As promised, I did a more scientific comparison regarding ISO on the 1DX vs. 5D3. It actually involved a tripod. I hijacked my kids' room because I can black it out to my liking. Then I set up random stuff on their dresser, and fired away, with the pancake at f5.6. Focus was set on the iPhone.

You can download the whole tar ball of raw files, yes all 650MB (or one CD worth) of it. As I said on other occasions, I don't really do science projects like this, so take it or leave it

Novelty? I use the Voitlander 40mm F2.0 and gain a stop over my zooms-$400 though.

We do appreciate it Stan. I'm sure you knew you would be subject to folks asking this and that - and you did it anyway.

I hope you don't mind I just threw a little collage together of samples from your shots. I just tried to grab the same spot each time. 100% crops of course. This would just be for others to easily see some differences.

You're da man. I was just too lazy to do this - heck, I honestly would not know what knob to turn in PS to do this. So you did me (and all the other lazy bums on this forum) a huge favor

I'm actually shocked that I didn't get flamed in this thread yet, after what, 6 hours!

Thanks Stan I appreciate your time and effort.

Thanks Benny for breaking it down for these poor old eyes.

Jim

stanj wrote:
You're da man. I was just too lazy to do this - heck, I honestly would not know what knob to turn in PS to do this. So you did me (and all the other lazy bums on this forum) a huge favor

I'm actually shocked that I didn't get flamed in this thread yet, after what, 6 hours!

A. You have a lot of respect on this forum.

B. You did this voluntarily to give folks information. We appreciate that. (Hope y'all don't mind me speaking for you for a minute.)

Thanks, I'm glad you didn't mind.

surprisingly the 5D3 holds up pretty well vs the 1DX and what surprises me most is it seems the biggest difference i see is at 1600 which surprises me but of course it could be my computer screen!

The 1DX is remarkable... *drool*

BennyR wrote:
We do appreciate it Stan. I'm sure you knew you would be subject to folks asking this and that - and you did it anyway.

I hope you don't mind I just threw a little collage together of samples from your shots. I just tried to grab the same spot each time. 100% crops of course. This would just be for others to easily see some differences.


FYI, Adobe ACR appears to be adjusting the exposure of 5D3 images up by about 1/3 stop when I compare the 1DX vs 5DM3 raws, when both are using the Adobe Standard profile. I've seen this same behavior on the D3s vs the D800. So to produce comparable images the raws need to be processed using ACR's Camera Neutral profile (which mimics Canon's Neutral DPP profile). Without this normalization the 1DX will have an unfair advantage over the 5D3 when comparing the images side-by-side.

I knew I would blow something.

I brought the 1Dx files up .35 EV.

For what it is worth: Thanks to all to putting the effort and input towards this post. Thx again guys !

@ stan and benny...excellent work guys, thanks for taking the time to produce such stunning proof-of-the-canon-pudding

There will be a 5D3 in my future...I hope.

OK, I took it up a bit higher. I'll quit now. The arrows are just to help identify the direct comparisons. Also, the area I extracted for the samples.

Awesome .. thank you so much for posting. I really appreciate it. I WOULD love to see these pitted against the D4 and D3s as well.. Maybe somewhere out there someone did a complete test so we can see HIGH ISO noise.



Ryan

Thanks for the hard work!
Loving the 12.8 and 25.6 1Dx stuff just using this screen it looks cleaner to my eye.
Havn't had. Chance to shoot much with mine but it is a nice piece of gear!

It would be nice if we could compare the Canon 5D3 and 1DX to a Nikon D800 using the same test.

Thanks for the shots stanj.

Stan, I downloaded the shots too. thanks a lot. to me the 1dx does look better certainly from 3200 on, by a small margin, but there.

Thanks for your work, Stan and Benny! What I find strange is that other reports speak of 1 stop advantage for the 1Dx, but I don't see 1 stop in these samples. Judging from these, I'd say it's merely half a stop at most.

It does show that either camera holds more quality than I can live up to in shooting

I can't wait to get my hands on some cash to get a 5DmkIII... First I'll have to do some more assignments with my 5Dclassic and 40D.

Stan, you owning both cameras now, can you describe what you will use them for? And I mean differences, what does the 1Dx for you that the 5DmkIII doesn't, and vice versa?

Thanks!

Thanks Stan and Benny for your contribution. The difference is clear but not by much, however at 25k it might be worth it seeing a full image?

Ralph, until Stan answer your question I will give a real life example that I wished for 1DX. I was on boat to feed eagles some fish and let me tell you that despite 5D3 have good buffer it really fills fast with a lot of action everywhere around the boat. which wasn't the case with 1DIV. Some where my mistake for not managing the buffer limit, but there were a lot of birds and action that I missed the peak action. after that I was planning to get 1DX but felt that these situation isn't my everyday photography like that sports or birds photographer. Still I dream of getting one but with that price its not an easy decision to make.

rabbitmountain wrote:
Thanks for your work, Stan and Benny! What I find strange is that other reports speak of 1 stop advantage for the 1Dx, but I don't see 1 stop in these samples. Judging from these, I'd say it's merely half a stop at most.

People like to exaggerate. Goes for my claim of a stop, and your claim of half a stop Personally, I find it to be a "very clear difference".

At the same time, you must remember that there is a 5MP difference between the cameras. So the 1DX has an unfair advantage - it's like the old D3 vs. 1Ds3 battle. So if the 1DX is one full stop better on the pixel level (I'm not making any claims if it is or is not), it's not really a full stop better.

rabbitmountain wrote:
Stan, you owning both cameras now, can you describe what you will use them for? And I mean differences, what does the 1Dx for you that the 5DmkIII doesn't, and vice versa?

This is something that I honestly struggle with, so far. I must be getting old (I am incapable of maturing, but definitely of aging ) because I look at things differently. My previous commuter car did 0-60 in 4.4s, and I just got a friggin' Focus Electric - and love it. Similarly with the cameras - I could every time make a very, very good case for the 1Ds2 vs. 5D, 1Ds3 vs. 5D2, and why I needed both. Having put some 25k clicks on the 5D3, I have yet to actually see an example of a missed shot, other than my daughter plunging into the pool, where I get only 3 frames worth. And let's be honest, that alone is a pretty lame reason to own a better camera.

I think more time side by side is needed. It's clear that I'll use the 1DX whenever I need to get the shot, no questions asked. Same as always before: I have no doubt that the 1DX will give me an edge, regardless the circumstances. Given my purple fringing test from last night, very much to my surprise, I also may use the 1DX for my night work. I will also use the 1DX with my two big lenses, 200/2 and 400/4, it simply balances better.

At the same time, I will use the 5D3 when I need a silent shutter. That thing is SO QUIET, and has a silent BURST mode, which the 1DX strangely doesn't (something that could no doubt be fixed in software, but it boggles my mind why it's not there). In my assignments I often have the need to blend in acoustically, and the 5D3 is the far superior tool for that. I shot it in a recording studio during a recording, and it was fine. I shot it less than a foot away from an external mic of my 5D2 recording a performance, and you can't hear it. Amazing.

If I ever get to shoot some landscapes again I will definitely take the 5D3. It has a 5MP advantage and at ISO 100 I am confident the noise isn't much of an issue That's also the main reason why my 1DX is the first 1-series body without an L-plate: I don't need the extra bulk, and the only time it would be on a tripod in the vertical would be in the wilderness, where it brings no advantage whatsoever.

Then there's the times when it simply doesn't matter if you get the shot or not. Here, too, the 5D3 goes.

Historically, there was always at least a 2:1 ratio of the 1-series vs. the 5-series use for me. I think this generation of cameras will flip this ratio.