Ramon those are terrific images. I'm impressed. Perhaps you are the one to ask this question of.
I use the 1Ds system for my regular commercial and editorial work but I find that a bag full of Canon gear is too heavy for travel photography when exploring new places. Even with a backpack it is heavy when walking all day.
Question: Would the Canon Powershot Pro 1 make a file good enough and large enough to cover a published magazine page so that I could use it in my travel writing and photography business? Would it publish double truck (11 x 17) uprezzed to 300 dpi?
I sense that this little camera would make a great walkaround camera if the quality is there. The small size and lightweight would allow me to put it in a fanny pack at the ready and walk all day.
I'm getting on in years and the lighter camera is becoming an attractive idea.
Thoughts??
Thanks,
JL
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Whilst we wait for Ramon to come back I'll come in to say that I bought the Pro 1 for exactly the same reason.
I have a 1Ds and I regret to have to admit that I also find it to heavy for travel. I had a G3 for my travels and whilst it produced good A4 sized prints it was not quite good enough for an A4 margin to margin magazine photo.
Presumably you have done the maths. At 300 DPI the 1Ds is producing an image that is 13.57 by 9 inches. The Pro 1 is 10.88 by 8.16 inches. OK you must also consider pixel size as that has an effect as well on the tonality of the image - how much I am not at all sure.
I just have a feeling that you might see a reduction in the subleties of tonality as much as anything when printing on your 11 by 17 magazine page.
Where you will find, forgetting image size, the biggest difference with a Pro 1 and the 1Ds is in the speed of focussing. For landscapes this is not going to matter. But if you do people pictures on your travels you will find that putting the camera to your eye and clicking instantly, as you can do with the 1Ds, is not going to happen with the Pro 1. Yes it gets there. Yes it is far better than the G3. But it is a slouch when compared with something like the 1Ds.
Over to you Ramon!
Rgds
Tony
London UK
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I am a partial time professional photographer (nature and travel) and I use a lot of equipment:
- Eos 10D and 17-40, 50macro, 65macro, 180macro, 70-200IS, 300/4, 500/4IS, 24, 45 and 90TSE (waiting for the 1DsII)
- Pentax 645 with 35 to 600mm lenses.
- Linhof Technika 4x5", Arca-Swiss F-line 4x5",13x18cm, 8x10" with 58 to 720mm lenses.
- Noblex 120 UX, etc.
Well, I have some experience with photo-equipment, and the Pro1 is the most funny camera that I have never used (yes, not very professional argument [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).
Evidently, the 1Ds (and the 10D) is better, but I shoot some photos with the pro1 that simply I would not have done with my other equipment (people, cityscapes, interiors of buildings and churches,etc,).
The pro1 has the best result-effort ratio of all the cameras I have used. In the end, productivity.
About your question: with the pro1 I have only published some 10x15cm photos in a magazine. I Don't have experience with 8x10" or 11x17", but I agree with Tony.
The interesting article http://www.cjcom.net/articles/pro1user.htm got me wondering why we all did not migrate down to these cameras with smaller chips and greater depth of focus.
Then when I picked up my Pro 1 last night and realised that the shot I wanted to take just inside the window of my study was asking for f2.8 and 1/20th second I was reminded that film speed is not only needed for depth of focus, but just as often to enable you to hand hold a camera in poor light.
Having taken about 200 shots, on Wednesday, of our own Prince Philip (I had to name drop so please forgive me) at a private party I was reminded at how effective the auto focus is on the 1Ds. With an autofocus as efficient as that you don't need depth of focus for a lot of the time. I was using flash for safety, but in a less stressful situation I would have wound up the ASA on the 1Ds and worked with the available light. I am almost sure I would have had useable images and the noise at 1200 ASA on the 1Ds is far less offensive than the grain on the same speed of 35mm film.
I love my Pro 1. I love its size and ease of use. As yet I have not done much to test its noise levels at higher ASA.
If it is a problem then I assume the internal software must be to blame. After all, if the image quality at 50/100 ASA is so close as that coming from the 1D Mk 11 then any difference at higher ASA speeds must not be to do with the chip but with the interogation software. Yes?
For me I'd be prepared to forsake the bit of the zoom from 140mm to 200mm for a wider aperture lens. I'm tempted to think that Canon have made the zoom go to 200mm for the benefit of the amateur market and that the real pro will hardly ever buy the camera because it zooms to 200mm. To me the exciting bit of the zoom is the 28mm, having lived with a G3 that only went down to 35mm.
But it is a lovely camera.
Tony
London UK
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Hi to all,
i am also thinking about A2 or canon pro1 for my second camera. my newspaper style now will allow me to handle 80% of the work done by digicams A2/pro1 type. which i love since i will not have to carry heavy equipment all the time. 28-200mm is quite enough for situations I will handle.
the only thing that i would like to know is AF in low light situations, for example light-bulb dim light. i have worked with G3, and I’ve got sweated before focus on low light situations. is pro1 noticeable better?
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
If your "newspaper style" means reproducing some images from your digicam in newsprint, there's an interesting alternative that would be similar in image quality and hand-holding capability in low-light situations to the Pro1, but perhaps a touch slower on the AF -- the Canon S1 IS.
If I'm going to spend over $900 for as point and shoot Pro1, I want it to have image stabilization, the image quality drops off SO quickly after 100 ISO! I'm waiting for the Pro2/? that has that addition and hopefully 30fps DV-res video.
I have tested a family member's S1 IS and found it to be surprisingly responsive and fast compared to the G3 and my Canon S50, and the lens is sharper than I thought. True, it is only 3 megapixels, but for newsprint that's fine for all but a few uses. And for $450-500, you get a 38-380mm lens equivalent with good IS, great ergonomics, and the bonus feature of truly nice video with sound and multi-speed zooming. And it takes NiMH AA's which last seemingly 400+ shots.
I'm holding off on the Pro1 until it gets the IS and better video, and I want to print at 11x17/300dpi so the S1 IS is too low res, but if I were just wanting it as a secondary newspaper camera (I'm a daily small newspaper pro who uses a 1D), I'd be thrilled compared to just about any other poin&shoot at any price. Especially when it has a reasonably-priced Canon underwater housing and the Pro1 apparently will not. It's even quite compact for a 10x point&shoot.
ALSO: The Noisy 200-400+ ISO images are caused primarily by so little light reaching each of the tiny, tiny little pixels on the sensor -- which are getting increasingly so, thus the 3MP S1 IS is roughly between a Pro1 and a EOS 1D in pixel size and noise perfomance and a cropped down Pro1 400 ISO shot would probably not look too different from a 3MP S1 IS 400 ISO shot. See full-res sample pics at steves-digicams.com for examples to estimate/work from.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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