[zeusho]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=7963110

Just tested one of two Canon Pro 1s that came into the local store today. Put a deposit down on one about three hours ago. Hope to pick it up in about 2 days. Didn't have enough to shell out the $2100 they wanted on the spot.

First Impressions:

Handled the display camera. Was much more comfortable to hold than I imagined it might be. Very secure feeling. Red LCD display on top is bright stays on long enough to change any settings. Seemed to target things fairly well in the store. Focused on a white clock on a white wall in shadow which was easy enough. Wan't able to figure out the Manual focus feature. Quick response on the zoom. Fast enough although I can tell it will require some getting used to but it was an immediate response. The zoom moved faster if the lens was turned faster. Tried to hold the shutter button down halfway and zoom (which I thought was supposed to make it faster) but no difference. Slow turn = slow zoom and fast turn = faster zoom. Didn't think much of the viewfinder. It looked fairly useless and "pale" in terms of colour. Not terribly saturated. . LCD on the back was clean and fine. Wasn't too bright but I'm guessing the brightness was in mid-strength as it had only just arrived and the settings had not been tweaked. Salesman was helpful and pointed out where things were when I was looking for them. My wife (Rena) handled the camera... says it's "Pretty nifty. Looked good. Seemed good for long work. Very reminiscent of the G Series ...Felt very comfortable. Was VERY quiet. (No noise at all)." Her only concern is that it might be too small for a lange handed person.

My friend Robert was there too and he's a Nikon fan/user. Robert says the camera looked fine and appeared to handle well (he has HUGE hands) although he was uable to work out a close shot of the store computer keyboard. (This is because he didn't have the Macro mode on). I activated the Macro Mode and the focus lock was immedate wherever I pointed the camera. There was a small delay on the LCD (it froze for a fraction of a second) whenever the focus was targeting an object. This p*ssed me off because my S400 doesn't do that and yet when I was using the LCD or the electronic viewfinder, the image seemed to "skip" when it froze for that brief moment. One moment I was looking at my wife through the EVF and then suddenly she was looking the other way. The freeze was VERY brief although I forced the camera to try to lock on darker areas of the store (they were closing for the evening) and the longer the camera took to focus, the longer the freeze was. Not a big deal. It only delayed once whilst hunting in a darker area. Just like the G2 my mother in law has... same freeze too.

Zoom ring felt like metal. I think it's supposed to be plastic but it sure felt like metal. Didn't want to scratch it so I tried to be gentle. Balance is perfect. Lens looks nice. Red Eye reduction lamp is a BRIGHT white colour. Really bright.

Hit the Power off and the camera powers down immediately. No delays. Turn the power on and it's ready to shoot before you can blink. The shutter delay seemed non existant. It wasn't even discernable.

Will pick up the Pro 1 along with my new 15" Mac Powerbook. Should enable me to get some shots at a Ren Faire next weekend. Not sure if my intended subject matter will be acceptable here . Should come in handy when I visit Canada soon for some Rocky Mountain shots. Wish there was snow this time of the year where I'm headed. We don't get enough of that in Australia.



Placed an order for the new PSC4000 Canon delux soft case made for the Pro1. It's also due in next week.

Will post pics ASAP. Wish to pick up camera sooner.

Regards,
--
Marco Nero.

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>> Ulysses wrote:
> Hello, Marco. Thanks very much for the mini-review.
>
> It was good to hear about how at least three different individuals
> felt about the camera, too (yourself, the wife, and your friend).
> I'm getting the overall confirmation of what I rather thought about
> the camera from the beginning. That the Pro1 would be a very
> desirable camera, with just a few little annoyances.

Hi again Ulysses, thanks for asking... I did feel the slightest twinge of buyers remorse because I was hoping for Phil's review before I made the puchase but I felt that if things were REALLY bad on the camera or it failed to live up to it's specs, then I would have seen or heard of it by now. The colour brochure Canon have put out for the camera is large and detailed with plenty of full page samples taken obviously by Canon Professionals.... However, if they could get such pictures from it, then the average user has a chance. I LOVE the addition of the Mute button on this camera. So many times I've tried to take a shot and drew unwanted attention from either my cat or a human subject by the beeping or "shutter FX". No longer!

Yes, the zoom is something I could easly get used to. The silence of operation was just stunning. But the freeze when targeting was something I'm not used to. Shouldn't affect things too much if at all. Pity it's there though.

