Canon 1DX - Official Owners Thread

Ploddles said:
Ah, I see what you are doing. You are going to the Software download page, not the Firmware page. See below.
If you go to the correct page, you will find it.

Linky to Firmware download
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It's OK, I can get the download I need, I have it running now. I was commenting on the link posted previously and the strange way that is is set-up and doesn't provide a download if you select 10.8.

It's a Canon USA site link that I and the other poster was commenting on. What appears to be the designated support page for the product is set-up exactly the same.
 
Can anyone recommend the best price / deal / dealer for a 1dx right now ?

Kerso ?
 
I've just bought mine from Kerso - good price, great service, absolutely no problems. Recommendation from me.
 
Anyone had any problems with battery performance or loosing charge while not being used?

Have not noticed any performance issues and took well over 2000 shots and still had 50% battery showing the other day but have just found 3 logs in the camera from last weekend when i was shooting BSB.

The logs are a caution warning of 02 for the camera detecting a faster than normal battery drop which i guess could either be firmware related or a duff battery.

Have e-mailed the service centre just incase as can only find one or two posts of people with the same problem on the FM forum.
 
mrjinxx said:
I've just bought mine from Kerso - good price, great service, absolutely no problems. Recommendation from me.
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I got mine from Kerso too. I have spend many £1000s with him over the years and never had a problem. 100% recommendation from me too. :thumbs:
 
Gadget-Guy said:
Anyone had any problems with battery performance or loosing charge while not being used?

Have not noticed any performance issues and took well over 2000 shots and still had 50% battery showing the other day but have just found 3 logs in the camera from last weekend when i was shooting BSB.

The logs are a caution warning of 02 for the camera detecting a faster than normal battery drop which i guess could either be firmware related or a duff battery.

Have e-mailed the service centre just incase as can only find one or two posts of people with the same problem on the FM forum.
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Yup, Glen, I've had a similar problem, 3 times since I got the camera, "caution 02" saying a sudden drop in battery performance was detected, I've also reported it to Elstree via my Canon rep, let's see what happens.
I also have an old battery from my 1 Ds3, but I haven't used that enough, however may give it a try.

As I recall, prior to the camera's release, there were rumours of battery issues
which was one of the (alleged) reasons for the launch being delayed.

IT'S CAUSED THE CAMERA TO CRASH, ALTHOUGH THE BATTERY CHARGE LEVEL WAS FINE WHEN I CHECKED IT AFTERWARDS...I THINK!! (oops cap lock syndrome!!)

George.
 
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Back from thailand... This new firmware is a nice surprise!.
F/8 focus :woot: after what Frankie said to me when I asked... I would have never guessed it!
 
IGADIZ said:
Back from thailand... This new firmware is a nice surprise!.
F/8 focus :woot: after what Frankie said to me when I asked... I would have never guessed it!
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My thoughts entirely, Ivan, I think we both heard Frankie's comments at Islington....
 
What did Frank say?
 
bigrob said:
What did Frank say?
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I think Canon's Bob's explanation was probably most accurate, ie the 1DX was orignially limited to an AF ceiling of f/5.6 to maximise performance. But Canon quickly realised its mistake and made physical engineering changes pre-production to allow f/8.

This delayed production, and I'm guessing the software engineers couldn't get to work before that was done, but cameras needed to be out for the Olympics. So they went out with AF physically capable of f/8, but without the soft/firmware to explot it. This has now followed.

That would explain the chain of events, and also the fact that the 5D3 cannot and will not get AF at f/8, despite having basically the same AF system originally.
 
HoppyUK said:
and also the fact that the 5D3 cannot and will not get AF at f/8, despite having basically the same AF system originally.
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Where did you read the fact Hoppy?
 
bigrob said:
What did Frank say?
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He said f/8 would not be enabled on this model due to (and I quote) "HARDWARE LIMITATIONS"... When pressed about a firmware update that would enable it, perhaps with a "canon does not guarantee Af speed response or accuracy with f/8 custom mode" caveat... he responded with a firm "NO".
So, this is truly a very nice surprise!
 
