The Canon 1D Mark IV is a professional DSLR that was launched into the photography market for professional sports photographers, wildlife photographers, and photojournalists 17 years ago. Now it is completely outdated and obsolete - or is it? To find out, I took it out to photograph an event in dark, museum venue to see if it was still a relevant tool for photojournalism in 2026. How did it perform?
Launched 17 years ago, on release the Canon 1D Mark IV was a class-leading professional DSLR that found a home in the bags of many professional sports and wildlife photographers, as well as photojournalists. It had several key features that made it the perfect tool for these demanding photographic specialties, including:
- Impressive low-light, high ISO image quality
- High speed shooting with 10 frames per second
- Canon's most advanced autofocus
- High megapixel count (for the time) of 16mp
- Robust build quality
- Full weather sealing
Other features that were less noteworthy, but were still important included good quality (for the time) 1080p cinematic video and an APS-H sensor that split the difference between full-frame 35mm sensors and smaller APS-C sensors with a 1.5x or 1.6x crop. The 1.3x crop of APS-H offered close to full frame depth of field benefits while keeping just a bit of the crop sensor's effectively enhanced reach. A 200mm lens, for instance, with a 1.3x crop, delivered a focal length equivalent of 260mm. The extra apparent reach was an attractive feature to many.
Canon 1D Mark IV Event Performance in 2026
A local history museum was featuring a presentation in their small, intimate venue on a January evening. The Museum director would be making a presentation herself and there was certain to be an interested and engaged audience. Our expectation was met. The venue was small, and dark the crowd was active, engaging the presenter with commentary and questions throughout.
Click images to view full size:
Space was tight and the atmosphere dark, and knowing this impacted our lens choice. The lens needed to be small and offer a fast aperture. It also had to be wide enough to take in the confined scene, while not too wide to introduce distortion. Our choice was to mount the EF 35 f/2 IS USM to the 1D Mark IV. Offering a wide aperture with IS, combined with the 1D Mark IV's good high ISO performance, gave us a small camera and lens combo that was sure to work well. We were not disappointed.
Using this combo we were able to gain focus easily without problem in the low light environment, the camera's autofocus system (now regarded as obsolete) was flawless. We did not miss any shots due to poor autofocus. Image quality was clean as well, with sharp images and low noise. And, to be honest, we might have liked a little more noise for the black and white images just to give them a nostalgic, film-like flair. But, we have no legitimate complaint about these photos.
Would we go back to the 1D Mark IV for event photography in the future? Based on this, yes, we certainly would not hesitate to pick up this camera for future events.
Black and White Industrial Landscapes in the Cold
One of the things the Canon 1-series DSLRs are known for is their robust build quality and weather sealing. And that presented another question that we wanted to explore, specifically if this old DSLR could hold up to extreme cold temperatures.
A couple of days after photographing the museum event we took the Canon 1D Mark IV outside to capture industrial landscapes along the historic Fox River Canal. Over a century old and originally built by hand, the canal is spanned in places by interesting railroad bridges that carry cargo to and from the paper mills and other industrial facilities located along the river.
With gray, flat winter light on a very cold day (temperatures hitting a "high" of -5 degrees Fahrenheit as we were shooting), we wanted to use the camera to capture the texture and detail of an old railroad swing bridge that crosses the canal. For this we mounted a true and obscure classic Canon lens, the EF 35-350 f/3.5-5.6 L.
This lens is a "push-pull" design and that has been controversial over the year. The push-pull lens most people are familiar with is the original Canon EF 100-400 L - some have referred to it as a "dust pump" but that never stopped that particular lens from being a popular choice.
As far as our 35-350 goes, so far, after a year of use, we haven't found it to have any dust issues.
What we have found is that the lens is fast to focus, sharp and convenient. Having access to focal lengths ranging from 35mm to 350 is a fantastic as a "one lens to do it all" solution. Its chief downfall, in our testing, has been chromatic aberration, but that is not unexpected in a lens from 1993 with a 10x zoom range. All in all, this lens has worked well for us, especially when we use it for video on the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K pro or the Canon C300 and 1DX Mark II.
In the cold on the Canon 1D Mark IV photographing the old railroad spring bridge and details around it, the lens was brilliant, as was the camera. We were able to take in the scene as a whole on the wide end of the lens, and then zoom in on the details here and there.
As for the cold weather resistance of both the camera and lens - they were flawless and worked exactly as expected despite the extreme cold. Speaking of that, it wasn't just 5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, but there was also a stiff wind from the North and Northwest, making the temperature feel much colder.
All in all, the photographers froze up and had to head back indoors. The 1D Mark IV and Canon EF 35-350 could have kept going for hours more.
Equipment Used and Affiliated Links
The Canon 1D Mark IV is only available on the used market. At the time of writing, we found prices for the camera to range from around $300 to $500 (U.S.) at MPB.com. To support us and get your own copy, you can use our affiliate link to shop at MPB.
We also recommend the Canon EF 35-350 f3.5-5.6 L lens. It's an older lens so shop carefully to get one in good condition. They are usually priced right, given limited demand for them, but we think at the current prices they are a bargain, especially for hybrid shooters looking for a lens for video. We have found it be a great performer on both the BMPCC 6K Pro and the Canon C300. Again, we recommend buying used gear at our affiliate, MPB.com
For a camera strap, you might notice that we have the 1D Mark IV secured using a strap from Black Rapid. We purchased that strap more than 10 years ago and have used it continuously for landscape photography, weddings, events and more. It's help up perfectly; it still works and looks like new. If you'd like one, you can, of course, get one on Amazon for just over $80.
