Need education as to Image Quality

[chauncey]

I spoke with tech support this AM on a side matter but we got to talking about the IQ of the new 1DX.
She said the image quality and crop ability was better than my 1Ds MkIII...how can 18 MP crop as well/much as 21 MP, assuming <1000 ISO?

 

[RLPhoto]

I spoke with tech support this AM on a side matter but we got to talking about the IQ of the new 1DX.
She said the image quality and crop ability was better than my 1Ds MkIII...how can 18 MP crop as well/much as 21 MP, assuming <1000 ISO?

from 100-400 ISO on the 1Dsmk3, Is the undisputed king of IQ canons has ever made. The 1DX has its work cutout but I dont see it cropping more that 21mp.

 

[unfocused]

I will defer to the techies on this site, but a wild guess would be that the gapless microlenses used on the new sensor might have something to do with it.

 

[Drizzt321]

It's a very good question, it seems (from what I've been reading on the boards) that low ISO IQ on the Canon side has remained steady or even gone down slightly in the latest generation or two. The higher MP (overall) has generally compensated just fine as many people don't need prints out to 2'x3' or anything like that. The real push the past few years has be high ISO performance (>=1600), however from what I've seen from the DxO stuff, Canons generally nose dive on DR at high ISO, although at the extremes (6400? 25600?) I think the 5d3 has better DR than D800 and ends up having a bit more IQ.

Can't speak to the 1DX, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was at best about the same (pixel peeping) IQ at low ISOs. At high ISOs, especially extremes, I'd say it'll probably end up having overall better IQ than the last generation.

In terms of real-world impact of IQ, I'd say a lot depends on your workflow, what you do, and what you deem to be bad/better/good/best IQ.

 

[chauncey]

It sounds as if that, unless I want to delve into the higher ISO environment, there is really no reason to upgrage...agreed?

 

[Drizzt321]

It sounds as if that, unless I want to delve into the higher ISO environment, there is really no reason to upgrage...agreed?

There's probably things like improved AF w/new RGB linked metering, dual CF UDMA7 cards, slightly higher fps (I think), updated menu system, things like that. Probably several others as well. So if your work really depends on some or all of those, might be a good reason to upgraded (of course the high ISO performance as well). If it doesn't or the current camera doesn't really limit you at all, then much more of a nebulous reason to upgrade.

Not being a working photographer I don't necessarily have to make those kinds of comparisons as much, although if I were for me the vastly improved AF system of the 5d3 over 5d2, plus the nicer high ISO performance probably would have pushed me towards upgrading to the 5d3 anyway (I like to shoot in darker venues, music, etc).