LAS VEGAS--Two's company, three's a crowd, and Canon's Chuck Westfall is a lot less lonely these days.
Canon once was the sole camera company offering a digital SLR whose sensor is the size of a full frame of 35mm film, a technology that can increase the performance advantage and price penalty that SLR cameras already have compared with compact cameras. In November, though, Nikon began selling its full-frame rival, the D3, and last week Sony said it will launch its own full-frame competitor by the end of 2008.
Chuck Westfall
(Credit: Canon)Westfall is a camera tech guru and the technical adviser for Canon USA's professional products marketing division. In his 25 years at Canon, he's amassed an encyclopedic knowledge not only of official camera specs but also deeply buried engineering details.
Westfall shared his opinions about the full-frame market and other camera trends during the Photo Marketing Association trade show here. He also discussed fuel cells to replace batteries, flash memory technology, OLED displays, and geotagging.
Talking tech might sound like fun if you represent the company that leads market share both for compact cameras and in the higher-end SLRs, but Westfall also has had to deal with unpleasant autofocus trouble that's afflicted the company's $4,500 photojournalist-oriented EOS-1D Mark III during some shooting conditions. A quality and reputation problem is the last thing a camera maker wants for a model aimed squarely at the professional photographer market that Canon dominates but that Nikon is aggressively courting.
Though Canon is repairing affected 1D Mark III models and has issued a firmware update, the issue still hasn't gone away: Rob Galbraith, the photographer and consultant whose tests brought the problem to light, still believes the 1D Mark III's predecessor has better autofocus, and he reported Monday that Canon is working on yet another fix.
Read on for Westfall's response to the autofocus issue and other thoughts.
CNET News.com: Sony now has said it'll join Canon and Nikon in offering a full-frame camera--its flagship 24.6-megapixel SLR due to launch by the end of the year.
Westfall: It's quite flattering the other companies have recognized what we've known for years--that full-frame is quite a desirable imaging format. I think the full-frame market is set to expand in 2008. There's no doubt about it.
With Nikon and now Sony adding weight to the full-frame market, what role is there for the in-between sensor size, APS-H? (It's about halfway between the full-frame sensors used in the high-end SLRs and the APS-C sensors use in the top-selling models such as the Rebel XTi and 40D. The APS-H is used in the 1D Mark III and its predecessors.)
Westfall: When we introduced APS-H in 2001 with the original EOS-1D, the idea was to compete against other professional DSLRs with APS-C. In that respect it has been extremely successful. At that point it was about what the competition had to offer. It's only been in the last six months that there has been an alternative. We've had a good long run with APS-H.
Going forward, it remains to be seen whether it will continue to be a desirable format. We're not ready to say it's over.
Is there a unique advantage APS-H has over full-frame sensors besides price? Nikon's D3 is a full-frame competitor to the 1D Mark III at about the same cost.
Westfall: At this point, no. Price would be the only thing.
Do you think you've resolved the 1D Mark III autofocus issue?
The hardware fix and firmware update has effectively brought the camera within our design specifications. Under the vast majority of study conditions, the camera is functioning exactly the way we expected it to.
So is it better at autofocus than the 1D Mark II N (the camera's predecessor)?
Westfall: Overall, yes. The system has a lot more to it. There are improvements to the Mark III's autofocus sensor, with 19 cross-type focusing points throughout the frame compared to 7 in the center for the 1D Mark II N. This is an area Rob Galbraith's tests did not address. And there are a lot more customization settings to be able to tweak autofocus accuracy according to the way you shoot--focus priority versus release priority for example.
That said, we are continuing to investigate. We're not disputing anything Rob wrote--he's made a fair and objective test. We have no argument except that the 1D Mark III is a lot closer (to the 1D Mark II N's autofocus performance) in overall performance than his severe tests indicate at first glance and that he doesn't test the full range of conditions. There's more to it.
Geotagging is a hot subject, and much of the discussion at the PMA show seems to have moved from when it will arrive in cameras rather than whether it will. When do you think it will?
