Canon eos-1d X Mk II
Faster, better, more! The Mark II edition of Canon’s topflight SLR is a real speedy thriller
the provision of 20.2MP looks very low rent, compared with just about any other camera in Canon’s current line-up. But that’s certainly not the whole story. This SLR is built for ultimate speed and performance, and it really delivers on its promise.
A significant revamp over the original 1D X, the Mark II features a new-generation image sensor with Dual Pixel AF and on-board digital-to-analogue conversion, dual DIGIC 6+ image processors, and a huge standard sensitivity range of ISO100-51,200. You can even push it to a humongous ISO409,600 in expanded mode. Of course, you can enjoy fast shutter speeds even under dull lighting conditions, perfect for shooting indoor sports or wildlife at twilight.
Continuing the speed theme, there’s a blistering 14fps continuous drive mode under the bonnet, even when using continuous autofocus and metering. You can boost this further still to 16fps, if you fix autofocus and metering before the first frame and shoot in live view. The speed isn’t a flash in the pan either, thanks to a memory buffer that’ll keep you going for up to 170 shots in Raw mode, or until you run out of card space.
Build and handling
Typical of top-flight, pro-grade SLRS, this camera has a built-in vertical grip. However, it’s particularly well implemented. The shooting controls are duplicated in a way that makes the camera feel
every bit as intuitive and natural in both portrait and landscape orientation shooting. Like most current cameras, the Mark II gains a rear touchscreen.
Despite the 6D Mark II and 5D Mark IV also feature Canon’s new RGB+IR metering system, the 1D X Mark II’S has a more sophisticated metering module with twice the pixel count.
Performance
One of the most impressive aspects of this camera’s performance is how well the autofocus and metering systems can track rapidly and erratically moving objects. In our extensive tests, we’ve always got a better hit rate in action sports photography than with any other camera. It’s good for highadrenaline movie capture too, with the availability of 4k UHD movies at 50/60fps. That’s double the frame rate of the 5D Mark IV.
Many cameras boast a big ISO range but you’ll usually find that image quality towards the top end is horrific. By contrast, the upside of the 1D X Mark II’S modest megapixel count is relatively noise-free image quality all the way up to ISO51,200, at the top end of its standard sensitivity range. You can therefore freeze the action even under the most challenging lighting conditions.