What would you do? Canon EOS 1Ds II Shutter 1/8000

Ordered in a second Canon 1Ds Mark II, because I have enjoyed my first one so much. (I'm becoming a bit of a collector shooter lol)

It came up on MPB $400, charger, nice battery, and several other accessories. Listed as having about 25K on the shutter. My original / first 1Ds II has 9K. This is all according to camerashuttercount .com which I'm secretly suspicious may be low-balling the actual shutter count (but I could be wrong).



Anyway, part of my usual test routine is to shoot the cams at their full speed straight into the blue sky from a window to check the shutter movement for any signs of failure. After about 14 DSLRs and a few film cams, this one was the first to show issue.

I did clean the sensor, thought it was already clean, just to eliminate any possibilities of smudges.



What are your thoughts? Would you return it?

1Ds II's seem hard to find in good condition, and I SO love the tiny screen on them very much. I can set it to only review images w/ detail, so I can barely see what I took, but the histogram is big and visible which is perfect for me...it emulates film experience by not really getting to see (basically) what you took until you get home and put the images on a big screen.



Pics Included:




8000 at 1600iso, note bottom left corner and circular banding slightly left of mid frame




8000 at 200iso




4000 the exposure seems noticeably brighter toward the bottom right corner






8000




6400




5000 and it's just about gone. At 4000 I can't tell a major difference between my other 1Ds II

Real world example shots:




Note the cam is showing this as EV0, seems dark to me




6400

I never knew shutter speed could affect the image. I rarely, if ever, go beyond 1/1250s. If you don't need 1/8000 very often, can you live with it?

Is it in good overall condition? Most were well used and they are very old.

Having shot film for almost 30 years, I have no desire to wait and see what my digital image is. The main advantage of digital is being able to evaluate exposure, focus, and composition, immediately.

John Crowe said:

I never knew shutter speed could affect the image. I rarely, if ever, go beyond 1/1250s. If you don't need 1/8000 very often, can you live with it?

Is it in good overall condition? Most were well used and they are very old.

Having shot film for almost 30 years, I have no desire to wait and see what my digital image is. The main advantage of digital is being able to evaluate exposure, focus, and composition, immediately.

Click to expand...

Thanks John,



It is in great condition, not a scratch on the screens, hardly a mark on the camera itself.

I guess that's what I'm trying to decide...I like shooting primes wide open, and that can push the shutter speeds up quite a bit even so, I could probably get away with a ND filter some times just a bit of a hassle.



I took some real world shots, and most I could get below 1/8000 & 1/6400 by stopping down a hair. Other than that I took some additional real world shots and I myself have a difficult time spotting it...So I'm still on the fence I suppose.




1/8000 real world; even with this bright shot, I still had to jack the ISO up to reach 8K






Another 8K; can you spot the defect? Even here my ISO was jacked so I could get that 8K




Just for fun, I really like this shot. And at 4K, even on a white / blue test background it wasn't noticeable . BTW the EF 135 f/2L really isn't over hyped, within 3 hours it's my best, most favorite lens now!

True enough. When I do go out to shoot with my f1.2 wide open it gets very difficult. I just don't do it enough.

With such a razor thin depth of field I don't think you will see the effects, or at least notice them, with such an isolated subject.

I've always flirted with getting an EF 135/2 L. Perhaps, one of these days. There is a very affordable one near by!

I just had to check to see that my camera does do 1/8000.

P.S. Wait a minute. You should be dropping ISO to avoid 1/8000. I have a hard time at f1.2 because my go to ISO is 100. Sometimes I have to drop to 50 ISO just to expose properly wide open even at 1/8000.

Your samples look good BTW. Bokeh on the solar light photo is not as smooth as I'd hoped though. Probably speaks to how sharp and contrasty it is.

As many reader know I too love the 1Ds 2 (and D2) for exactly the same reasons as you do, which is funny. I'd still send it back though. This is the first sign of shutter failure and you might never know when it'll completely die. Even though that may be true even when you wouldn't have spotted the issue. It's a 20 years old hero.

It’s a shame that some of the low milage 1D/1Ds II had defective shutters.

At $400, ship it back and wait patiently for mint units. I purchased a mint condition 3K low milage 1Ds II for $48. Fired up with a minor repair. Shutter repairs take a bit longer and require splitting the chassis to get to. If you’re handy, you could service the shutter yourself. I’ve done many of them successfully.

That’s a symptom of either the shutter curtains being stuck or the mechanical part of it starting to go out of sync. It will eventually get worst.