Canon 7D

I thought I'd post this advert for the National Geographic camera bags because it was entirely shot with a Canon 7D. Johnnie Behiri is the photographer who produced it.

By the way, I just read that the producers of the Dr. House television series have shot a soon to be aired episode with the Canon 5D Mark II. Incredible!

Another gem I found on Gizmodo is a $6 do-it-yourself thingamajig that allows rack focus (aka follow focus). I'll drop by Home Depot and see if I can make one for my 5D Mark II. A video of a similar project is also here.

With a ATR6250 microphone affixed on my camera's hot shoe, and this home-made follow focus ring, I'll be schelpping quite a contraption.

The Canon's EOS 7D can be considered as an entry-level "professional" DSLR, positioned between the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II, and I'm tempted by it because of its many still photography interesting features; one of which is its speed reaching 8 fps (for the first 16 frames) and an average 7.1 fps for 144 frames. This almost compares with the speed of the Canon 1D series dSLRs. More to follow on this topic.

POV: iPad, Toy or Tool?

Okay, I've now seen it, touched it and toyed with it for a while at the Apple store. Yes, it's beautifully designed, sleek and really cool...and I'd love to win it in a free contest (or something like that).

However, I don't see its necessity for photographers as yet. Photoshelter's blog recently posed the question as to whether the Apple iPad will revolutionize the way photos are presented and consumed? Various "pundits" responded, and I tend to agree with the views expounded by Stella Kramer, such as this one:

"From discussions I have had and demos I have seen, there is very little that excites me about translating the telling of stories onto the iPad."

I've seen that the iPad shows off photographs incredibly well, and the scrolling of web pages is intuitive and it's light and well designed, and it's...well, cool.

But being cool doesn't translate into it being a necessity nor a tool. Yes, there are some commercial photographers who will use their iPad instead of high end leather-bound portfolio books to show clients, and wedding photographer will certainly upload their work on iPads to give to their high-end clients (and build its cost in their invoice), but the rest of us into the story-telling business? Not much. Perhaps if we had $500-800 to spare and wanted a sleek platform (although the Mac Book Pro 13" display is phenomenal) to show off our photographs...

Redesigning many photography websites from being both Flash-based and iPad-ready may be a boon to web designers and website providers, but photographers can ill afford this additional expense at this time.

The iPad comes in three "flavors": 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive, so it may be useful to commercial and wedding photographers to have by their side on photo shoots, but other than that, I'm still scratching my head at its usefulness. Perhaps in the very near future, there will be really "must-have" applications ("apps") that will convert it from being a toy to being a tool, and while I completely agree that it's a harbinger of the future of internet browsing and more, it's not yet on my list.

It's been reported by a think-tank that 50% of all computers sold for children by 2015 will have touchscreens...perhaps touch is indeed the future, but until the iPad grows up from being a toy to a tool for photographers, I'll be happy to drop by the Apple store and just play with it whenever I feel like it.

POV: iPad

Photo Courtesy WIRED-All Rights Reserved
I'm far from being a geek or remotely resembling one, but I still like gadgets provided they're useful and have a purpose...which brings me to the iPad.

Unless you're traveling in North Korea, you must've heard that Apple is launching its iPad in its stores this coming Saturday. I live not too far from its 14th Street store and I intend to walk by just to see the gawking crowds.

The New York Times' David Pogue has an interesting article (and well-balanced) titled Looking At The iPad From Two Angles which I found to be the most intelligent of whatever has been recently written about the device. He concludes the article with this:

"The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine. The only question is: Do you like the concept? "

And that's the question. The iPad is really a "looker" not a "doer"...in other words, like its midget cousin the iTouch, it'll be mainly used as a reader, as a viewer of text, of website (minus Flash), of emails, of pictures, and so forth. Its success or failure is also dependent on the available applications, current and future, which I understand are close to 1500 in number already.

So far, I haven't seen any merits for photographers to get one. I read somewhere that an enterprising photographer will buy a few and, when asked for his portfolios, will send them out to his best clients instead of the old-style books. I'm quite certain that the iPad will be great in impressively displaying our images, but that's all.

Will it be fun to have an iPad? Of course, but will it be useful? I don't know. I'll wait and decide in another 6 months. Let others be the testers.

WIRED has a roundup on the first reviews of the iPad.

