Quote Originally Posted by Richard Lane


I would also recommend having one or two super-telephotos before taking the plunge on a 1D MKIV or the next generation 1D body.

Jan and RIch, I think this advice is dead on. After I bought the 500mm my concept of the camera body changed, to me the camera body is an accessory to the lens. Rather than the lens being an accessory to the camera.


Quote Originally Posted by Richard Lane
Sure the MKIV is a step up, but it's not a huge step up in my opinion.

Everything you said is dead on with your comparison.


What is hard is to quantifythe "Step Up". What may be a small step up for one person may be a large for another. I did allot of test comparing the 1D IV to the 7D and 5D II AF system when I first got it. I set it up on LensAlign, and did real world comparisons. What I found is that the 1D IV system is superior to both, overall I gained 2 pictures in 10 both static and moving that were keepers. Of course it was easier to compare static with the LensAlign than with moving subjects, the moving subjects were much more subjective. Overall I would say about a 20% improvement with the AF system.


Is it a small step or a huge step? To me it is somewhere in between because if I am out in the woods and miss a defining shotduring the day I have lost nothing but my time. However if I made a living with the camera and I missed the defining shot, the the step up is a "huge" deal.


Nowto do a little bit of layman'smath, if I used the 20% formula and say that the number of pics that are exceptional increased 20%. On average when I take the 500mm out I come back with several hundred pics, of those several hundred because of un-coopartive animals and my inadequacies I end up with 10 or so on average that are good enough to keep. Maybe only a few that I would show someone. So...based on 10 pics and lets say I go out once every weekend. That would be 520 keepers a year. Lets say the life span of the camera is 3 years (which it should be more) 3 x 520=1560 keepers. 1560 X 20% =312 additional keepers. Now take the additional money the 1D IV costs, $3,500 / 312 =$11.22 per additional keeper.


$11.22 per additional keeper....makes the 7D look pretty good.


But then there is this formula( (500mm + 1D IV) x play time) = "Lots of Fun".


I went the"Lot's ofFun" route. Maybe I will get better and I can improve on the $11.22 per additional keeper price.


Rick