Im not sure how the reviewer off the previous page could possibly call the 1DxMk2 the “perfect camera” given reports from at least two people in the world that it sucks.
Does anyone have any sensor swabs?
Im not sure how the reviewer off the previous page could possibly call the 1DxMk2 the “perfect camera” given reports from at least two people in the world that it sucks.
Does anyone have any sensor swabs?
Congratulations on the most useless and completely off-base post in this thread. You put a lot of time into writing something so irrelevant all the while thinking you’re clever. Truly, well done.
arbitrage wrote:
The EVF on an A9 is amazingly good for action, especially BIF. Granted it is the only one I've used that is suitable...
Stunning photos. The EVF technology is certainly improving.
Back in topic now: after having used my 1DX Mark II extensively this last week at a local bird santucary I’ve started noticing dots now even at f/5.6. I’ll be sending the camera in again for another sensor cleaning at the end of month, with an accompanying email containing a RAW file showcasing the splatter yet again.
While Canon won’t do a recall, I will certainly take advantage of their included air shipping across Canada for regular sensor cleans.
FWIW, the 1DX2 is the only Canon camera I have kept in my stable of cameras....that has to be saying something about how good it is, oil splatter non withstanding.
To those who feel so offended when another camera brand is brought up and discussed for a page or so on a 27 page thread about oil splatter, I deeply apologize for the intrusion.
Just because you are happy and love your 1DX2 (I love mine too), doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't evolved past it. It's just a discussion on what else is out there....especially relevant if you feel oil splatter makes the 1DX2 a bad camera for your use.
Im not sure how the reviewer off the previous page could possibly call the 1DxMk2 the “perfect camera” given reports from at least two people in the world that it sucks.
Does anyone have any sensor swabs?
Chimping wrote:
Congratulations on the most useless and completely off-base post in this thread. You put a lot of time into writing something so irrelevant all the while thinking you’re clever. Truly, well done.
Naw. The most useless post is one that responds to a useless post, making it doubly useless.
arbitrage wrote:
FWIW, the 1DX2 is the only Canon camera I have kept in my stable of cameras....that has to be saying something about how good it is, oil splatter non withstanding.
To those who feel so offended when another camera brand is brought up and discussed for a page or so on a 27 page thread about oil splatter, I deeply apologize for the intrusion.
Just because you are happy and love your 1DX2 (I love mine too), doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't evolved past it. It's just a discussion on what else is out there....especially relevant if you feel oil splatter makes the 1DX2 a bad camera for your use....Show more →
I'll echo your comments. I love my 1dx2. It's a better camera than I am a photographer. I don't think anyone here said the camera can't flat out perform. However, it also doesn't mean it doesn't get dirtier faster than any other Canon I've owned, which is quite a few over the last 15 years. And my a9 performs well enough for me in my professional work that it's now my favorite studio camera (no sensor crap when I stop down) and works so well for sports that it allowed me to replace my 1dx.
timgangloff, a nosy person, who never held the A9, would appreciate a brief account of: “How my new camera made my life easier in the studio and under the basket”.
My earlier request for PetKal intervention was a joke. No apologies needed. I always value news & facts about photographic practice, even off topic.
It would be really nice to know the truth about this. This thread is the #2 hit on a Google search for the subject, after Arthur Morris's blog post.
I can't help thinking that if there really were nothing to it, Canon would have bent over backwards to mend fences with Morris, and been active online when the subject came up. Yes, even in this thread. The two big NY retailers are here like a shot if anyone posts about having trouble with them. But maybe I am making unrealistic expectatiins of a Japanese company culturally.
And I'm reading the thread because I realise I do have a use for a "do it all" body that I can use at f/11 for landscape and at f/4 for wildlife. Until I saw this thread I had no idea there was alleged to be a problem with using this model that way.