Canon 5D Mark II: ATR6250 Microphone

Further to my post on microphones for the Canon 5D Mark II, and having decided to add one to my audio equipment, I walked over to B&H (see note below) today and bought the Audio-Technica ATR6250 Stereo Condenser Video/Recording Microphone.

This is an extremely affordable stereo microphone, and I thought it would be ideal for use either on my Canon 5D Mark II or with my Marantz audio recorder. It has a bunch of accessories, most of which I don't think I'll use, except for the hot shoe adapter.

In my earlier post, B&H recommended a couple of microphones such as the Rode VideoMic, Stereo VideoMic, and the Sennheiser MKE 400. The latter in particular seems to be quite popular with photographers, however it costs $200 whereas my new ATR6250 is only $32. I compared the specifications, and what I made of the differences were not enough to warrant the increased cost as far as I am concerned...except for the coiled cord (which the ATR doesn't have).

Naturally, I will continue to record audio with my Marantz PMD620, but use the microphone when I need to shoot video since the Canon 5D Mark II built-in microphone just doesn't cut it. I will post my impressions as soon as I can.

* I'm not affiliated with B&H in any way. The Audio-Technica ATR6250 is also available at many other stores, on-line and otherwise. I only mentioned B&H because that's where I got it.

The Travel Photographer's Pouches

Photo © Some Hot-Shot Photog I Forgot The Name Of
Here's the exclusive opportunity that you've all been waiting for! I announce the "availability" of The Travel Photographer's Pouches which are for sale at the incredible price of only $89.99 a piece...or, if you're inclined to save, only $181.00 for two pouches. Yes, please do the math.

The pouches are (probably) made in China of rugged black canvas, and have two pockets. The Travel Photographer logo is embroidered in the trademark bright teal color, using the Arial font, and with a thread exclusive (possibly) to me. The logo was embroidered using the latest techniques in the lovely town of Oaxaca, using a cranky Japanese machine.

The cost? Well, I bought the pouch for about $5 at a nearby US Army Surplus store, and the embroidery cost under $2...so I figured that a profit of $83.00 a piece seems reasonable. Oh, and shipping is not included in the price.

As to availability; well...here's the thing. I would need to return to Oaxaca to have them embroidered. This may take a year or so.

As I said, these are exclusive and are really really worth waiting for.

Seriously speaking, I found these pouches to be ideal for extra lenses, small notebooks, an audio recorder and other paraphernalia I carry while shooting. And I prefer to use items that carry my brand name instead of products such as ThinkTank, LowePro, etc. If these companies paid me to carry (and advertise) their wares, it'd be different...but they don't.

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Review

Digital Photography Review is dedicating a massive 33 pages review to the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, granting it an overall rating of 89%. It garners the highest marks in build quality, features and performance (speed).

According to DPR, the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV "has the feel of a product that is determined to be as close to perfect as possible", and "From the point-of-view of the tasks it was built to tackle, there is nothing that can touch the detailed, high resolution images that it can deliver ten times a second."

I obviously have to carefully digest these 33 pages before I can make a decision as to whether to buy the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV or not, but I must say that I was pleasantly impressed by the ergonomics of the new Canon 7D. Handling them both today at B&H's Canon counter (I'm still circling around the Panasonic GF1), I felt that the Canon 7D fitted better in my hands. It's also as fast in terms of frames per second as the Mark IV, and is certainly much lighter.

At about $3300 cheaper than the Mark IV, the 7D might make a lot of sense to photographers who accept that its sensor size may not produce the highest of image quality of the Mark IV, nor has its ruggedness. I still use its predecessor, the Mark II, and I consider it a workhorse that never let me down.

Via Engadget

Apple iPad & Photography

Apple announced its newest creation, the iPad, while I was in the Kutch area in Gujarat, and had no reliable internet access so I'm still pretty much out of the loop in as far as its technical specifications are concerned...but that won't stop me from expressing my knee-jerk opinion on it from what I already know.

I gather from a couple of opinions written about the iPad that the jury (from a photography standpoint) is still out. Some say that it will "save" photojournalism and newspapers, while others are more low-key and only say it will provide a new platform to display one's photographs.

I view it as the latter...a magnified iTouch. No more and no less. I initially got very excited, hoping that it could replace netbooks, but it doesn't. From what I seen, it will not enable photographers to use it as a conduit device to download contents of CF/SD cards unto external hard drives. As a portfolio display device, it will do beautifully though. I use the tiny iTouch to do just that, and must say that it's useful in some occasions. The iPad will do the same in large format, and I expect it will be dazzling.

