Messages

31

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Canon 1DX video overview and links to other reviews

« on: July 13, 2012, 06:16:12 PM »

I have been browsing around for more 1DX samples just to get an idea of what to expect with high ISO settings and dynamic range but I'm rather disappointed with the number of people who have claimed to have received the 1DX and haven't posted a single photo. Yeah I know you have your fancy new toy and are probably busy playing with it but when you get the time, remember those of us who are still waiting for our bodies and post a shot to show how well it handles skin tones and such.

While browsing Google I found a youtube video from Borrowlenses.com which gives a decent overview of the 1DX. They even do some comparisons with the 5D3 at high ISOs which was nice of them. Some AI Servo tracking comparisons would be killer if anyone out there has both cameras.

Focus On Canon EOS 1D X	Small | Large

Here are some other reviews and previews I have found. They aren't very in-depth, nor do they have a ton of samples (if any) but it's all we have for the moment.

Jeff Cable review (why no samples?)
http://jeffcable.blogspot.com/2012/07/canon-1dx-real-world-review-of-this-new.html

Chris Dodds (bird photog)
http://naturephotographyblog.squarespace.com/journal/2012/7/10/canon-1dx-first-impressions-mini-review.html

Martin Bailey (bird photog with high ISO samples)
http://blog.martinbaileyphotography.com/2012/06/27/podcast-341-canon-eos-1d-x-digital-slr-review/

Ivan Lackovic from Canon5Dtips.com (sports photog with tight crops)
http://www.canon5dtips.com/review/canon-1d-x-sample-shots/

Tom from Canon5Dtips.com
http://www.canon5dtips.com/review/canon-eos-1d-x-iso-review-raw-samples/

Reply if you find any others and I'll add them as we go.

32

EOS Bodies / Re: Why are you buying the 1D X?

« on: July 11, 2012, 05:48:07 PM »

I'm getting the 1DX for:

1) Build quality and reliability. Nothing worse than a camera breaking on the job
2) Full frame sports camera. Bye bye to my 1D4 and no 6 fps is not fast enough for a true sports photog
3) Better low-light AF. 1D4 is terrible in low light as well as my 5D2. The 5D3 will make a good second body later down the road.
4) Instantly record voice memos to files. This only comes with pro bodies, gotta have it sometimes
5) Superb high-ISO capabilities. If I want to shoot indoor action at some high school gyms I need 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 12k-25k
6) Dual CF card slots, finally
7) Weather sealing, every time it storms I'm out in the rain shooting it seems

The 5D3 looks like a nice camera but it wasn't enough of an improvement to justify the cost. The 1DX is going to be my sports, action, low-light, and well rounded workhorse and the 5D2 will remain my studio camera.

33

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 II L USM

« on: July 02, 2012, 12:40:17 PM »

Unfortunately I didn't have a 77mm ND filter so I hit f/20 with my Elinchrom Ranger RX but it turned out good enough! I posted another one of Paige in the 200mm f/2.0 section but it was an amazing shoot

What'd you do for all the colors? Post increased the saturation/vibrance? faux-HDR?

Yeah I edited in camera raw 7.0 and boosted vibrance and saturation then ran it through a filter. I recently picked up Alien Skin and I often tweak one of the presets and then i adjust the opacity of the new layer until it looks good (usually 50%)

34

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-1D X - June 20, 2012 in Japan

« on: July 02, 2012, 08:44:27 AM »

Just got back from Japan, checked a couple retailers in Japan and Osaka. They had a spot ready for the 1Dx but they chuckled when I asked about availability. I wasnt at all surprised since europe is top priority, glad to see some showing up in various places. The new primes were in stock except the 40mm pancake had a waiting list. I played with the D4 for a little while but it just made me glad to be a Canon shooter. I don't like the ergonomics of Nikons and will continue to wait patiently for the 1DX. This is going to be a camera that I plan to hang on to for at least 5 years so I want mine to be perfect rather than rushed to the market.

35

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon 35mm f/1.4 L or Canon 50 mm f.1.2 L - for Weddings

« on: June 24, 2012, 04:43:45 PM »

Sorry for getting off topic a bit but...

The 35L is quick enough to use AI Servo tracking even with the slow 5D2, I only use the 85L on single shot with the 5D2. However, if you pair the 85L with a 1D4 you can get great shots under the basket. Most of my favorite basketball photos last year were with the 85L on the 1D4, especially when I was in a dark high school gym.

