In what appears to be a little bit of a catchup up recently released Nikon DSLRs, Canon yesterday announced a replacement for their less than year old semi pro DSLR the 40D. The press release announcing the new camera appeared on Canon Canada’s website shortly after midnight last night. While the release of this camera was not really a surprise as there were leaks about it last week when the Chinese Canon site briefly posted the camera details on its site.
You can read the full press release here, but in short this new camera offers a few interesting features.
The 50D will have a new 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor and contain the new Digic 4 processing chip. The new sensor and Digic 4 processor offer, higher ISO ranges (6400 and 12800) and improved noise reduction. Several other features have been added or enhanced such as the Creative Automatic setting, a new 3″ higher resolution LCD, improved live view focusing (including face detection) and 2 new Raw image sizes (sRaw1 and sRaw2).
Release date is set for October 2008 and the press release indicates that the body only price of approximately 1450.00 CAN.
In the same press release Canon announced their new EF-S 18-200 MM F3.5 – 5.6 IS lens that will be available as a kit lens for the 50D or stand alone. The EF-S lenses are designed for APS-C sensor camera bodies (Like the 50D, 40D or Xsi). Depending on the glass in this particular lens, it may be a great all around lens on any DSLR body for walk around use, offering wide angle shooting as well as short telephoto.
Several other point and shoot cameras and new photo printers were also announced in the series of press releases posted last night.
No word yet on two cameras that I have my eye on personally. My plan has been to get the new Canon 5D replacement about a year after release. The 5D is Canons semi Pro Full Frame camera and I have been building up my collection of lenses specifically with this camera in mind (no new EF-S lenses in my collection). My plan was to get this camera 8 months to a year after it’s release.
The other camera I have been waiting for is the replacement for the Canon Powershot G9. I have a G9 which is my go everywhere camera. It is small and compact, well built (albeit a little heavy) features a 12 MP CCD sensor and Digic 3 processor with face detection. It also shoots RAW format images and has most of the features of a DSLR as well as also shooting good quality video. My only complaint about the G9 is that at higher ISO the images tend to get very noisy. If Canon replaces the G9 with a model that features a lower noise CMOS sensor yet retains all of the features it will be a no brainer upgrade for me.
These cameras are expected to be announced at the PhotoKina show in Germany this coming September, at least the 5D replacement is.
Canon has to catch up with Nikon as there have been many pro photographers who have switched over to Nikon in the last little while with the release of Nikon’s new DSLRs and their low noise, low light performance. It appears that the new 50D is the first step in that battle.
Source http://www.canon.ca
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