Crave

Canon has warned that traces of one photograph taken with the company's new higher-end EOS 7D SLR can sometimes be seen in the next.

Canon's EOS 7D

(Credit: Canon USA)

The good news: new software for the camera should be able to fix the problem at some point. "Canon is currently investigating and analyzing the cause of this phenomenon, and we are planning to release a firmware update to address this issue," the company said in a a service notice.

The problem occurs only when shooting continuously, Canon said: "In images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible. This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image."

The Canon 7D, which just arrived on the market, costs about $1,700 and can shoot 18-megapixel images at speeds of up to eight frames per second.

(Via Cameratown)

Natali Del Conte makes her triumphant return from E3 and joins us on today's show. After suffering through two years with an HTC Mogul, Jeff finally upgraded to the Palm Pre this weekend. Tune in for Jeff's personal review as well as some unfortunate news that has us all reeling...with laughter.

(Credit: Jeff Bakalar)

All right, first thing's first: NATALI DEL CONTE. That should be enough to get you guys to listen to today's show. She's finally back from her Tour de California. She was actually at E3 this past week and she gives us the scoop on her first impressions of the event. Actually, it turns out that Natali's been taking some gulps of Jeff's unique brand of Haterade! It's always a pleasure to welcome Natali back to the show, even though she's crossed over the dark side. Welcome home, girl!

We've been talking about the Palm Pre ad nauseam for weeks now leading up to Saturday's release, and Jeff actually woke himself up before the crack of dawn and picked one up. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to hear about the fiasco that happened in line, it's unbelievable, and kind of funny. Pix or it didn't happen, Bakalar! After all that happened, Jeff successfully picked up a Palm Pre, and he loves it! All his contacts from Facebook, Gmail, etc...are now consolidated; music transfers are easy thanks to iTunes (fingers crossed that Apple shows mercy); and the keyboard is surprisingly easy for Jeff's ham shank fingers. Sadly, though, there's one very significant, deal-breaking, horrendous manufacturer's error that needs to be correctly immediately before Jeff turns back into a pumpkin and we lose him forever. Tune in to hear more about this awful glitch and how you can fix the problem!

Updated at 8:25 p.m. PST with preliminary test results, and at 10:36 p.m. PST with another photographer's results.

Canon on Wednesday released new firmware for its EOS 5D Mark II camera that the company said "improves and mitigates" the "black dot" problem that marred some images from the high-profile, high-end SLR.

Version 1.0.7 of the 5D Mark II firmware software is downloadable from Canon's Web site. (I encountered some dead ends on the site, but eventually found the 9MB download on the U.S. site at this address.)

I've just run some tests. My preliminary opinion is that there's grounds for optimism that the firmware indeed seems to have taken care of the problem. See the shots below taken at ISO 800 and 3,200, magnified to three times regular size.

This scene of San Francisco by night, taken with a 5D Mark II using the new version 1.0.7 firmware, shows no evidence of the black dot problem.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Updated 9:27 and 9:45 a.m. PST with further details from Canon USA announcement.

Canon has acknowledged the "black dot" problem that mars some shots taken with its new 5D Mark II camera and is preparing "correction firmware" designed to deal with the problem, the company said.

Canon's 5D Mark II full-frame SLR

(Credit: Canon)

"We are currently investigating ways to improve and/or mitigate these phenomena. An announcement will be made on the Canon Web site when measures to address these phenomena have been decided," according to a statement dated December 17 that appeared on Canon's Australian support and service Web site.

A later Canon USA service announcement was largely identical, but also said Canon is "examining measures to reduce or eliminate these phenomena by providing correction firmware."

Firmware fixes can be downloaded and installed, a much cheaper and easier process than the physical repairs the company undertook to help with Canon 1D Mark III autofocus problem.

Canon described the problem the same way many who've complained about it have: "When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100 percent or above on a monitor or if large prints of the images are made." For some examples, check farther down this post.

These magnified close-ups that Stephan Hoerold took with his Canon 5D Mark II show lights on a building at night. The dark spots appear to the right of the very bright areas. The three shots show images taken at ISO 100, ISO 200, and ISO 3,200. Photo used with permission.

(Credit: Stephan Hoerold)

The company also said it's looking into vertical banding noise that can show when shooting files in the sRAW1 mode, which produces a smaller file size than regular raw images.... Read more

Chuck Westfall

(Credit: Canon)

Some photographers have been frustrated with Canon's silence on the "black dot" issue that's afflicting its new EOS 5D Mark II camera, but the company plans to speak soon.

"Watch for an official Canon comment on this issue in the very near future," said Canon USA technical adviser Chuck Westfall in a Wednesday response to a question posted on his monthly question-and-answer column at The Digital Journalist.

The black spots appear to the right of very bright spots in some occasions, and many are wondering whether the issue is an unavoidable consequence of the sensor or something that can be altered with the camera's more mutable firmware.

Judging by Canon's earlier statements about issues such as the EOS-1D Mark III autofocus saga, though, it wouldn't be wise to count on a terribly revealing statement. This could well be at the stage of just acknowledging the issue still.

These magnified close-ups that Stephan Hoerold took with his Canon 5D Mark II show lights on a building at night. The dark spots appear to the right of the very bright areas. The three shots show images taken at ISO 100, ISO 200, and ISO 3,200. Photo used with permission.

(Credit: Stephan Hoerold)

The Canon 5D Mark II is the new fourth-place member of DxO Labs' test of image sensor scores.