The absence of Flash is disappointing but expected. It's a pity but I imagine that it will not be hard for photographers to convert their Flash-based multimedia photo essays to QuickTime...or some other application...and show them off that way. As for enjoying photo Flash websites, this device will not do it you.

It's been said that Apple has indeed brought us the iPad, but its success or failure will depend on the app developers. Let's wait and see...we'll know soon enough.

The EVIL Cameras

WIRED's Gadget Lab blog has a fresh article titled 5 Reasons To Ditch Your DSLR, which essentially reaffirms my prediction as in my earlier post POV: Travel Photography Adjustment.

To paraphrase the WIRED article, the 5 reasons are smaller size, great quality of images, interchangeable lenses, speed of operation, low-profile, but are expensive.

By the way, EVIL stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens. It also seems that with an adapter, these cameras can accept many DSLR lenses.

I am extremely interested in these cameras, particularly the Lumix GF1 (above), and will certainly look into on my return from India.

(Via the always informative The Click.)

POV: Travel Photography Adjustment?

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm using the final few days to organize my photo gear before flying to Delhi to lead my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ which starts January 23.

Since the attempted airline incident on Christmas day, I've been fiddling with various options in order to maximize the amount of indispensable gear I can carry in one small bag on my international flights. Having gone through these hoops a few times already, I am convinced that travel photographers will have to rethink the amount and type of the photo gear they carry on international flights.

Apart from trying to limit the number of hardware we carry on our international flights traveling for assignments, or trying to cram the contents of two or three carry-ons into one, I sense that there's a ready consideration to migrate from our heavyweight DSLRs to smaller digital rangefinders. For instance, searching online for the new Panasonic GF1 at B&H, Adorama and J&R (the largest camera troika in New York City) reveals that the three stores are sold-out of this model; fact that seems to underscore the popularity of this particular model. Of course, there's always Leica, but investing in ten of thousands of dollars in a new system is daunting, even if money were no object.

It may be sooner than we think that these new rangefinders will become the cameras of choice for travel photographers; perhaps not as primary bodies at first but certainly as backup tools. I can see myself in the field using my Canon 5DII with a couple of lenses, and toting the Panasonic GF1, ideally with a 20mm lens...or its 14-45mm zoom.

Here are three examples of new digital rangefinders that may provide viable alternatives to carrying our massive Canons and Nikons and their lenses. None of those are pocket camera per se, unless we're talking about coat pockets, but they're small enough.

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 (About $900 in kit form) I handled this rangefinder-like (to be more precise, it's a Compact Micro Four-Thirds Camera System) camera at B&H for about 20 minutes, and found its handling to be quite comfortable. There were many menu quirks that I quickly found irritating or incomprehensible, but there's no doubt that this is one heck of an interesting camera. For a comprehensive review, Thom Hogan has written an exhaustive article about it here. I also liked Craig Mod's field report which reviews the GF1's performance during a 16 days trek in the Himalayas.

2. Olympus E-P1 Pen Digital Camera (About $660 in kit form) This is another Compact Micro FourThirds Camera System. I haven't had the chance to handle this camera yet, but it's only a matter of time when I head back to B&H. Once again, I like Thom Hogan's write-up on it, which can be found here. Another hands-on review is by Ken Tanaka and published on The Online Photographer.

3. Leica X1 (About $2000 with 24mm f2.8 lens) I don't think I've noticed this camera in any of the retail stores I've been to recently, so it's probably not yet available . A hands-on review on the Luminous Landscape is here. The price makes this camera a distant third in my line-up, but it's an option.

There's also the Canon G11 which some people like, but I've owned its predecessor and it was extremely disappointing, so for me at least, it's out of consideration. Sorry, Canon.

New Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

Canon has quietly released the new EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS II USM. It claims that while its physically similar to it's predecessor, the new lens features a revised optical design, incorporating a fluorite element and no fewer than 5 UD elements for the correction of chromatic aberrations.

According to Canon's press release, photographers can now stand nearly 8 inches closer to their subject and achieve sharp focus and tight crops. The Image Stabilization is enhanced allowing it to compensate for shutter speeds up to four steps slower than 1/focal length, a one step improvement over the previous lens model.

