Canon 1D X

New camera

Canon have just announced a new top of the range pro camera, the 1D X, due out March next year.  It's always exciting to hear about new technology on its way, and this sounds like a great piece of kit on the whole, so will I be queueing up for one ?

In all honesty having bought Canons 1D mark 4 earlier this year, it's going to be a number of years until I even think about an upgrade again - I got some 7 or 8 very good years of service out of my last camera body.  So would I upgrade if I hadn't just bought the 1D mark 4 then ?  Read on to find out.

Rationalising of products

Ever since Canon started producing pro digital slr bodies they have had two product lines, the 1D series and the 1DS series.

The 1D series have always been action cameras, with a high performance autofocus system, high shooting rate and a 1.3x crop factor.  For wildlife photographers this crop factor, giving any named lens 30% more effective reach than it had when used on a 35mm film body, has been a real boon when photographing small or difficult to approach subjects.

The 1DS series has always been a different product entirely.  A full frame camera with high resolution and a low shooting rate, it would appeal to landscape photographers who want maximum resolution and can't afford to lose any width from their wide-angle lenses, fashion and product photographers amongst others have similar requirements.

One trait common to all 1D & 1DS series cameras is their ability to autofocus with the centre focus point on any lens or lens/teleconvertor combination down to f8, where other non-pro bodies have been limited to autofocus down to f5.6.

However with the announcement of the 1D X Canon have announced the two lines, 1D & 1DS, are to be merged and the previous generation of camera bodies discontinued.

Improved image quality


The 1D X will be full frame camera, with a resolution of 18 megapixels.  The pixels are increased in size from 5.7 micron on the 1D mark 4 to 6.95 micron on the 1D X. This all suggests a fair reduction in noise, Canons press release talks of a two stop reduction in noise.  The autofocus system, which already performs very well in most situations, has been completely revamped to include a large number of cross type sensors, which also sounds promising.

In general it sounds like an excellent camera in most areas.

This is of course all 'on paper' and until we see samples from the new camera we won't really know what it is capable of.

A compromise too far ?


The move to full frame from a 1.3x crop factor with only a modest increase in pixels will be a compromise for most wildlife photographers who find reach important.  The fact that it will be full frame isn't an issue in itself - we could always crop afterwards in photoshop - the issue is the reduction in pixel density.  The lower the pixel density the less pixels you will get on your subject and therefore the less detail you will capture.

The 1D mark 4 offers 4896x3264 pixels or approx 16 megapixels in a 1.3 crop sensor.
The 1D X offers 5184x3456 pixels or approx 18 megapixels in a full frame sensor.
However if you scale the 1D X sensor to 1.3 crop - as if you were cropping in photoshop in post processing you would get 4017x2709 or approximately 11 megapixel.

This is quite a drop in resolution for those used to the 1D mark 4, and in itself it will put off a number people who see it as a backwards step. 

Unfortunately there is more bad news to come.  As part of the major revamp of the autofocus system the 1D X will no longer autofocus at f8 with the centre a/f sensor, which has been an advantage available to every previous Canon pro body.  All of a sudden you will no longer have working autofocus when you mount a Canon 2x convertor on your top of the range f4 super telephoto.

This double whammy of reduced resolution and loss of autofocus at f8 is going to cause a fairly significant loss of reach to wildlife photographers.

If we take a Canon 1D4 with a 500/4 & 2x convertor we get 1300mm effectively at 16 megapixels with working autofocus.
If we take a Canon 1DX with a 500/4 & 1.4x convertor, and crop afterwards to get the 1.3x crop factor we have 910mm effectively at 11 megapixels.

That is a very big hit to take.

But it's maybe not quite a fair comparison for the 1D X, because if you mount the 2x teleconvertor on the 1D mark 4 the teleconvertor will implicitly reduce the resolution of the lens more so than the 1.4x teleconvertor, you will quite possibly need to bump the iso by 1 stop to retain shutter speed, and the 1D mark 4 autofocus won't perform to its full potential.  Maybe a fairer comparison would be just to go back to comparing the 16 megapixels of the 1D mark 4 to the 11 megapixels of the 1D X when cropped to 1.3 crop factor form. 

Still quite a hit to take, and it is always going to grate knowing the 2x teleconvertor could be used to good effect on the 1D mark 4, but maybe it's a hit that could be lived with for the advantages in situations where you are able to reduce the distance to your subject.

Personally I'll be watching with interest and hoping that by the time I'm ready for a new camera autoficus at f8 is back with us again.