Full-frame fabulousness: the Canon EOS 1D X

October 18, 2011 @ 6:19AM

Full-frame fabulousness: the Canon EOS 1D X

By Daniela Bowker

Whilst every other manufacturer might’ve been playing around with the mirror-less camera market this year, wanting to lure compact users into the world of interchangeable lenses, Canon has released a bright, shiny toy for the big girls and boys. Uh-hmm, bring on the EOS 1D X: a full-frame, dual-processor, 18 megapixel flagship.

Canon says it has listened to its customers (then, every manufacturer says that) and has brought out a camera that is ideal for just about any pro. Has it?

Sensors, AF, and processors

It runs a newly developed CMOS sensor that has an eye-watering ISO range of 100-51,200 that can be expanded up to 204,800. The brand new dual DIGIC 5+ processors should be able to capture high-quality, low-noise images even in extremely low light.

Autofocus comes by way of a 61-point wide-area, which aims to increase precision and speed. Helping you out that little bit more are the AF-pre-sets that have been designed for shooting challenging but not unusual situations.

There’s a brand new 100,000 pixel RGB metering system, too, that’s linked to the AF-system and runs off of its own dedicated DIGIC 4 processor. This camera has a veritable army of processing power, people. The aim: to detect faces and colour to ensure correct exposure levels and improve the AF tracking.

Having the two DIGIC 5+ processors allows full-resolution continuous shooting at up to 12 frames per second. If you’re happy to reduce the image quality to JPEG, then you can up the speed to 14 frames per second. Helping this along is the new shutter and mirror mechanism, that should reduce shutter lag and mirror bounce. Canon reckons that this is the fastest continuous shooting speed out there right now.

Video?

Being Canon, and being a dSLR, of course it makes video. The question is: just how far can Canon push video with the 1D X? Try this far: Full HD (1920x1080p) movies from the full-frame sensor with a full range of manual settings to control exposure, focus and frame rate (1920 x 1080: 30 (29.97), 25, 24 (23.976) frames per second, 1280 x 720: 60 (59.94), 50 fps, 640 x 480: 30 (29.97), 25 fps), and your sound levels can be displayed and adjusted on the LCD screen.

The DIGIC 5+ processors should reduce moire artefacts and (I can hear the cries of Yippee!) someone, somewhere, has thought of a way to increase recording time. When you hit the 4GB limit, it automatically opens a new file. There should be a reduced loss of quality, too, as compression is now limited, via the intra frame video codec.

Design

There’s been a bit of redesign of the old 1 series for this camera. So if you’re upgrading you might find things a bit new to begin with, but the idea is to make controls easier to find and use. There are two multi-controllers and a touch-sensitive control wheel, for use in movie mode, that should make it easier to change settings. In the name of customisation, a range of function buttons let you set up the camera to suit your wants and needs, giving you easy access to the bits and pieces that you use the most.

The viewfinder offers 100% coverage, the screen is a toughened glass 1040K-dot resolution LCD one, with an anti-reflective structure.

Canon has also redesigned the menu system making it quicker and simpler to use. Allegedly. We’re creatures of habit and changes to things like that often take forever to get used to, so we’ll probably all just about be comfortable with the interface when they’ll change it again for something even quicker and even simpler.

In addition to just how super-fast and processored-up this camera is, Canon hasn’t held back on its durabilty, either. Note the toughened glass screen, but add to that a magnesium alloy body with protective sealing around the controls and cover seams to help with water- and dust-resistence, it uses wave-based vibrations to shake dust and dirt off of the sensor (and stright into your camera body), and the shutter system should stretch to 400,000 cycles.