Shooting at Extremely High ISO on Canon 1D X

So as you might have been reading, I had been playing with this camera for quite a while now.

One of the things I had heard was the quality of the image, especially at high ISO. So obviously the best place to do a test was the Night Safari! Based on a previous experience back in 2011, the 1D Mark IV wasn't a good enough camera to shoot in the near darkness, firstly the noise control wasn't that good, and the autofocus kept hunting and was difficult to lock on. Here's a recap:

Spotted Hyenas, Canon 1D Mark IV, 1/40th, f/2.8, ISO 12,800, 165mm.


Hence the best way to compare was to return to the same place and try again. It is important to note that sensor technology had improved in 2012, hence there would certainly be improvements. But by how much?

Hence, I brought the Canon 1D X to the night safari to capture some animals once again. Due to the dimly lit conditions of the enclosures (as the animals are mostly nocturnal ones), I had to push the ISO to 25,600 in order to balance 1/60th and f/2.8 on a 300mm lens. Looking at the results, the images were pretty much cleaner than the previous 1D Mark IV. Click on each individual image to view a larger preview.

Annkole Cattle, Canon 1D X, 1/125th, f/2.8, ISO 12,800, 300mm.

Malayan Tiger, Canon 1D X, 1/60th, f/2.8, ISO 25,600, 300mm.

Spotted Hyena, Canon 1D X, 1/60th, f/2.8, ISO 25,600, 300mm.

Spotted Hyena, Canon 1D X, 1/60th, f/2.8, ISO 25,600, 300mm.

Asian Lions, Canon 1D X, 1/60th, f/2.8, ISO 25,600, 300mm.

If you were using the images for large prints, the noise may not be acceptable to some people, however we consider the fact that the night safari is a place where night animals are displayed, and the artificial lighting (if there was any to begin with) was just very dim. In some of the enclosures, some animals were already hard to spot with the human eye, it was like a puzzle, picking out where the animal was, especially if it wasn't moving. However, for web quality, it would be certainly good enough at ISO 25,600!

I have made a back-to-back visit on two consecutive nights, capturing images of animals on the second night with the 1D Mark IV, also at ISO 25,600 (H1 setting - accessible thru the custom functions). View my images from my Flickr by clicking: Night Safari 2013 Flickr Lioneldude


As for the AUTOFOCUS, both the 1D X and the 1D Mark IV was always hunting. Especially in certain enclosures where the light was dimmer, it was still pretty hard to get AF to lock on, to a point where it actually was frustrating. You would try and try, and maybe give up after a minute. If you have friends who use Nikon, you might gather that their AF systems work better in those ultra low light situations. That would put a smile on the Nikon users.