- Hey guys, welcome to Travel Feels.
Today we're talking about the holy grail of Canon DSLR's,
the Canon 1DX Mark II.
(upbeat music)
Firs off I just want to talk about
Buffer Festival last week.
And I was at the Buffer Festival here in Toronto.
It's a YouTube festival basically.
A bunch of YouTubers, a bunch of creators
come there and just hang out.
There is screenings.
All sorts of cool stuff.
I just had a really good time there,
it was really nice hanging out,
meeting new people,
like Chris Howe, Sara Deechy, John Hill.
It's just really cool to meet new creators.
They're doing their own thing.
Have their own channels and they're just hustling.
I really enjoy meeting new people like that.
But the big takeaway from Buffer Festival,
was actually that there is a face behind
every single number on YouTube.
I kind of just had that realization of
Oh man, yeah, there is a 160,000 of you,
but there is actually 160,000 people.
When you guys cane up and wanted to talk and all that
it was really cool just putting some faces
to some of those numbers.
It was a really cool experience I think.
It's the first time I've had real contact,
with my subscribers so that was super cool.
So next year if you guys want to hang out,
make sure you're at the Buffer Festival.
I'm sure I'll probably be there too.
Alright so let's get into the review of
the Canon 1DX Mark II.
And right off the bat,
this is not a scientific review.
I'm never going to do scientific reviews.
That's just not my style.
But what I did do is take the 1DX to Norway with me
on a shoot for a week.
And that's really how you find out
if it's a good camera for you or not.
So let's check out some of the footage from Norway.
So for me, I'm still kind looking for the perfect
YouTube camera.
I don't always want to be lugging around this camera
the C300 Mark II just because it's a big camera,
and just doesn't work really well
for blogging type stuff and all that obviously
because it's just too big, too heavy.
So I've been trying, testing different cameras,
like the GH5 and the Sonys and then some of these Canons
and figuring what's the best camera for me,
for YouTube filmmaking where
I need a smaller form factor camera.
So let's just go through some of the pros and cons
of the 1DX that I found while I was shooting with it.
Firs off let's just, talk functionality.
First off, the size of the camera.
A lot of people say that the 1DX is just
way too big.
And I actually like the size.
I'm used to a little bit bigger camera,
but I found that the size of it,
and the weight of it made for really smooth,
really nice footage because it's not so light
and jittery in your hands all the time.
It has a little bit of weight to it.
So the hand held stuff feels a little bit better.
It's just really nice to shoot with,
having that nice grip and a little bit bigger size.
I actually really enjoyed it.
I thought it was going to be a big pain,
but I really enjoyed this.
So for me this was actually a pro,
but for some of you it could be a con.
I also like it that I can still stick it on my
GlideCam 2000 or an a gimbal.
It's still small enough and light enough that
it is not too big for the stabilizers.
Then we have the battery life.
And the battery life is just amazing on the 1DX Mark II.
Now granted the batteries are pretty hefty.
They're pretty big,
especially compared to the other Canon batteries,
or Sony batteries or any of the other batteries.
They're a lot bigger.
But I would way rather have a little bit bigger battery
and have way longer battery life because I just don't
want to be changing batteries all the time.
I don't want to be in the middle of shooting with my
Glidecam and then have to take off, or on gimble
take it off and then switch in a new battery and all that.
I love having a really long lasting battery.
Now the one big down side to having bigger batteries
is that you have a bigger charger,
which is kind of annoying when you're travelling
and all of that.
I just really like minimizing the amount of stuff
I bring along.
And so that's a little bit of a con for me.
Next let's talk about menus.
Menus don't seem like they're that big of a deal.
But it really matters when you're shooting,
because you're always going to be going into menus,
and if you're always having to fight with the menus,
and you can't find stuff,
it just really sucks.
And it just hurts the shooting experience.
But with Canon, the menus have always been
really good and intuitive.
It's just really easy to find stuff.
I really like how easy it is to just switch into 120
super fast.
You can just go back and forth.
Now there is one thing that annoys me
and that's when you go out of 120 frames per second,
it defaults to 60 frames per second.
And I'd way rather go to 24 frames per second
because that's really all I'm switching between,
is 120 and then 24.
So that's a little bit of an annoying thing,
but overall the menus are really nice.
Downside for most people,
is that it takes CFast cards
which are really expensive cards
but for me--
I actually have a bunch of CFast cards because of my
C300 so for me it's actually a pro because
I like using the same cards on different cameras.
But I can definitely see why this would be a negative
for a lot of people because they are expensive.
And functionality wise,
I'd say the biggest downside is that it doesn't have
a flip LCD screen.
I keep saying this every single small form factor camera
nowadays should have a flip LCD screen.
There is no reason why it shouldn't have a flip LCD screen.
Photographers benefit, videographers benefit,
everybody benefits, everybody wants flip LCD screens.
So I'd say that's probably the biggest downside,
functionality wise
is that it doesn't have a flip LCD screen.
And then let's talk image.
This is always the juicy stuff for me
and in the end this is the most important stuff.
I mean, all the functionalities and all that stuff
really matters, but the image is what I care about most.
So I actually shot almost everything in 1080,
when I was logging I was shooting in 24 1080,
and then I was shooting a lot in 120 frames per second,
which is in 1080, but it has a really nice codec.
So not all slow motion is equal.
Just because the GH5 can do 120 frames per second,
and the 1DX Mark II can do 120 frames per second.
It doesn't look quite the same.
And that's the same for Sony,
they all look a little bit different.
And I think this 120 frames per second in the 1DX Mark II,
is really, really nice.
One of the nicest, if not the nicest,
in these smaller form factor cameras.