The minimum focus distance has also been reduced to 1.2m, with a corresponding increase in maximum magnification to 0.21x, along with a modification resulting in a wider focusing ring.

There are no price indications yet, and the availability is in April.

The 70-200mm lens is one of my favorite lens, which I use often while photographing festivals and religious rituals. Actually, I have two. An older model (non-IS) which I've had for a decade now, and that has been dropped so many times that it sounds like a baby's rattle. It was the source of much hilarity from the participants in my Bhutan Photo-Expedition. The new one is the predecessor to the just announced model.

There's also a rumor floating around that Canon will soon announce a new version of the 24-70mm f2.8 with Image Stabilization. The IS feature will certainly add a hefty mark-up in its price.

LaCie Rikiki

LaCie just announce the availability of one of the smallest mobile hard drives on the market, which was dubbed by the company as Rikiki. It appears that Rikiki means "tiny" in French. The august L'Académie Française would frown mightily at this claim as it's certainly not in the language of Voltaire, but slang.

Having cleared the linguistic mishap, LaCie Rikiki is available in 250GB, 500GB, and soon in 640GB capacities. The Rikiki is a user-friendly choice, regardless of whether you’re on a Mac or a PC. LaCie Backup Assistant is included to help manage backups. The price is priced between $75 and $150.

Despite the aesthetics of the Rikiki, I prefer the sleekness of the 500GB eGo Helium I bought some weeks ago...and my LaCie Rugged Hard Disk, but that's me.

Canon 7D: It May Be Rugged After All!

I've just stumbled on the interesting ( and certainly one for your bookmarks if Canon is what you use) website Canon Field Reviews (CFR) authored by Pro Nature Photographer Ole Jørgen Liodden of Norway who tests Canon gear under extreme real life conditions.

Liodden took his Canon 7D on a three and a half week week photo expedition to Antarctica, and put it through extreme and hard use under prevailing bad weather conditions, and reported that it performed flawlessly. He chose to use the camera with a battery grip for better handling, and it (the grip) seemed tighter and better sealed than the one that fits the Canon 5D Mark II. He reports that his 7D had absolutely no problems with snow, rain and water (sea spray). He also used a Canon 1Ds Mark III with no issues at all (as expected from such a camera).

His conclusion:

"The 7D performed as I had hoped, surpassing 10,000 exposures without a problem. I must admit that the 5D Mark II surprised me as well with its build quality. The 1DS Mark III camera is the most rugged and best weather sealed, but the 7D and 5D Mark II (without battery grip) performed 100% in my opinion."

Hmmmm.

DPReview: Canon 7D Review

From DPReview's just published write-up on the new Canon EOS 7D has this interesting paragraph:

"In some respects the 7D is even a better camera than the EOS 5D Mark II and a viable alternative for all those who do not want or need a camera with a full-frame sensor. Its 8 fps continuous shooting speed and highly flexible AF system might even make it a consideration for credit-crunch battered sports photographers on a budget."

The full comprehensive review runs to 30 pages, and is worth to read very carefully if this camera is of interest. I am interested in the $1,700 Canon EOS 7D as a second camera to my current full-frame low-light capable 5D Mark II, and for its 8 fps capability, so I will parse every word before I make any decisions.

Update (11.21.09): For another review of the 7D, check Bob Atkins' here.

I've handled the 7D for a few moments at B&H (oblivious of the theatrical throat-clearings and discreet shoves from other gawkers), and can vouch that it's solidly built and that it's frames-per-second sounds really fast. I read somewhere that it's more like 7 fps than 8, but that's being pedantic.

I'm not a sports photographer, but in my line of work I do need fast continuous shooting speed, so this camera (and at this price) may come in handy. The other option is the expensive ($5,000) full frame EOS-1D Mark IV with its 1.3 crop factor, 10 fps and 16 effective megapixels APS-H CMOS sensor.

Hard Gear: Iomega's eGo Helium

I plead guilty to the sin of impulse buying. It's not often that I do that, but the Apple store in the West Village has such a cornucopia of irresistible temptations. So a sleek and elegant 500GB Iomega's eGo Helium Hard Drive is now part of my external hard drive panoply.

While its design (and its intent) makes it a natural for the MacBook Air, I'll be using this baby with my Acer netbook, in tandem with my other portable hard drive, G-Drive Mini. I deemed the eGo Helium's weight of 7oz to be an important factor in the decision. It only offers one USB 2.0 port, but that doesn't bother me as I only intend to use it with the said Acer. In contrast, my G-Drive Mini has two FireWire 800 and one USB 2.0.

