Canon 1D X Mark II user reports and 4K crop

[Andrew Reid]

I am getting some lovely results with 120FPS on the hacked Samsung NX1. Latest firmware and the increased bitrates of the hack have done wonders for it since the NX1 first came out. It is much more detailed than the 1D X Mark II 120fps and whips the ass of the mushy A7S II 120fps at a fraction of the cost!! And full Super 35mm field of view!

Just make sure to turn sharpness all the way down in-camera.

Hacked NX1 1080/120p in terms of moire and aliasing is similar to X Pro 2 1080p maybe a bit cleaner.

[Sten]

12 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I am getting some lovely results with 120FPS on the hacked Samsung NX1.

Andrew,

Aren't you planing to update/refresh your NX1 Guide with something similar to the ALEXA Log C?

That's in addition to the GammaDR 2 LOG.

[Andrew Reid]

It's a possibility.

GammaDR is barely even flat let alone LOG and when you dial things down flatter in-camera, colour goes a bit haywire. So what I did with the NX1 Guide LOG converter is find a balance between delivering maximum dynamic range from the in-camera non-flat file (there are various tricks and it is important for example not to accidentally clip the RGB range in post with the H.265 files) and maintaining the great colour the NX1 is known for.

Then this image gets converted by my LOG LUT in post to a much flatter image which is compatible with the usual range of LUTs designed for S-LOG, Canon LOG, etc.

Samsung don't have an advanced app like Canon for creating your own gamma curves and colour profiles. Maybe the hacker community can make one.

But it remains such an incredibly powerful piece of hardware with a very simple user interface and great physical ergonomics. It is still cutting edge. That sensor seems to be doing a very nice readout in 120fps to get that much detail in 1080p. Oh and rolling shutter in 1080p is practically zero.

The only weak point is that you have to avoid pushing past ISO 800. Keep it at 100-800 and it is super clean. Past that is emergencies only especially if shooting 100fps or 120fps.

I think aside from the low light capabilities and Dual Pixel AF of the 1D X Mark II the NX1 is my slow-mo camera of choice right now. Sometimes even the video AF-C of the camera with the premium S lenses actually works pretty damn well!

[mike_tee_vee]

Can anyone comment on the AF-C performance of the NX1 and S lenses versus Dual Pixel AF in the Canons?

[Parker]

25 minutes ago, mike_tee_vee said:

Can anyone comment on the AF-C performance of the NX1 and S lenses versus Dual Pixel AF in the Canons?

Sadly, in my opinion, it's nowhere near as good. I went from a 70D to an NX1. In an interview like situation, with one of the S lenses, it's really good, it'll lock onto a face and stay solid, no hunting, but that's about the extent of what I can trust it with. Canon's dual pixel is just so wonderfully useable and trustworthy, even in run and gun type stuff, nailing focus every time with a touch of the screen (albeit with those mushy, soft canon "details", but what can you do). 

I would never dare use my samsung like that though, especially in high contrast situations, where sometimes it will think it has 'achieved focus' and then just completely blur everything, ruining the shot. 

That being said, I have had pretty good success using it for gimbal stuff, I've used the nx1 and 16-50s lens in af-c on a ronin-m quite a bit, and been very pleased with the results most of the time. 

Samsung's af tech is pretty good, and definitely better than most cams, but canon's dual pixel af is straight-up magic. 

[jcs]

It's possible to match the A7S II to the 1DX II reasonably well: 

 

The only thing I didn't correct was lip color, which should not be somewhat easy with Lumetri's new secondary correction (the still image from YouTube looks very different from the video). When I originally posted this, no one could tell which camera was which (A7S II 4K to 1080p, C300 II 1080p, 1DX II 1080p). Thus Sony's color is 'off', but it can be corrected when using Canon as a color reference.

1DX II 60p with my old custom log-like profile:

Since you've found that your custom CLog isn't really very different from Canon's CLog on the 1DC, you'll be very happy with the 1DX II. 60p, much less RS, and of course the PDAF.

