Your Canon EOS-1D X user tips

[Bosman]

I will have to try the safety shift since it now includes iso. My 5d & 1DM3 don't have it so its new to me. I remember trying it in 2007 and found at the time if it was underexposed at least i can work with it but if its blurry its useless. I shot Aperture priority then but use manual for most my work now.
Viggo, i thought the guide was pretty good at explaining it plus in camera you can check info for each setting and it will explain what it does. If you guys go to like an office supplies place it can be printed but i would use the 12mg version of this document because i downsized this one for posting. I'd try case 5 or 6 for kids!
For instance i wanted bikes case 3 for shooting bikes @ triathlons, when you select the case the info button explains its use then when you go to adjust tracking sensitivity, Accel./decel tracking, or af point auto switching you can press and hold the info button and it further explains what changes to the sensitivities will mean. I kept it the same but changed the accel/decel to zero from 1 because i wanted it to track better than switch subjects. This setting means quick refocussing for each new subject but hold the tracking down so as not to end up focusing on another bike without your intent if the focus point moves slightly off your subject.

Thanks, I just watched the video, I didn't have time to read the AF-guide through yet. But the info on the display is okay I guess, but I feel like I'm just trying stuff and going back to case 1 as that gives the best results, however it doesn't work when there's a very sudden change of speed or direction. I'll give the other cases a more thorough try and read through the guide.

On a happy sidenot I shot my son indoor in okay, but not great light with the 85 L II, and shot off 8 pictures at 12 fps and it tracked his face hidden under a cap VERY nicely! All of them same level sharp.

Middle of the burst, I liked this one because of the mid air capture and his face being a victim to gravity

I dig the photo Vig!

 

[Viggo]

I will have to try the safety shift since it now includes iso. My 5d & 1DM3 don't have it so its new to me. I remember trying it in 2007 and found at the time if it was underexposed at least i can work with it but if its blurry its useless. I shot Aperture priority then but use manual for most my work now.
Viggo, i thought the guide was pretty good at explaining it plus in camera you can check info for each setting and it will explain what it does. If you guys go to like an office supplies place it can be printed but i would use the 12mg version of this document because i downsized this one for posting. I'd try case 5 or 6 for kids!
For instance i wanted bikes case 3 for shooting bikes @ triathlons, when you select the case the info button explains its use then when you go to adjust tracking sensitivity, Accel./decel tracking, or af point auto switching you can press and hold the info button and it further explains what changes to the sensitivities will mean. I kept it the same but changed the accel/decel to zero from 1 because i wanted it to track better than switch subjects. This setting means quick refocussing for each new subject but hold the tracking down so as not to end up focusing on another bike without your intent if the focus point moves slightly off your subject.

Thanks, I just watched the video, I didn't have time to read the AF-guide through yet. But the info on the display is okay I guess, but I feel like I'm just trying stuff and going back to case 1 as that gives the best results, however it doesn't work when there's a very sudden change of speed or direction. I'll give the other cases a more thorough try and read through the guide.

On a happy sidenot I shot my son indoor in okay, but not great light with the 85 L II, and shot off 8 pictures at 12 fps and it tracked his face hidden under a cap VERY nicely! All of them same level sharp.

Middle of the burst, I liked this one because of the mid air capture and his face being a victim to gravity

I dig the photo Vig!

Thanks! Just a snapshot really, but the 1d X is like the first time I watched "Time Warp" , I catch moments I haven't seen in my pictures before... Loving it!

The edge of the cap is blurry and his ears are blurry at f1,6, but eyes sharp, I think that is pretty incredible, he was running fast and was very close to me.

 

[Bosman]

I will have to try the safety shift since it now includes iso. My 5d & 1DM3 don't have it so its new to me. I remember trying it in 2007 and found at the time if it was underexposed at least i can work with it but if its blurry its useless. I shot Aperture priority then but use manual for most my work now.
Viggo, i thought the guide was pretty good at explaining it plus in camera you can check info for each setting and it will explain what it does. If you guys go to like an office supplies place it can be printed but i would use the 12mg version of this document because i downsized this one for posting. I'd try case 5 or 6 for kids!
For instance i wanted bikes case 3 for shooting bikes @ triathlons, when you select the case the info button explains its use then when you go to adjust tracking sensitivity, Accel./decel tracking, or af point auto switching you can press and hold the info button and it further explains what changes to the sensitivities will mean. I kept it the same but changed the accel/decel to zero from 1 because i wanted it to track better than switch subjects. This setting means quick refocussing for each new subject but hold the tracking down so as not to end up focusing on another bike without your intent if the focus point moves slightly off your subject.