College with lots of light (1D4, 85mm, f/2.2, 1/1600 sec, ISO 2000 )
http://markwebbphoto.com/photojournalism2012/h21ec8f42#h21ec8f42

Darkest high school gym in town (1D4, 85mm, f/1.8, ISO 4000, 1/800 sec, pushed 1 stop)
http://markwebbphoto.com/p225432823/h3ecfc41f#h3ecfc41f

I doubt you'll be shooting many sports with the 35L but I have had relatively good luck tracking the bride coming down the isle with this lens. This lens is great and it really doesn't need an update except for the weather sealing and new coating to reduce CA. The 85L should see more updates for those of us who shoot action because there is so much glass in the lens which slows it down. Not sure what is up with the 50L's AF, I'll wait for 50L II which I hope is as good as the 85L II. With the 50L's bad AF reputation, I would think that Canon would update this lens first. Kudos to those who get good AI servo results with the 50L, anyone mind sharing some??

36

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Hitting Retailers

« on: June 24, 2012, 04:22:11 PM »

If the 1D X is so clean at such high ISO's, I wonder if more people will be able to shoot let's say, night football games with the 300 f/4L vs. the 300 f/2.8L.  Now I know the latter will focus faster in lower light, but it really makes you wonder now, if the more expensive lenses like in my example wouldn't necessarily be needed.  If you are submitting photos to the AP, the subtle differences in IQ would be irrelevent.  Just a thought I had, because I was shooting evening track and field with the 300 f/4L with a 1D4 and I was having no trouble focusing very quickly.  However, the ISO performance required a bit more cleanup than I like

I shoot a lot of high school and college football at night, your still going to need that f/2.8 in most instances especially when they get close to the goal line. It is not only the speed of AF that you need to worry about, it is also going to come down to accuracy in low-light conditions. f/2.8 lenses get dual cross type AF sensors so you'll get a better hit ratio. You'll need all the light you can get with teams that have black jerseys, eek.

In my area, the best lit high school football stadiums are actually pretty close to the college stadium (Marshall University in WV) and that leaves me at around 1/640-1/1000 sec at ISO 5000-6400 depending on how close they are to the sideline. At some of the darker stadiums or as the players get down near the goal line the offensive players are often back lit and I've gotta go ISO 8000 just to get 1/400-1/500 sec at time. I prefer a little grain over motion blur most of the time.

This is just another reason why I skipped the 5D3 in favor of the 1DX, I need speed and the cleanest high-ISO images I can get. The 5D3 definitely wasn't two stops better and I would probably still be stuck between ISO 8000-12000 at most. I'd like to get my shutter to at least 1/1000 sec whenever possible.

37

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Hitting Retailers

« on: June 22, 2012, 08:11:48 PM »

The 5D MK III looks like it has improved weather sealing and I'm sure it would hold up just fine in a light rain but the high-ISO samples I have seen aren't anywhere near what the samples from the 1DX look like. High school gyms can be pretty dark, I push my 1D MK IV to ISO 8000 just to get a shutter speed of 1/400 sec at f/2.8. That is as far as I am willing to go for a photo that will be ran in the newspaper but with the 1DX I should be able to get a much better image even at ISO 25,000 and a shutter speed closer to my preferred 1/1000 for sports.

The 5D MK III didn't look all that great at ISO 8000 so I skipped that body. Megapixels don't really matter, the Associated Press actually makes us size the file to max dimensions of 2000 x 2000 pixels and around 1.5mb to keep their system from overloading. Sure, more pixels means that we can crop more but I would rather have cleaner images at super high ISOs.

The 5D3 high iso is already getting so close to theoretical limits that I would temper your 1DX expectations a bit. Maybe it can add 2/3rd of a stop more DR up there and retain deep blacks instead of going purple at very high iso or something but I wouldn't expect more than 1/3 stop better mid-gray SNR.

I feel like the 5D2 and 5D3 sensors were made with a similar process but the 1DX looks like a completely new process because the images look so clean and the dynamic range looks much better. I try to be pretty conservative which is why I said ISO 25K at max (I don't mind a decent amount of noise as long as there is no banding). I have seen a lot of samples so far and I am incredibly impressed even with the photos at ISO 40,000 which were as good as my 1D4 at around ISO 2000. Someone posted some RAW samples a while back and ISO 6400 looked super clean even when I pulled the shadows up to 100 in CR 7.1, probably as good as the 5D3 at ISO 1600 which is a two stop improvement. I might be getting ahead of myself but I really think Canon nailed this camera and it will be better than Nikon's D4 in the high-ISO category.

Everyone has a different idea of what a useable photo looks like but after being in the newspaper and wedding biz for several years I have a pretty good idea of what "too grainy" looks like. 5D2 max is ISO 4000 for me, 1D4 is 8000, 5D3 is around 12,000, and here's to hoping that I can get 25,000 out of the 1DX.