Westfall: The desirability of that feature is quite clear. You can see reasons why--classifying, sorting, and searching photos--especially with the advances in technology starting to appear that is taking advantage of the (location) information. That's why we started putting in the optional capability with the wireless transmitters (accessories available for higher-end Canon SLRs).
How far away is the geotagging era?
Westfall: There's no doubt we'll see cameras with built-in GPS within the next two years, possibly sooner. I'm not able to give guidance regarding Canon specifically.
Are you getting pressure to add geotagging support from Web sites such as Google and Yahoo that enable users to make use of geotagged photos?
Westfall: Mostly we're hearing from the vertical markets--professional, commercial, and industrial applications. And the military.
Some envision geotagging as an aspect of "autotagging," in which a rich set of metadata is recorded when the photograph is taken. It might be possible to combine face recognition with autotagging to label photos automatically.
With our PowerShot line, we started autotagging a year ago. We call it "My Category." It has a total of five or six presets and three customizable tags. When you choose a scene mode, it associates for example a "landscape" tag. It can be done in review, too--you can apply it after the fact. For a camera with face recognition, we know when people are present. This will become much more valuable in the future. Facial recognition is a very powerful feature.
Are there any developments in battery technology?
Westfall: Lithium-ion is still dominant. Battery manufacturers have been able to increase the storage density lately. The Canon Rebel XSi battery has a capacity of 1080 milliamp-hours compared to 720 for the Rebel XTi (whose battery is about the same size).
Is there anything more radical on the horizon?
Westfall: Fuel cells. Within the same physical space, you have maybe twice the capacity as lithium-ion batteries. There's a lot of incentive to deliver that. And it's environmentally friendly--it's disposable and refillable.
Samsung is showing its NV24 HD camera, which uses an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display. Is Canon planning on making that shift?
Westfall: Yes, definitely. We began exploring OLED several years ago. We showed in 2005 a prototype EOS-5D SLR. It was demonstrably brighter, had better color accuracy, and lower power consumption.
A prototype Canon EOS-5D SLR using a OLED display.
(Credit: Canon)It's common knowledge that Canon is investing in OLED manufacturing ability, making big acquisitions last year. We have the infrastructure needed to bring this online.
And unlike with LCDs, it means you have more of the technology that actually ships in a camera under the Canon roof?
Westfall: Right. We're looking to implement OLED in all our consumer products: digital still cameras, camcorders, and inkjet printers.
There's a new version of CompactFlash memory cards under development that uses the Serial ATA technology rather than the current parallel ATA. You guys use CompactFlash in your SLRs. Will that technology catch on?
Westfall: It remains to be seen. What drives the market is cost and performance issues and availability. That's one reason we elected to wait until now to switch to SD (memory cards) for our Rebel line. The availability of SD cards is better now than even a year ago, and people are more comfortable with it.
I was interested that the 1Ds Mark III has an SD card slot in it as well as a CompactFlash slot.
Westfall: We actually started that with the 1D Mark II in 2004. We were able to add a second slot without changing the overall size of the camera. Now you see a second slot capability on other cameras.
What's changing in the compact camera market?
Westfall: The pricing on these cameras will continue to decline. It's become a more commoditized market, but it's bigger. The forecast for the next three years is it will continue to grow. CIPA (the Camera and Imaging Products Association) forecasts global shipments of 126 million units in 2010 compared to 93 million last year. The challenge is to continue to expand the feature set in the face of price erosion while maintaining profitability. We've got good technology and the highest level of profitability in the digital camera market.
Who's the top competitor?
Westfall: Sony is a very strong competitor. Once you get past them, there are a lot of other companies in there.
Are you worried about Sony entering the SLR market, too?
Westfall: Between us and Nikon, we've got 90 percent of the SLR market. Sony is only in the 5 percent range so far.
With pricing pressures, will you outsource more manufacturing to outside companies?
Westfall: That's not for us. We've increased our Japanese facility for better R&D and manufacturing. We have some outside manufacturing, especially in the point-and-shoot cameras. But we doubled the capacity of our main camera plant in the last two years. To control costs, we're developing more automation in manufacturing.
