Archive for the 'Buy a D-SLR' category

We have been talking a lot about it lately. Now, the Canon EOS 50D is out in the open, announced by Canon itself. If you followed here, nothing will surprise you. Even the body-only price of $1,399/£1,199.99/1499€ is expected (we’ll wait for a little step down when the camera is really available, in October 2008).

Here is a list of articles on the Internet describing the  new camera (to replace the Canon EOS 40D):

• PopPhoto
• DPreview
• DPreview preview
• Chasseur d’Images (French)
• dPhoto Expert
• PopPhoto
• Photography Bay (only a copy of the Press Release)
• PhotographyBlog

The Canon EOS 50D looks like a very good camera. As usual in this part of the camera range at Canon, this is an improvement, but having 15MP, more than 6 frames per second bursts, and a good image quality (up to 12800 ISO) is going to make it definitely interesting for people coming from either the EOS 40D or the EOS 30D. I’d say, the Canon EOS 50D is going to be loved.

From the same Japanese test web site for Canon, here are the high-resolution photos of the Canon EOS 50D (click on the thumbnails to enlarge them).

Canon EOS 50D - front

Canon EOS 50D - front

Canon EOS 50D - back

The Canon Japanese web site did it again. Now we get a neary full description of the new Canon EOS 50D. With all nice photos of the replacement for the Canon EOS 40D.

Canon EOS 50D

Seeing that this also presents a 15MP camera, I start to wonder whether Canon has really a replacement ready for the EOS 5D Full Frame SLR camera. Several of the features attributed (by the rumour) to the EOS 5D MkII seem to be appearing on the Canon EOS 50D. It could mean that the leaks were actually coming from the EOS 50D and not the EOS 7D (or whatever name it will have).

Of course, we will have to wait a little more to know if Canon is really ready to announce two major cameras at the Photokina fair (one Canon EOS 50D in mid-range and one Canon EOS 7D at the high-end). But it looks more and more like Nikon and Sony will have an empty field to compete with the aging Canon EOS 5D.

Indirect confirmation of what we told previously here about the future replacement for the Nikon D80.

This new photo camera was “seen” (more or less) on the Target.com web site where a single page is describing it as:

• Nikon D90 12.3MP Digital SLR w/ 18-105mm

No photo, no detailed technical features, but the title confirms the size of the sensor and the zoom that will be offered in the standard lens kit.

The Canon web site in China just made a big error probably very revealing since it has been leaking the detailled cahracteristics of the a new Digital SLR camera named Canon EOS 50D (so, this is the long-awaited successor to the beautiful Canon EOS 40D).

The level of details is extraordinary (for leaked data), which certainly means that the camera is fully ready and will be announced at the next Photokina fair (in less than a month) or on August 26th, 2008 (as I was told previously).

• 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4
• 1.6x crop
• Dust Reduction
• Automatic correction of brightness/vignetting
• 95% viewfinder, 0.97 magnification
• 9 point AF(All Cross Type)
• 35 meter area equipped with high-precision sensors
• AF Fine Tuning
• ISO 100-12800
• 6.3 fps (high speed) 3fps (low speed)
• Buffer: 16 RAW - 60 JPG - 10 RAW+JPG
• 920,000 points VGA 3.0-inch LCD monitor
• 100,000 cycle shutter
• Rugged magnesium alloy body

Full Specification for Canon EOS 50D (in English partly translated from Chinese)

(more…)

The next camera from Nikon is upon us. Nobody has officially seen it, but prices start to appear here and there. Nikon D90 with an 18-105mm VR lens will be at $1299.99.

Official announcement forecasted for August 27th, 2008.

According to German photo magazine, Foto Magazin, the future Nikon D3x pro SLR camera will be fitted with the Sony image sensor that was presented a few months ago and that is expected to appear on the Sony Alpha 900 camera (high-end D-SLR from Sony). If this is confirmed, it would mean that the Nikon D3 will have a successor under the name of Nikon D3X (or D4) and that the Sony sensor is really of the utmost quality.

We knew that it was coming with 25 million pixels, but it could have been short on quality compared to the D3 (or D700) sensor because of its small (but many) pixels. For Nikon to accept to use this Sony sensor (and not a better one) at this level of products, they must be sure to have the best possible silicon piece: Pros want wonderful images, not only big figures (a big bunch of pixels).

