While attending CES 2009 at one of the Unveiled Pre-Show event, I had a small chat with Canon’s tech guru Chuck Westfall regarding the 5D Mark II black dot issues. He remained mum about the problem and technicality, and said to wait a month for the fixes. To my surprise, I returned to hotel just to find out Canon has released the new firmware version 1.0.7 to mitigate the strange spots phenomenon. Afraid of a brick, I decided to stay put on the update until the show is finished.
BCN Japan took stock of the 20 best-seller DSLR in Japanese market for the year of 2008. According to the data, which accounted for 93.3% overall DSLR sale in that region; the “Big Two” held its spots, continue to dominate the cutthroat DSLR market despite threaten by the new Four-Third Standard from Olympus and Panasonic, as well as the increasingly popular Sony Alpha.
20 best seller list after the cut
You know it’s hot when the device are selling at Ebay for as much as 20-percent more than its asking value. If you’ve just discovered the 5D Mark II Digital SLR with one-of-its-kind full HD 1080P video feature, and you got to have it for the Christmas; try calling around local Best Buy electronic chain stores, or using the their online tool to check for store availability.
Most online and B&M camera stores are shut off with pages-long waiting list on the 5D sequel, two of my shooting buddies actually turned to Best Buy and got theirs last weekend. To sweeten the deal, Best Buy is running a five percent discount on the 5D mark II right now; no debate scheme, no cut-out coupon but an instant discount of $135 worth. Good enough to counter the sale tax at some States, yes?
I was totally psyched out finally got the call on the 5D mark II; retiring my Mark II N, slammed the new toy on my 500mm birding outfit and birding I went despite the wind chill below 20 degree. The pair-up is definitely now a much manageable beast without the use of support. Handholding 500mm for Bird In Flight (BIF) doesn’t gets this easy with a paper-weight prosumer body. Physically much manageable, but technically I still prefer the 1D series AF. Anyhow, my unit (serial number starts with 320xxx) shows none of the heated black-dots issues, however, does exhibits a RED-HOT pixel (no pun intended) located at (2569, 2799) X-Y resolution map.
Last week, Canon USA technical adviser Chuck Westfall briefly addressed the 5D Mark II owners that having the Black Dots issues to stay put for an announcement. Today, it came though; a service bulletin has been posted on Canon Australia web site addressing the increasingly heated topics. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide solution nor a firmware fix to the problem, but does provide steps to reduce the appearance of the clustering spots. On a positive note, Canon has acknowledged the issues and said there’s a work in progress to investigating both the vertical banding and black dots problems.
[update : Canon is working on a Firmware update according to this service notice from Canon Japan ]
The Giroptic’s One-shot 360° Panoramic Digital Camera shaped like a Stielhandgranate, looks unfitted and oddly designed for a digital camera; but its innovative approach allowed an easy-handling high quality 360 degrees panoramic digital image taken with just one single click.
Creative or when Marketing goes wrong? Pentax shows the holiday spirit, announces a limited-release of a White Christmas version Pentax K2000. Wrapped in a brilliant white body with black trims, the K2000 kit is available in a bundle kit with two-zoom lens (Pentax DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL and Pentax DA L 50-200mm F4-5.6 AL). Camera specification remains the same except for the body finish.
Rumors are circulating that Pentax are preparing to announce a GPS-enabled version of their K20D DSLR. Greek site FullHD have published details from what they claim to be a leaked press release, officially expected later on today; the K20D is a 14.6-megapixel waterproof camera and, with the GPS accessory, would be able to automatically geotag each image taken.
Though not as serious as the Mark III’s auto-focus disaster, the black dots are persistent on the new Canon 5D squeal. Frustrated photographers took it up with USA technical adviser Chuck Westfall at The Digital Journalist and the man spoke, “Watch for an official Canon comment on this issue in the very near future”
RG, in his brief interview with Westfall, also confirmed Canon is prepping to address the 5D mark II’s black dots debacle that’ve been widely spread on numerous community forums. No further details were disclosed but it would be a positive announcement. Well, if they’ve learned anything from Mark III; it’s wiser to break silence on founded technical difficulties, another case of lack-of-response could be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
[photo credit : Stephan Hoerold]
Broad line of DSLRs are currently supporting Live view but none of the lineup from Canon or Nikon offering a tilt/swivel LCD screen where it makes more sense. I’m just saying, it could be a whole lot more useful. If shooting though LCD screen suits you better, Zigview has updated it Zigview S2 with S2 Live to support Live view and extend it connectivity range.
Instead of capturing images from the viewfinder, S2 Live acquires the video feed directly from DSLRs on its 230.000 pixel LCD screen that offers a variety of settings such as brightness, color/B&W and the images can be rotated by 180 degree. Another nice feature of the S2 is its remote shutter function that’s capable of triggering your camera with remote release, motion-release or interval release from a distance.
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