Digital Photography Review is dedicating a massive 33 pages review to the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, granting it an overall rating of 89%. It garners the highest marks in build quality, features and performance (speed).
According to DPR, the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV "has the feel of a product that is determined to be as close to perfect as possible", and "From the point-of-view of the tasks it was built to tackle, there is nothing that can touch the detailed, high resolution images that it can deliver ten times a second."
I obviously have to carefully digest these 33 pages before I can make a decision as to whether to buy the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV or not, but I must say that I was pleasantly impressed by the ergonomics of the new Canon 7D. Handling them both today at B&H's Canon counter (I'm still circling around the Panasonic GF1), I felt that the Canon 7D fitted better in my hands. It's also as fast in terms of frames per second as the Mark IV, and is certainly much lighter.
At about $3300 cheaper than the Mark IV, the 7D might make a lot of sense to photographers who accept that its sensor size may not produce the highest of image quality of the Mark IV, nor has its ruggedness. I still use its predecessor, the Mark II, and I consider it a workhorse that never let me down.
Via Engadget