> Got some questions for you:
> 1. Did you feel that the zoom and by-wire zoom ring were sufficient
> to zoom you in and out as you wanted? I know it's not the same
> feeling as a mechanical ring, but could you be happy with it? I
> know you're very familiar with mechanical rings of various lenses.

Zoom was fine but I felt a bit clumsy with it at first. I touched the zoom with my left hand when I first picked the camera up and it moved straight away. Responsive. I found myself fooling around with it and there was no "Stop point" where the zoom stopped turning. It could be rotated indefinitely I suppose. But I think a mechanical zoom would be faster although this was about the speed of a G3 optical zoom. Or at least close to that. It seemed to respond faster than my s400 zoom.

> 2. Do you yet have any observations on how well this camera focuses
> in low light? This is a VERY important one to me, particularly
> since the lens is "only" f/2.4 at its widest angle. I'd wish to
> take advantage of a wide aperture for DOF reasons as well as to
> help with faster shutter speeds.

It appeared to do very well with shots that my s400 wouldn't be able to handle although that shouldn't be a surprise.

> 3. You mentioned the delay in the LCD/EVF. It does indeed sound
> very G3-like. I remember that being an issue in some of the older
> Sony cameras, too, where it is no longer. Would you anticipate this
> annoyance causing you to miss many action shots?

Since my mother in law has never been bothered by this activity on her G2, it's probably not going to be a problem. But I have not had a camera that does this so it was a bit alien to me. The freeze was extremely brief unless I was hunting for something in a dark portion of the room. Then it seemed to last a moment longer.

>
> 4. I know that any questions about noise are going to be rather
> academic in this type of camera. But I've got to ask anyway. Have
> you tried any ISO 200 and 400 shots? And what do you think of the
> noise levels in these and in regular ISO 50/100 shots?

Will test it as soon as I pick it up. My #1 question will be if there's any Dead Pixels. Then noise. But the samples on the net so far indicate bright, crisp images in most instances. Highly detailed areas seem to be captured easily. Ultra detailed random areas such as grass on the ground probably cause the DiGiC chip to struggle and this is probably why noise reduction is used by ALL the 8MP CCDs to try and "clean up the images". Just a guess. Can't wait to test it. Talking to my bank today to get them to advance me some cash within 24 hours. Must ....collect... camera...

Cheers,
--
Marco Nero.

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Marco,


Thanks for the long story. Very interesting. I had a PowerShot Pro 1 in my fingers too...

... and found the autofocus VERY slow
... and found the zoom akward to use
... and found the EVF almost useless

What's your impression about?


Did you compare with KonicaMinoltas A2? The A2's EVF seemed to be much better to me, the zoom easier to use, the autofocus faster. Unfortunately, I forgot to compare the LCD - on the paper, the Canon has double the pixels...

???

Thanks

Simon

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Ditto!

I ordered a Pro1 (on a no obligation basis) from Jessops in London and received a call 2 housr later that they had one. I think i must have run there from the office (my colleagues thought something bad happened as I fled in a hurry).

Arrived at Jessops on a miserable afternoon (wet and dark) loaded the Pro1 with my microdrive and with sales assistant on tow (he wanted to come out for a cigarette!) proceeded to test this beauty. I have been buying Canons since the Canonets in the 60s so I have no reason to be biased against the Pro1. My first impression is EXACTLY the same as Simon.

The A2 I handled briefly last week felt nicer; the zoom is beautiful, the focusing faster and the IS very effective. Jessops will do a price match and sell the Pro1 for £790 and the A2 for £650. I have another "appointment" to play with the Pro1 on Mon (hoping the weather will be better) in the hope of changing my mind but my money is on the A2 at the moment or the gorgeous Epson (Voiglander rangefinder lookalike) that has just been announced).

alexis

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I played with a Pro 1 today and I have similar feelings. Picture quality is very important to me, but so is useablity, and while there is a lot to like about the Pro 1, the slow autofocus and freezing EVF/display just totally spoil it for me.

I was in a large, well lit, shop where focusing shouldn't have been a problem so I tried focusing on various objects and I was amazed at how slow the focusing was - Probably around a second or more, but it seems even longer because the EVF and display freeze while it's focusing. If a camera has an optical view finder I would find it acceptable if the display would freeze, but when you have to rely on an EVF I expect someting a little better than this - It reminded me of the HP 850. BTW, I'm no stranger to EVFs because I use an Oly E100, so that's my benchmark.

It wasn't all bad though because I was pleasantly surprised at how small the camera is and how well made it feels. I also found the zoom very nice, but I don't see the benefit over a good proportional zoom lever (this is a very personal thing though.)


-Mark.