[Oliver Daniel]

1 hour ago, jcs said:

It's possible to match the A7S II to the 1DX II reasonably well: 

 

The only thing I didn't correct was lip color, which should not be somewhat easy with Lumetri's new secondary correction (the still image from YouTube looks very different from the video). When I originally posted this, no one could tell which camera was which (A7S II 4K to 1080p, C300 II 1080p, 1DX II 1080p). Thus Sony's color is 'off', but it can be corrected when using Canon as a color reference.

1DX II 60p with my old custom log-like profile:

Since you've found that your custom CLog isn't really very different from Canon's CLog on the 1DC, you'll be very happy with the 1DX II. 60p, much less RS, and of course the PDAF.

I've not used this lengendary PDAF yet. Is it really that good? How good? 

I'm actually having many thoughts about replacing my A7SII with the 1DX II for better colour, body, 4K 60p, stills and.... PDAF. 

Please feed me. 

[jcs]

1 hour ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I've not used this lengendary PDAF yet. Is it really that good? How good? 

I'm actually having many thoughts about replacing my A7SII with the 1DX II for better colour, body, 4K 60p, stills and.... PDAF. 

Please feed me. 

Canon's PDAF is very good and works well in most cases. It's not perfect, however it's the best AF I've ever used. Really great for keeping moving faces in focus. You can also use it to assist with manual focus.

I'm not sure I'd replace the A7S II with the 1DX II. Instead add a 1DX II and keep the A7S II for lowlight and 120fps, and any time you need high quality 1080p and small files. You can use the 1DX II to shoot reference stills to help color correct A7S II footage.

You could use just the 1DX II for 1080p with post sharpening for closeups, then use 4K down sampled to 1080p for wide shots. Or shoot everything in 4K and transcode on ingest to 1080p. Offloading from CFast 2.0 via USB 3.0 is very fast.

[DBounce]

1 hour ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I've not used this lengendary PDAF yet. Is it really that good? How good? 

I'm actually having many thoughts about replacing my A7SII with the 1DX II for better colour, body, 4K 60p, stills and.... PDAF. 

Please feed me. 

I believe you mean DPAF. As for how good it is... dam good. Good enough for serious work. Not just a gimmick, a really valuable tool. It delivers on the promise of using autofocus lenses for video.  And to date it is the only system I have seen that can make good on that promise. 

[Hanriverprod]

Does anyone know if you can set on the 1dx mark ii the shutter at 180 degrees (1/48 for 24fps)?

[Andrew Reid]

57 minutes ago, Hanriverprod said:

Does anyone know if you can set on the 1dx mark ii the shutter at 180 degrees (1/48 for 24fps)?

As far as I know the Sony A6300 is the only current camera that allows this.

[Hanriverprod]

15 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

As far as I know the Sony A6300 is the only current camera that allows this.

That's too bad. I think the gh4 has shutter by degrees and also some kind of anti-flckr scanning. It's disappointing a $6000 dslr with 4k 60fps doesn't have features like this.

[DBounce]

3 hours ago, Hanriverprod said:

Does anyone know if you can set on the 1dx mark ii the shutter at 180 degrees (1/48 for 24fps)?

1/40 or 1/50 are your choices.  I generally opt for 1/40. Difference is small,  but I think 1/40 moves better. 

2 hours ago, Hanriverprod said:

That's too bad. I think the gh4 has shutter by degrees and also some kind of anti-flckr scanning. It's disappointing a $6000 dslr with 4k 60fps doesn't have features like this.

Yes,  but regardless of shutter angle, the gh4 does not look anywhere near as cinematic... so, what does it matter? 

[Hanriverprod]

1 minute ago, DBounce said:

1/40 or 1/50 are your choices.  I generally opt for 1/40. Difference is small,  but I think 1/40 moves better. 

 

I see in this video focusing camera via ipad. How is this possible? Do you need a transmitter of some sort and is there a lag?