IGADIZ said:
He said f/8 would not be enabled on this model due to (and I quote) "HARDWARE LIMITATIONS"... When pressed about a firmware update that would enable it, perhaps with a "canon does not guarantee Af speed response or accuracy with f/8 custom mode" caveat... he responded with a firm "NO".
So, this is truly a very nice surprise!
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Yup, he told me categorically that it was not possible, again due to the method of autofocus, and went in to a long and detailed explanation...with sketches...as to why it was physically impossible...if you look back at a thread to which both Ivan and I subscribed, you'll see that's what we said at the time...
 
So either

1) they were lying
or
2) they changed the hardware.
 
bigrob said:
So either

1) they were lying
or
2) they changed the hardware.
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Well I think Frankie was quite genuine in what he was saying at the time, don't you agree, Ivan?

It would be fascinating to learn what really happened, but I suspect we can only guess, we'll never know for sure.
 
bigrob said:
Where did you read the fact Hoppy?
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I read no facts (that seem to be generally missing from this AF debacle) but it's certainly a fact that an AF firmware upgrade to f/8 for the 5D3 has not been announced. And indeed, evidence of the 1DX's AF actually working at f/8, with certain lenses, before the firware upgrade have been shown not to work on the 5D3, so there appears to be some fundamental difference going on somewhere.

We can only speculate on the reasons. This hypothethis only fits the info we have so far. Could change :D
 
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George said:
Well I think Frankie was quite genuine in what he was saying at the time, don't you agree, Ivan?

.
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Yep!.He sure sounded genuine and even concerned that it would negatively affect sales.
Whatever changed we might never know. For now, I am over the moon I've got f/8 AF with my 600II and 2xIII, happy days....:woot:
 
HoppyUK said:
I read no facts (that seem to be generally missing from this AF debacle) but it's certainly a fact that an AF firmware upgrade to f/8 for the 5D3 has not been announced. And indeed, evidence of the 1DX's AF actually working at f/8, with certain lenses, before the firware upgrade have been shown not to work on the 5D3, so there appears to be some fundamental difference going on somewhere.

We can only speculate on the reasons. This hypothethis only fits the info we have so far. Could change :D
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The sensor pairs have to look at each side of the aperture opening and maximum accurracy can be assumed to be when they're "focussed" on this area quite specifically. Changing to a wider sensing region will have some impact on overall accurracy but be more flexible. I still theorise that the 1Dx AF arrays have been "opened up" a little whilst the 5D3's haven't.

Only a theory though.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
The sensor pairs have to look at each side of the aperture opening and maximum accurracy can be assumed to be when they're "focussed" on this area quite specifically. Changing to a wider sensing region will have some impact on overall accurracy but be more flexible. I still theorise that the 1Dx AF arrays have been "opened up" a little whilst the 5D3's haven't.

Only a theory though.

Bob
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It may well be my Diving headache but... that went right over my head. Say What?... in plain english this time please! :lol:
 
IGADIZ said:
It may well be my Diving headache but... that went right over my head. Say What?... in plain english this time please! :lol:
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There is a physical dimensional element to phase-detect AF that sees the image from two sides of the lens and compares them. The wider they are apart, ie the larger the aperture, the better the accuracy. That's behind Canon limiting it to f/5.6. There are other issues too, with AF points away from the centre - you can go further towards the edges with physically wider apertures.

So to make it all work at f/8, in theory Canon would have had to make some physical changes to the AF array. And since Canon claimed the reason AF was limited to f/5.6 was because it enhanced accuracy, the flipside is presumably that the new f/8 system is slightly compromised in performance compared to the original design.

Then again, maybe they can address that by upgrading other aspects of the system, ie AF processing, to restore the original performance. Who knows.

It's all guesswork, but it seems certain that Canon will have to have done more in physical engineering terms to get good AF at f/8, and not just tweak the firmware. Therefore, those changes must have been done before production samples were released.
 
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George said:
Yup, Glen, I've had a similar problem, 3 times since I got the camera, "caution 02" saying a sudden drop in battery performance was detected, I've also reported it to Elstree via my Canon rep, let's see what happens.
I also have an old battery from my 1 Ds3, but I haven't used that enough, however may give it a try.

As I recall, prior to the camera's release, there were rumours of battery issues
which was one of the (alleged) reasons for the launch being delayed.

IT'S CAUSED THE CAMERA TO CRASH, ALTHOUGH THE BATTERY CHARGE LEVEL WAS FINE WHEN I CHECKED IT AFTERWARDS...I THINK!! (oops cap lock syndrome!!)

George.
Click to expand...

