[Chewy734]

~10 stops. Going down to f/11 would've cut it down to 10 secs, which wasn't long enough to get the effect I wanted on the water.

[rodi]

ah. i have a 10-stop B+W ND400 in 72mm (or maybe it's 77mm) if you'd like to take it off my hands.

[Chewy734]

nah, that's ok. Thanks for the offer though.

I'm using the LEE foundation kit, so it wouldn't fit on it anyways. I'm hoping to stack a CP on it just to give it a little more pop. I think that also cuts out 1 2/3-stops of light. Honestly, it was a really sunny day, so I'm sure had I gone later on that evening I would've been fine in the f/8 to f/11 range.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

nah, that's ok. Thanks for the offer though.

I'm using the LEE foundation kit, so it wouldn't fit on it anyways. I'm hoping to stack a CP on it just to give it a little more pop. I think that also cuts out 1 2/3-stops of light. Honestly, it was a really sunny day, so I'm sure had I gone later on that evening I would've been fine in the f/8 to f/11 range.

The sky wasn't so hot at that time either. Your very large pixels should minimize difraction at small apertures, but it still helps to shoot at the ideal time

[dcstep]

Great review from a Nikon pro:

http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/blog/223.php

[dcstep]

After the Olympics and when CPS has plenty of cameras on their shelves, I'll borrow a 1DX and do a comparison to my 5D3 on some heavily cropped bird and wildlife images. That last review has me thinking that the 1D-X might be quite a wildlife body after all. Maybe I can borrow a 600mm f/4L IS II also!

[Chewy734]

Dave, might as well request them and put yourself in a queue. I think as a Gold CPS member, they let you borrow anything twice in your lifetime. So, it's a great way to test out new gear and see if it's right for you.

I think the 1D X with the new 600mm f/4L IS II would be a killer combo!

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

I think the 1D X with the new 600mm f/4L IS II would be a killer combo!

No doubt. The 600mm is already on my "must buy" list and it'll be ahead of a 1D X.

I'm really curious to compare the 5D3 and 1D X AF head-to-head. I'm so pleased with the 5D3 in that regard, it's hard to imagine another step up, but we'll see. There's got to be a reason that they gave the AF system its own processor on the 1D-X.

Clearly, the 1D-X will trounce the 5D3 at ISO 16,000, but I'm very interested to compare at my "default" ISOs of 400, 800 and 1,600, to see if I can see a loss in detail. I don't know... who knows, with the 1D-X, ISO 16,000 could become my default and even my grand daughters could hand hold a 600mm lens!!!

I don't want to que until I have a target date, where I can spend a few days comparing.

Dave

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by dcstep

There's got to be a reason that they gave the AF system its own processor on the 1D-X.

Yes. According to the TDP review:

The DIGIC 4 processor is utilized exclusively in conjunction with a new 100,000-pixel RGB Metering Sensor and EOS intelligent Subject Analysis System (EOS iSA System) that analyses the color, brightness, motion, contrast and distance information of a scene. The 252 metering zones (the 1D IV has 63) along with new subject/scene recognition capabilities (including color and face detection) make a difference in most/all auto image quality settings - including auto flash exposures.

Apparently almost everyone is saying there is a noticeable difference in the accuracy of metering, the speed of AF, and the accuracy of AF tracking on the 1D X, as compared to the 5D3.

[dcstep]

Interesting.

I don't have any trouble with metering most of the time (particularly with birds and wildlife), but the AF speed and accuracy is of great interest.

Of course, if the face detection can pick out an owls face when it's only 5% of the frame, then I might change my mind and use 61-AF points all the time. I suspect that only really works with relatively stationary subjects, but, once again, we'll see.

Dave

[Chewy734]

nope, not just for stationary objects... people were using it for runners, bicyclists, etc.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

nope, not just for stationary objects... people were using it for runners, bicyclists, etc.

