera. I found, however, that the color cast showed up even with RAW photos. One can find custom color profiles for the camera that lean the unit more toward red than green, but here, too, I never really felt secure with the color. Perhaps it was just me, but I also found the 1D worse than any camera I have used in the studio, also because of color issues. I tried to improve things by using a custom white balance and experimenting with all of the white balance settings. Nothing worked to my satisfaction. I have, however, seen photographers produce beautiful pictures with the 1D, and some of these photos come from the studio. So perhaps your experience will be different from mine. As a general knock-around camera, however, I think this is a poor choice. You would be much better off sticking with a 20D. I was very pleasantly surprised with the improvements in the 1d Mark II, and if you can justify the cost at all, I would heartily recommend choosing that instead. Having said that, however, you must know that you will experience much more depreciation with the Mark II than you would if you purchased a 1D today. Finally, a word about the resolution. It's true that four megapixels is not a deal killer. The 30D, at three megapixels, still takes beautiful pictures. But at times four megapixels will be limiting. With my higher-resolution cameras, I frequently find myself shooting at a lower resolution because I simply do not need the maximum resolution, and I take every opportunity I can to reduce the amount of storage required by high-resolution photographs. But then again there are times when I definitely need and appreciate the higher resolution. With the 1D, you won't have the option. You'll shoot in four megapixels, and there will be times when you're happy with that, and there will be times when you're not.