Thanks George,

No crashes so far but seemed strange that all 3 days i was shooting at Brands the log showed an error each day at around the same time of 11am give or take 10 mins.Wasnt sure if it may of been the capacity dropping after being out in the cold for a couple of hours or the main surface charge falling off.

Have e-mailed Franky Jim and Elstree but not holding my breath for a reply after previous experiences with them.
 
IGADIZ said:
It may well be my Diving headache but... that went right over my head. Say What?... in plain english this time please! :lol:
Click to expand...
I'll have a bash at expanding on Richard's tome.....

Think of the AF sensor pair as a couple of mini digital bodies with lenses attached. One of the combinations looks at one side of the aperture and the other is directed to the other side.
If you're trying to focus using an aperture of f/2.8 then the pairs will be pointing at the edges of the aperture seen through a lens at f/2.8. The lenses on these sensors will have a certain angle of view that also "sees" the edges of other apertures...eg, f/2 and f/4. The wider the AOV of the sensors lens then the more potential "aperture edges" it can see....but, like any system, the wider the angle of the lens, the more "DoF" it has. Increasing the "DoF" of the sensor's lens will reduce the accurracy. Hence, for optimum accurracy, we would assume lenses with a small AoV and implied reduced DoF.
Back to the supposition....
The hardware was changed so that the AF sensor pairs or lenses were re-engineered to "see" the edges of an f/8 aperture. This could have been achieved by narrowing the angle of the sensor pairs (pointing them more inwards) or fitting them with lenses having a slightly wider angle.

Put like that, it's probably done nothing to improve your understanding, Ivan.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
I'll have a bash at expanding on Richard's tome.....

Think of the AF sensor pair as a couple of mini digital bodies with lenses attached. One of the combinations looks at one side of the aperture and the other is directed to the other side.
If you're trying to focus using an aperture of f/2.8 then the pairs will be pointing at the edges of the aperture seen through a lens at f/2.8. The lenses on these sensors will have a certain angle of view that also "sees" the edges of other apertures...eg, f/2 and f/4. The wider the AOV of the sensors lens then the more potential "aperture edges" it can see....but, like any system, the wider the angle of the lens, the more "DoF" it has. Increasing the "DoF" of the sensor's lens will reduce the accurracy. Hence, for optimum accurracy, we would assume lenses with a small AoV and implied reduced DoF.
Back to the supposition....
The hardware was changed so that the AF sensor pairs or lenses were re-engineered to "see" the edges of an f/8 aperture. This could have been achieved by narrowing the angle of the sensor pairs (pointing them more inwards) or fitting them with lenses having a slightly wider angle.

Put like that, it's probably done nothing to improve your understanding, Ivan.

Bob
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I'm no expert on this Bob, but I'll just say that phase-detect AF works on depth of focus (as it must do, being behind the lens) rather than depth of field :thinking: And depth of focus is increased by a) longer focal length, and b) higher f/numbers.

This is quite a good article on Canon's AF systems, that appears to be quite recent. It mentions the 1DX, but not the f/8 update http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Photography-Tips/Canon-EOS-DSLR-Autofocus-Explained.aspx
 
HoppyUK said:
I'm no expert on this Bob, but I'll just say that phase-detect AF works on depth of focus (as it must do, being behind the lens) rather than depth of field :thinking: And depth of focus is increased by a) longer focal length, and b) higher f/numbers.
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It depends how you look at it Richard. My use of the term "DoF" is not related to the main lens but the actual AF sensors' lenses....perhaps not explained too clearly but that's why I put the inverted commas around DoF. These "mini" lenses are fixed aperture and focal length and therefore have no variables to contend with.

It sounds worse the more I try to make it sound better.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
It depends how you look at it Richard. My use of the term "DoF" is not related to the main lens but the actual AF sensors' lenses....perhaps not explained too clearly but that's why I put the inverted commas around DoF. These "mini" lenses are fixed aperture and focal length and therefore have no variables to contend with.

It sounds worse the more I try to make it sound better.

Bob
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:thumbs:
 
:nuts:If it works well, lads, who gives a toot toot!!!:bonk:

edit...could be the dreaded wine talking now, to return to a popular theme a few weeks ago!!
 
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Yes Canon are on stage after Tim Cooke at tonight's iPad Air launch.
 
Images might be a bit blurry though.
 
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