The following day I was photographing the
Spookworks Royal Air Force Rally Team on a test session which would be great
for testing the ID X’s 12 frames per second and focusing modes. There had been
a lot of rain overnight and it rained all day, meaning there were some great
‘car splashing through puddles’ shots to be had. The constant heavy rain would
certainly test the ID X’s weather sealing.
The
following day I was photographing the Spookworks Royal Air Force Rally Team on
a test session which would be great for testing the ID X’s 12 frames per second
and focusing modes.
With the camera on high speed mode catching
a rally car splashing through a puddle is easy and the servo focusing is very
quick and accurate. The dark clouds, rain and dull light wasn’t ideal but made
for some great action shots and at ISO 1000 the ID X was producing a good
balance between low noise and fast shutter speeds. I wanted to put the buffer
memory to the test and see if I could fill it, to which end the Spookworks team
were more than happy to slide the car around in puddles in front of me for a
few minutes. I’m sure they were trying to drown me from the amount of water
they splashed over me and the ID X, and as much as this wasn’t my favourite
sort of experiment it did put the weather seal on the ID X to the test very
well indeed. At times the camera might as well have been underwater. In work I
have ‘killed’ two different D3s in the past from using them in heavy rain and
I’m glad to say the ID X showed remarkable durability and continued to work
magnificently.
Shooting on high quality JPEG and with 2x
SanDisk 16GB Extreme 60MB/sec in the camera I didn’t get close to filling the
buffer memory and several attempts resulted in bursts of 70 - 100 images. Even
after a long burst the camera was ready to start recording images again almost
instantly. I cannot think of many subjects or situations that are going to need
this many images in such a short space of time.
The
ID X is a great camera, no doubt about it
The focusing modes are excellent, AI Servo
is amazingly quick and during a burst of images the camera continually stays
nicely in focus on fast moving subjects. At times I couldn’t see the rally car
through the viewfinder because the speed of the burst meant the mirror spent
more time up than it did letting me look at the subject. Putting the AF into
‘case two’, the ‘Continue to track subjects, ignoring possible obstacles’ mode
was great. I used this mode for some panning shots through trees as the
Spookworks car drove at speed along a lane and I was very impressed that the
camera didn’t lose its focus once.
Later in the day, as it got even darker, I
wanted to see how the ID X handled some more low light photography on a low ISO
and with the camera on a tripod. I would usually use the DSOO for this sort of
shot and I was a little concerned about the 18.1 megapixels against the DSOO’s
36.3 and thought it was hardly a fair comparison. The downside of the DSOO for
me is the size of the files, in that they are very large, which can slow down
the workflow considerably. The ID X was giving me a 7.5MB file, which was fine
in terms of my workflow and still produces great image quality that’s ideal for
the sort of work I do. The last shots of the day involved mounting the ID X on
to a rig which was attached to the Spookworks car for some ‘action’ shots,
something I always shoot on my Canon 5D Mk III because of its weight as much as
its quality. The 5D Mk III only weighs 950g and the 1D X weighs 1340g - the
weight is important for rig shots as the more weight on the end of the rig the
more bounce you get and therefore it is difficult to get a smooth shot at very
slow shutter speeds. Whilst the increase in weight did play a factor, and there
was an increase in bounce which shows as a zig-zag pattern in the background
blur and a slight blur around the car, there were some perfectly acceptable
results.
Verdict
When people hear that I use Nikon at work
and Canon at home I am often asked, “So which is best?” And the honest answer
is that they are both great cameras and I don’t think this is a matter of switching
brands for me. I think the real question is, can one camera replace two
cameras? Can the ID X do the job of a high-speed camera and that of a
high-resolution one to a professional standard? The second question is, would
or should I swap my D4 and DSOO for the ID X?
Can
the ID X do the job of a high-speed camera and that of a high-resolution one to
a professional standard?
The ID X is a great camera, no doubt about
it. At ISO 51,200 there is a lot of noise and a sort of diffused blur on the
image but you would expect that at such a high ISO, and as a colleague pointed
out to me it adds to the image creating an atmosphere and drama. I did try
using ISO 204,800 and the images were very good, but as the images were all
needed for work I opted to keep the noise as low as possible and stuck with
51,200 for the low light shots. The high amount of frames per second is great,
but it is rare that I will need those extra few frames. The focusing is very
impressive even with the annoying little button to press first before you can
change focusing point. The blue tint to images is easily corrected in
post-production work flow -1 often have to compensate for the Nikon’s being a
bit too warm anyway. Image quality from the ID X is fantastic and I am sure
that 95 per cent of all the jobs I do would look great. I would guess most
people buying this camera will be using it for sport, wildlife and maybe
weddings and I think it will give great results for all. I have only one thing
I slightly dislike about the ID X and that’s the little button you have to
press before changing the focus point. It is a tiny little thing not to like,
and for that being my only dislike I think it would definitely replace my D4
and DSOO... if it didn’t cost so much to swap all the lenses as well. A quick
check tells me that to swap to my Canon for a ID X kit that has the same lens I
currently use on Nikon I would need to spend the best part of $48,000 and I
can’t see the boss going for that!
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Specs
·
Up to 12fps plus 14fps High speed mode
·
18.1 MP full-frame CMOS sensor
·
ISO 100-51,200, up to 1-1:204,800
·
61-point AF system
·
100,000 pixel RGB AE metering
·
Full HD 1080p EOS movie
·
Dual DIGIC 5+ processors
·
Clear View II 8.11 cm (3.2") 1,040k LCD
·
Ethernet por
Pros
·
Ergonomics
·
Easy-to-use menu system
·
Great focusing, even in Low Light
·
Viewing screen
·
ISO range
·
Frames per second
·
Viewfinder information
·
Build quality
·
Focusing modes
·
Battery Life
·
Weather proofing
Cons
·
Focusing select button
·
Opening the memory card compartment
·
Price
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