Monday, August 27, 2007

Replacing a camera is hard!

After the theft of my cameras and the fantastic response by Amica, I am left with the seemingly simple task of replacing my 5D and 20D with something new. Over the past few months, though, Canon has started updating their whole camera line to their latest technology including Digic 3 processors, self cleaning sensors and an updated interface. They announced the 1D Mark III in February and the 40D and 1Ds Mark III just a week or so ago. The one camera they have not yet announced an update for is the 5D. Everyone knows it's coming, but no one knows when.

I borrowed a 1D Mark III from Josh for a couple of weeks and it was really nice. So much easier to use than the 1D Mark II which required lots of kooky multi-button gyrations to change any of the settings. The new model is significantly improved in that area. The shots look great, though I did experience some of the autofocus problems that many users have described. Updating the firmware might have improved this but I didn't get a chance to try (and I was hesitant to do this on a borrowed camera).

Clearly, if my 5D had not been stolen, I would have been quite happy with it for some time to come, but knowing that in 6 months or so I can get an update that has much lower noise, automatically gets rid of the dust on the sensor that is the bane of my existance and probably has a much better sensor make me wonder if I should just wait, or jump to one of the 1D series cameras.

The 1Ds' improvements are really awesome, but going from full frame and ~13 megapixel to a 1.3x multiplier and 10 megapixel is painful. Even if it is significantly faster and still a great camera. The 1Ds solves the framesize and megapixel issue (being full frame and 21 -- gack! -- megapixel) but at nearly $8,000 it just doesn't seem worth it. What I really want is the 5D Mark II.

Maybe that is the answer...

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