CANON EOS-1D X MARK II
A veritable slab of a camera, the huge, hefty Canon is an imposing proposition with a price tag to match
Renowned as one of the world’s finest fully professional SLRs, the 1D X II is a beast. It has a body weight that’s nearly double that of the Sony, and a much bigger build that incorporates a vertical grip for comfortable portrait-orientation shooting, along with meticulously duplicated control dials.
Both cameras are based on magnesiumalloy body shells with a good degree of weather-sealing, but the Canon feels more robust and heavy-duty. All controls are intuitive and quickly accessed, coupled with a logical menu structure.
The 20.2MP image sensor is coupled to dual DIGIC 6+ processors, shunting through the image data from the fast 14fps maximum drive rate. You can boost the drive rate to
16fps by switching to Live View mode, if you can make do without continuous autofocus and metering in sequential shooting. Naturally, the reflex mirror is locked up in Live View mode, making continuous shooting at fast frame rates a lot smoother and quieter.
The Canon’s main autofocus system is particularly good at tracking moving subjects, with options for using small and large groups of AF points. There’s also an iTR (intelligent Tracking) option that works in tandem with the metering system, to lock onto erratically moving subjects within a scene. On top of that, you get several ‘case’ options, optimising continuous autofocus for varying scenarios, each of which are customisable for tracking sensitivity, acceleration/deceleration of tracking and AF point auto switching.
Live View mode benefits from Canon’s
‘Dual Pixel’ technology, which uses pairs of adjacent pixels across nearly the whole image sensor for phase-detection AF. It’s incredibly accurate and much faster than in most SLRs, although still not quick enough to keep pace with the maximum 16fps drive rate.
Image quality loses out to that of the
Sony for sheer resolving power, but draws ahead in dynamic range. High-ISO images are wonderfully clean and noise-free, while retaining excellent fine detail and texture.