Canon ups the ante

Just read this on another board, not sure where he got the info but this is what he said.

16.7 megapixel full frame at 5 fps for 12 continuous frames raw. ISO 100-1600 (with 50-3200 in custom menus as usual). ETTL II etc etc

The ones who really lose are the consumers... a new $6k camera every 1.5 - 2 years? At least you can keep your L lenses.

I don't see how consumers lose with this. The 1Ds is still a fine camera, arguably the best overall DSLR available until this is officially announced. I suppose owners lose some resale on the older equipment but that is inevitable. The alternative is to slow the advancement of technology and the improvement of the products (and lose out to your competitors). I suspect the new version will greatly benefit from the improved speed of operation that the 1DMk2 offered and the bump in resolution (and hopefully noise performance). The RGB histograms will be welcome underwater. Dual storage cards, too.

The real interesting argument is now the 1DsMk2 vs. the D2x. The Canon offers theoretically 14% greater linear resolution but over a wider portion of the lens. Can it really deliver that resolution considering the difficulty making full frame work? On the other hand, its pixel sites are 70% larger than Nikon's and Canon has done a good job already with the 20D's noise performance. People are concerned with the noise of the D2x while one would expect the new Canon to be very strong in this regard.

I would criticize Canon much more for their churn on the D60/10D/20D (each with a new body no less) than I would their replacement of the 1Ds after two years. Less than a year after the 10D introduction we have another new body that requires a different housing. At least the new 1Ds will fit in the 1DMk2 housings (rumor has it). dpreview has a forum posting with links to a japanese version of the new camera brochure. It may be only 4 fps and 11 raw buffer. Small matter and no consequence underwater of course.

I would criticize Canon much more for their churn on the D60/10D/20D (each with a new body no less) than I would their replacement of the 1Ds after two years.

Seriously. At least the D30 / D60 could fit in the same housing. Every time Canon comes out with a rev of one of these now you're looking at a big enough change to force a new housing. Wwhile there are no "low cost" options for the 1D series, you could probably re-use a housing from the 1D all the way up through now, so that's what, 4 years? In the long run it's almost cheaper (from a housing point of view) to go with the 1d.

I think Craig's pretty much nailed the improvements for the 1Ds MkII here. Basically, amything improved in the 1D MkII is going to be leveraged in the new 1Ds, including noise, buffer, AF performance, etc.

One thing Nikon has at least been consistent with is the 1.5x crop. As a Canon owner, I'm a little tired of dealing with multiple crop factors and figuring out which lenses work on which cameras.