The jump from 2 megapixels to 4 megapixels is significant, but the jump from 10 to 12 is less dramatic. Is the megapixel race over?
Westfall: We're trying to upgrade the entire camera. The megapixels rating is only one thing. When upgrading, you have to look at more aspects.
Update 5:40 p.m. PST: Westfall requested a few minor changes to his quotations for clarity, such as changing "they" to "battery manufacturers," and I obliged.
Update at 8 a.m. PST on February 7: Westfall's title at Canon has changed and been duly noted.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)Shortly after Canon announced a hardware fix for autofocus problems affecting some of its high-end EOS-1D Mark III cameras, the leading SLR maker also has added a software fix.
Version 1.1.3 of the Camera's firmware "improves autofocus tracking" when shooting outdoors in bright environments or when shooting low-contrast subjects, Canon said. In addition, the firmware can speed the process of writing images to high-speed SD memory cards.
Canon's biggest rival for single-lens reflex cameras, Nikon, also released some new firmware for its brand new D3 and D300 models that endows them with the color performance of the earlier D2X and D2Xs professional models. The updates don't yet appear on the U.S. Web site, but DPReview has a handy list of European links.
Canon also announced in a service notice that it will begin repairs for affected customers beginning December 3 at a dedicated facility. The company will pay shipping both ways for affected customers and will install the firmware during the repair, but customers should brace themselves for a wait.
"Due to the anticipated volume, we ask for your continued patience and understanding during this process," Canon said in the notice. "We offer our sincerest apologies to our customers using these products who have been inconvenienced by this issue."
The repair involves adjusting a mirror used in the autofocus subsystem and affects some cameras built with an original mirror mechanism. Cameras with an updated mirror mechanism aren't affected; those models have serial numbers above 546561, but there are also 2,713 models with lower numbers (yes, I counted) on a Canon list (click for PDF).
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)This afternoon Canon posted a service notice on its website for owners of the company's 1D Mark III digital SLR. If you haven't been following the saga of the camera's autofocus problems, Canon admitted a couple of weeks ago that some of that model's units have a problem with the submirror, a small mirror that sits behind the main mirror and helps to divert light to the AF system. As a result, they can end up with inaccurate focus and/or inaccurate focus tracking in AI-Servo AF and continuous shooting modes. The problems are supposedly more prevalent when shooting in high temperatures. At the time, the company was still trying to figure out how it would address the issue and told owners to stay tuned for further updates. Now, they have said that they will begin to offer free repairs for owners experiencing this problem toward the end of this month and will post specific details to their Web site when they become available.
According to the service notice, the problem is limited to cameras with serial numbers between 501001 and 546561. However, they say that the problem doesn't affect all the cameras in that range. Indeed, while our review sample was in that range, I was never able to recreate the issue, despite shooting on some days with temperatures in the high 90s. If you live in the USA or Puerto Rico and would like to speak to someone at Canon's customer service center about this issue, you can call 800-828-4040. Owners in other parts of the world should contact their local Canon customer service center.
Correction 9:00 a.m. PDT Wednesday: The original version of this article misstated the camera's megapixels. The Canon EOS-1D Mark III has 10.1 megapixels.
Canon U.K. has asked its retailers to return any unsold EOS-1D Mark III cameras for a fix, according to reports Tuesday.
Canon U.S.A. says that it has no plans to issue a formal recall, but will address the autofocus issue soon.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)"We can confirm that Canon U.S.A., Inc. has not suspended shipments of the EOS-1D Mark III camera, and we can also confirm that we have no plans to do so. We will announce the EOS-1D Mark III AF issue on the Canon U.S.A. Inc. Web site in the near future," Chuck Westfall, Canon U.S.A.'s director of media relations, said in an e-mail.
Canon has previously acknowledged that at high temperatures its $4,500 10.1-megapixel digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera geared toward photojournalists does have issues with the autofocus function. It has said solving the autofocus problem requires the adjustment of an internal mirror that reflects light into the autofocus subsystem, and encouraged owners to send any dysfunctional cameras to Canon for the fix.
