Has Canon 1Ds image surpass the best film?

[Jonathan Wienke]

The 1Ds is capable of much better image quality than 35mm film. Period. It is comparable to the best medium-format drum scans in overall image quality. Michael did a comparison between the 1Ds and medium format here. It demands the best lenses, not even all of Canon's L lenses can keep up with it. I just spent a weekend with my new 1Ds and the Canon 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6 L, and at some focal lengths (on the wide end of its' zoom range) the 1Ds clearly reveals the limitations of the lens. Moral: If you own a 1Ds, don't bother with anything but L lenses, and even some of them will not maximize the potential image quality of the camera.

[nightfly]

This is my first posting on this site so forgive me if I make a few mistakes.

  After reading the article about the Canon 400 f 5.6 lens being much sharper then 100 to 400 IS lens at 400. If the lens quality different did not appear in previous Canon cameras both digital and film, and the film camera I am assuming you are  using  a high quality film, has the Canon 1Ds  surpass the best regular film camera  in quality. By reading article in my opnion would draw this concclusion that if  I taken a photograph with the 1Ds at ISO 100 and the same photographwith the  1v with lets say Fuji Velvia film  that 1Ds would produce a superior photograph. I wil take  my opinion one step futher and say that Canon top of the line Digital Camera has or is going to reach the quality of a meduim format Camera very soon.