fraga wrote:
there is the likelihood that the 1DX will have banding at high iso.
Canon stated they are aware of the problem and are working on it. But they have said that in the past with other cameras and solved nothing when the cameras became available.
I was surprised at the visible banding even in the small pre-production 1DX sample shot I saw.
I think this is camera is definitely intended for Nikon pros with established Nikon glass (and lots of cash). The list price of $6299 doesn't put any room between it and the 1DX so I don't see that Nikon will get any canon fans to jump sides for this one.
Its too bad, I think if Nikon would have priced this close to its previous pro models (D3/D3s) they could have potentially swayed a few canonites whom thought about switching.
At that price I be searching the used market.
There are two reasons to switch: price, and features. No one ever switched from Canon to Nikon due to price, but many switched because of features. The D3 caused a groundswell of switchers. The D4 sounds like its movie features might cause another.
carstenw wrote:
There are two reasons to switch: price, and features. No one ever switched from Canon to Nikon due to price, but many switched because of features. The D3 caused a groundswell of switchers. The D4 sounds like its movie features might cause another.
Stop it! I'm hovering over the buy button and must resist...... at least until I see some real world reviews.
dehowie wrote:
Mmm Nikon envy= 2mp less.2fps less same noise levels.
Hey Dazz, good to see you.
The 1Dx is going to have a couple of advantages over the D4, including the higher frame rate and more megapixels. Both of those are real advantages, though how much they matter to each shooter is an individual issue. However, I don't think it's reasonable to expect the 1Dx to erase the 1.0 to 1.5 stops worth of noise-performance advantage that the D3s enjoyed over the 1D4. Noise is likely to be an area where the D4 beats the 1Dx.
They're both great cameras, but each is somewhat better than the other at different things. Trying to argue that one or the other is overall "better" is over-simplifying things.
carstenw wrote:
There are two reasons to switch: price, and features. No one ever switched from Canon to Nikon due to price, but many switched because of features. The D3 caused a groundswell of switchers. The D4 sounds like its movie features might cause another.
Carstenw, I would not say that is necessarily true in full. When I shot Canon I was in the conundrum of needing (not wanting, but actually needing) accurate and fast AF in low light, I also wanted a FF sensor. With the Canon 5D series I got the FF but it seriously lacked in AF accuracy and performance in low light. My option was to buy a 1Ds Mark III (at the time close to $8000) or to switch to the Nikon D700 which fulfilled all my needs and wants at only $2700 at the time. So my reasoning was I could buy 2 - D700's and still have $2600 left over for lenses, etc. with Nikon over buying just one Canon body. That did it for me and the fact that the D700 had even more features than I had hoped for and the IQ I was getting out of it beat out anything I got out of Canon, not that Canon was bad, I just noticed that for the way I shoot the images were sharper and more detailed, the AF was definitely more accurate and whether that was due to the AF system or the lenses I don't know, I can only speak to the results.
I shot with the D3s for a while but couldn't justify the additional cost vs. the benefits over the D700. With the D4 at $6000 I am not sure but it is mighty tempting, certainly more tempting than a D800 at 30+ MP if that turns out to be true because I am not a fan of high MP, but I am a huge fan of high ISO IQ which it appears the D4 has nailed. I will be very curious how the production 1D X's high ISO compare to the D4 because the 2 MP difference is really negligable. What I really wanted was a D700s (and not a D800) that had the D3s sensor in the D700 body, but if that doesn't come about then I may wait a year or so and hopefully the D3s' will drop around $3k for used
Either way, I think this is a huge win for Nikon and as I thought it came in quite a bit under the 1D X price, which I think will cause Canon to drop their price before it hits the shelves in March.
Santa err, Nikon Professional Services dropped this on my desk today. I got to spend some time with it, but was not allowed to keep the images & video I shot with it or view them on my Macbook Pro. It handles like a dream - the video quality is amazing, the rear LCD has a very smooth refresh rate. 204,800 ISO images *seem* to be comparable to D3s images @ 51,200 ISO (maybe a little worse) - remember, I was only able to view the images on the rear LCD.
oobie wrote:
Am I the only one who looked at the extra piece of rubber on the back and instantly wondered how long that piece would take to start falling off?
Curious, I'm reading through Nikon's press release and they comment on the D3s - "the D3S proposed new possibilities in imaging expression with its expanded range of standard sensitivities from ISO 200 to ISO 12800"
Then they comment on the D4 specs "The range of standard sensitivities has been expanded to ISO 100 to ISO 12800"
I know a lot of Nikon shooters have been griping at the lack of "low" ISO and now Nikon offers it, but what really excites me is that this is another stop of sensitivity available on the D4, so not only do they go up to 12800 as a standard but it all now starts at 100. To me, this shows even further improvement in ISO range than just going all the way to 204,800.
If the D4 can beat out the D3s in high ISO IQ by at least a stop at 12800 AND you get to start at 100, then I think that is pretty impressive.
It handles like a dream - the video quality is amazing, the rear LCD has a very smooth refresh rate. 204,800 ISO images *seem* to be comparable to D3s images @ 51,200 ISO (maybe a little worse) - remember, I was only able to view the images on the rear LCD. 