Thanks, I just watched the video, I didn't have time to read the AF-guide through yet. But the info on the display is okay I guess, but I feel like I'm just trying stuff and going back to case 1 as that gives the best results, however it doesn't work when there's a very sudden change of speed or direction. I'll give the other cases a more thorough try and read through the guide.

On a happy sidenot I shot my son indoor in okay, but not great light with the 85 L II, and shot off 8 pictures at 12 fps and it tracked his face hidden under a cap VERY nicely! All of them same level sharp.

Middle of the burst, I liked this one because of the mid air capture and his face being a victim to gravity

I dig the photo Vig!

Thanks! Just a snapshot really, but the 1d X is like the first time I watched "Time Warp" , I catch moments I haven't seen in my pictures before... Loving it!

The edge of the cap is blurry and his ears are blurry at f1,6, but eyes sharp, I think that is pretty incredible, he was running fast and was very close to me.

Dad is a paparazzi!

 

[Loswr]

...the 1d X is like the first time I watched "Time Warp" , I catch moments I haven't seen in my pictures before...

+1 - I really love those key moments captured at 12 fps that would have been between frames with most other cameras.


EOS 1D X, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 70mm, 1/200 s, f/2.8, ISO 100

 

[Bosman]

Impecable shot Neuro! dont you love how well the camera renders color? I have the 5dm3 and if its anything like that the colors are pretty accurate most the time!

 

[Bosman]

Ok i am highjacking because mine is bigger.

 

[Viggo]

Awesome shots, and very inspiring!

I'm going to a Wakeboard contest tomorrow, now, take a wild guess if I miss my 300 f2,8 for that!

I'll at least go and see how close I can get with the 135.

Which case would be the best? I mean they move kind of crazy around their own axis, but they get pulled by boat or wire and keep a pretty constant movement forward, although going up and down.

I'm thinking 8 surrounded and case 5 or 6?

"dad is a paparazzi" I think I can document my kids life by the minute in pictures, ;D

 

[Richard Lane]

I'm going to a Wakeboard contest tomorrow, now, take a wild guess if I miss my 300 f2,8 for that!

Which case would be the best? I mean they move kind of crazy around their own axis, but they get pulled by boat or wire and keep a pretty constant movement forward, although going up and down.

I'm thinking 8 surrounded and case 5 or 6?

That's a total bummer about about the 300 f/2.8. I would agree with you that Case 5 or 6, sounds about right. It seems that the only difference between 5 and 6 is the accel/decel setting. Case 5 provides for a more steady speed and Case 6 appears to be better for changes in speed.

Case 5 example has a skateboarder and a figure skater.
Case 6 example has a Rhythmic Gymnast.

Although wake-boarders are pulled by the boat, they can generate a lot of acceleration when jumping across the wake while pulling on the rope. Then when they land they do slow down a bit as they hit the water. They can also generate some acceleration by turning sharply and cutting behind the boat. Since I think the wakeboarder can generate more accel/decel than the skateboarder, I would probably try case 6 first.

I would agree with you that AF point expansion 8 surrounding points should be good.

Just some logical thinking here and no real experience, since the camera is so new.

Good Luck,
Rich

 

[Viggo]

I'm going to a Wakeboard contest tomorrow, now, take a wild guess if I miss my 300 f2,8 for that!

Which case would be the best? I mean they move kind of crazy around their own axis, but they get pulled by boat or wire and keep a pretty constant movement forward, although going up and down.

I'm thinking 8 surrounded and case 5 or 6?

That's a total bummer about about the 300 f/2.8. I would agree with you that Case 5 or 6, sounds about right. It seems that the only difference between 5 and 6 is the accel/decel setting. Case 5 provides for a more steady speed and Case 6 appears to be better for changes in speed.

Case 5 example has a skateboarder and a figure skater.
Case 6 example has a Rhythmic Gymnast.

Although wake-boarders are pulled by the boat, they can generate a lot of acceleration when jumping across the wake while pulling on the rope. Then when they land they do slow down a bit as they hit the water. They can also generate some acceleration by turning sharply and cutting behind the boat. Since I think the wakeboarder can generate more accel/decel than the skateboarder, I would probably try case 6 first.

I would agree with you that AF point expansion 8 surrounding points should be good.

Just some logical thinking here and no real experience, since the camera is so new.

Good Luck,
Rich

Thanks! This seems very much like what I was thinking, but better !

 

[WesternGuy]

I would like to thank Borman for the reference to AF Manual and Richard Lane for the references to the online tutorials. They will help me learn the ins and outs of my new 1D X.

WesternGuy

 

[Viggo]

Reikan Focal with 1d X support released (version 1.6)

Excellent, thanks for the update!!

