Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Connectivity
Software (8.0)
The Canon EOS-1D Mark III ships with the EOS Software Solutions disk, which includes Digital Photo Professional for browsing, sorting, RAW conversion, and dust removal. The RAW conversion function includes adjustments for brightness, white balance, contrast, color tone, saturation, and sharpness. It can also apply Picture Styles. Noise reduction is available for luminance and chrominance separately, each with settings of off, low, and high. Digital Photo Professional also allows batch processing.

We used the Mac version of the camera control software in the EOS Utility on an old 1 Ghz G4 with 1 GB of RAM. It's far from a current setup, but Canon says the software works on G3's, Mac’s previous generation. We had problems with the software, however. It should have been possible to control the camera's major functions, shoot, and see the live preview through the software. The functions were all sluggish, however, and shooting caused the program to hang up repeatedly. Current hardware would likely make a huge difference, but our experience was disappointing. We expected it to be slow, but it should have worked.

Canon also includes its consumer-level browsing software and panorama maker. Pro users will want a more robust workflow.

Without the wireless hardware, we were unable to test the Mark III's Wi-Fi connectivity software, which allows live backup while shooting and other transfer options.

Jacks, Ports, Plugs (9.5)
The EOS-1D Mark III has a USB 2.0 port, analog video output, a remote control jack, a networking port for either wired or wireless setups, dedicated flash connection, and straight flash sync. The battery can be replaced with an AC power converter.

Direct Print Options (6.0)
The Canon EOS-1D Mark III can create DPOF print orders for JPEG images. The user can select the print size, crop images, print multiple copies of an image on a page, make multiple separate prints, and create proof sheets with either 20 or 35 images per print. DPOF orders can be downloaded to print kiosks and labs. It also offers print effects to boost color, compensate for backlighting, or print color images in black and white.

The Mark III can also print directly to PictBridge, BubbleJet, and CP direct printers via a USB connection. It offers all the options available for DPOF printing, and allows direct printing of RAW and sRAW images.

Battery (9.5)
The Canon EOS-1D Mark III has a LP-E4 lithium-ion battery with internal electronics to optimize its performance. The battery tracks its own use, and the Mark III can display remaining charge and how many shots have been taken since its last charge. The charger included with the Mark III can "calibrate" the battery for optimum performance, and can charge two batteries at once. Lithium-ion is the most popular battery chemistry in cameras. It is relatively lightweight and compact, holds more power than other technologies, and recharges well. This is true in the Mark III: the battery can snap 2200 images at 73 degrees Fahrenheit and 1700 shots at freezing point. This battery is much-improved over the older Canon Mark II n's NiMH battery pack that was heavier and snapped 1200 shots at best.

Memory (4.0)
The Canon EOS-1D Mark III accepts CompactFlash and SecureDigital media cards, and can handle the largest-capacity cards available (SDHC included). The Mark III allows the user to fill one card and then the next, record to both cards simultaneously, record RAW to one and JPEG to the other, or copy files between cards. It's a flexible system that allows the user to take advantage of both of the most popular memory formats for DSLRs. Pictures can also be saved to a computer via the optional wireless transmitter or USB cable.

Other Features (9.0)
Dual Processors - The Mark III has two DIGiC image processors to speed operation and improve noise handling. It's an innovation borrowed from desktop computers, and it provides a unique combination of performance and processing speed.

Live Preview exposure indication - The live preview feature can show how the current exposure settings will look, or optimize the image for viewing.

Sensor Cleaning - The Canon EOS-1D Mark III has a mechanism that vibrates its infrared filter to shake off any dust that might show up on images. Sensor cleaning takes four seconds, and can be set to activate when the camera is turned on, when it shuts down, or when activated manually. The function can be disabled with a menu command, as well. The Mark III can also be set to open the shutter for manual cleaning. Finally, the Mark III can record dust spot information for automatic software cleanup in post-processing using Canon's Digital Photo Professional version 3.0 or higher. The Mark II n had the dust delete feature, but did not have the ultrasonic vibrating filter to shake dust off the sensor. This is a handy feature introduced on Olympus DSLRs a few years ago and picked up by almost every other manufacturer since. It provides a solution to photographers who change lenses frequently and accumulate visible dust and dirt on the image sensor, which then shows up as blotches in pictures.

Multiple Spot meter readings - The spot meter can be used to measure and display up to eight separate AF spot readings at once. It's a nice feature for checking the range of luminance in a scene.

Bulb timer - The upper LCD shows the elapsed time during bulb exposures.

Vertical controls on/off switch - Users who don't want to use the vertical release, dial, or buttons can shut them off so they don't accidentally change the Mark III's settings.