I read that this camera's af is good for fast moving objects, how will it be for blocking actor's in contrasty lit scenes both med and wide shots when they might be moving in and out of frame on all axis and also turning around? Also, how is the focus from one object to another when both are in motion?  I imagine it is fine for closeups and med closeups? I guess I'm asking if this af has advanced enough to use in a narrative scene. What do you think?

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge on this camera. It is appreciated.

[DBounce]

2 minutes ago, Hanriverprod said:

 

I see in this video focusing camera via ipad. How is this possible? Do you need a transmitter of some sort and is there a lag?

I read that this camera's af is good for fast moving objects, how will it be for blocking actor's in contrasty lit scenes both med and wide shots when they might be moving in and out of frame on all axis and also turning around? Also, how is the focus from one object to another when both are in motion?  I imagine it is fine for closeups and med closeups? I guess I'm asking if this af has advanced enough to use in a narrative scene. What do you think?

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge on this camera. It is appreciated.

You need the wireless module canon wft-e8a.  It's expensive at $600, but I opted to purchase it as it is useful when monitoring on a gimbal. And yes it can be used to pull focus. There is some lag, but it's workable. 

As for focus tracking if you have a focus puller on a tablet all they need do is tap on a subject and the camera will work is magicoming and provide a prefect pull from subject a to b. If you are a single operator you will need to select an appropriate focus mode. Of which there are several for different situations. Each can be tweaked.

[Hanriverprod]

14 minutes ago, DBounce said:

You need the wireless module canon wft-e8a.  It's expensive at $600, but I opted to purchase it as it is useful when monitoring on a gimbal. And yes it can be used to pull focus. There is some lag, but it's workable. 

As for focus tracking if you have a focus puller on a tablet all they need do is tap on a subject and the camera will work is magicoming and provide a prefect pull from subject a to b. If you are a single operator you will need to select an appropriate focus mode. Of which there are several for different situations. Each can be tweaked.

That is good and might be able to reduce camera crew for smaller budget films.

[gt3rs]

In my country the wifi adapter was 370 usd at launch....
If you use the 1dx II on a tripod you can connect a PC, tablet or Mac via Ethernet you have even less lag.
Alternatively you can buy a small battery power router that has an Ethernet port any you get the same functionality but is not as convininet, additional thing to charge, cable and router hanging around where the WFT is a more elegant solution.

For gimbal use the WFT-8E is the way to go. Lag is ok, I did recently a scene where I had my 1DX II on the Ronin M on a cablecam and I was using a tablet for framing and focus setting while operating the Ronin via remote... a zero lag would have been better but it was usable and the scene came out as I wanted. If you think what a remote follow focus with a remote hdmi solution would cost you the 370 usd was a great investment.

[jcs]

To keep expectations balanced- Canon's DPAF is really good, currently the best AF on the market, however it doesn't always work. Sometimes it must be turned off, though you can still use the DPAF system to help with manual focus. The big reason to use the 1DX II over something like an A7S II is the AF, as with a little work the color on the Sony is usable (especially when using a Canon to capture reference color). If Sony makes another improvement in color, at least at much as the improvement from the A7S to the A7S II, improves the IBIS to something closer to Olympus (more usable for video- less jumps), reduces the RS, and improves the AF to be a bit better than what was in the A7R II, then Sony will be very competitive. Especially since they can perform full pixel readout and filtered downsampling for full frame as well as very high quality 1080p.

[Asmundma]

Does phase AF really work in video mode on A7r2, I don't think so. I find the AF similar in for video on A7S2 and A7r2, but not for stills, only video. 

[jcs]

4 minutes ago, Asmundma said:

Does phase AF really work in video mode on A7r2, I don't think so. I find the AF similar in for video on A7S2 and A7r2, but not for stills, only video. 

The A7R II's AF works much better than the A7S II:

A7R II AF (Skintones and color aren't too shabby either)

A7S II vs C300 II AF (1DX II AF is similar to C300 II)

Canon's PDAF is clearly the best, the A7S II's isn't really usable unless the subject is relatively still.