Is 1080P Broken On All Canon DSLRs?

[DBounce]

Had some spare time so I decided to look more closely into the 1080P of the 1DXMk2. And after doing this I concluded that it is pretty bad. More like 720P upscaled to 1080P.
Below I share my finding and compare to mobile as I firmly believe that a $6000 camera should handily outperform a smartphone if the playing field is even. The results may surprise you.

 

[TheRenaissanceMan]

The 1DC crop mode is pretty good 1080p, as is (apparently) the 5DS(R). Other than that, yeah: pretty uniformly garbage.

[OliKMIA]

Unfortunately this is the usual Canon DSLR garbage also called "Canon 1080"...

[DBounce]

What point is a 1080p mode if it's unusable. I wish the 120fps was not affected by this. Very disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the 4k is fantastic, but at 800Mbps, it's not exactly lightweight. 

[Hans Punk]

The Canon may be less prone to exploding and killing you in a house fire though:

 http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12759912/samsung-galaxy-note-7-recall

[DBounce]

2 minutes ago, Hans Punk said:

The Canon may be less prone to exploding though: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12759912/samsung-galaxy-note-7-recall

Anything with a  lithium ion battery can explode... phones, drones, Teslas... and yes cameras :-) 

[noone]

Well Samsung has had a problem with washing machines setting fires as well!

[Michael Ma]

Not surprised by the results.  Thanks for the video.  I didn't think Canon was going to put any effort in downsampling 6K to 4K or 4K to 1080p in their photo camera.

I think the real problem with these tests are side by side comparisons.  We are forced to look at the pixels rather than the subject or object (as a whole) of the story which should never happen.

BTW, I own a Korean Galaxy Note 7, the model with the specific battery in question.  I'm being real careful with the charging.  Crossing my fingers.  

[Luke Mason]

Canon uses large group pixel binning (3x3 or even bigger) to get HD image, the RAW bayer might only have 500-700 lines of resolution.

[DBounce]

35 minutes ago, Michael Ma said:

Not surprised by the results.  Thanks for the video.  I didn't think Canon was going to put any effort in downsampling 6K to 4K or 4K to 1080p in their photo camera.

I think the real problem with these tests are side by side comparisons.  We are forced to look at the pixels rather than the subject or object (as a whole) of the story which should never happen.

BTW, I own a Korean Galaxy Note 7, the model with the specific battery in question.  I'm being real careful with the charging.  Crossing my fingers.  

Yeah,  I heard about that battery issue, there may well be a recall in your market.  Still,  while it's not on fire it does a decent job ?

2 minutes ago, Luke Mason said:

Canon uses large group pixel binning (3x3 or even bigger) to get HD image, the RAW bayer might only have 500-700 lines of resolution.

So not really hd at all?

[BasiliskFilm]

8 hours ago, Luke Mason said:

Canon uses large group pixel binning (3x3 or even bigger) to get HD image, the RAW bayer might only have 500-700 lines of resolution.

Welcome to 2008. You would have thought they could have done a 2x2 binning, then at least you have an above HD image to downsample. 
At least Sony seems to be doing the maths when designing sensors to get slightly better sizes for video - an 8K sensor in the A7Rii gives a cleaner binning option to get full frame 4K, which may not be 100% moire free because of the gaps between photo sites, but can look great. Plus 6K sensors (or APS-C crop areas) that allow full pixel readout for 4K, resorting to a 3K binned image downsamped for slow motion HD.

[Inazuma]

There has yet to be a Canon DSLR with a detailed 1080p image. Even Nikon is ahead of them now in this regard with the D500 and D5.

https://***URL removed***/reviews/image-comparison/fullscreen?attr29_0=canon_eos1dxii&attr29_1=panasonic_dmcgh4&attr29_2=nikon_d500&attr29_3=canon_eos80d&attr72_0=1080&attr72_1=1080&attr72_2=1080&attr72_3=1080&normalization=full&widget=378&x=-0.2454251883745963&y=0.16045765603694293

[Oliver Daniel]

I think Canon DSLR 1080p is worse than true 720p. It looks like sharpened, low bit rate SD. 

I remember the day I changed from a 60D to the GH3 - the difference in resolution is staggering. 

[Liam]

Not trying to defend canon, but how many cameras reeeally produce the spec resolution? I feel like every downscaled 4k looks better than every 1080p, etc. And also, if the number was accurate, what resolution do we need? I heard even the 1dc 1080p crop mode is upscaled a little, though not positive about it. Impressive that something lower than 1080p can be considered great today. 

[Justin Bacle]

The problem with 3x3 binning is that every group of 9 pixels is different from its neighbours (because of the Bayer RGGB pattern). 2x2 binning would give great results though (as every group of 4 pixels would give true RGB value, like in the cinealta cameras i think), I don't know why they don't do it :s

[johnnymossville]

I'm no Canon Fan Boi,  but what they lack in resolution they make up for in color science.     They have discovered the magic sauce that Sony would and SHOULD pay Billions for.  

[David Bowgett]

2 hours ago, Inazuma said:

There has yet to be a Canon DSLR with a detailed 1080p image. Even Nikon is ahead of them now in this regard with the D500 and D5.

https://***URL removed***/reviews/image-comparison/fullscreen?attr29_0=canon_eos1dxii&attr29_1=panasonic_dmcgh4&attr29_2=nikon_d500&attr29_3=canon_eos80d&attr72_0=1080&attr72_1=1080&attr72_2=1080&attr72_3=1080&normalization=full&widget=378&x=-0.2454251883745963&y=0.16045765603694293

The weird thing is that going by that link, the Canon DSLR that produces the best 1080p image actually seems to be the 5DS(r). Which fits with the rumours that its sensor produces a ~2.5K video signal due to essentially being a jumbo-sized 7D Mk II sensor, and they just downscale that signal to get 1080p.

[Justin Bacle]

13 minutes ago, johnnymossville said:

I'm no Canon Fan Boi,  but what they lack in resolution they make up for in color science.     They have discovered the magic sauce that Sony would and SHOULD pay Billions for.  

I am not very impressed by all the color science debate. I mean, who does cameras for big hollywood productions ? Arri, Red sure, but also Panasonic (Varicam) and Sony (CInealta series). If sony or panasonic are used in big budget movies, i'm pretty sure their colour science is good enough for me. 

Or maybe they just have talented colorists ...

Or maybe I'm just colorblind.... [Oh wait, I am colorblind ... damn ... ]

[johnnymossville]

27 minutes ago, Justin Bacle said:

I am not very impressed by all the color science debate. I mean, who does cameras for big hollywood productions ? Arri, Red sure, but also Panasonic (Varicam) and Sony (CInealta series). If sony or panasonic are used in big budget movies, i'm pretty sure their colour science is good enough for me. 

Or maybe they just have talented colorists ...

Or maybe I'm just colorblind.... [Oh wait, I am colorblind ... damn ... ]

Canon does happy pleasing colors well.     I don't think there is debate on that.      Personally, I like the color science of all the manufacturers, except for the current Sony look coming from their consumer products.   I'm sure you can get good color from those as well, with work. 

[Justin Bacle]

7 minutes ago, johnnymossville said:

Canon does happy pleasing colors well.     I don't think there is debate on that.      Personally, I like the color science of all the manufacturers, except for the current Sony look coming from their consumer products.   I'm sure you can get good color from those as well, with work. 

Yep, I do agree that canon color science is good (I like fuji's colors too !) I just think sony is not that far behind when you really think about it