Canon has officially announced and admitted the AF tracking problem of the Canon EOS 1D MK-III as reported extremely by Rob Galbraith.

Title:

Why do I experience inconsistent Auto Focus (AF) behaviour with my EOS-1D Mark III?

Phenomenon:

The focus or AF tracking is inconsistent when using the Artificial Intelligent (AI) servo continuous shooting mode under high temperatures in particular.

Cause:

In the digital SLR camera, EOS-1D Mark III that was launched in May this year, Canon has found that some cameras have an adjustment problem with the mirror for AF. The adjustment problem means for the affected products that the focus is not stable or that the Auto Focus tracking is not right when using the AI servo continuous shooting under high temperatures in particular.

Affected products:

The products that could have this problem can be identified as explained below.
If the serial number on the bottom of the camera is between 501001 and 546561, it could contain one of the AF mirrors with the adjustment problem.

Support:

For customers who have affected products and are experiencing these problems, we are making preparations to offer free of charge repairs planned to start from late November. We will announce additional details about the repair process on our Web site as soon as they become available.

In case you have questions about this or other issues, please contact Technical Support using the button at the end of this message. Alternatively you can also call our Helpdesk. Please click here for the phone number.

We offer our most sincere apologies to all affected customers who have been inconvenienced by this issue.

CHAKKA CHAKKA

This is a real machine gun! 10fps - Dual Digic processors enable this insane frame rate.

You can see a quite demo of the liveview feature too.

Not that I think anyone would need 10fps for any kind of sport unless they are a really bad photographer.

Seems like Canon is doing very well here in Malaysia.

Canon Marketing Malaysia has seen a 70% surge in profits so far this year over 2005, recording its highest profits since its incorporation 19 years ago.

In a statement on Dec 22, Canon Malaysia said its performance was achieved against a backdrop of rising unit sales of Canon products and more efficient operations.

It did not reveal the profit amount, nor the specific financial period.

“Although there was only 5% revenue growth due to declining price points, Canon notched a signification growth of 30% in unit sales in five of our primary consumer and business products as well as hikes in market shares,” said its president and chief executive officer Liew Sip Chon (pic ) .

“This was supported by the steady demand for consumer products and businesses, from SMEs to the public sector, pouring in more investment into technology in their pursuit for efficiency and more effective processes.

Pretty big growth!

Source: The Edge

Camera Labs has been extremely quick in getting out the first look Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) review out.

Image from Camera Labs

It looks like a decent upgrade from the 350D although surprisingly the 350D seems to perform better in some areas, I don’t think it’s worth an upgrade from the 350D but if you are still using a 300D (The first Digital Rebel) I think it’s definatley worth it!

I haven’t gotten my hands on one of these yet but I do plan to and snap some pics.

Ultimately the Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi is a great entry-level digital SLR which improves on its predecessor in many respects. It has higher resolution without compromising noise levels, a wide variety of anti-dust features, a bigger screen which doubles-up for detailed shooting information, the AF system of its bigger brother and fast overall handling.

The only thing that’s missing is a cheap lens bundle with Image Stabilisation. This will undoubtedly have potential buyers carefully weighing it up against the Sony Alpha A100 which costs much the same, while those looking for a tougher product may be tempted by the Nikon D80.

But this aside, it’s hard to fault the EOS 400D / Rebel XTi. Canon already had a great product with the 350D / XT, but rather than resting on its laurels has upped the ante and delivered a worthy successor. The new 400D / Rebel XTi is a great camera to use, produces excellent image quality and is one of the best budget digital SLRs to date. It may have very tough rivals, but still comes Highly Recommended.

Read the full review here.

It’s a valid point about dust reduction and I did mention I’d love to see Nikon come out with that in their future versions!

Not sure about in body image stabilisation though, I don’t think Nikon or Canon will go down that route with all the money they’ve invested in ‘IS’ and ‘VR’ lenses.

I’m still all for the D80! But next time I buy I’ll be hoping to buy something around D200 level rather than the (slightly above) entry level SLR I’m using now.

Apologies for the posts about products at the moment, but I’m in Dubai now and Flickr is totally banned here so I can’t really upload/post pics till I get back home.

Not surprisingly Canon is coming up with a competitor for the recently released Sony Alpha A-100 and the Nikon D80.

The all new Canon EOS 400D (Or Rebel XTi).

The specifications will be as follows:

• A 10.1 MP CMOS sensor (3888 x 2592 pixels)
• APS-C (1.6x) format, EF-S lens compatibility
• 2.5″ LCD screen
• 9 point AF system
• ISO 100-1600
• RGB histogram
• 30-1/4000s shutter
• 1/200s sync speed
• 3fps continuous shooting
• buffer for 10 RAW images
• ultrasonic dust removal for sensor
• high precision focusing with lenses f2.8 and faster
• picture style modes
• 0.2s startup time
• Digic II processor
• compatible with BG-E3 grip
• LCD turns off when eye is at viewfinder
• small, lightweight (plastic) body
• USB 2.0 interface
• $799 for the body only, $899 with the 18-55 kit lens.

Leaked from the Canon China site.

It’s good to see another manufacturer taking up the anti-dust sensor treatment, I hope Nikon invests some research in it soon too!

To assure fine photo results, Canon employs dust-resistant materials and structures to dramatically reduce dust generation within the EOS 400D DIGITAL. Measures also are taken to prevent dust from adhering to the sensor due to static electricity. A remarkable new function is the Self Cleaning Sensor Unit that actually vibrates the low-pass filter to remove dust particles from it. Additionally, by targeting image data for leftover dust after cleaning, the Dust Delete Function within the bundled software can be used after shooting to remove dust spots that may remain on the captured image. For photos that are consistently distinct and clear, this dust reduction system is essential.

There’s isn’t all that much difference from the previous Canon 350D, 2 megapixels more, the buffer size has been increased, the LCD size is larger, there are more AF points, an RGB histogram mode has been added as have picture styles.