That stuff is EASY already. I'm talking birds in flight, deer, coyote and fast critters. Animal face detection could be a boon with contrasty BGs and fast moving objects.

[Chewy734]

ahh, that's true.

[dcstep]

B&H Photo has the following CF cards on sale:

Lexar 32GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA

I put one in my 5D MkII and it sped up the fps and increased the time required to fill the buffer substantially. Not all cameras need this fast a card, but the 1D X and the 5D3 really benefit substantially from a fast card.

They're back ordered, but the price is almost $100 less than last week.

Dave

[Chewy734]

Firing away...

Canon 1D X, EF 70-200mm f/4L
200mm, f/4, 1/160s, ISO 100, Av, RAW

There are a few comments about this picture I'd like to make, in regards to the 1D X:

First, the higher frames per second helped a lot. If I timed everything in the ballpark of when the troops were going to fire, and I just held down my shutter button, I couldn't miss it. Yeah, it goes by the generally negatively-viewed method of "spray and pray", but you know what? Sometimes you need it. The 12 fps didn't disappoint at all. Additionally, the buffer was large enough to take a lot of consecutive RAW shots and store them on my memory card without any buffering delays.

Second, I was pretty under-exposed on this shot, but I was able to bring out the shadows in their clothing with ease. The RAW files allow me quite a bit of latitude in post-processing to overcome my mistakes while shooting. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that the metering was quite good, especially in situations where I needed speed and accuracy, and exposure was an afterthought.

Third, the sharpness was very good, considering I shot this handheld at 200mm, and this is a 100% crop!

Fourth, it was raining most of the day. I was there for several hours shooting in the rain, without an umbrella or a plastic bag around the camera. I had a hood protecting the lens, but that was it. The 1D X performed very well through the inclement weather, and I wasn't worried at all about the wetness.

One of the funny comments I heard was towards the end of the day when I was shooting by the confederates side during this scene:


Canon 1D X, EF 70-200mm f/4L
150mm, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 100, M, RAW

There was this photographer shooting with his Nikon D3X, with his monopod, etc. I pulled up a little behind him and off to the side, and shot a burst handheld... probably around 35 shots. When he heard the shutter sound, he got startled and I messed up his shot.

He turned around to me and said "is that the new 1D X?". I was like "yup.". He said "wow, that sounds amazing... you scared me a little though. It sounded like a mini machine gun." Then he complained how difficult it was to get the ideal shot of the canon firing because of his lower frames per second. I guess he was having difficulty timing it correctly.

[ view more photos from this event ]

[dcstep]

Nice. I agree with shooting in bursts. I usually do bursts of two to four for any action. There'll always be one that's superior. In you case, getting just the right amount of smoke from the barrels.

I would have shot almost everything at +1EV (Raw of course) and then pulled the exposure down in post and added a bit of an S-curve and/or some Contrast. You'll increase your shadow detail and dynamic range tremendously by Exposing To The Right (right of the Histogram). Of course, don't blow out any important highlights.

What ISO were you at? I'd probably use 400 or 800 as my default with that camera, whenever there's any action. Reserve ISO 100 for scenic, portraits and other tripod shots.

Which AF pattern did you prefer for that stuff? I'm betting on 61-points for that.

Dave

[Chewy734]

Dave, I should've exposed to the right, but I still need to get the hang of that. Most of the time I was busy switching AF and metering modes. I really need to take the time and pre-program some custom functions in. That'll help with the efficiency during shooting.

I was at ISO 100 most of the time. Sometimes I played with auto ISO to see what it would do, etc. I think a couple of the indoor shots are relatively higher ISO, like 6400 or higher.

I used 61-points AF for all the action horse shots, single point spot-metering for the static shots, and then I also played around with the Expand AF setting sometimes. I used AI Servo as well for most of the shots.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

Dave, I should've exposed to the right, but I still need to get the hang of that. Most of the time I was busy switching AF and metering modes. I really need to take the time and pre-program some custom functions in. That'll help with the efficiency during shooting.

