Sunday 11 February 2007

Why the "delay" of 1Ds mkIII

I've found this on FM, could be the reasons for "delaying"(there really is no timeframe for 1Ds mkIII) the announcement of Canon 1Ds mkIII:

We do know the elements of what CAnon are working on to put in future cameras.
What we don't have the info on is which are ready, but we can perhaps make some estimates - or guesses!
1.OLED -Canon said sometime in 2007. likely this will come in, but will not make much difference in likely early applications - just reduces power drain from the present LCD as technology 2 is unlikely to be ready
2.EVF instead of OVF - a decent screen for this at the moment costs $20,000 - it seems doubtful Canon have cracked this - perhaps in five years - potentially revolutionary.
3.Better batteries - AFAIK they have only just figured out how to make Lion batteries which are likely to meet Canon's specs for pro use - good shelf life, temperature operating range and so on:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18054/page1/
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17653&ch=energy
This would really make a major difference to cameras - it would mean that tehy could re-package the 1 series into something much more compact if they want to.
Unless Canon have stolen a March on everyone else it could be a year until such batteries are ready - but actually, if Canon wanted to, they are under no pressure at all to bring out the new 1 series - they dominate the market with both the 1DsII and the 1DII
Fuel cells, micro-turbines and so on are still likely a long ways off.
4. Foveon-like sensor - last I heard it was not being thought of for this iteration, but could explain waiting instead of releasing a 1 series last fall.
5. Better AF and so on - a no-brainer

The really urgent one for replacement would seem to me to be the 30D, which is not selling well against the Nikons