Canon EOS-1D X Review

[iso79]

The only thing Nikon beat Canon with the D800 is the megapixels and price (not enough for me and many photographers to switch sides). Everything else, the Mark III does much better.

[wockawocka]

The 5D3 and 1Dx are meant for professionals earning money from Photography. They aren't targetted at those who want a new toy to play with and only have so much saved.

The 5D3 and 1Dx will last me 4 years, costing about $40 per week over 4 years.

Seems reasonable to me just not to those photographing the inside of a lens cap.

[Marsu42]

The 5D3 and 1Dx are meant for professionals earning money from Photography. They aren't targetted at those who want a new toy to play with and only have so much saved.

The 5d3 clearly also is is a premium amateur camera body for people wanting to shoot their grandchildren running around or just waning to take low-noise pictures of their cat.

The 1dx is completely different, as the review says it's all about build quality, af tracking and fps. You don't need 14fps of your cat, and the 1dx's weight and size are not in the "fun" category anymore.

[robin]

The 1dx is completely different, as the review says it's all about build quality, af tracking and fps. You don't need 14fps of your cat, and the 1dx's weight and size are not in the "fun" category anymore.

Depends on your cat 

[wockawocka]

...and that premium comes at a price.

[Razor2012]

The 5D3 and 1Dx are meant for professionals earning money from Photography. They aren't targetted at those who want a new toy to play with and only have so much saved.

The 5D3 and 1Dx will last me 4 years, costing about $40 per week over 4 years.

Seems reasonable to me just not to those photographing the inside of a lens cap.

Then I guess Canon got lucky because there seems to be a fair amount of non-pros who purchased the 5DIII also.

[Marsu42]

...and that premium comes at a price.

... expanding on that, I see many pros (like in: shoot for a living and having to balance the books) didn't upgrade to the 5d3, at least for the time being. They have 5d2 cameras and have learned to use them, and unless you shoot sports there aren't killer features on the 5d3 that would give your product the edge since the sensor is so similar. And if you shoot sports and are in the biz, you'd get the 1d4 or 1dx - so where does this leave the 5d3?

[arcanej]

As a devoted amateur photographer who purchased the 5D3, I have to disagree with Marsu42. There are times I wish I had a higher frame rate when photographing my cat. There are a few times when I missed a cute moment.

[hyles]

I Think that IQ of 5dII was allready very good, mutch complayn where about AF, and other hardware stuff like viefinder not 100%. Iq has been improved, maybe somone wanted a biger improovment, but since IQ was what has been addresed has been the hardware. Developing a new AF sistem does cost, build quality is mutch better. There are a lot of improvement over the old model. The bigger IQ will arrive with the 5DIII.
Diego

[Brymills]

As a devoted amateur photographer who purchased the 5D3, I have to disagree with Marsu42. There are times I wish I had a higher frame rate when photographing my cat. There are a few times when I missed a cute moment.

How long do you spend photographing your cat??? 

[Drizzt321]

As a devoted amateur photographer who purchased the 5D3, I have to disagree with Marsu42. There are times I wish I had a higher frame rate when photographing my cat. There are a few times when I missed a cute moment.

How long do you spend photographing your cat??? 

Where do you think I Can Haz Cheezburger gets all of it's cat pics from?

[jaduffy007]

People complained about the 5D Mark III sensor? 

Yea, it's horrible. It's an incremental improvement over the previous 5d2 sensor. We don't get magical ability to use ISO 5 million that let's us see in the dark with hardly any noise that's easily correctable by LR4. It's hardly usable, don't find it any better than the 5d2 sensor. I mean, I can use images up to ISO 12800 for web size pretty easily. Geesh, it's horrible!

Guys, I don't recall reading any posts where the 5d3 sensor was called "horrible" or even "bad". This includes the madness of dpreview forums.  What there's been a lot of is, disappointment in the lack of improvement vs 5d2, such as banding, etc  This is an important distinction that seems "lost" on Canon fanboys.  "lack of improvement" does not equate to "bad" or "horrible".  The intensity of comments from those objectively pointing out this lack of improvement (in contrast to the D800) increased dramatically as they encountered fanboys unwilling to acknowledge these facts.  Usually the fanboys would mis-characterize the "critical" comments by using hyperbole such as "So you think the sensor sucks, go away troll!" or give the impression the poster had insane expectations such as "magical ability to use ISO 5 million" or that the poster had written the sensor was "horrible".  Ahem.

