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Canon's busy day

Today, Canon announced updates for several of its most important enthusiast and professional models plus its high-end point-and-shoot cameras.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Canon PowerShot G10 Canon PowerShot SX10 IS Canon PowerShot SD990 IS Canon PowerShot SD880 IS

Happy Wednesday.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II: Worth the wait?

Three years is a long time for any product to hang around, especially when the technology changes as rapidly as it does for digital cameras. So before moving on to Canon's latest marvel, the EOS 5D Mark II, let's take a moment to appreciate how well the EOS 5D filled the needs of burst-indifferent professionals and deep-pocketed prosumers.

Right. Time to move on now. Though it's always had a big fan base, 5D users have nonetheless been itching for more, and the successor Canon delivers, the EOS 5D Mark II, will likely be a must-have upgrade, especially for the wedding photography crowd for whom the 5D is a workhorse. And with many of the imaging components of the 1Ds Mark III (and a later version of the image-processing engine, Digic 4) for a price tag $5,000 lower, it's sure to be an attractive alternative.… Read more

Canon's flagship megazoom gets SX-y

Though it's long been a player in the megazoom market, Canon has tended to lag behind in lens lengths. With the replacement to the PowerShot S5 IS, it looks like that, as well as the model naming, is about to change. The PowerShot SX10 IS jumps to 20x zoom from the S5's 12x and takes the market lead in zoom reach.

Here's how it stacks up to the competition:

  Canon PowerShot S5 IS Canon PowerShot SX10 IS Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Olympus SP-570 UZ Resolution 8 megapixels 10 megapixels 10 megapixels 10 megapixels Sensor size 1/2.… Read more

Canon PowerShot G10 goes for the resolution boost

Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G1 offers interchangeable lenses, Nikon's CoolPix P6000 provides GPS--the feature sets on enthusiast compact cameras are all over the place these days. So, should we be disappointed that the whizziest new feature of Canon's PowerShot G10 is its almost-15-megapixel resolution?

First, the basics:

  Canon PowerShot G9 Canon PowerShot G10 Nikon Coolpix P6000 Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Resolution 12 megapixels 14.7 megapixels 13.5 megapixels 10 megapixels Sensor size 1/1.7-inch 1/1.7-inch 1/1.7-inch 1/1.63-inch Lens (35mm equivalent) f2.8-4.8 35-210mm (6x) f2.8-4.5 28-140mm (5x) f2.… Read more

Popular Canon SD870 IS gets fresh

The most exciting thing about the new Canon PowerShot SD880 IS Digital ELPH camera is that it's an update to the really popular SD870 IS. However, that doesn't mean Canon didn't try to improve on its past success.

The new model features the company's latest DIGIC 4 image processor, a 10-megapixel resolution, 4x, 28-112mm-equivalent wide-angle lens, 3.0-inch LCD, and optical image stabilization.

Oddly enough, I kinda like the look of the back of the camera more than the front. Especially the control layout and the convex buttons.

Available in two-tone gold and brown and black … Read more

Canon EOS 5D Mark II is official

After all the "leaks" and hype, the long-awaited Canon EOS 5D Mark II is finally official. Here are the highlights:

21-megapixel full-frame sensor 1,920x1,080-pixel video at 30fps Maximum ISO 25600 Digic 4 image processor 3.9fps burst unlimited JPEG/14 raw with UDMA card 15-point AF 920,000-dot 3-inch LCD Live View

I'll post a more meaningful analysis and comparison later today. The EOS 5D Mark II is slated to ship in November for a body-only price of $2,699 or in a kit with the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens for $3,… Read more

The ELPH with the most megapixels: The new PowerShot SD990 IS

The Canon PowerShot SD990 IS replaces the SD950 IS, which we thought pushed limits with its 12 megapixels. Canon obviously thought different, opting to drive the PowerShot SD990 IS Digital ELPH up to 14.7 megapixels. That's a lot of resolution for a camera that's still small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.

Along with a sporty new design, the SD990 IS uses Canon's latest image processor, DIGIC 4. The processor is apparently what we can thank for Servo AF, "a form of continuous focus tracking for moving subjects," as well as Intelligent Contrast … Read more

Zeiss announces lenses for Canon's EF mount

Zeiss, maker of a line of high-quality, single focal length manual focus lenses for SLRs, had been running a teaser ad on it's Web site alluding to a new lens mount, creating a lot of speculation as to what it might be.

Monday, it was revealed and, as I had hoped, the new mount is Canon EF. Making the lenses compatible with all Canon EOS auto-focus SLRs from the EOS film cameras to the all the EOS digital cameras. Considering Canon's market share, this was a smart choice by Zeiss. The new lenses will carry the ZE designation. … Read more

The 404 185: Where we're banned from using the phone

CNET Tech Editor Matt Fitzgerald joins us on today's show to shoot the film with us on a flurry of random stories from around the Internet, including George Takeiiiiiii's marriage, the inevitable death of TRL, the new POS Dragonball Z movie, the final word in iPhone updates, and more!

The morning starts off with a few crank calls (do I smell a new recurring segment?) that ends with us being forever banned from picking up a CNET telephone. Oh well, phones are overrated anyway. Anyway, I know we all bitch about iPhones incessantly on the show (especially Jeff "Hatin' on Fools" Bakalar), but most of our former qualms are solved by the newest firmware upgrade to end all firmware upgrades, version 2.1! If you have an iPhone, 3G or Edge, do yourself a favor and install the upgrade. Battery life is increased, phone crashes and dropped calls are nonexistent, and no more text lags! After three tries, Apple finally got it right. Now, if only they enabled cut/paste, SMS forwarding, and picture messaging....baby steps, Mr. Jobs, baby steps.

EPISODE 185 Download today's podcast … Read more