38

EOS Bodies / Re: Is it too early for the first "The Canon 1DX sucks" posting?

« on: June 22, 2012, 06:17:34 PM »

Wow, bashing a camera that you don't even own. Have you even used one? This camera is built for professional photojournalists and wedding photographers in mind. The majority of us don't need or want 36 megapixels because that is not great for working out in the field. When you submit photos to most wire services you only need about 2000 x 2000 pixels at most. The samples I have seen at ISO 6400 are super clean and the ones I saw at ISO 40k had no banding (maybe if you push it a stop or two).

Go ahead and switch to Nikon if you want, then after you find out how hard it is to get Nikon bodies and lenses you'll want to come back to Canon.

For 10k? I'd buy a lot of 600EX-RTs with a 1DX.

No worries Mark.  It's a joke thread; or at least that's the way I took it.

That's what I get for not reading the full post lol.

39

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D3 or 200mm f/2?

« on: June 22, 2012, 06:06:36 PM »

I have been using the 200mm f/2 for about two years now and I love everything I get with that lens at f/2.0. You will notice a huge difference between this lens and the 70-200 2.8. This lens is better for portraits because there is practically no distortion which you will have with a zoom. This will add more pop than you will get going from a 5D2 to a 5D3, however shooting action with the 5D2 is nearly impossible. Right now I'm using this lens with the 1D4 for basketball and weddings but it really shines with a full frame camera. For me, once I get the 1DX it will be extremely difficult to separate the two

Here's one of my favorites from a recent shoot. With the 5DMKII I had to prefocus because you need a pro level autofocus to properly track movement with this lens.
http://markwebbphoto.com/sizemore/h3d2fd6b4#h3d2fd6b4

And one more that I posted earlier today with the lens wide open on the 5D2 with some lighting from the 600EX-RT.
http://markwebbphoto.com/p506385157/h28ab94e#h28ab94e

I also posted a couple other shots in the lens samples.

40

EOS Bodies / Re: FIRST Video comparison Canon 5D mkIII VS 1D X

« on: June 22, 2012, 04:37:44 PM »

If you look at the escalator in the background, you can see more detail with the 1DX.

41

EOS Bodies / Re: Is it too early for the first "The Canon 1DX sucks" posting?

« on: June 22, 2012, 04:30:56 PM »

Wow, bashing a camera that you don't even own. Have you even used one? This camera is built for professional photojournalists and wedding photographers in mind. The majority of us don't need or want 36 megapixels because that is not great for working out in the field. When you submit photos to most wire services you only need about 2000 x 2000 pixels at most. The samples I have seen at ISO 6400 are super clean and the ones I saw at ISO 40k had no banding (maybe if you push it a stop or two).

Go ahead and switch to Nikon if you want, then after you find out how hard it is to get Nikon bodies and lenses you'll want to come back to Canon.

For 10k? I'd buy a lot of 600EX-RTs with a 1DX.

Edit: haha I should have read the first line. But yes all of those are likely.

42

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 II L USM

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:22:07 AM »

Unfortunately I didn't have a 77mm ND filter so I hit f/20 with my Elinchrom Ranger RX but it turned out good enough! I posted another one of Paige in the 200mm f/2.0 section but it was an amazing shoot

43

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:15:58 AM »

I thought it might be time to contribute. Plenty more where these came from

44

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-1D X - June 20, 2012 in Japan

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:38:27 PM »

Well, I just checked with my local camera store this afternoon, and I was told that all of the production is going towards the Olympics and that we Canadians and probably the Americans should not expect to see any units until late July at the earliest or after the Olympics in late August.  I would hate to speculate on the timing for the release of this camera if it were not for the Olympics.  My 0.02¢ FWIW.

WesternGuy

That's what has been previously mentioned. July is fine with me, if it is the winner that I think it is I will be using this camera for at least 5-6 years seeing that my 5D2 is still going strong after three and a half.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon EOS-1D X Hitting Retailers

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:34:23 PM »

The 1DX is bulky and heavy. I figured most hobbyists would want something smaller and more compact for travel. I carry two bodies for work and it kills me. I'll be in Japan next week, there is no way I would take my 1D4 (or even larger 1DX) because it attracts attention and I want to relax, not have a back ache from lugging that thing around Tokyo all day.

If your making money off your photos then that is a different story. You should start saying semi-pro instead of saying you do it for just a hobby. Sounds like you can afford a 1DX and 5D3 though so go right on ahead.