New Canon announcements... and new features here

~~So Amazon.com accidentally let the product pages for the EOS-1Ds Mk III and the 40D be visible.~~ DPreview posted the news. This is good, because the 30D has been getting fairly long in the tooth and really could use an upgrade.

It's more of the same. The 1Ds Mk III has 21 megapixels now. The 40D has 10 megapixels now.

Features from other recent models -- Live view, highlight tone priority, the option to make the camera quieter, etc. are all present. It looks like Canon's realized that they won't be able to stretch the megapixel race too much farther so they're doing some much-needed improvements in usability. I don't think people realize it quite yet, but these features are probably more impressive than more megapixels.

The latest attempt at making autofocus work with live view is that they'll drop the mirror down long enough to focus and then let you live view again. It's either going to be really annoying or nice and handy.. and it's configurable via a custom function because I don't think Canon knows either how people are going to like it.

The 1Ds Mk III has the 21 megapixels that the prior rumors suggested, but it doesn't have a new lens mount. However, there's also a new version of the 14mm lens on the way, so I suspect that the full-frame lenses that aren't going to resolve enough detail at 21 megapixels (which has caused many 5D / 1D shooters to get certain sharp older prime lenses) are going to be replaced soon.

I'm already obselete!

My Canon G7 is now officially obselete. The Canon G9 is now out, and many of the things people disliked about it have been fixed.

The main thing I'm annoyed about is the return of RAW functionality, because that is the one feature I'd actually use out of the additional features that the G9 has. The extra 2 megapixels is probably not an improvement.

Oh, while we're on the subject... Did you know that if you made a APS-C sized sensor with the same pixel size as the Canon G7, it would be a 84 megapixel sensor?

Site Upgrades

I added the ability to comment on blog posts. I figure there are enough people reading here now that have questions, so I'll provide the ability to get questions that might be raised by my posts answered without requiring people to email me for a private answer.

Comments

In not so fun news..

My camera troubles after the dip continue. KEH made things very very right with my new RB67 back, but now I discovered that something's wrong with my 90mm lens's shutter. Given the replacement cost, it's not worth repair, so I have to get yet another 90mm lens.

(For those of you who aren't shooting medium format, the 90mm is the equivalent of the 50mm lens on a 35mm camera. It's easy to make, has a normal field of view, and fairly cheap. It costs used about what a 50mm 1.8 lens costs new.