> Canon has also eliminated the 4GB clip limit, though individual clips are limited to 29:59, in order to avoid European tax rates affecting HD cameras that can capture single HD video clips longer than 30 minutes
What is that all about? Why a special tax rate? Can't the camera just save 29:59 clips and then stitch them together...
It's a duty that goes back a long way (back to the start of the VCR revolution) because the EU wanted to protect its own manufacturers from cheap technology coming from abroad. So they (we) enacted a bunch of laws that place quite high duty (up to 15% IIRC) on some technologies.
With that ISO range, they've effectively eliminated the need for flash on 80%+ of photographs. Obviously, you'd still want flash for fill and studio situations, but sports photographers, and everyone else, even (maybe) concert photographers, can probably get away without! Amazing.
At 1D X's price range, all flash use is strictly on purpose - no one would have used flash on a 1D because it's too dark, it's all for the effects it enables with bouncing and gels and all sorts of expensive gadgetry.
The technology filtering down to consumer level in a couple of years is pretty exciting, though as elithrar noted, the exposure is going to be difficult as it's hard to tell between "dark area you want to see" and "dark area that's the background".
I use a Nikon D7000 - it's already quite capable of producing clean files up to 5000, 6400 at a pinch, and of getting perfectly sharp pictures of the cars running in night qualifying at Le Mans earlier this year (admittedly with pretty fast glass). No way I'm pointing a flash at a live race track at night, even if there was a way to make the results look even slightly natural.... So, IMHO, that milestone was crossed some time ago and has been in the high-end consumer space for at least a year now.
What this has primarily done for me is to make non-studio flash for fill and separation, depending on the situation - to control the subject to ambient ratio, in other words. I do still use it for other routine work, but only where it makes the resulting shot easier to take and get a high-quality result.
I don't think they meant it that way: they said "uses oversized pixels to battle noise". The original press release stressed the fact that the pixels increased in size even as their number increased (because of more efficient layout). This is just flowery prose.
Glad they didn't try to make a jump in the MP race (my 3-yr-old 5dII has 21.1 MP, but of course, only 3.9 fps)
ISO/noise-reduction is the most important thing to me as I don't like using a strobe. However, as I like having a reasonably portable camera, I hope they make an upgrade soon to the 5D line. How many non-sports/war shooters need this kind of frame rate anyway?
Love the ISO range and the recording and transmitting abilities.
I'm still waiting for something with a high-dynamic range out of the box, preferably with wide spectrum coverage. I'd love to see how post-production goes with a little near-infrared and low-ultraviolet information in the mix.
This is a major step upwards, but I think I'm going to pass for now and wait another five years for the next major step upwards. The difference between shooting 12MP and 18MP and the difference between shooting what I have and ISO 204,800 just isn't enough for me to make the jump.
IMHO it's interesting that they continue to use CF cards in their pro bodies. Some expected the switch to smaller SD/SDHC/SDXC cards.
But I wonder why they decided to announce the 1D X so early? I suppose this will hurt their pro body sales for five months. (The new body will not ship before March 2012.)
CF, while older, is significantly faster than SD. This is inherent in the number of busses in the design - SD communicates over a few wires, CF over many more, effectively increasing its bandwidth. My guess is that we will see CF until we SATA to mini SSDs or similar; it will take a real revolution in digital storage to dethrone the current king that is CF, SD will never be as fast.
This much leadtime on a prominent release is common, and right now the only camera that the 1D-X is going to cannibalize is the 1DmarkIV, which was already becoming quite scarce _before_ this announcement. Canon Direct lists it as out of stock, same with B&H. Adorama and Amazon seem to have a few each, though. Still, what sales are being hurt here? And mind you, we're talking about a relatively massive investment, you could buy ~10 T3i's for this sticker price, not an investment made lightly or made often - Canon probably doesn't mind waiting a few more months, and if you are in the market for something like this you are paying attention to the rumor mill anyways.
Just think, wouldn't you be pissed if they HADN'T given this much lead time, and you went and tracked down a now-rare 1D-IV, only to see this come out a few months later? I know I'd be quite irate.
Because they are announcing something that looks likely to be a pro 35mm video camera on November...same day as Red releases Scarlet and Nikon releases...something.
The ISO range is nice–as is having a full frame on a fast camera–but there aren't many people who need 14 fps (sports & wildlife photographers).
Personally, I'll wait until the 5DmII successor arrives. I like the images and video it produces now and I don't need the tougher body of the 1 series.
