Tethered Showdown: Canon 1Ds Mark III vs. Phase One P30+

UPDATE: Since this test was done OSX has seen a major boost in USB performance which has made tethering to the 1Ds Mark III much faster. Please see the Canon Test page for the Canon 1Ds Mark III in OSX 10.5.6 vs 10.5.5 benchmarks.

Many photographers use tethered capture as their primary workflow. For these photographers the speed of a tethered setup is critical. For this test we are defining these aspects of speed in a tethered workflow:

Capture-To-Preview: the time between the end of the shutter release and the display of a preview image. In Capture One this is measured as time until the high-res preview rather than the low-res preview that is initially displayed.

Max Sustained Speed: shot-to-shot time that can be sustained (i.e. the fastest speed without filling the buffer)

Burst Lag: time needed to display the last shot of a burst (i.e. time needed to clear the buffer)

Burst Speed: maximum frame rate possible, measured in seconds per frame (spf)

Shots / [# of seconds]: maximum number of shutter releases during a particular time-frame. This is measured by shutter releases, not previews shown, so with the 1Ds Mark III many images remain in the buffer (see Burst Lag).

Results Summary

Type of Speed	1Ds III [Raw, DPP]	P30+ [Raw, C14]	Faster	Dif. of Speed
Capture-to-Preview	9.5 sec	2.6 sec	P30+	3.7x as fast
Max. Sustained Speed	3.3 spf*	1.5 spf*	P30+	2.2x as fast
Burst Lag	50 sec	3.5 sec	P30+	14.3x as fast
Burst Speed	0.2 spf*	1.5 spf*	1Ds III	7.5 x as fast
Shots / 60 seconds	27	42	P30+	1.6x as fast
Shots / 120 seconds	45	83	P30+	1.8x as fast

*spf = Seconds per Frame, or the inverse of Frames per Second (fps)

Results Graphs

*Due to a change in Canon’s SDK, Capture One 4.1.1 cannot tether directly to the Canon 1Ds Mark III. Instead this test was done using Capture One 4.1.1’s “Hot Folder” option to tie Capture One to a Capture Folder managed by Canon’s DPP Software. The result is a delay of approximately 2 seconds from the shot to the preview, but the delay is not cumulative.

Note: The 1Ds Mark III had only transfered 13 of the 27 images at the end of 60 seconds. Another 50 seconds was required to transfer the final image. The P30+ had transfered all but one image at the end of 60 seconds requiring only an additional 3 seconds to transfer the final image.

Note: The 1Ds Mark III had only transfered 27 of the 45 images at the end of 120 seconds. Another 52 seconds was required to transfer the final image. The P30+ had transfered all but one image at the end of 120 seconds requiring only an additional 3 seconds to transfer the final image.

Testing notes

Software: Capture One 4.1.1, EOS Utility 2.3

Hardware: Mac Pro 3.0 Ghz Eight-Core with 7gb of Ram

Tethered setup: shooting to a folder on the main hard drive*

*performance might improve slightly if the capture folder and operating system are on different internal hard drives

Phase One P21, P30+, P45, and Canon 1Ds Mark III

We’ve been testing the 1Ds Mark III and comparing it to the current line of Phase One Digital Backs. You can directly download the processed TIFF of the 1DsMarkIII, the P21, P30+, and P45 below:

• Canon 1dsm3 (Scene 1) - compressed TIFF (46.8MB)
• Phase One P21 (Scene 1) - compressed TIFF (33.2MB)
• Phase One P30+ (Scene 1) - compressed TIFF (60.7MB)
• Phase One P45 (Scene 1) - compressed TIFF (68.3MB)

For more information email info@captureintegration.com

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Phase One P30, P45, and Canon 1Ds Mark II

December 2006 - Customer Conducted Test

A customer visiting Capture Integration, wanted to compare two Phase One DB’s next to his Cannon. One Profoto light illuminated this scene. Customer photographed same scene with P45, P30 & 1DS MkII. Here are the RAW files for your comparison.

You may need to right click and “Save As” to download, rather than open, the below files.

Download P30 RAW file (.tif)

Download P45 RAW file (.tif)

Download 1Ds Mark II (.cr2)