01 canon eos-1d X mk II £4,800/$6,000
Battleship meets rocket ship in Canon’s top-of-the-range professional camera
battleship build quality ensures that the top-of-theline pro EOS-1D X Mk II can take the knocks of the most arduous professional lifestyle. It’s also a stunningly fast camera, with a blistering continuous drive rate of 14fps, rising to 16fps in Live View mode. Couple this with superb autofocus tracking and metering for even the most erratically moving subjects, and you have the ultimate camera for sports and press photographers.
High shooting speed is enabled by dual DIGIC 6+ processors, and by the image sensor being a modest 20.2Mp. That’s lower than in any of the other cameras in the entire group, but isn’t bad news, as discussed at the bottom of the page. There’s no shortage of resolution when it comes to shooting movies because this camera is capable of 4k UHD capture. Again, it benefits from touchscreen control and Dual Pixel AF, for assured and effective autofocus in Live View as well as for movies. The 1D X Mk II is also the biggest and heaviest camera in the group, mostly due to its built-in vertical grip. As such, all the main shooting controls are meticulously duplicated, enabling handling that’s equally natural and fast in both portrait and landscape orientation shooting.
performance
Considering its modest megapixel count, the 1D X Mk II matches or beats any other camera on test for resolution lab scores, bar the 5DS/R. It maintains fine detail and texture at very high ISOS, with clean image quality. If your professional photography moves towards sports and action, this is the camera upgrade you need.