 Excellent Camera 33 of 33 people found this review helpful.
I have owned the Canon 1Ds Mark I for 4 years; it was an truly wonderful camera in its own right, but I was looking forward to upgrading to the Mark III and bought the first one sold on eBay on Nov. 29, 2007.
It was worth the money...this is a fabulous camera.
The 21.1 megapixel sensor is razor sharp; the new chipset is blazing fast, and the dual memory card feature allows you to put your raw images on one card and your jpegs on the other, simplifying iPhoto RAW/Jpeg workflow. This camera has all the software advances such as auto-rotate, replay zoom up to 100% actual pixels, and color histogram.
Liveview allows you to use the display as a view finder (albeit with manual focus), which can be handy if you want to hold the camera over your head to take a picture.
It's too early for me to tell whether the automatic sensor cleaning will solve the dust issues with earlier bodies, but so far dust hasn't been an issue in the first two months of use.
The battery life is amazing...much better than the 1Ds even though the batteries are smaller and lighter.
I like the ability to customize the filenames; you can specify the first 4 characters from the menu. By including the date or date/month in the filename, you can assure that your filenames will be unique even after you take 10,000 photos.
One thing to keep in mind is that with such a high resolution sensor, your lenses' limitations will be revealed more readily. While the 24-70mm f2.8L lens does work well with this camera, I've found that some longer zoom telephotos like the 100-400mm f5.6L and the 70-300mm f5.6 DO lens are too soft.
You may want to budget for a couple of new prime lenses to make the most of this camera's resolution.
If you own the 1Ds Mark II, then you have some of these features, and 75% of the pixel count, so this is merely an evolutionary change...for everyone else it's a revolution.
Note that as of January 15th, 2008 the raw files from this camera are not supported by Aperture or iPhoto, but are supported by Adobe Photoshop CS 3 and Lightroom.
Previous Canon cameras owned: EOS 1Ds mk I, 5D, 30D, 20D, D30
Canon lenses that I do recommend for this camera:
EF 14mm f2.8L II USM
EF 16-35mm f2.8L II USM
EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM
EF 50mm f1.2L US
EF 70-200mm f2.8L
EF 180mm f3.5L macro USM
EF 300mm f4.0L IS
EF 600mm f4.0L ISM
Lenses that may be too "soft"
EF 70-300mm f5.6 DO IS USM
EF 100-400m f5.6L IS USM
Other lenses I don't have so I can't tell. I'd expect that using less than an L-series lens with this camera would be a waste of pixels.
Review ID: 10000000005134398  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.  Amazing camera 14 of 14 people found this review helpful.
Sold some camera gear, and it was time to upgrade. Looked very hard at everything on the market - from the Olympus E3 to the MF options. Went with the DsM3, and got yesterday. I had looked long and hard at the Nikon D3, but went with the Ds3 due to my glass. I think I made the right choice. The feel and layout of the D3 was very nice, and I got to play with one at the local store. I am very happy with the DsM3 now I have it in my hands.
The body is familiar but better. Better weight than the DsM2, slightly better feel & balance, better layout of controls, much larger / better LCD.
The live view is great. I shot some macro shots with manual focus and they were very sharp @ iso of 3200. Very VERY little noise. I've read of pushing the iso in Photoshop to 6400 with very usable results as well.
The battery is rated for around 1800 shots and is smaller & lighter.
The 5-fps ability at 21.1 MP is good for a lot of action, and great considering the info processed.
The focusing with test shots around the house is quicker than my previous DsM1 & DsM2.
LCD is great. The D3 has an amazing LCD, but the DsM3 is definitely NOT a letdown at all. To me - looking at photos really takes place on the computer. The 3" screen whether it is 900k or 230k pixels was not THE selling point. The Canon is great. The Nikon is better - but not a magnitude better.
Overall first impressions are very good. The much easier menu system, great feel, great iso & fps, & 21.1 MP!!! of this camera have me smiling. Take a look at everything, but you will NOT be disappointed with this camera. I've owned the M1, M2, and now the M3 - this one is GREAT.
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