Canon begin the fight back
So Canon have been a little quiet for a while… Sony have released their A100 and Nikon have previewed their D80. Both companies have talked of increasing their market share. In the meantime there has been no word from the company with the biggest market share. We knew something big was coming from them and it looks like today could be the day. According to the rumours Canon will announce two new cameras between now and Photokina which is just a month away.
UPDATE: 400D has now been anounced and we were spot on. All the details below have been confirmed and you can find firther details on Canon's site. We're awaiting confirmation on the 1 DS Mk III.
First up is the highly anticipated 400D. Sources suggest this will replace the 350D and will be called the “Digital Rebel XTi” in the US. The Canon 300D was known as the Rebel over the pond and the 350D is their Rebel XT. None of this is yet official but the spec sheet appears to be a major upgrade to the 350D - larger screen, upgraded buffer and all the usual hype. It looks like it will have a healthy 10.1 MP (on a par with the D80 and A100) and possibly use the acclaimed autofocus system from the 30D. Most interesting for many prosumers is the talk of a two phase dust removal system. The first phase sounds similar to Sony's - anti static materials plus a vibrating sensor. The second phase is rather cunning and reminiscent of the “dust off” feature in some of Nikon's software. Take a snap of a blank wall so you get just the dust and tell the camera to remove the dust it sees from all future pictures. Simple and elegant and much nicer than doing it in post processing as in Nikon Capture. If these details are true then it may leave the Nikon D80 lagging a little if the entry levels from both Canon and Sony have dust removal because the D80 doesn't.
Even more exciting (and more sketchy) are the rumours of a replacement for the mighty 1DS MkII. These seem to be inspired guesswork but people are talking big numbers here - 22 million pixels on a full frame sensor at ten frames per second is being discussed. I would expect it to have the same (if not better) anti dust system as the 400D and it would be nice to see the autofocus system to get another boost. If this is true it will be an amazing camera - but we'll wait for the official announcement before believing everything we read on the web. Not surprisingly, people are guessing at a name of 1DS MkIII.
