Canon's new line up!

So Canon today just announced some new and pretty exciting things!

First the 7D, which sits somewhere in between 50D (which sucks) and 5D2 (which is awesome). It has 18 mp crop sensor with 8 fps. Perhaps what is most exciting about the camera is that Canon built a brand new AF and metering system - 19 cross type points! Oh and as an added bonus it has built in wireless flash control (so you can do off camera lighting without buying a master flash or expensive remote triggers!). Finally Canon is doing some really cool stuff to catch up to Nikon (this really competes well with Nikon D300 in my opinion). Check out the hands on from DP review: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090104canoneos7dpreview.asp

Canon also announced 2 new EF-S lenses, one is a potentially awesome replacement for the less-than-stella 17-85: EF-S 15-85 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. It also announced an EF-S 18-135 IS as well: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090103canon15mm28mm18mm135mm.asp

While I can't use either of the lenses, I am very interested in the third lens they announced, a new 100mm macro (an L at that). But this one... with IS! It's the first lens with their new hybrid image stablization system that offers up to 4 stops of stablization for normal shots and 2 stops for macros. Suppose to be priced just over $1K which is about 400-500 more than the non-L 100mm macro makes it a very tempting choice. One of my biggest problems with the macro is that I always need to bring out a tripod to hand hold it since the slightest movement is magnified when doing macro work. This lens could turn out to be very interesting indeed :). So anyone want to buy my old macro lens ;)?
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090102canon100mmmacro.asp

Reverie

Ever wonder what Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet can do with a Canon 5D Mk II's movie mode and a $5K budget? It has a night time helicopter flight over NYC... need I say more?

Reverie (hosted by Canon)

Smugmug also has the video hosted, with HD version available and a behind the scene movie here

The Empire... er... Canon strikes back

So the long awaited announcement for the 5D replacement came today... "Destined Evolution"

So here are the key specs for the 5D Mk II from DP Review

• New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
  
• New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
  
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
  
• High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
  
• Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
  
• 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
  
• ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
  
• 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points
  

So... it looks pretty sexy to me :). 21 MP is great, but far beyond what I'd need... tho it'd be great for large poster sized prints (you know... like for my living room wall). The real sexy thing is the movie mode, sure Nikon came out with movie mode first on the D90... but full HD 1080 resolution movie mode... I can't wait to try it out!  The higher ISO performance is also kind of exciting, but I'll have to wait to see the full review and test shots... Either way, I'm not one to pre-order, but I am certainly going to watch my spendings a lot more carefully in the up coming months.

Canon also announced a new EF 24mm f/1.4 L Mk II lens.  Great for them, but not so much for me. They also announced a few point and shoot upgrades:

• Canon Powershot G10 - The best point and shoot offered by Canon. 15 mp and 5x zoom (28mm wide)
• Canon Powershot SX10 and SX1 - Two new compact super zoom  (20X!!!) offered by Canon, with image stabilization. SX1 also has 1080p HDTV movie capture mode.... Sweet!
• Canon IXUS 870 IS and 980 IS - Great super compact P&S... some new features which is always cool :).

So things have finally gotten interesting. Now we'll have to see how Pentax, Olympus and Sony will respond.

Destined Evolution....?

So Canon has started running a full teaser campaign today... The Canon USA site has a little flash movie with a moon showing the shadows of a new DSLR with the tag line... "Destined Evolution", you can see it at http://www.canon.com/moon/en/index.html. Canon Europe also has a flash ad with the tag line "The EOS story continues.... See the future of photography.... stay tuned" on their home page.  I guess the rumors are true, Canon is releasing another DSLR this year... and logic would suggest that it is a 5D replacement of some sort... rumors are flying all over the place about 2 DSLRs, 7D and a 3D etc etc. I guess either way, something IS finally coming after months and months of chatter about a 5D replacement... something is finally coming... unless it is a 1D Mk IV >.<....  Either way, all this hype has gotten me excited again... but the anticipation is killing me. I guess either way I'll have a new camera... just whether it is the 50D or something else :).

Nikon: 2 - Canon: 0

So uh.... as the title would suggest... Nikon is wiping the floor with Canon's non-creative asses. Sorry for the harsh language, but Nikon has not only surpassed Canon in just about every way possible, but made them look REALLY silly while doing it... as a friend put it... "man, nikon's totally slapping canon silly right now it's not even a fair fight... it's like michael phelps vs george lucas in 100m butterfly".

Keep in mind both my friend and I are Canon shooters... at least for now. Late August is usually a very exciting time for photographers as this is the pre-Photokina announcement season where all the big companies come out with some of their best stuff (the other hot season is around December for the PMA show). I've been waiting and waiting for a breakthrough by Canon. I wasn't just looking for a Canon 5D MK II (or whatever name it is given), but I was hoping for something revolutionary. Some signs of life to show that Canon's huge R&D department isn't just show... that they are good for something. Clearly, I was wrong.

This week Canon announced their newest camera... Canon 50D... yes folks, no full frame 5D replacement in sight yet... To give them credit, the 50D is a large upgrade from 40D (at least technically speaking). The key specs seems to be 15.1mp (up from 10.1), ISO 100-3200 (with 12800 as expansion) which is up from 1600 with 3200 as expansion. This alone is pretty impressive, a large increase in pixel density without increasing sensor size AND dramatically lowering the noise all at the same time? Sounds great! I can't wait to see some of the test shots. The 50D also includes a few interesting features like ability to adjust the focus for all lenses (or enter lens specific adjustments), improved live view, peripheral lighting adjustment, and a much better 3.0" LCD. Oh and of course this is the first camera with the brand new DIGIC IV image processor with new menu layout and stuff... all pretty cool stuff. Initial hands on impression available at http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos50d/. Also announced is a new EF-S lens, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I'm weary of the image quality of super zooms like these... especially at about 600 without USM... anyways, you can read more about it at http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08082604canonef-s_18-200mm.asp.

So... it's not THAT bad, it's just not ground breaking, nothing special, more or less natural progression from the previous generation. Typical safe move. Now Nikon on the other hand has really been tearing up a store in the DSLR world... first D300 and D3, then D700, and now the latest... D90 (replacement for the D80). Now I don't know a whole lot about Nikon and their cameras... but I don't need to know much to appreciate the D90. Apparently Nikon has managed to release the first ever DSLR with video mode... yes VIDEO MODE. The D90 is capable of recording HD video (1280x720) at 24 fps... I mean wasn't that the biggest reason people liked point and shoots? That they can take pictures AND videos at the same time? Well guess what... now you can do that with DSLRs and do it 10x better. Imagine recording a video with a fisheye lens... or a 50mm 1.4 with super shallow DOF, or a 80-200mm VR lens... my goodness. Nikon has really changed the market with this one I think... Hands on preview available at http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond90/... I don't see how Canon can catch up (in the near future at least), Nikon has just been revolutionizing the market one camera level at a time....