Now it seems, the company is asking its U.K. retailers to send in all EOS-1D Mark III cameras still on shelves, according to both Digital Photography Review and Gizmodo.
There is no word yet on whether Canon will offer a refund or exchange for EOS-1D Mark III owners who prefer a different camera altogether instead of trying the fix.
An adjustment to one mirror should fix an autofocus problem that has tarnished the debut of Canon's high-end EOS-1D Mark III camera, the company said Thursday.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)"We're pretty confident this countermeasure will resolve the issue completely," said Chuck Westfall, a Canon spokesman and tech guru. "It feels nice to have a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and know it's not another oncoming train."
The $4,500 camera, geared chiefly for photojournalists who can appreciate features such as its 10.5-frame-per-second shooting ability, had won accolades for most of its design. But photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith dug up problems that cropped up in bright or warm conditions. The problems were also confirmed by others including Seattle Times photographer Rod Mar.
Canon was able to reproduce the problems. "What we found out after our thorough research is this issue seemed to manifest itself more in cases where the temperature was high," Westfall said.
Not all cameras are affected, but Canon doesn't know which are or aren't, so anyone having the problem should send the camera in to be repaired, Westfall said. Once it's ready to begin repairs, Canon will publish instructions on how what photographers should do, probably in the next two or three weeks.
New cameras coming off the line don't have the problem, he said.
The problem involves a mirror that directs light to the camera's autofocus subsystem. "That mirror needs to be adjusted," Westfall said.
Single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras have a main mirror that directs light from the lens to the viewfinder, so photographers can see what they're shooting. But some light passes through that mirror, traveling instead to sub-mirrors that direct light to the autofocus system's sensor. When a photographer takes a picture, both the main mirror and the sub-mirror for the autofocus system flip out of the way to let light shine on the camera's main image sensor.
The problem with the sub-mirror could mean the camera would focus in front of the subject or behind it, Westfall said. "If that sensor is not receiving reliable information, it's not able to carry out correct focus prediction," he said.
(Via Rob Galbraith.)
Photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith isn't alone in griping that the autofocus feature in the new $4,500 Canon EOS-1D Mark III is a step down from that of its predecessor, the 1D Mark II N.
Seattle Times sports photographer Rod Mar posted two blog entries last week criticizing the camera. He complained of fuzzy artifacts in his two brand-new models after photographing several games.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)"Believe it or not, Canon's new flagship camera...has trouble focusing. And it isn't a rare, isolated problem," he said in the first blog entry. "The camera has trouble tracking subjects in its autofocus. Further, the problem is worse in bright, sunny conditions with low ISOs."
In the second post, he complains of the fuzzy-focus problem, which he believes is different from ordinary out-of-focus softness. And he adds, "Instead of choosing frames by judging light, composition and moment, I'm choosing them solely by the accuracy of the focus...Editing the Pittsburgh game was tough because of this."
It's not all bad news. Mar also praised some camera features, including its "amazing ability to shoot in very low light." And he also gave high marks for the camera's results when shooting at high-sensitivity settings that, in lesser cameras, produce multicolored speckles of image noise: "The Mark III shot at ISO 3,200 looks like the older cameras' (shot) at ISO 1,000."
Canon will release new firmware for its high-end EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR by the end of the month, including a fix to an autofocus problem, but a prominent camera tester said the update didn't fix the problems he's been having.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)The new firmware improves images viewed on the 3-inch LCD by applying a stronger sharpness setting; corrects a "rare" problem in which a selection dial wouldn't respond; fixes Italian and Chinese menu errors; and most prominently, "improves the consistency" of autofocus in some conditions.
Specifically, version 1.0.9 of the firmware "reduces the tendency of the camera to autofocus on high-contrast backgrounds when shooting in conditions where autofocus detection is difficult, such as when the main subject is not completely covered by the autofocus frames or if the main subject's contrast is low," Canon said Friday.