(Credit: DxO Labs)

One verdict is in on Canon's EOS 5D Mark II: its sensor ranks very high on DxO Labs' test of sensor performance.

The black-spot issue notwithstanding, Canon's new full-frame SLR came in at fourth place with a score of 79.0, bumping Sony's 78.9-scoring Alpha A900 down a peg but still trailing Canon's top-end EOS-1Ds Mark III at 80.3. Nikon's D700, the closest rival to the 5D Mark II, is a notch ahead at 80.5.

More relevant for the potential upgrade market, new Canon SLR's score is significantly better from that of its predecessor, the 5D, whose score is 70.9. On a pixel-by-pixel basis, the 12.8-megapixel 5D's sensor actually has a lower signal-to-noise ratio, but when measured over an entire 8x10 print, the 5D Mark II's higher 21.1-megapixel resolution wins on that measurement.

The DxOMark Sensor test measures how well a camera's sensor fares when it comes to dynamic range, color depth, and low-light performance. The test doesn't measure any number of other camera issues such as autofocus, value, or image processing. But it's still useful given DxO Labs' engineering rigor and the central role a sensor plays in the abilities of a camera.

Pixel-peepers have been devouring DxO's new statistics; the curious can try this link to a comparison of the 5D Mark II, Nikon D700, and Sony A900. However, it should be noted, DxO Labs considers that scores must be at least of 5 points apart to be significant.

There's been much discussion about whether the $2,700 5D Mark II performs better than the $6,500 1Ds Mark III, which has the same resolution. The DxOMark tests give the edge to the top-end model based on its better color and dynamic range--the ability to capture both bright and dark regions--but the 5D Mark II wins out in low-light performance. Digging deeper into the charts, though, the 5D Mark II fares better in dynamic range at higher ISOs.

The sensor on Canon's 5D Mark II fares significantly better than that on the 5D. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: DxO Labs)

All these cameras perform better than the common herd by virtue of full-frame sensors measuring 36x24mm, the size of a full frame of 35mm film. Most digital SLRs have a smaller sensor that can't capture as much information overall, but those models are vastly more affordable.

Canon's EOS 5D Mark II

(Credit: Canon)

Some users have reported that photos taken with Canon's new $2,700 EOS 5D Mark II camera can be blemished with dark spots near areas with very bright highlights.

I first heard about the issue on the DP Review forums on Friday, but now one pixel-peeping user has come up with a fix spotlighted by Photography Bay: Disable for highlight tone priority, lighting optimizer, and noise reduction, according to commenter f_stops.

"No black dots," the photographer and new 5D Mark II owner reported on the posting, supplying before-and-after shots as proof.

Canon is checking into the issue. "We have been made aware of this and are looking into it," a Canon representative said Monday.

The spots appear on the right edge of some shots with very bright highlights.

One forum poster spotted a dark patch on a 5D Mark II video; it appears fleetingly at about 1:04 into the video.

Roku's November 13 note to customers asking them for help determining the cause of a dramatic decline in video quality.

(Credit: Roku)

The Netflix Player by Roku, which enables owners to watch streaming Web video on their TV sets, has received plenty of applause from pundits and owners since debuting last May. But the box now faces its first major challenge.

Customers from around the country have been "experiencing inexplicable loss of video-streaming quality," for at least three weeks according to Roku's engineers, who have posted comments at the company's Web forums. Device owners have posted complaints to the same forums about receiving less than half of the video quality they've had in the past. One user told CNET that the video stream is now "unwatchable."

Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, told CNET News on Monday that the company is still unsure about what exactly triggered the problem, but he said indications are it originated at Netflix. Twerdahl added that the problem likely affects Netflix's other boxes as well as Roku's player.

"All we know is Roku didn't make any changes," Twerdahl said. "This is not a box problem. We know from some reports that this seems to be correlated with a change in Netflix's content distribution network (CDN), and Netflix is trying to figure out what the issue is."

Hewlett-Packard lists 24 laptop model variations affected by a widely reported Nvidia graphics chip defect. HP said the flaw has been a warranty issue since November of last year.

Some HP DV9000 series notebooks used potentially defective Nvidia graphics chip

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Dell made a statement Friday regarding the same graphics chip issue. Nvidia published a "Business Update" on July 2 that addressed the problem. The Nvidia defect is centered on a "weak die/packaging material" in certain versions of Nvidia graphics silicon used in laptops. The die refers to the chip itself and the packaging is what encases the chip.

HP has published a list of potentially affected systems that comprises Pavilion and Compaq Presario laptop models.

"HP has taken appropriate actions for any HP notebook products that use the known affected Nvidia chips," an HP spokesperson said Monday, responding to an e-mail query. "We initiated a customer program to address this issue in November 2007, and have notified registered customers who have notebook PC models that are included in this HP program.

"HP became aware of this issue when we began performing an investigation based on field performance data," the spokesperson said.

Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, and dv9000 and Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000 series are listed by HP as being potentially affected. Symptoms include no video on the computer LCD screen, no power and no active LEDs, and "the notebook does not start," according to HP's Web page that cites the problem.

"If you are experiencing one or more symptoms listed below, and your computer meets the product criteria listed below, contact HP to determine whether you are eligible for a free repair," the HP Web page states.

The defect is described by Nvidia in more detail here.

Technology Web site The Inquirer cited affected HP systems earlier this month.