Sunday 18 February 2007

Announcement on Feb 22?

I found a yet another rumour on announcement(s) that are supposed to happen at the end of next week. A post from FM:

10am GMT, Feb 22 is the announcement of the new EOS DSLR!

Local time in Tokyo is 5pm.
Local time in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore is 6pm.
Local time in New York is 6am.
Local time in London is 12noon.

And this is the reply to the post (my thoughts exactly:):

So are we talkin' one lousy camera now? I hope it's the one I want
How about the lighter, better glass? Seriously, if it's a 40D, I'm not going to Vegas...
But I would be really surprised if they decide to keep 1Ds unchanged...
Maybe their calculations are showing them little benefit in upgrading it
comparing to the mass market stuff. But a big anniversary, big booth PMA with
one lousy 40D would be a sad joke...

And another. Seems reasonable to me (for Canon to do). They could announce the new Canon 1D, with more mpix and no grip (a lot of people would like to have a lighter and smaller camera) and just drop the prices on 5D (30% or so):

If the 'Little Erwin' rumour is right, then Canon have kind of killed two birds with one stone at 12MP and FF but weatherproofed and with 1 series AF and a high fps, this is both the 1DII replacement and the rumoured 'high-end' 5D
For the low-end 5D, there is really no great rush to replace the 5D - until manufacturing progress means they can take more cost out.
In the same way, the 1DsIII replacemt can easily wait until the fall.
I don't know if what has been said about just one camera being announced on the 22nd in any way precludes another being announced later on in PMA.
I would suspect in this case it would be the 40D.

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And an interesting guess, also from FM forums:

1. The new 12MP pro body is introduced next week.
2. The new 22MP body is announced but not introduced yet.
3. No update to 5D, but maybe a lower price? (Either by announcement or attrition...)
4. No update to the 30D

By the end of the year...

1. The folks dying for the 12MP pro body have gotten one.
2. The 22MP body is available.
3. Those waiting for a 40D move towards a less expensive 5D.
4. A 16MP "3D" is introduced, now that the pro body that was 16MP has moved to 22MP.

With a rather competent 400D and a less expensive FF 12MP body, a 40D is never going to be a big seller.

2 comments:

StuBert said...

There is a photography show in the UK, Focus photography show at the NEC which runs from 25 — 28 February - it's a big event for photography in the UK (Canon, Nikon et al are there).

Normally this show and PMA are wihtin a few days of each other and annoucements pre-date both shows. So maybe as Focus is 25th means the annoucement of the 22nd is true - this is certainly the biggest opportunity for Canon to show off their wares in the UK.

Unknown said...

The main reason for the 40D to exist IMHO is that it provides an upgrade path for us 350D/XT/400D/XTi etc users without us having to throw away our stable of EF-S lenses.