A correction has been made to this story. See below for details.
LAS VEGAS--Olympus has declared an end to the megapixel race.
"Twelve megapixels is, I think, enough for covering most applications most customers need," said Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus Imaging's SLR planning department, in an interview here at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). "We have no intention to compete in the megapixel wars for E-System," Olympus' line of SLR cameras, he said.
Instead, Olympus will focus on other characteristics such as dynamic range, color reproduction, and a better ISO range for low-light shooting, he said.
Increasing the number of megapixels on cameras is an easy selling point for camera makers, in part because it's a simple concept for people to understand. Even though having more megapixels can enable larger prints and enlargement of subject matter through cropping, adding megapixels comes with some drawbacks.
For one thing, smaller pixels can mean more noisy speckles at the pixel level and can reduce the dynamic range, so brighter areas wash out and darker areas become swaths of black. For another, images take more room on memory cards, hard drives, and Web servers, and cameras need more powerful image processors to handle them. And yesteryear's cameras already had plenty of pixels for making 8x10-inch prints, a size few people exceed.
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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.
Chuck Westfall, Canon's spokesman and all-knowing camera tech expert, has promised to address questions about how well his employer's new high-end EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR handles autofocus--but you'll have to wait until next month.
Canon's EOS-1D Mark III
(Credit: Canon)In June, photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith raised concerns about the new $4,500 camera's autofocus abilities on his blog, but Canon has remained mum about the issue.
Westfall could provide a response in August, though, in a monthly column he writes for a photojournalism publication, The Digital Journalist.
"I'll have more on EOS-1D Mark III autofocusing in the next edition of Tech Tips," Westfall said in the July issue.
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.
(Credit:
Akihabara News)
With its silver filigree accents, the design of the new Vije Deluxe is vaguely reminiscent of the old Mutoscopes found in penny arcade museums. But instead of sepia-toned Westerns, this little number from will be featuring your very own image--with autofocus, even.
SavitMicro claims that its latest offering, a 2-megapixel Webcam, will ensure that your mug always stays sharp (whether you want it to or not, depending on how rough a night you've had). Akihabara News even included a video clip to show its focus mechanism in action. It looks pretty good, so we'll have to get over the slightly weird design.
