DSLRRumors.com

“Reports of a full frame (1.1X sensor) prototype being tested were getting stale; however, with apologies for the delay, our intelligence sources in the heart of Japan have confirmed it:”

Full text

Olympus has posted a teaser on their European website. Two announcements are coming on March 5, just prior to this years PMA. There have been rumors of an E410/E510 coming for a while, I’m assuming this is them.

source: http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/dslr.htm

Now that Canon has announced they’re new flagship sports/pj camera should we expect to see something from Nikon? If you look at their current replacement cycle I think something is due.

There were a lot of rumors of a new D3H a year ago, but nothing new has come up in the past few months. I think Nikon is on the right track with their high speed crop idea, I honestly thought Canon would be going the same route with a new full frame sensor. They’d really have a winner if they could do a 16 megapixel D3 with a 10 megapixel crop mode. Their production costs would certainly be down and they could compete against Canon’s 1D/1Ds with a single model.

I’m not sure how many PMA’s you can show a camera at before releasing it, but Pentax seems to be trying for a record. They are going to be showing the 645D again this year, but again with no release dates. I understand the desire to make sure all the bugs are worked out, but this seems to be dragging on forever. I think the market is ripe for a low cost medium format system, much the same way the Canon digital Rebel revolutionized the digital SLR segment.

Source: www.dcviews.com

Well, it looks like the Feb 22 date was correct. Canon announced the 1D Mark III today. I’m surprised that they didn’ go full frame with this, but I imagine they weren’t able to get the frame reate they wanted. Dual DIGIC III is an interesting addition, with all of the multi-core/multi-processor talk in the PC world it’s not surprising to see this come to a camera. It’s just something I don’t think many people have thought of, I haven’t heard mention of it in any forums. I don’t think the EOS Integrated Cleaning System is news to anyone, but the live preview sounds good. I don’t think it’s something I would use all the time but it’s certainly a great feature to have for awkward shooting positions or trying to get a shot over the top of a crowd.

Major highlights:

I’m not sure if this should be counted as anything “official” but it looks like on-line retailers are setting to prepare for the 40d. I’m not familiar with the company but take a look. http://www.geheugenkaart.be

A couple of interesting notes, it says DIGIC II not III. Other then the resolution bump it doesn’t sound like they’ve made any real changes at all. If this is real I have to say, I’m more then a little disappointed.

Sorry for the lack of postings, this week has been pretty busy. There hasn’t been a ton of new news in the Canon front, mostly re-hashing of existing rumors/wish lists. I’ve been working on some Nikon information, but haven’t had a chance to post it.

There is supposedly an announcement coming from Canon on Feb 23, although I’ve heard the 20th and also the 22nd. According to the rumors there will only be one camera in the 1 series announced on this date, along with some new lenses. Does this mean the others will be held until PMA or that there is no other news?

I think the 12-24 would be a welcome addition, as well as the 17-135 IS. The 12-24 would complement the full-frame wide angle shooters, and the 17-135 should give Canon some leverage against Nikon’s 18-200VR. The 800/5.6 seems to have been debunked as a hoax in numerous places, I’m not sure what to think here. To be honest I don’t pay too much attention to some of the fringe lenses, if the 800 5.6 does exist it’ll cost as much as a small car and only be available by special order in all but the largest of cities.

If there is only one new camera announced I think my money is on a full frame 1D. Canon still has some breathing room on the 1DsII since no one else is really pushing this model. As much as I’d like to see a replacement for the 30d it is only 12 months old, so I can see them holding off until the fall.

Unfortunatly I didn’t grab the text before it was removed, but according to Erwin Canon is going to be releasing replacements for both the 1D and 1Ds models. I don’t think that this is a surprise to anyone, but his predictions are as follows.

“Canon EOS D1
- 12.8 MP Sensor with DIGIC III
- Full Frame
- Weather sealed body
- Ability to write unlimited continuous JPEG at full frame rates as long as the memory card transfer rate is fast enough.
- New ISO 6400
- Expected price $4500 US dollars and will be cheaper than the Leica M8

Canon EOS D1s
- 22 MP sensor with DIGIC III
- Full Frame
- Should directly compete with Medium format
”

The elimination of 1.3x sensor seems reasonable, Chuck Westfall has aluded to as much in the past. It was hard to tell if his switching of D1/1D was a typo or not since he seemed to go back and forth. I’m leaning towards typo, seeing as Nikon had a D1 model years ago.

Some discussion on www.dpreview.com

The full text that was posted to Erwin’s site is available here
www.dpreview.com

Some more rumors about the 1Ds Mark III and 40d. 22 mega pixel is pretty old news now, as well as the full color sensor rumor. A full color sensor in the 40d would be a big surprise; it would certainly give Canon some breathing room against the competition. If they do go this route I hope they can overcome the noise problem Sigma has had, that’s been a point of pride for Canon’s CMOS sensors.

I’m not sure what the purpose of switching aspect ratios would be. This seems like something could just as easily be done in software, without the need for special “supported” lenses. It would only make sense if they were planning a high speed crop mode like Nikon, but then they are cutting into their 1D market. It should be an interesting PMA, that’s for sure.

It looks like my dreams have been dashed already. According to an interview in swiss magazine photointern the Pentax 645D is being delayed in favor of other DSLRs.
Source: www.dpreview.com

On the bright side, there could be some updates to the existing Pentax DSLR lineup as well as a new body.

“E-410. I think this will be what the E-400 was supposed to be. Grossly
the same as the E-400 but with Live preview (don’t know about A and/or
B)
E-510. Follow up of the E-500 Live preview and in-body image
stabilisation
E-x. Finally. Unknow if this will be at PMA to view or even handle.
Available from july/august. Faster AF, More AF points (maybe 12-14), 5-6
fps and larger buffer. Live preview with more robust screen. in-body
Image stabilisation. at least 10mpix. Different sensor than that of the
E-400 however. Nothing known about noise or body size. Would be nice if
the size stays the same. E-1 handling will be continued in this body.”

Source: fourthirdsphoto.com