1DX vs 5D3

[briansquibb]

I am waiting patiently for my 1DX

Then I will do my own tests:

- I shoot in good light, so most of my photos are at iso 400 or less
- if natural light isn't good enough then out come the flashes

So far for my style of shooting:

5D classic and 1Ds2 render differently than the 7D - IMO much nicer
1Ds3 renders better than the 1D4 and gives better IQ
1Ds3 and 1Ds2 are much harder to separate, apart from the 16 and 21mps

1 Series have the AF point metering
1 Series have better (more accurate) AF than the equivalent technology others

Hence 1 Series get more keepers from a series

Below is a picture of Bayeux Cathedral (France) taken on a walkabout with my 1DS3

 

[bdunbar79]

I'm posting a quick, unedited 3 shots of landscapes, with 16-35L II lens, with the 1D X, 5D3, and 1D 4. The exposures were similar, at f/22, 1/125s, ISO 200 focusing distance the same. Again, these are RAW to JPEG immediately out of camera.

 

[bdunbar79]

Next is the 5D3.

 

[bdunbar79]

Finally 1D4.

 

[bdunbar79]

When I lined them up on my computer, the 1D X shot had much finer detail in the grasses in the lower half of the photos. All of them were shot in Portrait Mode.

My next series of shots are of a church, with a lot of details and shadows.

 

[risc32]

I really appreciate what your doing here, but unless i'm mistaken and i could very well be, isn't f22 well into the effects of diffraction? isn't the 1dx's diffraction limiting aperture a bit smaller than the others in this test? Does that give it a bit of an advantage? Personally i doubt there is much in it in terms of IQ, but under a scope the 5dmk3 should squeak out a win. But if the camera isn't focused, isn't even there due to the conditions, or just plain isn't fast enough to get the shot everything else is meaningless, and on that accord i'm sure the 1dx get's it done. I am very surprised to read how the 1dx's focusing is either the same, or something on the order of 15% faster. That's weird as my 1dmk2 is like an alcohol dragster compared to my 5dmk3. Oh it misses from time to time, but while the 5dmk3 is (relatively) slowly changing the focus to the correct setting, the 1dmk2 just jumps right there. like it didn't adjust, it just went directly to the correct focus position. bang! Then again it's lost in low light while my 5d and 5dmk3 are much better. Thanks again for your efforts here, i bet many eyes are on this thread.

 

[bdunbar79]

f/22 doesn't matter here. The cameras are focused at the same distance, about 5ft. I wanted a very deep DOF where f/22 gives the best without (me) noticing diffraction and yes f/11 and f/22 are different at a focusing distance of 5ft. I was not focused at infinity. I was not looking for a speed comparison in this test, I was looking at what camera might give me the best color rendition on a landscape shot out of camera with no processing. The 1D X won. I post-processed each the same and the 1D X looks better, and there is more detail in the grass. It also metered differently than the 5D3 and 1D4. This goes for the RAW and processed TIF and/or JPEG. So, at f/22, shutter 1/125s, ISO 200, focused at 5ft landscape shot, the 1D X looks better to me. Next will be an f/8 shot of a church, in enough light. Then, indoor shots at high ISO. And finally some sports/action shots. Obviously in sports/action, I cannot replicate images because they are changing, so I'll probably have to shoot a whole game and get an average of what looks best.

 

[Viggo]

How's the wakeup time compared to the 5d3? I'm still very annoyed and puzzled the 5d needs a week to wake up...

 

[bdunbar79]

How's the wakeup time compared to the 5d3? I'm still very annoyed and puzzled the 5d needs a week to wake up...

Super fast. I haven't found anything I didn't like yet with this camera. You turn it on, you start shooting.

 

[Chris Burch]

So far I only have one legit shoot under my belt with the 1DX hanging from one shoulder and the 5D3 from the other. I shot a choir concert in a poorly lit church, so I got to work out the high ISO. I just started editing the photos but have a few observations so far.

- Image quality seems to be equal or so close that it doesn't matter to me.

- Now that I can limit the range on both cameras, I shot on auto ISO (only done that a couple of times). I limited the 1DX to 25,600 and the 5D3 to 12,800 based on some other reviews I have read. All of the shots seem to be very usable. When I am done editing, I'll have a little better idea, but I never went beyond 4,000 on my 5D2, so this is interesting new territory.

- AF performance seemed to be equal. I occasionally switched to AI Servo because there were some dancers and had a few misses on the 1DX -- I rarely use AI-Servo so it might be able to my technique to fault.

- Shutter speed/feel/response...I cranked up the low-speed continuous shoot to 6/sec on the 1DX (it's programmable) and did a lot of multiple-shot sequences and really found it to be responsive. On the 5D3 I only use the silent mode, and that's about 3/sec so it's automatically slower and it's sort of apples and oranges. I suspect the full-speed 5D3 isn't so different that the low speed 1DX. I will say that the lack of a real or even usable silent option on the 1DX is annoying the heck out of me. For weddings or quite music concerts or anything quite for that matter the silent mode is a godsend.

