The Canon EOS-1D X Mark II is a professional full-frame DSLR, and Canon's fastest, toughest and most capable camera ever. To test out its blazingly fast shooting speeds and advanced autofocus we needed a shooting situation that would really stretch the camera's abilities.
So saddle up, ya'll - DPReview is headed to the rodeo...
This is sponsored content, created with the support of Canon. What does this mean?
Thank you for the video! I am glad you stayed on in the evening so we could see the amazing high-iso capabilities. A very entertaining mix of stills, 14 ips series and various video settings. I am also happily confirmed in my choice of a lightweight 70-200mm F4 lens since you hardly ever used f 2.8 with the 70-200mm in the video.
Wonderful video and subject matter, that part of Oregon is beautifully desolate. Looking at a cellphone carrier's coverage map that area has no service- lucky people! Love Barney' s sense of humour, the video and stills capture the true Americana feel of the place and event perfectly. Oh, and the camera is not bad either! Thank you.
I enjoyed the video, It could have been taken at our small town Rodeo here in Clayton, North of Spokane, Washington, but the night photos showed that they had much better lighting than our rodeo. I used my 7D at the local rodeo, and as it got darker, my ISO went up and up, and shutter speeds down until there was nothing usable. What a difference a newer model makes.
I know what you're thinking. "Does it shot 14fps or only 12?" Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a 1Dx mkII, the most powerful camera in the world and would take a really nice pic, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do you feel lucky enough to get one"
Fantastic! Your videos just getting better and better. Very nice to watch but one can easily forget about the real star of the video: the subject camera.
The review fails to mention that the more than adequate shutter life is massively diminished by the fact that the camera tempts you to fire off massive high speed bursts, even when not shooting anything, Just for pleasure of the feel and sound.
Sadly on an iPad Air the video is next to useless. The default quality you get from youtube in the browser for the embedded video is 360p and even on youtube itself max is 720p.
So no chance to get a real impression of the image quality possible by this camera.
Wow. That is an excellent video in all regards. Congratulations for the beautiful production, especially the crisp and clear technical details interspersed throughout. Great job.
A rodeo is a very easy environment for a camera's autofocus system. Plenty of light and hard edges on the subjects. Piece of cake compared to photographing the first dances at a wedding reception when the lights are low or the location is outdoors or otherwise dimly lit.
I have to wonder if the PR flacks set up these easy tests so their cameras will perform well in place of a meaningful situation that truly tests the autofocus system under difficult conditions.
No doubt the flagship Canon camera with its autofocus system designed for sports shooters is excellent but a rodeo "test" tells me nothing.
Agreed. Next time send your tester to the Friday night fish fry at the Knights of Columbus hall in Bremerton. That would be a real test both of the camera and the photographer.
There are, of course, more challenging autofocus situations out there than a rodeo. But I can also conjure up a lengthy list of cameras that, while they may have well-regarded autofocus performance, I would not trust for this sort of shoot. In addition, high-speed burst shooting with autofocus, insane battery life, weather-sealing against dust (and there was a lot of dust), good ergonomics and good dynamic range performance are all contributing factors here.
I guess the main gist is this - autofocus was important, but by no means the only meaningful feature we looked at. If the video somehow didn't convey that, then I apologize - we tried to cover the camera as comprehensively as we could without just rattling off spec after spec.
@MrBrightSide - going to go research that now! Always looking for good photographic situations, and ones that hopefully don't take 8 hours of driving each way :)
@calson That's simply not true. As Carey said-- there are of course more challenging situations. But unpredictable animals jumping around in low light with dust flying in the air are definitely a test for any AF system.
Ok you rent or buy the camera and create your own website to post your experience and review of the camera in your environment of choosing. Ill gladly read that and complain like a fool about how i wpuld have done it.
Great video. Thanks for publishing! Could have been longer even. I use 2 6Ds mostly for weddings / portaits and a 7 D II for action. Well, the X II would be something.... maybe next year.
Thoroughly enjoyable video, especially nice an overlooked subject, small town America and its cultural diversity. Nysaa was a Japanese internment camp and many stayed to raise onions.
Yes already in the 80D. Canon stated last year they would be making on chip ADC a priority and eventually all sensors they make will feature this. 5DIV is next cab off the rank announced in just over 3 weeks.
Interesting and informative video and this makes me think:
In this scenario (I must repeat , _in_this_scenario_) it's evident that the direct competitor Nikon D5 should bite the dust , no usable smooth video AF for rapid moving subjects , way slower 4K frame rate for applying slow motion (same separation that exist from usable and useless), "slower" 12fps vs 14fps for getting more decisive moments and far less workable dynamic range for recovering shadows in high contrasty scenes (this is odd and new to Nikon vs Canon) ... and the Canon AF proved, obviously, to be up to the tasks, maybe Nikon could have an easier way to set up to be up to the different tasks, but not enough to separate them, while the pluses from the Canon 1DxII can make a real difference.
So the only think that puzzles me is why DPR did give the same points to the both cameras, since I see substantial advantages/disadvantages where it makes a difference to easily claim a winner.
I agree with you. The Canon review title is "Rock Solid", but the Nikon review is "Setting new standards". Each having a score of 89 points ! The results are more than coincidence. This is to be politically correct.
Sony sensors get praised to hilt for low iSO DR and fair enough it's a great feature. Canon doesn't have this feature until now and gets slammed unmercifully. New Nikon D5 has woeful low ISO DR, sacrificing that totally for high ISO performance, but there's barely a peep. Yes it's been noted, but we don't hear the constant harping on about it, instead it sets new standards which I assume only refers to the new AF. Canon's mistake was keeping same number of AF points and not making it look like an all new AF when in fact it's pretty much is a an all new AF which just happens to have same number of AF points as old system. Those that own both will testify the new AF is simply much better and I've seen the evidence for lower contrast, subjects, when using TC's, in lower light. It's very hard to get it to miss. But I guess now it'll always be in Nikon D5 shadow because low ISO DR isn't a thing now, it's the new 3D AF.
You're actually trolling us for apparently not mentioning the D5's low(er) base ISO dynamic range when a) we totally do, in this article and the full review, and b) we literally posted an entire dedicated report, earlier this year, where we specifically make that point?
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