Naturally for a product that really looks like a baby MacBook Air, the device is formatted with Apple's HFS+ file system, which meant I had to reformat it for my Acer's Windows XP OS. A minor pain in the neck, but nevertheless a pain. Since XP pretended that the drive didn't exist, I had to refer to Iomega's website and read (imagine that!!!) the instructions as the "short-on-details" manual included with the device didn't address that issue properly.

It now works nicely, and for my forthcoming photo~expedition to India I will have storage capacity of the eGo Helium's 500gb, the G-Drive's 320gb and the Acer's 160gb (well, almost 160gb). Not bad.

Now, all that's left to do is to paint the Acer in a shiny silver aluminum color and paste the Apple decal on it!

Update: It was annoying that the device wasn't recognized by my MacBook free USB port, but the solution was to plug it in the USB ports of my Cinema display.

Canon 7D: Shadow Image?

Photographers seem to have discovered a flaw in the new Canon EOS 7D, which results in a shadow of the preceding frame showing up in the following image when the continuous shooting mode is chosen.

The flaw was confirmed by Canon in Japan and elsewhere. Canon announced that it "is currently investigating and analyzing the cause of this phenomenon, and we are planning to release a firmware update to address this issue."

Canon USA actually has this on its website:

In images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible. This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image.

This just reaffirms the wisdom of never buying the first edition of any camera (or computer, for that matter). Waiting for the bugs to be discovered by the impulsive (or impatient) buyers always pays off for those of us who prefer to wait.

It should be said though, that as far as I've read so far, no one has been able to replicate this flaw in the cameras supplied for testing.

Update (November 5): Corrective Firmware from Canon is now here.

New! EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon has just announced the EOS-1D Mark IV, a 16.1 megapixel digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) camera body, and the successor to the Canon EOS-1D Mark III. It is the first Canon APS-H format DSLR to feature HD video recording at 1080p resolution.

I've been waiting for a worthy successor to my beloved Canon 1D-Mark II and this may just be the one, effectively doubling the megapixel count but more significantly for my style of photographing, the 10 frames per second makes my heart sing.

Some of its features are:

* 27.9mm x 18.6mm; 16.1 effective megapixels APS-H CMOS sensor
* Dual DIGIC 4 image processors
* New autofocus module (45 AF points with 39 cross-type AF points)
* Integrated sensor cleaning system
* 1.3x crop factor
* 100–12800 ISO speed equivalent (expandable to 50, and to 102400)
* Magnesium Alloy weather sealed body
* Live preview mode
* 10 frames per second continuous shooting
* Dimensions (WxHxD): 156 × 156.6 × 89.9 mm

The suggested retail price is estimated to be $4,999.

For fuller details, go to DPReview.com.

The question is whether the new Canon 1D-Mark IV is worth the $3,300 price premium over the recently released Canon 7D, whose specifications are nothing to sneeze at.

As a reminder, the 7D has a new 18-megapixel APS-C sensor with a 1.6x crop factor, and is equipped with dual DIGIC 4 chips to speed processing of large 14-bit files, as well as to handle the shutter's 8-frame-per-second top speed. It retails for $1,699.

The proof will be in the pudding as they say, and the quality of the images will determine that issue. Rob Galbraith DPI refers to the 7D and the new Mark IV as such:

The EOS-1D Mark IV is meant to be a better-specified camera than the 7D in most respects, and ought to be, given the much higher price tag on the camera being unveiled today. That said, the 7D incorporates several features that didn't make it into the EOS-1D Mark IV, features that would be equally useful in Canon's latest news and sports camera.

These include the 7D's combo mode switch and start/button, Q button for quick access to key camera settings, unparalleled control customization options, an electronic level and revised 63-zone meter.

Black Rapid R-strap: Reinforcement

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
As reported here on The Travel Photographer's blog, I'm a fan of the Black Rapid R-straps and have used mine for over a year on my various photo-expeditions. Many participants in my photo-expeditions like and use them as well, however they're all wary about having expensive cameras dangling from their bodies.