However, photographer, consultant and early 1D Mark III tester Rob Galbraith said Friday that the new firmware doesn't fix autofocus problems he's seen with multiple 1D Mark III cameras when shooting under hot, bright conditions. The camera's predecessor, the EOS-1D Mark II N, still fares better when the camera is set to automatically change focus to track moving subjects, he said in a Friday update after testing the new firmware on two cameras.
"We've now shot and analyzed about 3,400 track, soccer and test frames taken over two days with v1.0.9 cameras, under the bright, warm conditions that trip up v1.0.8, and the results are effectively the same as before: lots of out-of-focus frames that should be crisply focused," Galbraith said. "And, as before, simply putting the EOS-1D Mark II N onto the same lens and shooting the same stuff produces a high percentage of in-focus photos."
The new firmware is a "minor improvement" but one worth installing, Galbraith said. "We continue to hope that Canon is working on a complete and successful fix to those serious problems."
The new firmware will be available for download by the end of the month, Canon said, but antsy customers in the United States or Puerto Rico can send their cameras at their own expense to a Canon factory service center for the update.
So far, most of the reviews of Canon's high-end EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR have been highly favorable, as befits a $4,500 camera from the leader of the pack. But this week, Rob Galbraith, one of the privileged few to get an early look at the camera, issued a scathing review of its autofocus abilities.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)In a Tuesday post, Galbraith said that under some circumstances, the 1D Mark III's autofocus can have trouble focusing initially on a subject, doesn't track moving subjects well and can lose focus. The problems cropped up when the weather was warm and the light was especially bright, he said. It afflicted one preproduction model, two production models and a third production model is "giving off the same vibe."
"We don't know whether it's the light, the heat or both that's causing the problem we've encountered, but we're leaning towards both being the culprits somehow," Galbraith said. The predecessor 1D Mark II N has better autofocus, he added.
Not everybody is having trouble. CNET's review rated the camera as "spectacular." And freelance photographer Allen Rockwell, had no problems taking pictures at the Paris Air Show. "I have not had a single problem with my Mark III," he said. "I picked it up a day before my trip and I have shot about 4,000 images since then and I could not be happier with my new toy."
However, in an update Thursday, Galbraith said he's received more than 200 e-mails corroborating his complaint.
Apple's update to its operating system Wednesday didn't just fix a security hole. Mac OS X 10.4.10 now also supports raw images from the latest digital cameras, including the Canon's vaunted EOS-1D Mark III.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)The update also endows Macs with the ability to decode raw images from the Panasonic DMC-LX1 and LX2; the Leica M8, D-LUX 2 and D-LUX 3; the Fujifilm S5 Pro; and the Nikon D40x.
Raw images are taken directly from higher-end cameras' image sensors without any in-camera processing. They're roughly three times bigger than JPEGs, require processing by software to be useful and typically use proprietary file formats, but they can provide more flexibility and better image quality than JPEGs.
There are several different ways to handle raw images. Mac OS X builds it into the operating system, letting other software such as Apple's Aperture call on it. Microsoft has taken the same approach with Windows Vista, though unlike Apple it relies on camera manufacturers to supply the decoding-encoding "codec" engines. Image-editing powerhouse Adobe builds its own raw image software.
Breeze Systems is a small, U.K.-based software company that also has its own technology. On Thursday, it announced BreezeBrowser 1.7, which includes raw support for the Canon 1D Mark III and the Nikoin D40 and D40x.
BreezeBrowser also supports "geotagging," geographic tags in image data that show where a photograph was taken. And it includes full support for Windows Vista, the company said. BreezeBrowser Pro costs $89.90.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)Canon on Wednesday began shipping its EOS-1D Mark III, a high-end SLR (single-lens reflex) camera geared for photojournalists, photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith said on his blog Wednesday.
Galbraith quoted Canon spokesman Chuck Westfall as saying the 1D Mark III will arrive at dealer sites as soon as Thursday and that supplies should be steady after that.
The 1D Mark III is expected to cost at least $4,000 with no lenses. It's weather-sealed, can shoot as fast as 10 frames per second and has a new, more sensitive image sensor.
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