
Canon announces EOS-1D X: full-frame 18MP, 14 fps, 204,800 top ISO, $6,800 - techaddict
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/canon-announces-eos-1d-x-full-frame-18mp-sensor-14-fps-204-80/
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GR8K
It says they now have 2 video compression formats but doesn't mention the data
rate or format. Anyone know?

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danso
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?

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callmeed
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.

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DanielBMarkham
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.

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helton
Some better info here: [http://www.dpreview.com/articles/5149972341/canon-
eos-1d-x-o...](http://www.dpreview.com/articles/5149972341/canon-eos-1d-x-
overview)

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gaius
Gigabit ethernet built into a camera, wow!

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jasiek
It's too bad this won't result in a price drop on the EOS 5D Mark II.

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zstone
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.

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skimbrel
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.

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mc32
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.

"Their friendly rivalry" speaks to this, in a way.
<http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20071226a7.html>

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thetastypoptart
This generation will likely be different. Nikon will probably announce the D4
early next year, and the D800 very soon.

If a 5DmkIII arrives early next year then both the full-frame series for each
company will be updated.

1dx seems pretty evolutionary, it is likely that the D4 will also be similar.

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tmcw
Calling full-frame sensors 'oversized' is a reason why engadget shouldn't try
to do photography news.

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ak217
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.

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StrawberryFrog
"oversized" is different to "larger"

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prof_hobart
It means "larger than the usual size".

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knweiss
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.)

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sloak
CF cards allow faster writes and can keep up with higher FPS.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_memory_cards#Tech...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_memory_cards#Technical_details)

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eftpotrm
Which is a real pity. It's not a rugged interface that's designed for repeated
loads and unloads but a miniaturisation of PCMCIA. The cards are more
crushable than SD, the contacts can bend (happened to me...), the holes can
get blocked. None of this is ideal when you _need_ to make a quick card change
to get that shot in front of you _right now_. Whereas SD with rolling ball
contacts is about as close to indestructible as any physical interface is
likely to get.

I understand _why_ they're still making CF cameras, but I wish the effort were
going into either optimising SD or producing a rugged, fast, generic
replacement.

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apgwoz
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.

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MrScruff
At 11 stops up from ISO 100, you're getting to have a great deal of noise at
the max ISO I would have thought even at full frame.

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elithrar
> At 11 stops up from ISO 100, you're getting to have a great deal of noise at
> the max ISO I would have thought even at full frame.

You'd be surprised how clean some of these things are, especially so if you
don't plan on blowing things up big. Plus, with NR software these days, you
can easily get usable 12,800 ISO & 25,600 ISO shots _if you expose them well_.

The real trick to shooting in low-light is nailing the exposure; too dark and
you'll have dirty highlights, too light and you'll have blotchy, noisy
shadows.

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apgwoz
I'm still using a D70s as my primary camera, but I have to say, when Nikon
released it's first camera that supported ISO 6400, they made available full
resolution JPGs. You could see a bit of noise if you looked really hard for
it, but, it effectively wasn't there. I can only imagine that 25,600 ISO is
almost just as good as that. And, quite frankly, it's simply amazing.

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rdtsc
> 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...

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jgrahamc
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.

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0x12
Let's hope that Canon will allow a hack to escape from their labs to rectify
this bug after the camera reaches the end user.

A tax on an integer seems to be a bit silly.

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rdtsc
Why not just even openly post it and make a note on their website that it is
only for non-EU customers and also mention the reason and put a link to the
exact law. Would that get them off the hook?

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reemrevnivek
Or why not ask their EU customers to pay the extra 4.9% it would cost to sell
it as a camcorder?

That would not only get them off the hook but also encourage their customers
to abolish this ridiculous law.

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zitterbewegung
On the other hand when you are filming something do you really have a scene in
a film that is longer than 30 minutes? Realistically your scenes are much
shorter so the utility of having a camera that could shoot longer is probably
low.

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iaskwhy
Say a concert? (I don't know anything about cameras, I was just thinking about
that same thing and realised there are probably some uses for scenes longer
than 30 minutes.)

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timmyd
But what about my iPhone 4S camera ? Please someone offer me comparison
[jokes] :)

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jsavimbi
Apple announces iPhone 4S: fit-in-your-pocket 8MP, 30 fps, 73% more light,
starting at $199 on a monthly contract.

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.

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adestefan
A camera you carry all the time is worth more than one sitting at home.

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thingie
Well, a camera that can't take the picture you want is as useless as the one
sitting at home. And iPhone may be, in some cases, a camera that simply can't
do what you want. It's a cellphone. Of course, you won't carry a DSLR camera
with you all the time, and even that isn't enough, think about lenses, flash,
tripod… but iPhone won't magically replace all that, when you actually need
it.

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jsavimbi
> It's a cellphone.

Not so. It's a magical device, especially to those of us who remember the
world prior to the beeper.

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zstone
This.

It's a digital swiss-army knife. Right now in my pocket I have an 8mp still
digital camera, an HD camcorder, the world wide web, email, instant messaging,
news, social networks, books, notes, digital storage, music player, video
player, gameboy, etc etc etc. You couldn't fit a single one of these into you
breast pocket in the 90's - I tried, and that walkman ripped that pocket right
off!

Oh snap, you mean this crazy thing makes PHONE CALLS too?!