One of the common fears is that the Fasten R which attaches the strap to the bottom of the camera's tripod mount gets undone. If that attachment/fastener is not tightly screwed in, it could get undone because as the camera hangs from one's body, it wiggles and swivels around; such movements can loosen the attachment. Naturally, if that were to happen, the camera and lens would fall to the ground with potentially ugly consequences. I make it a habit to check the tightness of the attachment/fastener every now and then, and a couple of times found it to require a turn.

The company produces the newer FastenR-2, but as I don't have it yet, I can't speak to whether it's an improvement or not in that respect.

Since I'm about to travel in the coming few days on my Bhutan Land of the Druk Yul photo-expedition, during which we'll be frenetically photographing the various festivals and rituals, I've decided to adopt the suggestions of many photographers...and tether a length of lanyard to the Canon 1d's eyelet (originally for the optional hand strap). I also replaced the L-shaped Fasten R with a 1/4"x 2" eye bolt from a hardware store. This makes me feel much more comfortable, since should the eye bolt get loose, the lanyard will keep the camera from dropping to the ground.

Does it look classy and elegant? No, but it's good insurance....and no, it doesn't impede my photographing vertically. Well, maybe just a little bit. Another advantage is that I can easily check and tighten the eye bolt (if need be) with one hand as I walk around.

I'm carrying my other camera (5d Mark II) in a Lowepro holster-style bag, so I don't need to retro-fit another Black Rapid strap in the same way. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't use the same method as 5D Mark II doesn't have an eyelet for a handstrap....but necessity is the mother of invention, and I'm bound to come up with a solution.

Naturally, if anyone has a better idea (or simpler), do let me know!

Note: My thanks to Alex Marino who introduced me to an alternative strap called Sun Sniper. However it's similar to the R-Strap, and has the same weak spots.

New Leica M9

Photojournalists (the few who can still afford it) and dentists have been impatiently waiting for 9/9/2009 for the new Leica M9.

According to the British Journal of Photography, Leica has updated its M8 model with a full-frame M9. The M9 fits a 24x36mm 18.5 million pixel resolution CCD sensor that has been developed specifically for the camera. It offers ‘full 35mm film format without any compromises’ claims Leica.

The M9 has a magnesium alloy body, and is said to have a "discreet" mode for candid shots in street photography. It can photograph at a range of ISO80 to ISO2500, at up to 2fps, and has a 2.5-inch LCD screen on the back.

The M9, which will be available in a steel-grey or black paint finish, weighs 589g with its battery and measures 139x37x80mm. The price in the US is estimated at $7000, while it's the equivalent of $8000 in the UK (at today's exchange rate).

There's also a review here on DPReview, and for the "eye-candy" go to the M9's website.

Canon Announces the EOS 7D

So the rumors were right, and the flaky images leaked by Chinese and Japanese website were accurate after all!

Canon USA Inc. has today announced its new EOS 7D single-lens reflex digital camera, as well as three new lenses, a new battery grip, and a new wireless file transmitter.

The Canon 7D has a new 18-megapixel APS-C sensor with a 1.6x crop factor, and is equipped with dual DIGIC 4 chips to speed processing of large 14-bit files, as well as to handle the shutter's 8-frame-per-second top speed.

The Canon 7D is expected to ship toward the end of September 2009, and retail body-only for $1,699. A kit with the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens will sell for $1,899.

For further details, go to The Imaging Resource or DPReview for a hands on review.

Another hand-on review by PDN's Dan Havlik.

New Canon G11 Announced

The photography enthusiasts and blogosphere are buzzing with the news that Canon has announced the flagship 10.0-megapixel PowerShot G11 with a retail price of $499.

Yes, the new model features a lower resolution in order to create larger individual pixels on the imaging chip that absorb more light. According to Canon, the system combines the new 10MP chip; optical image stabilization; and the camera's Digic IV image processor to produce better images in low light at high ISOs. Some professionals have asked for a halt to increasing cameras' resolution since it also increases noise when using small imaging sensors.

Notwithstanding Gary Knight's experience with the G10, it will take a miracle to convince me to part (again) with almost $500 to acquire a "street shooter" camera such as the G11. I've done it with the Canon G10, and was disappointed by its performance during my photo expedition in Morocco. You can read about this here.

Also, a sensible post by Matt Burns on CrunchGear about the G11.

And much more information on 1001 Noisy Cameras.

Note: Some commentators believe that the G11's image quality will be an improvement over its predecessor...but what is also crucial to my style of photography is shutter lag. The G10's shutter lag just didn't meet my expectations.