- Exposure...this one is the biggest difference from my viewpoint. The 1DX nailed the exposure in almost every shot. I'm very curious to see how it handles flash shooting, but the 5D3 was way off on a lot of exposures while I was shooting. If you don't shoot very often in auto modes, this won't be a factor though. Even with the noisy shutter, I ended up using my 1DX almost 90% of the time on the shoot because of the exposure accuracy. It was very mixed lighting, so having it accurate without compensation was very nice.

If you already have 2 5D3's I would advise you to stick with what you have and you shouldn't think twice about it. The value of having 2 of the same cameras to shoot with is huge, so upgrading both would be an extra $6K investment for not a whole lot extra. If you were shooting sports it's a no-brainer to make the leap, but the 5D3 is a superb wedding camera and that silent mode is major bonus.

I have a tennis tournament to shoot in Sept, so maybe that will settle me on the 1DX. By then, I'll probably upgrade my 70-200 to the new version as well, so it should be a dream combo. At 12 frames/sec I should be able to catch some stunning moments of play.

 

[bdunbar79]

Well well well. In my quest for proper testing among the 3 various cameras, I have had to consider a 4th, the 1Ds Mark III and I'll share why. A problem was found with the 5D Mark III. It could be a serious problem, and I have confirmation from several other photographers. Daytime, ISO 50-400, both the 5D3 and 1Ds3 are comparable. In fact, after post processing, yes the 5D3 looks just a little better. Now go shoot with the 5D3 under a tree in the shade, or indoors in tungsten and fluorescent lighting, and now you have green hues to the shadows and/or areas around highlights. I have some photos I'm going to share. This is a prominent problem if you examine my photos and another photographer's photos. I have many of them from both bodies I own.

Now, take the 1DX. You don't see this, nor do you in the 1D4 or 1Ds3. Seems a slight color accuracy problem with the 5D Mark III. It is also very difficult to get rid of these hues in post processing as I thought it was simply the white balance being slightly off. It isn't. You cannot adjust color temperature to get rid of the problem. The 1D bodies are not showing this effect.

I'll have some photos I'd like you to look at and evaluate. What this may mean is that the 5D Mark III is a much, much better daylight camera despite the high ISO capabilities than a low-light camera regarding color accuracy. Time will tell.

 

[briansquibb]

- Exposure...this one is the biggest difference from my viewpoint. The 1DX nailed the exposure in almost every shot. I'm very curious to see how it handles flash shooting, but the 5D3 was way off on a lot of exposures while I was shooting. If you don't shoot very often in auto modes, this won't be a factor though. Even with the noisy shutter, I ended up using my 1DX almost 90% of the time on the shoot because of the exposure accuracy. It was very mixed lighting, so having it accurate without compensation was very nice.

Could this be as much from the AF point metering as from the improved metering?

 

[bdunbar79]

Brian, I think there is a real problem here. I just got home and am going to take all 3 cameras downstairs and do some fluorescent lighting shooting. Be back shortly 8)

 

[bdunbar79]

Ok, I went down and did the FIRST test for EXPOSURE ONLY. I set up the same conditions, 105mm, f/8, 1/100s. The 5D3 read the correct exposure at ISO 6400. The 1DX gave the correct exposure at ISO 5000. I shot with the camera set to Fluorescent WB.

 

[bdunbar79]

I then purposefully overexposed to +2 EC. Notice the difference between what the 5D3 says and what the 1DX says:

 

[drjlo]

"Notice the difference between what the 5D3 says and what the 1DX says:"

Hmm, "says" what, where?

 

[bdunbar79]

"Notice the difference between what the 5D3 says and what the 1DX says:"

Hmm, "says" what, where?

Do you have something to contribute? Or are you just bored and lonely?

 

[briansquibb]

So at normal metering there is little difference between the 5DIII at iso6400 and the 1DX at iso5000 - presumably the iso differences are just calibration/efficiency

However pushing them both the same then the 1DX image doesn't fall apart like the 5DIII

Is that your conclusion?

 

[bdunbar79]

Let me first add these 1Ds3 and 1D4 photos. I couldn't push the 1Ds3 much, due to max ISO value, but I could the 1D4, which again, did not fall apart.

The 1DX and 1D4 don't fall apart and clearly the 5D3 does. Isn't that what it looks like?

 

[briansquibb]

That is very interesting.

The D800 fans say how much more they can push the shadows - perhaps we are seeing that against the 5DIII that is true - but against the 1DX that may not be true or not so obvious in the field. +2 is as much as I would expect.