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I think it has been almost a year now that some of you have owned and used 5DMkIII and 1DX.
I guess that is enough time for us to make up our minds about the benefits those new camera bodies have offered to our practice of photography.
How would you summarize the major gains, expressed as results, you have made by shooting with those cameras, compared to the previous models you had owned ?
In my case the key benefit of 1DX has been its excellent high ISO noise performance.
On one hand, low noise means significantly better IQ of my high ISO files. Moreover, I have been going out taking pictures with 1DX in much lower light levels than ever before.
Secondly, I am able to set my shutter speed and DoF more appropriately for the scene/target being photographed, without being under constant pressure to keep ISO under 800, and/or shoot with precarious and marginal exposure settings. The net effect here has been an improvement in capture quality as well as the keeper rate.
As far as autofocus capability is concerned (see the Note below), 1DX does represent a fair but not earthshattering improvement over my old 1DsMkII and 1DMkIIN. I think Canon should improve the speed of initial focus pickup, etc. I believe they also need to rethink their entire approach to AF system fine tuning by the user......those new 6 standard cases of Servo AF tracking are largely one muddled mess in my view.
Lastly, while 12 FPS can be helpful on occasion, that has not been a pivotal improvement for me. I'd be perfectly happy with the maximum rate of 8 FPS if they choose to increase the file size to, say, 30 MP. With high resolution lenses at our disposal, the 18 MP files sometimes look too "thin"....I guess, our expectations in that regard are on the rise too.
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Note: I am somewhat "harsh" when it comes to Servo AF performance. For several years I have been testing AF response of camera/lens combos on the same type of target and its motion: largely towards the camera, with the rate of focusing distance change typically 40-60 km/hr. It is important to note that such focusing speed is not the same as the target speed, and action photographers often mix up those two. For example, you can have a very fast falcon doing a flyby at 100 km/hr whereby the focusing distance change is minor, therefore the AF task would not be as challenging, although there would be difficulties of some other type, such as speed of the operator's response.
In other words, if you are trying to track a fast moving target, you have to look at that component of its speed vector which is coaxial with the lens, and which represents the focusing distance rate of change (i.e., focusing speed). The target speed vector component which is perpendicular to the lens axis does not represent (in an approximation) a change in focusing speed, since the focusing distance (in approximation) doesn't change. ( NB.:No focusing distance change means that focusing speed is zero after the initial AF lock had been achieved. )
Edited on Feb 18, 2013 at 07:31 AM · View previous versions
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