Canon Unveils EOS 1D Mark IV Pro d-SLR

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 10/20/2009

Lake Success, N.Y. - Canon USA introduced Tuesday the EOS 1D Mark IV digital-SLR camera, offering FullHD 1080p video recording, 16-megapixel still resolution and the company's widest ISO range to date.

The EOS-1D Mark IV, which will ship to dealers in late December at a $5,000 estimated street retail, incorporates a 16-megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, Dual DIGIC 4 imaging processors and 14-bit analog-to-digital data conversion. Canon’s EOS-1D Mark IV, $5,000 estimated street retail.The camera will shoot stills at up to 10 fps, and includes 1080p HD video capture at selectable frame rates.

Full manual exposure control is offered for video recording, along with selectable frame rates and a new APS-H-sized image sensor that's similar in size to a Super 35mm motion picture film frame.

The large sensor enables shooting at a shallow depth of field, just as cinematographers have traditionally done using much costlier motion picture equipment.

The professional-level camera features the company's most rugged and durable body design yet produced, Canon said.

Canon has also introduced in the model an autofocus system that starts with 45 AF points with 39 cross-type focusing points capable of tracking fast-moving subjects at speeds up to 10 fps.

The system employs Canon's most advanced subject-detection capability and a newly redesigned AI Servo II AF predictive-focusing algorithm.

To enhance the camera's low-light shooting capabilities, the EOS-1D Mark IV features an ISO speed settings range from 100 up to 12,800 in 1/3- or ½-stop increments, with ISO expansion settings of L: 50 for bright light or H1: 25,600, H2: 51,200 and H3: 102,400 for dimly lit situations.

High ISO, low-light still images are further enhanced by an adjustable high ISO noise-reduction feature, which is now a default setting in the camera.

The d-SLR's dual DIGIC 4 image processors have approximately six times the processing power of the DIGIC III, enabling full 14-bit A/D conversion at 10 fps. High-speed continuous shooting up to 121 large JPEGs is possible using a UDMA CF card.

The camera also features three RAW shooting modes for versatility with Full RAW (approximately 16 million pixels), M-RAW (approximately 9 million pixels) and S-RAW (approximately 4 million pixels). Three additional JPEG recording formats (M1, M2 and Small) are also available.

Also included in the camera is a peripheral illumination correction function that corrects darkening that can occur in the corners of images with most lenses when used at their largest apertures.

The camera uses a 3-inch LCD screen with 920,000-dot/VGA resolution and a wide 160-degree viewing angle for enhanced clarity and more precise color when reviewing images and shooting video.

To accompany the camera, Canon also introduced the WFT-E2 II wireless file transmitter.

Available by the end of the year at a price to be announced, the wireless transmitter features digital connectivity options of 802.11a/b/g and Ethernet. A new camera-linking feature allows a single photographer to simultaneously fire up to 10 cameras remotely, and the updated WFT Server mode allows remote use of live view, control settings and shooting over the Internet from anywhere in the world using a standard Web browser or Web-enabled smartphone.

Geo-tagging is also possible via Bluetooth, using compatible GPS devices to append coordinate data to the images.