Appearances can be deceiving. Canon's latest machine-gun of an SLR looks, to all intents and purposes, like any other model in the 1-series.

But it's clear that the Japanese giant's 'imagineers' have listened to the requests of digital photographers when they set about updating the fastest model in their SLR range.

While the shell still feels as though you could hammer tent pegs in with it, every other feature from the Mark II model seems to have been considered for enhancement, relocation or removal.

It's a camera that's been designed with today's photographer in mind - from a smaller, weight-shaving battery to a three-inch LCD, complete with Live View. Even the neck strap's undergone a redesign.

Although the viewfinder and vertical grip still don't quite match the comfort levels of the Nikon D2X, it's a camera that sits beautifully in the hand. The position of the buttons is more logical and the camera operation more intuitive than with the 1D or 1Ds Mark II.

Canon has reduced the number of buttons too, and switched operation from a two-button and dial combination to a single button press and dial shift to change key functions. It makes much more sense.

One-handed

The new dedicated ISO button placed on the right-hand side of the top plate enables one-handed operation, speeding up reaction time when the pressure's on. Being positioned at the bottom-left of the LCD screen, the playback button's perfectly placed to trigger quick histogram and sharpness checks on the supersized monitor.

An autofocus lock button replaces the focus-point return button (whose useful function which can now be assigned to the multi-controller above the quick control dial). In fact, the only thing that takes a little growing accustomed to is the autofocus system.

Not in terms of performance - it proved positive and fast, locking on and tracking small subjects in the frame with precision in our tests - but in terms of the way you select your focus point. Via a custom function, you can opt to restrict the manually selectable points to an inner ring of nine, an outer ring of nine or both.

As mentioned, the return to focus point control can now be assigned to the multi-controller. This can make vertical shots a little fiddlier than on the Mark II as there's only one of these and it's a stretch to reach it with your thumb.