Awesome. The digital imaging space keeps moving so fast due to the heated competition between Canon and Nikon. I upgraded to a 7D from my old 40D this year and it feels like there are way more than two years' worth of improvements in there.
I always thought there was tic-toc collusion amongst Canon and Nikon --ie. Nikon ups the FPS, Canon ups the MP; Canon ups the FPS, Nikon ups MP or ISO, or something else. Or one has nice Lens aperture but the other one's lenses have less distortion, etc.
These two companies seem to trade-off on features every other generation (tic-toc). I think they had a common history, some decades back.
5d2 currently has a $100 manufacturer's instant rebate, $2,400 on Amazon at time of writing. Amazon says the rebate ends 10/29/11, a bit more than a week out. I doubt it'll drop much lower than that in the year or so between now and Photokina (Sept. 2012) when Canon will most likely announce the 5d2's successor.
[+] [-] rdtsc|14 years ago|reply
What is that all about? Why a special tax rate? Can't the camera just save 29:59 clips and then stitch them together...
[+] [-] jgrahamc|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sbierwagen|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maximusprime|14 years ago|reply
Apparently if they made it r/w in the EU it'd be classed as a VCR and have a big tax applied or something, so they had to cripple it.
These sort of laws need to go away.
[+] [-] helton|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gaius|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apgwoz|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jarek|14 years ago|reply
The technology filtering down to consumer level in a couple of years is pretty exciting, though as elithrar noted, the exposure is going to be difficult as it's hard to tell between "dark area you want to see" and "dark area that's the background".
[+] [-] MrScruff|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eftpotrm|14 years ago|reply
What this has primarily done for me is to make non-studio flash for fill and separation, depending on the situation - to control the subject to ambient ratio, in other words. I do still use it for other routine work, but only where it makes the resulting shot easier to take and get a high-quality result.
[+] [-] tmcw|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ak217|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danso|14 years ago|reply
ISO/noise-reduction is the most important thing to me as I don't like using a strobe. However, as I like having a reasonably portable camera, I hope they make an upgrade soon to the 5D line. How many non-sports/war shooters need this kind of frame rate anyway?
[+] [-] DanielBMarkham|14 years ago|reply
I'm still waiting for something with a high-dynamic range out of the box, preferably with wide spectrum coverage. I'd love to see how post-production goes with a little near-infrared and low-ultraviolet information in the mix.
This is a major step upwards, but I think I'm going to pass for now and wait another five years for the next major step upwards. The difference between shooting 12MP and 18MP and the difference between shooting what I have and ISO 204,800 just isn't enough for me to make the jump.
[+] [-] knweiss|14 years ago|reply
But I wonder why they decided to announce the 1D X so early? I suppose this will hurt their pro body sales for five months. (The new body will not ship before March 2012.)
[+] [-] zstone|14 years ago|reply
This much leadtime on a prominent release is common, and right now the only camera that the 1D-X is going to cannibalize is the 1DmarkIV, which was already becoming quite scarce _before_ this announcement. Canon Direct lists it as out of stock, same with B&H. Adorama and Amazon seem to have a few each, though. Still, what sales are being hurt here? And mind you, we're talking about a relatively massive investment, you could buy ~10 T3i's for this sticker price, not an investment made lightly or made often - Canon probably doesn't mind waiting a few more months, and if you are in the market for something like this you are paying attention to the rumor mill anyways.
Just think, wouldn't you be pissed if they HADN'T given this much lead time, and you went and tracked down a now-rare 1D-IV, only to see this come out a few months later? I know I'd be quite irate.
Just my 2c...
[+] [-] sloak|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|14 years ago|reply
Because they are announcing something that looks likely to be a pro 35mm video camera on November...same day as Red releases Scarlet and Nikon releases...something.
[+] [-] callmeed|14 years ago|reply
Personally, I'll wait until the 5DmII successor arrives. I like the images and video it produces now and I don't need the tougher body of the 1 series.
[+] [-] skimbrel|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|14 years ago|reply
These two companies seem to trade-off on features every other generation (tic-toc). I think they had a common history, some decades back.
"Their friendly rivalry" speaks to this, in a way. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20071226a7.html
[+] [-] topbanana|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GR8K|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasiek|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zstone|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wmf|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timmyd|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GR8K|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsavimbi|14 years ago|reply
Given that 1% create, 10% curate and 90% consume, unless you're in that high art 1% of photographers, the iPhone 4S is your man. Or woman.