Comments on: End of the line for Canon's midsize sensor?

It ain't over till it's over, but it looks like Canon's intermediate-size APS-H sensor line, found in 1D Mark III SLRs used by photojournalists, may be at the end of its life span.

[lmasanti]

The next step?

"35mm" photographs started when someone put a roll of 35mm
movie film "horizontaly" in a photo camera to get "still" with
exact the same film that the movie was rolled by.
The movie camera run this film "vertically" and get a landscape
image. In the photo camera it was done with the "plate" and in a
size of 34x28mm.
And from there on we have this format.

With the advent of Digital cameras and costly sensors the size
was reduced but the "format/dimension" kept.
Now we have "full frame sensors".

What's the next step? We have full optics (not the ones used in
the small sensors) that can provide a wonderfull image for a
"34x34" full-squared sensor.

Then, we'll got a "Hassellblad (non-D)" or "Studio" camera
format right in our hands!

(I do remember that the first "Kodak Fiesta" had a different
photo format. Also, the "spy-cameras" --using 16mm movie
film-- also has another formats)

[jll6607]

is it just me?

50mm on a full frame DSLR become wider on a 1.3X or 1.6 FOV camera? I thought it should be the other way around. A 50mm on a 5D becomes 65mm on a 1D and 80mm on a 40D.

[Andrew Wolfe]

50mm full frame = 80mm APS-C

You are right - the story is wrong.

[timothy gray]

Price the only difference?

Somebody's missing something. For a professional it's more functionality than price. In any event, since when can a 22mpx ff deliver 10fps? It's that statistic (as well as AF performance) that defines the functional metrics for the market segment targetted by the APS H sensor.

Having said that, I could see 2 ff models, one 'low' rez, high speed (say 12mpx) and the ff high rez model. But price isn't the only difference.

[Shankland]

Compare 1D Mark III to Nikon D3, not to Canon 1Ds Mark III

It's true the 1Ds Mark III shoots a lot slower than the 1D Mark III, but bear in mind that some of that is that it has only one Digic III chip to process the images and it has a focus on lots of pixels for the studio-shooter crowd. The Nikon D3, on the other hand, has 12 megapixels on a full-frame sensor and can shoot at 9 frames per second. I'm sure it's tougher to make a larger shutter and mirror for a prospective full-frame 1D Mark IV, but Nikon's D3 can shoot 11 frames per second in DX crop mode, so it seems the mechanical limits aren't insurmountable, either.

And yes, pros care about functionality, but I have yet to meet one who doesn't care about price, too.

[super.nova.org]

Manufacturing Considerations?

In a Canon White Paper on sensors published a year or so ago it
was revealed that the APS-H sensor was the largest which could
be exposed on the wafer with one step. The full-frame sensors
require three stepped exposures which when spoilage and lower
yield is considered must make them much more expensive to
make. It would seem to make some marketing sense to keep the
xxxD line in APS-C, migrate the xxD line to APS-H, and make all
the xD Full-Frame.

[Shankland]

Why not to move 40D etc. to APS-H

The 20D, 30D, and 40D cameras all support EF-S lenses, which are specifically designed for APS-C sensors. I don't think you'd want to break that pattern, because then many people upgrading from xxxD such as Rebel XT, XTi, and forthcoming XSi (350D, 400D, 450D) would be required to buy new EF lenses. It's smart to offer an APS-C-based upgrade from the entry-level, I think.

[SX10 IS]

Well, Canon disagrees, cuz they introduced the EOS-1 D Mark IV with APS-H.