{"id":7319,"date":"2011-10-23T10:24:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T14:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=7319"},"modified":"2011-10-23T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2011-10-23T17:20:42","slug":"canon-eos-1d-x-revelations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/10\/23\/canon-eos-1d-x-revelations\/","title":{"rendered":"Canon EOS-1D X Revelations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Chinstrap Penguins on iceberg, Coronation Island, South Orkney Islands. This image was created with the Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens <\/a> (hand held at 180mm) and the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2\/3 stops: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/8 in Av Mode. <\/p>\n

For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it. You can order this image (as well as any BAA image) as either a canvas or a traditional print for your home or office here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Canon EOS-1D X Revelations<\/h3>\n

When I first heard that as presently configured the newly introduced Canon EOS-1D X flagship professional digital dSLR camera body would not AF beyond f\/5.6 I was stunned. No autofocus with the 800mm f\/5.6L IS and the EF 1.4X III telecovnerter. No autofocus with the soon to arrive 500mm f\/4L IS II or the 600mm f\/4L IS II and the EF 2X III teleconveter. Whew, that tough to hear. It seems that it is possible that this situation may be fixable either with a software update or with the addition of an additional custom function. (As a non-techie I am not sure that there is a great difference between the two possible solutions.) <\/p>\n

In any case, I was thinking last night while on the edge of sleep that I had used a full frame digital camera for a year in 2004, the old dinosaur, the EOS-1Ds, and for two years during 2006 and 2007, the EOS-1Ds Mark II. Whew. I loved that camera. I just did a quick check on my 36 canvas print gallery images; nine were created with the full frame EOS-1Ds Mark II and of those, only two were with a big lens and the 2X teleconverter…. <\/p>\n

I still have not had time to take a really good look at the 1D X announcement<\/a> to check out all of the great new features but a recent BPN thread on the new body had a link to Doug Brown’s blog. Doug one of out great moderators in the Avian Forum (along with Dan Cadieux, Randy Stout, Kaustubh Deshpande, Stuart Bowie, and yours truly). I followed the link and was quite impressed with the job that Doug did. Doug is one of the new-school 600mm\/1.4X\/Mark IV hand holding flight photographers. (Count me out of that club.) Doug is quite skilled at it; he garnered his first BBC Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition-honored image in last year’s contest. (You can see Doug’s honored photo here<\/a>.) And be sure to visit Doug’s web site here<\/a>. Be sure to check out the various galleries; there is tons of amazing stuff in them. Reprinted below, with his permission, is Doug Brown’s take on the new EOS-1D X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Bufflehead drake in flight. Image copyright 2011 and courtesy of Doug Brown Photography. Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, 600mm f\/4L IS + 1.4x. ISO 1600: 1\/1600 at f\/5.6. Manual exposure, hand held.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Canon Announces EOS-1D X Pro Body<\/a> by Doug Brown<\/h3>\n

October 19th, 2011<\/h2>\n

Canon yesterday announced a new pro body, the EOS-1D X; it represents the fusion of the 1D and 1D s bodies. Highlights include an 18 MP full-frame sensor, superior high ISO performance, an all-new AF system, improved white balance and metering, a 12-14 fps shooting speed, and dual CF card slots. With all of these new and enhanced features, the price has moved up significantly from the 1D Mark IV\u2019s price point; $6,800 to be exact.<\/p>\n

The new autofocus system has 61 AF points, compared to the Mark IV\u2019s 45 points. More importantly, with an f\/4 lens, 41 of the 1D x\u2019s 61 focus points are of the more sensitive cross-type variety (all but the black focus points below). In contrast, on the Mark IV only a single focus point (the center one) is cross-type with an f\/4 lens. If you put a 1.4x extender on your f\/4 supertelephoto lens (resulting in an f\/5.6 maximum aperture), 21 of the new body\u2019s focus points remain cross-type (the focus points in the red box below). The Mark IV drops to zero cross-type points. Five points in the center have additional AF sensitivity when used with an f\/2.8 or faster lens (the column of 5 blue points in the red box). Here are a few other enhancements to the 1D x\u2019s AF. The AF coverage area is expanded on the left and right of the frame, there is improved low-light and low-contrast AF performance, and both color and face detection can now be incorporated into the AF algorithm. Canon claims that AF can now be achieved when shooting in moonlight. I think we\u2019re going to see some definite real-world AF performance improvement, and I\u2019m looking forward to putting this new body through its AF paces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This diagram shows the AF point configuration for the new Canon EOS-1D X.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

I should also mention that access to AF features is greatly enhanced in the 1D x; the camera borrows some excellent features from the 7D. Canon added a multifunction button to both the horizontal and vertical controls; that button can be used to choose the AF point selection mode (spot, single point, single point with surrounding 4 points, single point with surrounding 8 points, zone selection, and automatic AF point selection). These selections can now be made without taking your eye out of the viewfinder; previously you had to go into one of the custom function menus on the rear LCD screen to make these changes. Spot AF was fairly clumsy on the Mark IV, but couldn\u2019t be easier to select on the 1D x. Autofocus functions now have their own menu tab, no longer appearing as a custom function submenu; descriptions and examples of each menu item are displayed on the LCD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This diagram shows the AF Area Selection Modes. (Note: these modes will be similar to those offered on the EOS-7D.) <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

