2023 Weekly Challenge Week 31: Canon 1D Mark IIn

Up until the advent of the EOS-R mount the Canon 1D was herald as the King of Professional cameras.  While Nikon would like to say otherwise with their D# series, the Canon 1D was a far more common camera visible at almost every major Professional Sports event from College Football to the Olympic Games.

If there is something that's been consistent about my camera review is that it has been done with entry level to enthusiast level up to "Entry Pro" level gear.  The closest camera I've reviewed to a professional camera thus far was the Nikon D200, a camera that was used in the field a lot for Wildlife but not in the same niche as something like a 1D.

Of course, this all comes down to budget. While I could ask some of my friends who have higher level equipment to borrow newer, higher end equipment the point of this whole challenge is to prove to my readers (the very few of those that actually read these wall of texts) that you can get great photos on older cheaper equipment which many photographers would sooner throw in a e-waste dumpster then be caught using.

True, I will be reviewing some little bit higher end/newer stuff (as I already have done with the Panasonic GX8) that I own and shoot, but many of these cameras still are in the "underdog" or budget friendly class and don't attract near the amount of attention that something like a 1D, D5, D850, R5, R3 or Z9 would get (or Sony a7/a9 for those Sony shooters out there).

That said, the 1D Mark IIn has a story of behind how I got it, and is being passed onto another owner who has better lenses, patience and desire to shoot this very unique camera then I have.  But before I let it go, I got to take it through one last week of shooting after having sat on a shelf for three years.

The Canon 1D Mark IIn is an absolute unit of a camera.  I previously reviewed a Nikon D200 and noted how big and beefy that camera was but the Canon 1D has that thing beat. This thing was built for mounting huge, massive lenses on it so even the biggest Canon lens I own (the Canon EF 70-300 IS USM lens) looks absolutely tiny on it.

Before we get into specifications because it is really unique for any camera, especially one from 2005 I'll go over the unique story of how I acquired it, which made me reluctant on letting it go since I'll likely never lay my hands on one again any time soon for a "reasonable price".

It was the Summer of 2020.  The Midwest US was in a very brief "Maybe the Pandemic is Over!" moment.  A narrow gap where people actually got out of the house and did stuff before the second and third effective lockdowns hit. I was unemployed between contracts, and needed a way to pay my Mortgage for another month (after that summer luckily I did get on another contract and I was able to stabilize from desperate to treading water again on my finances).

I was therefore forced to sell my Event workhorse camera, a Nikon D7200 (which I later re-bought another for less then I sold it for) since there was no telling when or even if in-person events would ever come back.  

The buyer of the D7200 met in a public park outdoors to make the exchange threw in this Canon 1D Mark IIn to sweeten the deal that was not tested much past that it turned on with what juice was on the 3rd party battery he had for it because he was lacking a charger (which I would later have to buy off an auction site from a seller in the UK).

I charged the battery and used this camera for about a week in 2020, before making a few realizations of why I did not like it (which I will get into after I go over its features). After which it sat on the shelf for three years as I dreaded having to recharge the NIMH battery for it; a battery that is supposed to be used and drained regularly to keep up the battery health.

So when I decided to do this review I of course added it to the list.  To my surprise the battery went through its discharge and charge cycle just fine; and lasted me the duration of this challenge on a single charge.

With the story of how I got this Full Pro camera from 2005 out of the way; lets move onto specifics.  The Canon 1D Mark IIn was the third in the Canon 1D series, a revision of the Mark II that added a blazingly fast 8.5fps mechanical shutter which still holds at about the same rate as a lot of enthusiast and pro level cameras almost 20 years later.  It also had a revolutionary 45 point AutoFocus grid; where most cameras at this time only could reach 3-5fps continuous drive and had anywhere between 5 and 11 AF points.

In order to balance speed with "Professional Quality" Canon introduced a 1.3x "Professional Crop" sensor the APS-H.  Close enough to Full Frame that most people looking for that "Shallow Depth of Field" to be happy while allowing for a shutter that could fire faster because it had slightly less travel time between mirror flips.

The Canon 1D series would be a Unicorn, that is the only camera ever to use the 1.3x crop factor in a digital camera. The APS-H sensor would be fully abandoned four years later by Canon with the Canon 1D Mark IV to be the last camera to carry on the APS-H lineage.

In spite of technically being a crop sensor the Canon 1D did not take EF-S lenses, though the question becomes why would you want to.  It had a very specific purpose of giving high end professionals that little bit extra reach without degrading themselves to admitting they shot an APS-C camera.

So the early 1D series had an interesting history and just like the D200 this was a camera that went everywhere and saw everything.  They were used and abused and finding a Classic 1D that is in anything but "Beat up but still ticking" condition is nearly impossible.  Mine certainly had its battle scars as you can see more clearly on this closeup shot I took of it:

So with the unique personal story and unique history of this camera, why wasn't I totally enamored by this camera?  Why did such a Unique camera sit on my shelf for so many years without getting the use that it deserved and just collecting dust?  Well there is a couple of reasons for this:

One it was huge.  The Nikon D200 is on the very upper edge of cameras I feel that are reasonable to hold. This thing is a Monster.  Even for someone who's 6'5" it is excessively unwieldly for me to handle none the less use.

The second thing was the controls themselves.  The 1D was the Space Shuttle or DC-10 of cameras:  meaning it had so many different buttons in layouts that didn't make sense to anyone who has ever flown a different aircraft or in its case ever used any other camera then a Canon 1D.  To acess these functions even something as simple as navigating menus required you to hold down a combonation of buttons to do anything.  Because just having to hit one button or dial?  Psh, that's what Amateurs want!  Shooting the Canon 1D Mark IIn was like playing an arcade fighting game where you had to remember the button combos to press in order to pull off attacks.

Another thing that made this camera sit on the shelf was the charger and NIMH.  Every other interchangeable lens camera I own either uses AA batteries or Li-Ion battery packs (with the exception of the Fuji S2 Pro but more on that when I review that camera).  Having to go through the battery discharge process felt like I was a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus performing some arcane ritual to the Machine god in order to just charge the battery.

Ok, maybe discharging and recharging a NIMH battery isn't that bad. But it was enough of a difference to the routine and the charger having an exposed wire that slotted into the battery vs the battery sitting neatly on a cradle was enough to make me not want to charge and use it.

The last factor that made me not use it was honestly the lenses I own for Canon EF.  Back in 2019 I sold most of my Canon lenses minus a few of the cheaper ones that were not worth much as I switched to Nikon after my Canon 80D died. 

Had I had some of the lenses I owned back then like the Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens or the massive Tamron 150-600 EF mount lens I probably would have felt like this camera was getting the treatment it deserved.  But slapping on a cheap "nifty fifty", film kit lens, or cheaper Telephoto (which was the lens that paired the best with this camera) just felt like I wasn't really doing this camera justice by sticking on lenses that were more suited for my Canon Rebel collection.

But that said, once I could get past the arcane charging, controls and sheer mass of this camera I did have an enjoyable time using it.  Just how fast and responsive this camera was for what could qualify as a vintage digital camera at this point was way impressive. Since this camera is old, its still very much an outdoor shooter AKA don't raise the ISO above 800 or you will regret your decision.  But what an outdoor camera!

In conclusion the Canon Rebel series has a special place in my heart because of how lightweight and simple they are to shoot. The Canon 1D is neither of these two things. So I'm happy to let it go to another Digi-Cam enthusiast that is just as passionate about these old cameras then I am.  It may not be a camera that is a good fit for me but it certainly was a camera that was a good fit for many, many Professional Photographers in the mid 2000's.