Welcome to the Handspun Family: the 1DX Mark II

August 15, 2016

Hi, all! Josh here! We managed to finally snag a Canon 1DX Mark II – something I have had my eye on for some time now – and I cannot wait to tell you how much I love this thing after about a month with it.

(Be advised: I will go into nerd details and tech specs that won’t matter much to most people but a select few will enjoy them without a doubt!)

Carrying on, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity to receive our copy (Silly Olympic photographers and their demands), I hastily unboxed her and headed out to a baseball tournament because I have ZERO patience.

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First reaction: WOW. It’s a sports car that’s good on gas and surprises you every time you touch the throttle.. er, shutter.

I fired off a few hundred frames to break it in and, mincing words, there is no replacing the ability to take 70-80 frames between 1st and 3rd base. It takes beautiful pictures and has the ability to shoot through stadium flicker, which (if you have ever dealt with it, you know) is horrid. It effectively shoots around the dips and surges caused by large light ballasts and gives consistent exposure in every frame.

Sports are obviously this camera’s target market, but it is no slouch in any other context. It provides more than enough resolution and fine detail for weddings, portraits, landscapes, and anything you may find it useful for. With that said, it thrives on action and movement, and its autofocus system is so blasted smart and refined, it is hard to force it to trip up and give you an out-of-focus frame.

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The sports car analogy comes from the fact that it will shoot 2500 frames at 14 frames per second on a single battery, and is authoritatively powerful and precise.

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(Whitney here: the sports car analogy also comes from Josh’s insane love for and knowledge of cars. He is a man of many talents! 😉 )

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It is a dream machine for photography – check out some of the photos we have taken over the past few weeks scattered below. But enough about still images, thats not why we bought it, it’s just a lovely benefit. The real test? Cinema.

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It initially pulled me in with internal 4K at 60 frames per second, 1080p at 120 Frames per second, and face tracking autofocus that, after actually testing it, is truly amazing. With its small-form factor and light weight, it begs to be thrown on a gimbal (or possibly something with wings?? 🙂 ) and the result is a super lightweight and marvelous package. It has quickly become our handy little go-to for moving moments and is small enough to fit into a shoulder bag, gimbal included.

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Who doesn’t love slow motion, right? Because we do. It shoots beautiful slow motion, see below. This was handheld at the pool in our neighborhood (My cousin, Jake, was the willing subject) and for this to be the result of the first few clips I shot with it, I am super pleased.

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This obviously doesn’t look like our wedding videos, but it is something I enjoy doing in my spare time – and we all need an outlet, right?

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We can’t wait to capture some happy brides and grooms as they take their first dance, or walk together through a vineyard, or maybe even run!! We will have to try and respect the slo-mo, but we know that beautiful dresses and first look tears will be all the more memorable when you can watch them longer.

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Long story short, I love this camera! It’s a beautiful monster, and I look forward to using it for the second half of our wedding season, and for years to come!

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This is the sun setting on this blog post.

Till Next time!

Josh

Welcome to the Handspun Family: the 1DX Mark II

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