Dan Chung says Canon 1DX is sharper than the 5D3

by Sebastian WöberJune 24^th, 2012

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Dan Chung from dslrnewsshooter has had a chance to compare the Canon 5D mark III and its big brother the Canon 1D X. Both have very similar video features but there seems to be a slight difference how video is recorded.

The 5D mark III has been slashed for its soft image. It’s proven that the GH2 is sharper. Canon told us that the softness is a result of disabling in-camera sharpening for the 5D mark III.

When I used the 5D mark III for my NAB 2012 coverage I wrote that I was actually quite happy with the detail it provided after sharpening in post. But regardless of my personal opinion there’s a definite need for a sharper image among HDSLR’s and the 1DX seems to provide that.

There’s a lot of technical evaluation on nofilmschool and eos hd about Dan’s video and in a way everybody seems to be relieved that there’s improvement. But is the difference really that significant? You can go to vimeo and download Dan’s video for your own evaluation.

I downloaded the source and found a moment for both cameras when the Manfrotto logo on her shirt seemed best exposed. I applied some sharpening to the 5D mark III. It seems like indeed the 1DX has slightly more detail to show as the logo seems more readable on the 1DX footage.

The Canon 1DX is $6799 at B&H:

[UPDATE] A more in depth analisys by cinema5D member jcs (see comments):
“5D3 image sharpened at 33 + minor curve adjust, 1DX sharpened at 16, both Neat Video noise reduced.
After processing, during playback and full screen, hard to see much of a difference in quality: the 1DX has slightly more detail, but looks digital vs. the slightly less detailed 5D3 which looks more like film.”