Canon EOS 1D Mark IV 16MP Flagship Digital SLR Camera

Canon launches new flagship digital SLR for sports photography, this morning, the 10 frames per second, 16MP EOS 1D Mark IV. The 1D Mark IV will sell for $ 4999 body only and ship to U.S. dealers late December. The new digital SLR, an autofocus system and new capabilities of HD recording, is the replacement for the 1D Mark III 10MP.

Although it has been over two years since the Mark Camera, a superficial change little with the new Mark IV model. The two cameras look almost exactly like all the new 1D Mark IV has three points less than the EOS-1 logo for the microphone. Yes, this microphone is mono support the new mode of Mark IV films in high definition, which is very similar to the video capabilities of the recent announcement of the Canon EOS 7D.

Like the 7D, the 1D Mark IV shoot 1080p video at frame rates of around 30fps, 25fps and 24fps. It can also record 720p HD video at 60 frames per second and has a stereo microphone jack. Sharing the same shooting speed of 10fps even Mark III, Mark IV new sensor is a non-full frame, APS-H (27.9 x 18.6mm) size with a magnification of 1.3x. As for the 1D Mark IV disagrees with his pastor or 7D is a brand new design 45-point autofocus system with 39 focus points of the cross-type. (The Mark III had 19 cross-type points and the Mark II was only seven.) The new system also features a new algorithm to focus AI Servo II.

“The goal is a significant increase in the percentage of shots in focus,” said Chuck Westfall, technical adviser to the marketing of the professional division of Canon USA “We are a revision of the algorithm is improved in several ways decisions moving subjects. We have redesigned so that we feel will be much more consistent and stable. Although the speed of the Mark III and its robust construction, it will be for target shooting and photojournalism, the camera autofocus system is under harsh criticism from some photographers and websites are contradictory and inaccurate. The new AF system in the Mark IV is clearly an attempt by Canon photographers to forget the past.

“We have heard many different things on the 1D Mark III,” Westfall said. “People want a more coherent and more reliable, and after going through the very justified, we knew that this was not only material and upgrading the software, but a complete upgrade. ” Canon has also extended the 1D Mark IV ISO range of ISO 100-12,800 offers standard mode plus a special low ISO setting of ISO 50 and a high capacity 102,400. (Just last week showed the D3s Nikon digital SLR can also shoot at ISO 102,400.)

It will be interesting to see how the 1D Mark IV deals with noise - especially at ISO extreme - that the bigger the pixel resolution is reduced to 5.7 microns to 7.2 microns compared to the Mark III. (By contrast, the full frame 5D Mark II has a pixel size of 6.45 micron, while the 7D is 4.3 microns per pixel.) The stamp on the shooting 1D Mark IV is a maximum of 121 JPEG or 28 RAW images in burst. RAW + JPEG buffer is 20 frames.

The speed or shoot 10fps, 1080p video, HD or 14-bit RAW images, the 1D Mark IV has two Digic IV processor, which reflects the camera’s 6x the CPU power of the Mark III. “This is how we cope with the extreme amount of speed on this camera,” Westfall said. Despite the additional processing power of the two Digic IV chip, the frame rate 1D Mark IV receives no impulse respectful of the previous model. Westfall said the rate increase would have caused an additional extra wear on the mirror box of the camera. “And frankly, 10 frames per second is almost as fast as you can run one of these things and I still see each shot Auto Shot.”

The LCD is updated on the 1D Mark IV to 3 inches with a resolution of 920,000 points. Canon also has an optical resin layer between the cover and the LCD screen to help eliminate reflections for better viewing in bright light. The body of Mark IV camera is a magnesium alloy outer covers and inner chassis with magnesium alloy with a tin alloy magnesium mirror. (Yes, it’s a lot of magnesium alloy “) is again completely sealed. In collaboration with the 1D Mark IV, Canon announced the WFT-ES IIA File Transmitter Wireless morning DSLR. [via pdngearguide]