I was thinking differently, but this could tilt the scale toward a very high price for the Sony Alpha 900 camera (I had hoped to see less than 2500€ or even less than 2000€, but -now- I would not be surprised if the label looked like 3000€).

However, it would leave some space left in the Sony camera range for an Alpha 800, with an intermediate price. This could be quite neat if it allowed to have a super-featured Full Frame camera around 3000€ (the Sony Alpha 900) and another Full Frame under 2500€ (the hypothetical Sony Alpha 800).

With such arguments, nobody would be surprised in seeing a brother to the recent Nikon D700: The ruored Nikon D800?

Let’s see at Koln Photokina opening next month.

This is nearly confirmed, the successor to the very nice Nikon D3 will be named Nikon D4 (and not D3x as was imagined before). The (negative) information comes directly from Chasseurs d’Image and seems very reliable.

I guess it means that Nikon feels this will be a major step forward and not only an upgrade to the existing Nikon D3. Clearly, Nikon is the leading brand in terms of technology leaps this year.

The new full Frame SLR camera from Nikon is just out and there is already a little hack appearing to give it additional features. The Nikon D700 has the capacity to shoot continuously at 8fps if you use the additonal grip. Nikon Watch found a way to allow this very high frame rate without the booster grip.

It may even be working on some other models from Nikon.

Tomorrow, Sony will present to a tighly selected audience a few new photo products among which everybody expects to find the flagship camera taht was announced already more than a year ago. This camera will be the first Sony camera using a Full Frame sensor with 24 millions of pixels.

Most people think that the camera will be christened Sony Alpha 900 (the 9 figure has been used by Minolta for its pro lines). But, well, uhm, the rumor is running free. In Chasseur d’Image, we read that there could be a declination of the camera. Is Sony going to play to the same tune as for the Alpha 300 and Alpha 350?

Why not? It’s only a matter of launching simultaneously a Sony Alpha 900 and an Alpha 950. Both would share the same nice robust body seen previously here and there. But the digital sensor would be different. Imagine:

• Sony Alpha 900 with a 14MP Full Frame sensor
• Sony Alpha 950 with a 24MP Full Frame sensor

or even:

• Sony Alpha 800 with a 14MP APS-C sensor
• Sony Alpha 900 with a 24MP Full Frame sensor

Check here later.

Up to now, I rather refrained myself when time was coming to publish some news about the future Nikon D90 camera supposed to replace the current Nikon D80 in the lower range of Nikon cameras (along with the Nikon D40/D40x). But it becomes clear that available news start to converge (probably mostly because of Thom Hogan). It becomes more and more difficult to doubt some leaks and the features will probably be something like the following (And be attentive: There are a few surprises in the list):

• 12 megapixels with vibration-cleaning of the sensor (rather normal)
• 4.5 frames/s (quite good for an entry-level SLR, no?)
• LiveView vidéo capture (this is really the big surprise; First, I hesitated but it seems technically  sound and repeated a lot)
• HDMI connection (Sony did it first and it’s good on this market)
• GPS connection (we are going to be able to easily geo-tag our photos, but I have no clue how and with which external GPS receiver - a GPS smartphone?)
• The standard lens kit will be based upon the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR zoom (equivalent to 28-150mm in 35mm/FF)

Of course, such features should be confirmed by Nikon, but nothing can be epxected from them until the upcoming official launch (everybody is expecting it either at the September Photokina or just before it - in a few weeks only).

Last but not least, there is a surprisingly good macro shot of the Nikon D90 camera which is currently floating around the web. I admit it feels real.

Nikon D90 (new)

Impressive as the Nikon D700 arrival was, it seems that this is not the end of the great launches for the yellow brand. Several people have been playing with the notion of seeing more SLR cameras coming soon, but Thom Hogan is usually quite knowledgeable about Nikon. So, when it says that things are moving fast, it should be quite right.

Essentially, Thom is saying “3 new SLR cameras before the end of 2008“. And, this would mean that all the probable/expected cameras are coming to fruition in the coming months:

• Nikon D800/D900: A big image version of the Nikon D700 (based upon the Sony 24MP Full Frame sensor).
• Nikon D3x or Nikon D4: the high-end replacement for the Nikon D3 (but the name seems not to be confirmed at all, right now).
• Nikon D90: The camera aimed at the low end of the SLR market. Since Nikon is still resisting to the Canon lower-end (the Canon EOS 1000D is still a little expensive compared to the Nikon D60).