Canon 1DX Hands On - 14fps / New Zealand Launch Party

Canon New Zealand invited CPS members along for a “CPS Party“ this evening. Once there, they played a slideshow, and announced the Canon 1DX - 18 megapixels, 14fps, Dual Digic 5 chip which is 17 times faster than the predecessor. Following their announcement, they surprised us with 5 actual 1DX’s to test out, along with 400mm 2.8 IS II / 300mm 2.8 IS II / 70-200 2.8 IS II lens. All five bodies were setup outside the Auckland Maritime museum, looking out to the passing yachts, and Princes Wharf. The new features are simply amazing, with capabilities to shoot 14fps in mirror lock up mode, and 12 fps standard. Native ISO is 100-51,200, expandable to 50-204,800! We did some test shots at 25,600 which came out extremely clear, whilst 51,200 wasn’t too bad either. Finally as the light completely fell away, we tried H2 (204,800) - which like the typical top ISO range is rather noisy, but still usable.