And that's just because it's shooting
in a really high bit rate so the quality of that 1080
is really high.
So 120 frames per second super nice on this camera.
I basically shot all of the time in 120 frames per second.
If I was going for b-roll, 120.
I really like shooting in slow motion,
and one of the best things about the 1DX Mark II
is the autofocus on it.
And it even works in the 120 frames per second.
So just by yourself you can get all these,
really cool shots of just dollying in on your
character or just going around and going backwards.
You don't have to keep the same distance all the time,
like I normally would when I'm shooting in manual focus.
I still think Canon by far has the best autofocus
and the 1DX Mark II it's really good.
No focus puller needed.
You just use the autofocus
and you can get really cool shots.
So it's really good for nice beautiful cinematic shots,
but what is it like for the rest
of YouTube filmmaking which is
a lot of talking to the camera
and blogging and that kind of stuff,
and surprisingly I actually really enjoyed
using the 1DX Mark II.
I thought it was going to be super crazy heavy
when I'm holding it out, especially for blogging.
There is definitely times where it gets a little bit tiring.
But it wasn't so bad
and because of that little bit of weight to the camera
I feel like it's a little more stable in my hands,
and so I really liked it.
And I thought because it doesn't have a flip out LCD screen
I was going to really just be annoyed the whole time
but basically what I would do is just hold out my hand
and I'd get exposure on that,
and then I just turn around film myself
and as long as I'm looking right down the barrel of the lens
I know I'm in focus.
The autofocus is in the center frame
so I'm just looking right don the middle.
I know it's going to be in focus.
I know it's going to be good.
Plus the big reason why a lot of people shoot Canon,
is the color science.
It just looks so good,
which is so handy for blogging
because when you're doing YouTube,
you're blogging, whatever, you're putting up videos
all the time.
You don't want to spend a lot of time
fighting with the footage
to make the colors look really good,
especially skin tones.
And Canon just really has that down.
So it just helps so much in the editing process,
when you're filming on a camera like the 1DX.
It just saves you so much time and color grading.
And one of the biggest reasons I really like
the 1DX Mark II is that it's full frame.
There is a really big difference when you're shooting
with something like the GH5 and then the 1DX Mark II,
which is full frame.
So the GH5 is cropped sensor, I think it's like times two,
without the speed booster.
With the speed booster it's about a 1.6 crop.
And I just really like the look of full frame.
You just get this nice depth, this drama in your shots.
And the depth of field is way nicer than on the GH5.
So some of the shots I was getting were so nice because
of that wide perspective.
And I just looked back around the camera and be like
oh man I can't wait to edit this stuff.
But also for blogging it makes it a lot easier.
You can just hold it out not even that far from your face,
and you can get everything.
Whereas with the GH5 you really have to push it far
because its crop sensor is not as wide.
So for blogging having a full frame sensor really actually
helps a lot.
Which is something I didn't really think about that much
but using it, I realized how important it actually is.
Then I started thinking,
maybe the 60 is actually a pretty good blogging camera.
Even though it doesn't do 4K.
It might actually be good,
because it's full frame.
Especially because of the flip LCD screen.
That'd be interesting.
Then when we were talking about image,
the downsides I would say are,
the 4K codec.
It's just not the best codec.
So I wasn't really shooting in 4K.
I don't really like it as a 4K camera.
But for my YouTube stuff,
I don't actually need 4K most o the time.
I would rather just do 1080,
especially because the slow motion
is always in 1080 anyways,
so I'm just going to make the whole thing 1080,
when I'm doing these quick youtube videos.
But I would say the biggest downside of the 1DX Mark II
is the dynamic range.
The dynamic range just isn't as good as it could be.
I think it could be a lot better,
especially coming from something like the C300,
where the dynamic range is just so good,
then going to something like the 1DX,
the dynamic range just isn't quite there.
It's a lot more challenging especially if you're shooting
in harsh light.
It just doesn't look as good.
You're always going to have something blowing out
or something way too dark.
It's a little bit challenging in that way.
I really wish it had c-log,
so we get a little bit more dynamic range
out of the camera.
And then quickly, photo wise,
it's obviously just a beats of a camera.
The photos that I was taking with this is just unreal.
It's just a really good photo camera.
I'm not surprised that so many people
like Peter used the 1DX especially for photos.
Alright so the big question always is
who is this camera for?
Every camera these days.
Pretty much every camera is a really good camera.
The real question is who it's best for?
So who should get the 1DX Mark II?
I would say, it's not a beginner camera.
I wouldn't get it if I was just starting out.
I don't think you should be putting $6,000
on a camera right away when you're starting out.
You're way better off using something like
a 6D or 5D or 80D or a GH5 or something like that.
So if you're a beginner,
I would say pass on this for now.
Work on your stuff and once you've made some money
maybe then invest in this.
Who I think it's really the best for is people like me.
YouTubers who are trying to make really cinematic content
and then you're also trying to get
really high quality photos at the same time.
Especially if you want to do slow mo heavy stuff,
which is what I do for a lot of the b-roll.
So this camera is really ideal for someone like me.
It's not surprise to me that people like Peter
and Sam Colder and TaylorCutFilms and Lost Le Blanc
all of them shoot on the 1DX Mark II,
and I really understand now why they shoot on it.
You have one camera that is just so capable of
so many different things
So I would say this is not a bigger camera,
wait until you've gotten a little bit better.
But if you really want to push the cinematics
in your films and get amazing photos,
this camera is definitely for you.
I might even get one for myself.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this review.
If you did, hit that like button, subscribe to the channel.
I'd really appreciate it if you were part of this community
Guys enjoy the filmmaking process
and go get some of those travel feels.
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