High ISO performance is reported to be 2 stops better than the Mark IV; if true this opens up a new world to bird photographers using Canon gear. I have no doubt that Canon had the Nikon D3s in its sights when it designed the 1D x. I have high hopes that the 1D x will outperform the D3s with its high-ISO noise levels. Dynamic range is also said to be wider than before.<\/p>\n

White balance accuracy has been significantly improved, especially when photographing portraits and sunsets, and when photographing under low color temperature light sources. Metering zones have been increased 4x, from the Mark IV\u2019s 63 to 252 in the 1D x. The metering system is now able to detect both color and the presence of faces in a scene. For those of you who like to microadjust your lenses, Canon has a few new feature for you. You can now set microadjustments for both the wide angle and telephoto focal lengths of your zoom lenses. If you have multiple copies of the same lens, the microadjustment tool now stores settings by lens serial number. The viewfinder has identical specs to the 1Ds Mark III, but they\u2019ve added a translucent LCD screen like the one found in the 7D. This new screen is built to withstand much colder temperatures than the 7D\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Canon has added a Quick Control button to the back of the camera that functions in the same way that the 7D\u2019s does; camera settings can be quickly and easily viewed and adjusted from a single screen. There is a also a Custom Control screen that allows you to map functions to the various buttons on the camera, just like on the 7D. You\u2019ll also find that there are now 3 available custom shooting modes (C1, C2, and C3). These allow you to memorize 3 commonly used groupings of camera settings. As an example C1 could be Av mode, one shot AF, spot AF, single shot mode, f\/8, 1\/1000, and ISO 400. C2 might be manual exposure, AI servo AF, focus point expansion, high speed drive, f\/5.6, 1\/2500, and ISO 800. With the push of a button all of these settings will be changed automatically.<\/p>\n

There are many other new and improved features, but those listed above are some of the biggies.<\/p>\n

The 1D X is an impressive camera body to be sure, but what are its drawbacks? Probably the single most important drawback is that the 1D x is no longer able to autofocus at f\/8. This means that you won\u2019t be able to use a 2x on the 400 DO, 500, or 600 and get AF. You can also forget about the 800 with a 1.4x. Many bird photographers are up in arms over the loss of this feature. There\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019s nice to be able to AF at extreme focal lengths, but in all honesty 99.99% of my images are taken with maximum apertures of f\/5.6 or larger. If sacrificing f\/8 AF results in a substantially higher keeper rate for my other frames, it\u2019s a sacrifice that I\u2019m willing to make (but I\u2019ll be keeping my Mark IV, which does AF at f\/8). Next up is the megapixel count of the sensor. An 18 MP full-frame sensor produces outstanding images when you can fill the frame with subject. But let\u2019s say you want to crop your image down to APS-H size. You\u2019ll be left with only about 11 MP, a sizable drop from the Mark IV\u2019s 16 MP and closer to the Mark III\u2019s 10 MP. People are concerned about the how the image quality will hold up to cropping, since the loss of the 1.3 \u2018crop factor\u2019 sensor is going to result in more cropping by bird photographers. I have precious little experience with full-frame bodies in bird photography, but the full-frame Nikon shooters seem to do pretty well with their 12 MP sensors. The 1D x has 50% more pixels than the D3s. The last issue that looms large is the price. I\u2019ve never had a problem spending big bucks on quality glass because it holds its value over time. Camera bodies depreciate like cars do (fast and furious); this isn\u2019t as important when the bodies are reasonably priced, but I won\u2019t be too happy to see my $6,800 body lose $3,400 in value in 2 years.<\/p>\n

I had planned on upgrading both my 500mm and 600mm lenses this year, but I\u2019m now starting to question whether my 500 will see much use on a full-frame body. Thank goodness Canon put the new 600 on a diet and brought the weight down to that of the current 500; they also trimmed 3 feet off of the MFD of the 600, giving it the same close focus as the current 500mm lens. The EOS-1Dx will be available in March of next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Wood Duck drake in flight. Image copyright 2011 and courtesy of Doug Brown Photography. Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, 400mm f\/5.6L. ISO 800: 1\/1600 at f\/5.6. Manual exposure, hand held. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Thanks a stack Doug! I hope to see you at Bosque this year. BTW, after taking a closer look at the 1D X and reading Doug’s article it seems clear that not only is the new camera a fusion of the 1D and 1Ds series but that it incorporates many of the features of the hugely popular Canon EOS-7D as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Chinstrap Penguins on iceberg, Coronation Island, South Orkney Islands. This image was created with the Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens (hand held at 180mm) and the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2\/3 stops: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/8 in Av Mode. <\/p>\n

For a greater appreciation of the image, click […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}