Canon USA Introduces EOS-1D X Digital SLR Camera

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Above all other feature sets including video, the 1-series bodies are first and foremost weather-tight and able to withstand ten inches of rain per hour. Canon refuses to compromise that primary 1-series feature. Hope this helps,

No one who hasn't shot a 1D camera will ever get why it is a "pro" camera and nothing else in Canon's line up is. I miss mine... :(

On another note... 12fps means you could just shoot strings of stills and then double them to make clean 24fps and skip all this "video" nonsense...

[Robert Sanders]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

On another note... 12fps means you could just shoot strings of stills and then double them to make clean 24fps and skip all this "video" nonsense...

LOL!

"What did that character just say?"

"I'm not sure, all I heard was 'clack clack clack clack clack' the whole time." ;)

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

No one who hasn't shot a 1D camera will ever get why it is a "pro" camera and nothing else in Canon's line up is. I miss mine... :(

On another note... 12fps means you could just shoot strings of stills and then double them to make clean 24fps and skip all this "video" nonsense...

Nothing new hey? Maybe you will remember having seen this movie Dylan, I think it was posted here.

Between You and Me - dir. by Patryk Rebisz - YouTube

Shot on a Canon 20D. Perhaps the first DSLR movie ever, years before Vince Laforet's Reverie!

[Ryan Douthit]

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was shot with a pile of Canon EOS-1Ds MARK II cameras (with Nikon lenses) and released in 2005 (shot in 2004, I presume). Also, edited on Final Cut Pro, fwiw. Years before "Reverie".

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

You are right Ryan, I stand corrected. But the example I linked was shot in real time, like a live action movie, using the continuous shooting mode of the 20D (5fps). This is not the same thing as stop motion animation.

I should have said first live action movie.

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Jean-Philippe Archibald

Nothing new hey? Maybe you will remember having seen this movie Dylan, I think i was posted here.

Between You and Me - dir. by Patryk Rebisz - YouTube

Shot on a Canon 20D. Perhaps the first DSLR movie ever, years before Vince Laforet's Reverie!

I know it. They beat me to the punch by a year. In 2006 I shot a film called Postcards on a 1DmkII at 8fps, so I'll claim the 2nd live action film shot on a DSLR. :) I don't have it online, but it ran through the festival circuit. At 8fps you start to forget it is still photos.

[Jean Daniel Villiers]

Originally Posted by Henry Coll

The 1DX is the perfect PJ DSLR. Actually, it's a Nikon D3s clone with a few more pixels, but that's fine for me. What I don't like is that it's €2,000 more than the D3s, I hope the street price will finally be close to the €4.5k mark.

As for video, this 1DX could have been THE game changer, if only had implemented a very simple thing.

Let's be honest, no DSLR will make a video/film camera ever: Video codecs are never good enough, no XLRs, no 48v, no good preamps, no tiltable TFT or EVFs, no SMPTE I/O, they require external audio recorder and somewhat laborious post sync, etc, etc.

But ALL of the above could have been solved with a very simple move: a clean 422 10bit HDMI out (preferably SDI due to its locking connector).

The 1DX with a clean video out would have been "disruptive technology". THE perfect PJ DSLR and THE perfect small FF film cam, all in one.


If only Canon was Apple. What a missed opportunity. Yeah, there's 3rd November with S35 videocam and all that, but still, a missed opportunity.


Hopefully Nikon understands this better with the upcoming D4. They've already set the trend in DSLR with the D3s, which Canon has finally cloned (dismissing his very own APS-H 1.3 crop and Megapixel race, and caring for high ISOs instead)

If the quoted 350+ megabit bitrate is confirm, I don't think that external hdmi recording is that necessary. Most external recorders are compressing to proress HQ 220 mbit. Apart from the uncompressed recorder, which need ssd and an insane amount of memory (about 660 megabyte per hour) if the All-I is 10 bit and 4.2.2 then it makes external recorders a surplus.

[Steve Kalle]

H264 is 8bit 420 so do not get your hopes up. Only the AVC-Intra by Panasonic and HDCAM SR by Sony are 422-444 10bit-12bit which use AVC encoding. H264 is just one encoding scheme that comes from AVC and the only H264 scheme is 8bit 420. Canon states that the 1DX uses H264 and will be easily imported and edited by current NLEs but none support HDCAM and only a few support AVC-Intra natively. Canon would have had to make a new AVC coding scheme in order to get 422 & 10bit and nothing stated anywhere hints at new AVC encoding by Canon.

[Dylan Couper]

I'll add one thing... IMHO no clean HDMI out was an oversight on this camera. Everything else is cherry.

[Shem Kerr]

12fps means you could just shoot strings of stills and then double them to make clean 24fps and skip all this "video" nonsense...

Sounds like me! But....
? number of shutter movements divided by (12 x 60 x 60) = hours of video per shutter replacement, or camera(?) Please someone, the economics?

[James A. Davis]

Don't get me wrong, I think the specs are nice. But without MAJOR tech changes like RAW video or some other vastly improved codec (that split one isn't doing it for me), I don't see why people are talking about trading in their 7D's and 5D mkII's and adding money for this. I've recorded well past 12 minutes before on my 550d/T2i. So I'm not sold on it yet especially with that $6,000 price tag. To even the trained eye, we wont see that much of an improvement in video quality. Yes the full frame is nice, but I'm always skeptical of that angle. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but it seems like Canon is becoming like Apple by releasing new gear EVERY year that is just a tad bit of a step up from the previous and they act like the Messiah arrived.

__________________
James Davis - Proud owner of a 7D and 550D.

[Jean Daniel Villiers]

Look here H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia H.264 has many specification starting from 8 bit 4.2.0 to 14 bit 4.4.4 so there are much more variation than you think. As Canon don't want to say what it is exactly, we can think that they have not decided on it yet. Perhaps it is time for people to start to lobby Canon for at least 4.2.2 and 10 bit.

[Henry Coll]

Originally Posted by Jean Daniel Villiers

If the quoted 350+ megabit bitrate is confirm, I don't think that external hdmi recording is that necessary. Most external recorders are compressing to proress HQ 220 mbit. Apart from the uncompressed recorder, which need ssd and an insane amount of memory (about 660 megabyte per hour) if the All-I is 10 bit and 4.2.2 then it makes external recorders a surplus.

I'm afraid I didn't make myself clear. Clean 10 bit 422 out means you can plug the DSLR to a PIX240 or similar device, then all the issues as a mediocre videocam are solved. You then would get professional preamps, XLR, 48v, audio monitoring, video loop and conections for an EVF and 17" with zebras, focus assist, waveforms... etc, along with the chance to record the video signal into whatever codec you might prefer.

[Steve Kalle]

Originally Posted by Jean Daniel Villiers

Look here H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia H.264 has many specification starting from 8 bit 4.2.0 to 14 bit 4.4.4 so there are much more variation than you think. As Canon don't want to say what it is exactly, we can think that they have not decided on it yet. Perhaps it is time for people to start to lobby Canon for at least 4.2.2 and 10 bit.

If you want any NLE to be able to edit the footage, it must be a currently used H264 scheme which means that it will NOT be anything new such as 10bit 422 which only exists with Panasonic and they aren't sharing their tech with anyone.

[Markus Nord]

Originally Posted by Steve Kalle

If you want any NLE to be able to edit the footage, it must be a currently used H264 scheme which means that it will NOT be anything new such as 10bit 422 which only exists with Panasonic and they aren't sharing their tech with anyone.

NLE's can't update? It is ~5 month to release, we (atleast I) don't know if Canon have send file protocol to NLE's company already.