Still no 1ds MKII tests or reviews?

[font color=\'#000000\']Canon has not yet released cameras to reviewers.

There are production cameras out there though. I know of at least one photographer who is currently shooting promotional images for Canon with one.

When they do arrive, you'll hear about it.

Michael[/font]

[Jonathan Wienke]

[font color=\'#000000\']DPReview has a hands-on with a pre-production camera with 15 or so sample JPEGs. Looks like the 1D-MkII with twice as many pixels. High-ISO noise appears to be improved over the 1Ds. I'd be VERY surprised if the 1Ds-MkII turned out to be a dog.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']I'm out shooting most of the time, so I miss a lot of messages, but a search has turned up nothing concrete about any 1ds MKII tests or reviews.  Is it normal for absolutely no real performance information to be available for a new camera so long after it's announced?  I can't afford the camera anyway and would not buy one until the dealers are discounting them substantially (a year?), but I'm very curious what the real life resolution increase is with the best lenses available.  Obviously, since less than the best lenses don't even do justice to the old 1ds, they would hardly do much better with 50% more sensor resolution.

I'm amazed how many people are already dumping their 1ds, obviously in favor of a camera that's not even available yet, and about which so little concrete information is available related to real life effective resolution increase with lenses that were never designed to require such an extremely high level of resolution.  There are now pages and pages of 1ds listings on ebay, compared to only a page or so previously.  I'm not too tempted to add my 1ds to the list.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']Thanks Michael.

If I were a paranoid and suspicious sort, I'd find some sort of sinister significance in the fact that the camera has been made available for promo shots, but not impartial testing and reviewing.  Hmmm.  

Could Canon share the premonition that some of us have that lenses designed for about 1/3 the resolution of the 1ds MKII sensor won't be adequate to take anything like full advantage of 16.7 Mpixels?  Could camera manufacturers even stay in business without a lot of undiscriminating product loyalty and hasty upgrading?  Still, I do dream and hope that my collection of world class prime lenses would give me close to 50% more resolution with an MKII.  I just don't plan to jump onto the bandwagon until I've personally done my test grid comparison shots to satisfiy myself completely about this issue (after seeing some encouraging test results from other people).  $8000 buys me a lot of time and budget conscious travel expenses. [/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']

I'd be VERY surprised if the 1Ds-MkII turned out to be a dog.

I don't think there's any chance at all it's a dog.  I do, however wonder if it's worth selling a 1ds (for around $4500 or less) and buying an MKII for $8000 or buying an MKII for $8000 rather than buying a used 1ds for $4500 (right now) or probably much less in a few months.  My main doubts are for landscape photography where you'd be shooting a lot of wide angle and never shooting high ISO.  Until I see some very clear test grid comparison shots, I'll keep doubting that the real life resolution improvement will be worth the big expense.  If I could actually get something like 50% improvement in resolution with real life lenses available today, I'll start saving my pennies and re-arranging my priorities.[/font]