FWIW, just like the 5DIII you need to use the MSC mode, fully automatic calibration isn't available.

Did you get it to work at all?

Mine won't recognize the camera half the time, then not restore settings, then error trying to set it up, and when it finally managed to run a whole test, the distance to target was set at 3,5 meters,but FoCal said 6,9 meters, and the adjustment was WAY off, -5 while I had mine at +2. The Light was 10,4 EV outdoors. Evenly lit and all that.

 

[Loswr]

Haven't tried it yet. No real need, since I did almost all my lenses already with full manual. The only calibrations I haven't done are the 70-200 II with the TCs (and actually, I just sold my 1.4x II and ordered a 1.4x III that hasn't shipped yet). I'll probably give it a try within a couple of weeks.

Question - once you got it to work, how long did a single run take you? Taking the 83 shots I capture for a full manual set takes me about 10 min.

 

[Viggo]

Haven't tried it yet. No real need, since I did almost all my lenses already with full manual. The only calibrations I haven't done are the 70-200 II with the TCs (and actually, I just sold my 1.4x II and ordered a 1.4x III that hasn't shipped yet). I'll probably give it a try within a couple of weeks.

Question - once you got it to work, how long did a single run take you? Taking the 83 shots I capture for a full manual set takes me about 10 min.

Yeah it took at least 10 minutes, but even then the results is useless, so I don't know when it works properly. I 've tried three computers with different windows now.

When I validate target it says Distance is 10,3 meters now, but I measured my self, and it's 3,2 meters!

 

[Loswr]

Did you measure the line on the target and enter that value in the optimization setup?

With the 7D and 5DII, the distance wasn't that accurate either, but the results were valid.

 

[Viggo]

Did you measure the line on the target and enter that value in the optimization setup?

With the 7D and 5DII, the distance wasn't that accurate either, but the results were valid.

Yeah, no I didn't, well, actually I did, but I measured wrong, because I was dumb enough to begin with this before I had my first coffee.

I have printed a few different verisons today and got something that worked. I had to use a lamp eventually because the daylight never came above 7,5 ev today, I don't what's going on with this "summer".

But now all lenses are done, and I also checked AF consistency and it turns out the 50 L is 97,9 and everything else is 99,5. I 'm pretty shocked. BTW is "Quality of focus" the same as overall sharpness? Or how do I read that?

I'm also surprised that the 50 L is sharper at 1,8 than 2.0-2.2. I have always used it at 1,2 and 1,8 or at 5,6 for sharpness. The sharpest was f5.0.

It couldn't calibrate my 100 L IS for some reason, but only the misses uses it anyway ;D

 

[kaihp]

But now all lenses are done, and I also checked AF consistency and it turns out the 50 L is 97,9 and everything else is 99,5. I 'm pretty shocked. BTW is "Quality of focus" the same as overall sharpness? Or how do I read that?

If it's the quality measure of the AF consistency test, then it's 100*Qbest/Qmean (actually, manual says (Qbest/Qmean*100)-100.0, but that is obviously wrong). I did not find the "Quality of Focus" measure for an individual shot defined anywhere in the manuals.

 

[Aaron78]

Don't mean to butt in on this post, but does anyone that owns the 1dx have anything they don't like so far? I sold my 5dII to get one, and really loved the sharpness from it but wanted an updated system. Can you crop photos as well with the 1dx as, say, the 5dII and 5dIII and be still super sharp? How does everyone feel about the dynamic range? Thank you

 

[bdunbar79]

Don't mean to butt in on this post, but does anyone that owns the 1dx have anything they don't like so far? I sold my 5dII to get one, and really loved the sharpness from it but wanted an updated system. Can you crop photos as well with the 1dx as, say, the 5dII and 5dIII and be still super sharp? How does everyone feel about the dynamic range? Thank you

I can say that the exposure is more accurate and the colors are more accurate, on the 1DX vs either 5D's. You cannot quite crop as far on the 1DX as you can on the 5D3. It's not a huge difference, just be careful about lens choice vs. object you are shooting to ensure that you don't have to do a ton of cropping. For most typical crops, the 1DX is just great. The pictures from the 1DX tend to look a bit better than the 5D3.

 

[bdunbar79]

This is an exposure out of cam. As you can see, it is high sun overhead, but I couldn't control the time of the parade, so I went with the 1DX because I KNEW it would meter in auto ISO better than the 5D3. I shot this at 70mm, with a 70-200L II IS lens, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 500 (auto ISO), with CWA metering. The 5D3 probably would have pushed the histogram to the right more, but not with the 1DX.

 

[Viggo]

+1 the exposure doesn't seem like a big selling point, but my God it is!!! The 1d X is almost completely perfect and 100% consistent.