Another example: Lloyd Chambers said he found himself "bored" in regard to the 5d3 images and Canon fanboys went ballistic saying the "5D3 images are not boring!!".  Well, that's not what Lloyd said.  It was the lack of improvement that led to him having a lack of enthusiasm.  Lack of enthusiasm does not equal "bad" or "horrible".

This, all in contrast to the simple truth that the 5d3 sensor is not a significant improvement over the 5d2 and after waiting 4 (f'ing) years for the update, that's disappointing or as Lloyd put it, "boring".

Ok, well, next time maybe I need to add <sarcasm> tags more often. I guess I wasn't over the top enough.

For me personally, the 5d3 sensor is a decent upgrade, although not phenomenal. I actually do find it to be a pretty big improvement over the 5d2 at high ISOs, especially when shooting for web size images. In terms of banding, I personally see some decent improvement over the 5d2, but it still needs a good bit of work.

Drizz, I got the sarcasm crystal clear

I'm giving you a hard time because so often such sarcasm or some form of snarkiness is used to dismiss the comments of those of us who expected more from the 5D3 in comparison to the arguably ground breaking 5D2.  This has been argued to death by now, but given the zero increase in DR and resolution, *I* expected either a dramatic improvement in high iso performance or a $2,500 price tag.  We received neither. 

[SandyP]

For anyone using the 5D Mark III in any serious shooting, and especially for their profession, I know very few people who would complain about the price. It's fine. The camera is such a big improvement over anything before it. Well worth the money, well worth it indeed.

The sensor isn't nearly as similar as people are describing. This is probably the most ridiculous forum for photographers out there, reading through this place is sometimes so hilarious. The camera appeals to so many aspects of photography that it never did or could have really catered to before. Haha.

The 1D-X is a mighty piece of gear, for what the 5D3 is, I have absolutely no need for the 1D-X, and I personally know a good handful of people who feel the same way. The 1D-X was announced officially before the 5D3 ever was, and A lot of us were saying "there's my next camera", but the second the 5D3 was official, that all changed.

[Marsu42]

The sensor isn't nearly as similar as people are describing..

You're correct, there have been sensor changes from the 5d2 to the 5d3 - a little bit more mp with the tradeoff of a little decrease in dr and some loss of sharpness due to the stronger aa filter :-p ... ok, and to be fair somewhat less banding and a nicer nose pattern.

But all these things are minor, the observation that matters to me personally is that I cannot or can hardly tell 5d2 & 5d3 apart in raw samples up to iso3200. Spoken the other way around, of course the 5d3 is the camera to get if money is no issue.

This has been argued to death by now, but given the zero increase in DR and resolution, *I* expected either a dramatic improvement in high iso performance or a $2,500 price tag.  We received neither.

Since even the 1dx threads arrive at the 5d3 sensor again it's safe to say the 1dx is a winner because there's hardly anything to complain about in comparison to what you'd expect from a real flagship camera body.

[jaduffy007]

The only thing Nikon beat Canon with the D800 is the megapixels and price (not enough for me and many photographers to switch sides). Everything else, the Mark III does much better.

Actually the D800 not only has a lot more resolution but the quality of those pixels are better, clean shadows, etc.  Medium format digital dynamic range too.   Qualities I have paid 10's of 1000's of dollars for, now in a $3000 body. In contrast canon is milking its loyal base.

"Everything else much better", such as?  I don't know about you, but resolution, DR are pretty much top of my list of priorities. I'm going to resist rehashing this tired old argument in detail, but I can't think of anything the 5d3 does "much better". And just to be clear, I'm not saying the 5d3 is a bad camera, just over priced relative to competing products.

I'm not suggesting it's worth switching sides over ...yet...but that point is within sight.  I dont think it serves us to embrace an "ignorance is bliss" mentality, pretending the advantages of the D800 are not highly desirable.