Finally got my dream camera!

At last I was finally given permisson to get my dream camera. The Canon 1D Mark III. I had lusted after this camera ever since it first came out due to its super fast frame rate 10 frames per second, fast focusing, great body and build quality. When you shoot as much as I do you soon find that although the 30D, 40D, 50D etc. are great cameras, they are not desinged to take the kind of punishment I give them. The 1D Mark III is I think my 4th or 5th DSLR within a year and with its 300,000 shutter rating this one should last me a while before I have to get it fixed (touch wood). 

(my new cam shot in my home made mini studio)

I found mine on Yahoo auctions Japan after hunting around on there and Ebay for a couple of weeks bidding on various bodies only to get outbid at the very last second (literly) of the auction. The one I got was pretty much in mint condion with 14000 shots on it and it also came with Canon Professional Version strap. Which seems to be rather hard to come across as I havent seen them for sale new anywhere and sell on ebay for between 10,000~20,000yen just for the strap!!

So far the strap is quite good. Not to be mistaken with the "professional" Canon strap availble from camera shops for 3500yen. This one is rubbish in my opinion. The inner side of that strap is a rubber kind of material and slips of the shoulder easy and tends to wear out very quicky. Thats what I found anyway. Soon though I hope to import a couple of R-straps these things look really comfortable to use and Ive heard nothing but good reviews about them, except they are a bit pricy. 

Anyway heres a quick test HDR shot I made with the new beast. 

This HDR (high dynamic range) image was made from 5 exposures ranging from about -2 through to +2 and because of the 1D mark 3's super fast frame rate I was able to shoot these hand held. Took just half a second to fire off all 5 shots. 

The noise at high ISO's is also fantastic! Im now able to shoot the receptions at weddings at 2000, 3200 even 6400 if I need to. There is pretty much no visible noise at the size of the prints the customers are getting in their albums even at 6400 so it makes my job much easier now!