Thank you guys. It looks like I'm going to have to go take a look at the MKIII.
It's sounds like it's the number of little details that have been improved that makes it an altogether nicer camera to work with.
I may wait for Photokina though, just in case...
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I just spent two intense days with two more to come shooting the 1ds3.
Normally I would shoot it with my Phase backs and the Contax.
For this job I really needed 640 to 800 clean iso and it was the only way to get there.
Upside; The Canon is nicely built the viewfinder is much better with manual focus easier, the file is good and as Paul said holds the highlights well. The batteries last a billion frames. Skin tones are perfect.
Medium upside; The Canon software tethers ok, (all of today was tethered), the lcd lights up when you work tethered, you can name and rename in the Canon software and the preview initially comes up quick sending small jpeg and raw about 2 seconds before it's full screen.
Downside; The Canon software tethered in this way gets bogged down and firing about 10 shoots semi quickly I hit the buffer and the previews load slow. Compared to tethering with my Phase backs and C-1, this is almost glacier like slow.
The lcd, though miles more detailed than medium format is still contrasty and gets nowhere close to the color in the computer. The file is nice but the lcd (at least mine is off color going to the very cool). Shadows load up darker than on the computer and highlights are readable but somewhat difficult to judge.
The software is just goofy. We've learned it front to back but it's still a two piece system that makes even c-1 3.78 look like a genuis tethering system.
The files are sharp but at first startle me because it's not medium format crisp sharp, it's Canon somewhat milky sharp. (They do sharpen in post, but not like the medium format files).
The 4:3 crop works but it is somewhat disjointed. It shows in DPP and in the camera and on the lcd with those blue lines, but in any other program it becomes a 2:3 cameras.
Honestly, it's a very nice camera, but I would love to have shot this with my backs and the Contax.
I love working with the Contax and love the sharpness of the files, the easy tethering, the way to set sessions. It is so logical compared to the windows like Canon software that you always have to go back and forth on.
At this point i don't care if medium format ever fixes their lcd because I doubt if that's going to happen. The medium format preview is small, so even if the lcd is twice size or twice improved the preview will still be rough.
Since I shoot 95% of most commercial work tethered, the lcd is just a reference anway.
The ONE thing I need is higher, clean iso. The difference between a Canon at 640 iso, F 4.5 and 125th of a second and the Phase at 400 iso, F4.5 (or 5.6 if I want to hold the same depth of field) is about two stops in the Canons favor.
The iso thing really needs some attention and if/when/how that's possible I don't know, but today if the Phase had gone to 800 iso clean, the Canons would have stayed in the bags.
JR