Maybe, just maybe because this camera is close to perfect in almost every aspect, people get frustrated about the oil issue. Just give that a thought for a moment...
melcat wrote:
It would be really nice to know the truth about this. This thread is the #2 hit on a Google search for the subject, after Arthur Morris's blog post.
I can't help thinking that if there really were nothing to it, Canon would have bent over backwards to mend fences with Morris, and been active online when the subject came up. Yes, even in this thread. The two big NY retailers are here like a shot if anyone posts about having trouble with them. But maybe I am making unrealistic expectatiins of a Japanese company culturally.
And I'm reading the thread because I realise I do have a use for a "do it all" body that I can use at f/11 for landscape and at f/4 for wildlife. Until I saw this thread I had no idea there was alleged to be a problem with using this model that way....Show more →
therealthings wrote:
Rent one for a few days and find out yourself.
Yeah, sure, at $230/day. And if is true that it settles down after a large number of shutter actuations, what a high-actuation rental copy does will not be a good predictor of my experience with a new body for the first year or two.
melcat wrote:
Yeah, sure, at $230/day. And if is true that it settles down after a large number of shutter actuations, what a high-actuation rental copy does will not be a good predictor of my experience with a new body for the first year or two.
LensRentals offer a keeper program where you can buy the gear you rented. Could be an option.
I didn't clean my 1DX2 until I was well into shooting so I don't have a good idea how a new one handles the splatter. I'm closing in on 500K shots now and while I definitely see splatter it doesn't seem to match the rate of accumulation that others are reporting.
Thanks to all the topic contributors so far. Your posts helped me identify and deal with my own growing sensor issues. This post is intended to assist anyone considering a 1DX2.
There's good news, and there's bad news.
First the bad. My refurbished 1DX2 sensor became very dirty after only a few weeks of intensive use in a very dust-free environment. The usual dust, plus some oddly shaped crud, and countless little circles (what others have said is oil spatter) became pretty easily visible in LR at f/11 in normal conditions (without elevated LR settings). Anything beyond f/11 was completely unusable. The body was delivered in March and it performed (except for the dirt) wonderfully. I used it extensively for fast-moving ski racers, and almost all frames had to be shot at 12 or 14 fps. AF was amazing. Almost all race shots were taken at or close to wide open, and f/8 shots were completely usable. But any smaller aperture images became very problematic. Blowing and manual cleaning didn't affect the round spots at all and I didn't want to risk damaging the sensor. So I sent it to CPS (Costa Mesa). It then had about 27,000 releases. There had been very few lens changes, maybe 10.
Now the good. The body just came back and the sensor is really clean. CPS (thanks, Eugene) did a great job.
Will it stay clean? Probably not, but maybe (as some have thought) the spatters will not collect as quickly as the body ages. (The 1DX2 body, not mine.) The sensor is currently functional all the way to f/22. There are a few - maybe 8 - dust bits still visible at f/22 but they are easily dealt with. There are no visible oil spatters. The sensor is much cleaner than the sensor on a CPS loaner 1DX2 I used before buying the refurbished body. (The loaner convinced me I needed to buy one.)
CPS cleaned it for free on this occasion. I can't tell if it treated this as a warranty item or simply as a clean and check, but when the body first arrived at CPS, its initial email implied anything done would be free absent signs of abuse.
So even though it is hard to be enthusiastic about sending the body off at least once and perhaps twice a year (shipping is about $150 per trip for me), the camera is so great otherwise and produces such great images at and below f/8 and does so at the high frame rates needed that I am reluctantly willing to accept the cost and inconvenience.
Other people considering a 1DX2 might have different needs and priorities that could affect their decisions. Would I buy another? Yes. The pluses for me far outweigh the minuses. And CPS's ability to clean the sensor is one of the important - indeed essential - pluses.
Bob49 wrote:
Thanks to all the topic contributors so far. Your posts helped me identify and deal with my own growing sensor issues. This post is intended to assist anyone considering a 1DX2.
There's good news, and there's bad news.
