Canon EOS 1Dx Impression

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EOS 1Dx with EF 16-35L II @ 16mm, f/16, 20sec, ISO200; camera on tripod; no adjustments during RAW conversion

It was 18th October 2011, I was there with hundreds of others in Kuala Lumpur at the launch of a mysterious unnamed camera from Canon.

With a puff of smoke, lots of gasps (and an occasional moan :P ), tens if not a hundred or so smartphones and tablets raised up into the air, the CEO of Canon Marketing Malaysia took the Canon EOS 1Dx out of a safe.

Yes, it was exciting, it was great… and as far as anyone could tell from the working protoype, Canon Inc’s new EOS flagship is ready!

But then… the wait started; first it was early January 2012… then it was pushed back to April 2012 and finally, 8 months or so from the announcement, a production Canon EOS-1Dx finally reached my hands in late June, barely a month before the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

So, did Canon drop the ball this time? Releasing an imperfect camera? Or releasing it too late? Or BOTH? Continue reading

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV First Impression / Hands-On

I am not going to regurgitate the specs of this just announced camera (as of 20 October 2009), those you can find it here as well as many other places that you can find using Google.

Here are my observations on the camera based on what little time I spent with it (an hour plus):

  1. It looks and feels exactly like a 1D3 or 1Ds3 – which is just fine IMHO as this is a professional tool meant to get the job done, no complaints about the weight or size as it SHOULD balance quite nicely just like its older brothers
  2. LCD looks great and works fine indoors and even beside a glaring window
  3. No change of controls or menu layout compared to 1D3 or 1Ds3 but with new features added
  4. AF locks fast and sure, even indoors lit with weak / romantic ballroom lighting
  5. Image Quality very good at high ISOs, colors remain accurate and vivid even at 5-digit ISOs

All the comments above were based on mounting a EF 100mm f/2.8L Hybrid IS on the pre-production 1D Mark IV body.

Some additional comments on some other equipment I tested today :

  1. EF 100mm f/2.8L Hybrid IS – built like a tank, sharp as anything, good for portraits, very nice bokeh yet retains very high level of detail, weather-sealed and the Hybrid IS does work as good if not better than conventional IS
  2. EF-S 15-85 f/3.5-f/5.6 IS – very well built for a non-L, feels good in the hand, wide and short barrel makes for good ergonomics  but yet easy to store, doesn’t seem to exhibit any zoom creep at all, excellent image quality, looks like a very good EF-S lens in the making

ISO 25,600 shot with pre-production 1D Mark IV | Same image as left after noise reduction with Noise Ninja

Image(s) removed at the request of Canon

ISO 3200 shot with pre-production 1D Mark IV

Image(s) removed at the request of Canon

Canon EF 24/1.4L and Canon EF 16-35/2.8L II Test

The purpose of this test of exercise was to determine the difference in image quality produced by these 2 lenses especially when used with a full-frame DSLR with relatively high mega-pixel count.

Unless stated otherwise, the images were shot with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark.II on Aperture Priority mode, metered using spot meter on the same spot for all shots of the series. Camera was tripod mounted and all shots were taken with a 10sec timer.

All images were shot in RAW and processed using default parameters on Adobe Lightroom 1.4.2 to approximate how images are produced and processed by a working photographer. Continue reading

NextoDI ND-2525 CF Ultra mini-Review

Nexto ND-2525Right… before I start… allow me to do a short introduction for the device. NEXTODI is a Korean company who specializes in making portable storage devices and to date, they have made four products, the ND-2500, ND-2300, ND-2325 and ND-2525. They are not a very large company but in the recent years, have gained quite a good reputation for making fast, reliable and economical portable storage devices.

The version that I bought (sorry Canon & Epson :-p) is the ND-2525 which is currently the latest and fastest PSD that NextoDI makes.

I have always worked with PSDs with an LCD as it gives me more confidence that the images are indeed loaded as I can check them visually but this time, I opted for to be brave and bought one without. Continue reading