I was at ISO 100 most of the time. Sometimes I played with auto ISO to see what it would do, etc. I think a couple of the indoor shots are relatively higher ISO, like 6400 or higher.

I used 61-points AF for all the action horse shots, single point spot-metering for the static shots, and then I also played around with the Expand AF setting sometimes. I used AI Servo as well for most of the shots.

If you use Av mode (you can do the same with Tv mode, but I prefer Av), then you can quickly change AF points, dial in +-EV, change Aperture, change ISO, move the AF point, etc. without taking you eye away from the VF. Learn to do all that before setting up custom functions.

Regarding metering, be very careful with Spot. The camera will try to make white medium grey, so if the spot meter is on white the scene will be under exposed. The camera's meter, conversely, will try to make black look closer to medium grey, so if the spot is on something dark, then scene will be over exposed. I think that the best way to use spot is to take a reading on a medium grey spot in your field of view and use that to set a manual setting.

I use either Evaluative Metering or Center Weighted. No matter which metering you're using, take test images and evaluate the histogram. Most of the peak should be in the middle and to the right, usually with nothing running up either the right or left side of the historgram. A peak running up the right side means that some highlight is blown. That can be ok, if it's unimportant, but if your model's white blouse is blown out, then you have to back off. A peak running up the left side is blown shadows (no shadow detail) and you need to increase the exposure if the shadows are important.

Don't confuse metering points and AF points they're mostly independent. For the mock battle scenes, I would have shot almost entirely with the 61-point, while paying attention to which points are activating. I use single-point AF for birds and animals where I MUST get an AF point on the eye. I'll use the joy stick on the back to steer the AF point.

I'd be very curious to see what your camera does with Face Recognition. Those crop scenes would be interesting to observe how it reacts.

Remember, all this ETTR stuff assumes that you're shooting Raw (you MUST with that camera and use RGB, not RGBs). If you shoot JPEGs and ETTR, they'll look washed out.

Dave

[Chewy734]

Well, I tried center-weighted average metering for this shot, and it seemed to come out great. Very little editing in LR4 was required.

What amazes me the most about this camera, is that if you have a clear view of the object, you just can't miss the shot! I shot a burst of 6 shots in this series and all were in focus and sharp!

Georgie's Gal

Canon 1D X, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS
300mm, f/5.6, 1/4000s, ISO 400, Av, RAW

[Chewy734]

Here is another, rather heavily cropped.

Showing my tires

Canon 1D X, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS
400mm, f/5.6, 1/3200s, ISO 400, Av, RAW

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

Well, I tried center-weighted average metering for this shot, and it seemed to come out great. Very little editing in LR4 was required.

What amazes me the most about this camera, is that if you have a clear view of the object, you just can't miss the shot! I shot a burst of 6 shots in this series and all were in focus and sharp!

That's a nice exposure.

However, I believe that Evaluative metering would have given the same result because you have the sun in back of you and a brown subject against a blue sky is very easy. Even Spot metering would have worked here.

The camera is actually very, very smart about metering. I believe that Evaluative should be most peoples' default. Try this experiment; put something white on a stool in the back yard, in full sun, then get close enough so that it fills about 10% of the frame. Try Spot, Center Weighted and Evaulative. Spot will be underexposed, Center Weighted will be underexposed (assuming that the white subject covers most of the Center Weight territory) and the Evaluative metering will be exposed to show the whole yard, but the white subject will be overexposed.

So, using Spot metering and Center Weight you'd have to raise the EV by +1 or +2 to get the white subject up to white and with the Evaluative metering you'll have to use -1 or -2 EV to keep the white subject from blowing out. In every case you need to adjust EV. The opposite happens with a black subject on the stool.

The key is understanding how these metering systems work and then adjusting accordingly.

Dave

[rodi]

played with one friday. very solid. grip feels really nice. the vertical grip feels awful, though i would never use it anyway.