First the bad. My refurbished 1DX2 sensor became very dirty after only a few weeks of intensive use in a very dust-free environment. The usual dust, plus some oddly shaped crud, and countless little circles (what others have said is oil spatter) became pretty easily visible in LR at f/11 in normal conditions (without elevated LR settings). Anything beyond f/11 was completely unusable. The body was delivered in March and it performed (except for the dirt) wonderfully. I used it extensively for fast-moving ski racers, and almost all frames had to be shot at 12 or 14 fps. AF was amazing. Almost all race shots were taken at or close to wide open, and f/8 shots were completely usable. But any smaller aperture images became very problematic. Blowing and manual cleaning didn't affect the round spots at all and I didn't want to risk damaging the sensor. So I sent it to CPS (Costa Mesa). It then had about 27,000 releases. There had been very few lens changes, maybe 10.
Now the good. The body just came back and the sensor is really clean. CPS (thanks, Eugene) did a great job.
Will it stay clean? Probably not, but maybe (as some have thought) the spatters will not collect as quickly as the body ages. (The 1DX2 body, not mine.) The sensor is currently functional all the way to f/22. There are a few - maybe 8 - dust bits still visible at f/22 but they are easily dealt with. There are no visible oil spatters. The sensor is much cleaner than the sensor on a CPS loaner 1DX2 I used before buying the refurbished body. (The loaner convinced me I needed to buy one.)
CPS cleaned it for free on this occasion. I can't tell if it treated this as a warranty item or simply as a clean and check, but when the body first arrived at CPS, its initial email implied anything done would be free absent signs of abuse.
So even though it is hard to be enthusiastic about sending the body off at least once and perhaps twice a year (shipping is about $150 per trip for me), the camera is so great otherwise and produces such great images at and below f/8 and does so at the high frame rates needed that I am reluctantly willing to accept the cost and inconvenience.
Other people considering a 1DX2 might have different needs and priorities that could affect their decisions. Would I buy another? Yes. The pluses for me far outweigh the minuses. And CPS's ability to clean the sensor is one of the important - indeed essential - pluses....Show more →
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is indeed a wonderful camera...and it gets the shot where other cameras struggle.
Your point of view mirrors my own at this point: for me, I've decided to keep the camera and deal with the hassle of sending it in a few times a year for a cleaning. That being said, I agree with your statement that other people might have different needs and priorities, and that it's still worth bringing the issues to potential purchasers' attention.
In this thread there was a discussion about an automated sensor cleaning machine CPS has to clean sensors. Some claimed to have seen it while others said it was a hoax. I can today confirm that this machine exists because i have seen it at the CPS booth on the Photokina today. But i have to add that while i was paying close attention to a cleaning service on a camera, it broke the mirror of the camera...
After the incident i decided to abandon my plan to have my 5D Mark IV sensor cleaned.
Any new user reports on the 1DxII sensor splatter?
The reason I ask is, the 1DxII was actually listed as "out of stock" directly from Canon for awhile in the last few months. It would not be unlike them to silently fix a problem that officially never was a problem.......because Canon never validated the problem in the first place.
With that said, many of the very best images I have seen have come from this camera and many of the best photographers who migrated to something "better" are producing the same quality now that they were with the 1DxII.
Ruffo wrote:
Any new user reports on the 1DxII sensor splatter?
The reason I ask is, the 1DxII was actually listed as "out of stock" directly from Canon for awhile in the last few months. It would not be unlike them to silently fix a problem that officially never was a problem.......because Canon never validated the problem in the first place.
With that said, many of the very best images I have seen have come from this camera and many of the best photographers who migrated to something "better" are producing the same quality now that they were with the 1DxII.
Considering the 1DX2 will be replaced in 12 months from now I would give it about 0.001% chance that Canon has done anything behind the scenes at this point in time. I also don't see why anyone would be buying a new 1DX2 camera at this point in time...buy it used or wait till next year and buy a new Mk III.....
