Just bought 3 latest Japanese photo magazines (Digital Camera, Asahi Camera and Capa), all March issues and all 3 compared the D2x with 1DmkII and 1Ds mkII.
The conclusion is image quality wise it is more detailed than the 1DmkII but maybe not the 1Ds mkII. Noise wise it is still no competition when compared with the 2 1D cameras at ISO 800 and above. The D2X allows user to set 2 levels of noise reduction which would affect details.
AF wise D2x when coupled with the AFS70-200 2.8 VR and Canons coupled with EF70-200 2.8IS both Canons can yield an average servo accuracy of about 10% higher than the D2X (shooting an inbound train traveling at around 50km/h). But with wide aperture AF telephoto, the D2X does seems to provide a more accurate AF sensor array than Canon, better by like 5% with the 1Ds mkII the worst of all 3 cameras by a slight margin.
One of the reviewer even plotted the D2X's shutter noise pattern in a 3D color chart which I don't really understand or care.
In A1 prints the D2x beats the 1D mkII in terms of resolution, but the 1DsmkII still wins as expected. In standard color mode the D2X does seems more vibrant than the 2 Canon cameras, higher saturation and contrast. Yes you can still tell the resolution difference between 16.7mega versus 12.4mega but only with very large prints or after some heavy cropping.
In terms of highlight retention, the D2X does an admirable job in spite of its dense sensor, based on Digital camera's tests, can be just as good as the 2 Canon's but I cannot tell how well controlled the experiment is.
In terms of CF card write performance, on average the D2X is slower:
10 consecutive frames of RAW + Jpeg
with Sandisk 1GB Ultra II:
D2X 28 sec, 1Ds mk II 17.02 sec, 1D mkII 15.68sec
with IBM 1GB microdrive:
D2X 82.41 sec, 1Ds mkII 41sec, 1D mkII 22.13sec
With pure Jpegs the margin is much smaller between the Canons and Nikon per frame wise.
One of the reviewers commented that with the wide angle Nikon 12-24 DX zoom the Nikon can provide better corner performance than Canon's less than optimal wide angle zooms like the EF16-35 2.8L at fullframe. ( I guess the 20D when coupled with the EFS10-22 can also provide pretty good corner performance?) I haven't tried Nikon's wide angle zooms but I would agree Canon needs to really work on to improve their wide angle zooms especially the 16-35 doesn't really work fullframe. And that's why there are so many talks on this forum about retrofitting Zeiss lenses to Canon fullframe bodies.
All reviewers are keen about the larger D2X display, the interface and the lighter Nikon body than the Canon. Yup I wish Canon can make the 1D body 20% lighter with Lithium ion batteries and a more accurate battery level display like Nikon's. Nikon's rated 2,000 frames battery life is impressive, too.
So based on my limited Japanese, the D2x is a very competent camera and I am glad that to be the case as a Canon user coz that would stimulate Canon engineers to produce something even better(not that the 1Ds mkII is not good enough!).
It's doubtful the D2X will start shipping in 5 days when Nikon is only doing limited demo of the body at PMA and not letting the public shoot their own test shots on the show floor. That's a classic symptom of a product not yet ready for prime time.
Schemeloong wrote:
Yup I wish Canon can make the 1D body 20% lighter with Lithium ion batteries and a more accurate battery level display like Nikon's. Nikon's rated 2,000 frames battery life is impressive, too.
Contrary to widespread assumption, Lithium-Ion batteries may not be the best solution. Such batteries age rather rapidly whether or not they are used. A Lithium-Ion battery will have lost most of its ability to take a charge after two to three years of storage, whereas a Ni-MH battery can be stored for many years, in particular if given a little charge from time to time. For that reason you cannot store spare Lithium-Ion batteries for many years, and you are dependent on a constant supply of batteries. When that supply dries up, that expensive camera using Lithium-Ion will be useless after two years, no matter how well it functions as long as a new battery is available at the store around the corner.
That kind of potentially disastrous technological short-sightedness is something to avoid. Read more about Lithium-Ions here:
"A unique drawback that we can see to the Li-Ion battery is that its life cycle is dependent upon aging from time of manufacturing (shelf life) regardless if it was charged or not and not on the number of charge/discharge cycles. This drawback is not widely publicized."
I remember reading here in FM a threat where a guy opened his dead 1D serie battery and replaced interior with handful of AA's. Now that's a brilliant idea.
If a thirth party would begin to make battery compartments like these where one could easily change normal batteries, IMO no need for Li-Ion
MR has made a few comments on the D2X so far -- basically saying that noise at higher ISO's is not as good as the 1Ds2 but lower ISO's can yield (within the limited time he had to view them) stunning prints.
My interest is in seeing how this camera stacks up against the 1D2 rather than the 1Ds2 as I'm MORE than satisfied with the 1D2.
Given the difference in pixel size the real difference in potential resolution between the 12 MP D2x and the 8MP 1D2 won't be hugely significant (again IMO) and at 13 X 19 sizes probably won't even be noticeable.
I'd love to see in practice however.
(As far as batteries are concerned --life of the 1D2 batteries whatever technology they employ is certainly NOT an issue amongst 1D2 shooters. Newer technology might work better but there are other things I'd rather have like a Wifi option that doesn't cost a wallet busting 1000 USD which Canon's one does currently even if you could get hold of it soon).
I am not concerned with the total life of my 1 series battery camera but I would like Canon to employ Lithium battery for a lighter camera, I don't mind to replace my battery once a year for a significant reduction in overall camera weight, as for my other P&S their batteries can last for at least 2 years so total battery life is not quite an issue. And I would never store my 1D camera for over a month.
Schemeloong wrote:
I am not concerned with the total life of my 1 series battery camera but I would like Canon to employ Lithium battery for a lighter camera, I don't mind to replace my battery once a year for a significant reduction in overall camera weight, as for my other P&S their batteries can last for at least 2 years so total battery life is not quite an issue. And I would never store my 1D camera for over a month.
Of course one does not normally store one's camera for long periods without using it.
The point is this: With Lithium-Ion batteries, they will be aged and useless in around two years irrespective of whether or not you are using them.
With Ni-MH batteries, you can buy spare batteries and store them for many years. Thus, you can have certainty that your camera will be useful for a much longer period even if the supply of batteries stops for one reason or another. Not so with Lithium-Ion, since you are dependent on a constant supply.
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