At least one of my predictions crashes and burns

At least one of my predictions in the "What's gonna happen in 2004" thread is already crushed, it seems.

Canon's new 8 mpixel prosumer point and shoot was announced today. Film at eleven!!!

Looks quite interesting, and eminently housable. Interesting also that they have given the lens an "L" designation.

Heh, ok - so who will buy this instead of the Digital Rebel????

Looks like a Coolpix 5700/8700 to me...

Hopefully Canon can get the noise under control.

Cheers

James

Heh, ok - so who will buy this instead of the Digital Rebel????  

Well... If one were, say, a photographer currently wed to a competing lens system, but wanted to have a higher end point and shoot as a back up, then it is worth looking at this, the Sony, and Nikon's versions of the high end 8mpix P&S. I would not buy the Rebel, but I might buy this, as I would not be buying into the whole Canon lens system.

The proof, as they say, is in the puddin'. We shall see if this is a noise-monster or not soon enough I suppose.

I'd pick this over the digitial rebel. Composing on an LCD is better, to me, than trying to see through a little viewfinder through housing and mask.

Alas, like the oly 5060, they cheesed out on the AF system, and went to an infrared triangulation system, to get faster AF. This won't work in a housing, so it'll be the same old slow AF, like oly, and nikon digicams.

The sony V1 or the successor to the 828, look like the way to go. They kick butt in AF, without using the external triangulation asist.

Don

Different strokes for different folks.

Sure wish the 828 had come out with the old sensor. Who needs noisy 8 megapixels? I'd rather have clean 5 meg, and everything else good about this camera.

Don

When we assume, that the Camera will have a Prictag around 1000 € the Noise problem is handled properly and the L Series lens comes up to the standard this label stands for (a lot of ifs) it could be an interesting camera.

For a digital rebel with a similar quality lens (i.e 35-300 L Lens you would pay around 2500 € (when you buy cheap) this is a real difference.

Assuming that Canon will follow its normal Powershot system there will also be a cheap Housing (200€) for this camera.

The cost of a UW rig would be around 1200-1400 € (+strobes) thats the cost for the Housing (if you buy ike incl the ports) alone.

Simon

So far, Canon has NOT made a cheap underwater housing for their top of the line prosumer camera (G3, G4, G5). Only the S40 and S50 which are one step below.

So I think we can pretty much write that one off. Not to mention that the lens racks out like 4 inches when you zoom it.

Cheers

James

James: Probably you are right. I thought they made one for the G3 but I was wrong.