Underexposed

It looks like Canon's intermediate-size APS-H sensor line, found in the 1D Mark III SLRs used by photojournalists, may be at the end of its life span.

A silicon chip wafer from Canon can fit only 20 full-frame sensors, and there's lots of wasted real estate.

(Credit: Canon)

The sensor is larger than the APS-C sensors used in mainstream Canon SLRs such as the EOS-40D or the new Canon EOS Rebel XSi, but it's smaller than those in a 1Ds Mark III or 5D, which is the size of a full frame of 35mm film. With Nikon now selling its first full-frame model, the D3, and Sony planning to launch its own full-frame competitor by the end of 2008, I have been curious if those developments meant momentum is shifting toward full-frame. Accordingly, at the Photo Marketing Association trade show, I asked Chuck Westfall, technical adviser for Canon USA's professional products marketing division, about the future of APS-H.

He didn't say anything definite (click here for the full Westfall Q&A), but it's hard to feel optimistic about the format's future. Westfall said the only advantage APS-H has over full-frame is price. And although that's significant, I can't help but notice that Nikon's full-frame D3 is a strong competitor to the 1D Mark III that largely matches its price.

"When we started it at the time, the idea was to compete against APS-C. In that respect it was successful...We've had a good, long run with APS-H," Westfall said. "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."

With a rosier future for full-frame cameras, it's not clear to me that anyone will really miss APS-H if it goes extinct.

Chuck Westfall

(Credit: Canon)

With Nikon showing that price doesn't need to be as much of an issue, the photojournalists who are the core market for the 1D Mark III could fare just fine with a full-frame model designed for their high-speed, low-light needs--the 1D Mark IV, perhaps. And for those photogs on the NFL sidelines who might like APS-H's slight telephoto effect, there could be an equivalent to the Nikon D3's DX crop mode that captures only central pixels from the sensor.

For background, there are some good reasons to employ different sensor sizes. Larger sensors of a given megapixel count permit larger pixels that do a better job distinguishing the signal of incoming light from electronic noise in the sensor, so photos have fewer speckles, colors remain more true, and cameras work better in low light. But large image sensors cost a lot more to build.

In the compact camera domain, there are multiple image-sensor sizes in use, but customers rarely know which because the lens is matched to it. In SLRs, though, where lenses are interchangeable, sensor size makes a difference. Lenses behave the same way as in the film era with cameras equipped with full-frame sensors, but the field of view is cropped more narrowly with APS-H and APS-C.

Because of this field-of-view crop factor, the field of view is 1.3 times narrower on an APS-H camera than a full-frame camera and 1.6 times narrower on an APS-C camera.

So for example, a 50mm lens on a full-frame 1Ds Mark III has the same field of view as a 38mm lens on an APS-H 1D Mark III and a 31mm lens on a Rebel XSi.

For telephoto shooting, smaller sensors are generally OK, in effect amplifying the ability to reach distant subjects. For wide-angle lenses, though, the arrival of SLRs with sensors smaller than full-frame initially posed problems. Now, though, camera makers have released new lenses with shorter focal lengths to cover the wider field of view.

Update 12:21 p.m. PST: Mike Baird, Ask.com's first vice president of engineering but now an avid camera buff, is one photographer who expects his 1D Mark III to be his last camera to have a sensor smaller than a full frame.

"I thoroughly expect the sub-35mm sensors to go away in the pro market," Baird said. "The APS-H 1D Mark III has replaced all of my APS-C cameras...I'd like the 1Ds Mark III, but I'm spending all my money on lenses."

Update at 8 a.m. PST on February 7: Westfall's title at Canon has changed and been duly noted.

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.

Canon's EOS Rebel XSi goes on sale in April.

(Credit: Canon)

Canon faced some modest compatibility risks when it chose to design its new EOS Rebel XSi camera with SD flash-memory cards rather than the CompactFlash cards it's used for all its SLR cameras until this point, but I think the move is smart overall.

It's a drag for consumers that there's such a profusion of flash card formats. Customers often must pay extra when moving from one camera maker to another just to replace flash cards. And indeed, owners of Canon's existing Rebel, Rebel XT, or XTi cameras will find their CompactFlash cards useless if they upgraded to an XSi.

But the reality is that Rebel XSi (also called the 450D and Kiss X2 in various parts of the world) customers are more likely to be upgrading from a compact camera, a market where SD dominates. And from a technical perspective, SD performs fine, takes up less critical room in the camera, and in the newer SDHC incarnation can match CompactFlash's 32GB capacity.

CompactFlash memory has been a mainstay in the SLR (single-lens reflex) camera market, but SD has gained a foothold. Nikon's entry-level SLRs use SD cards, as do all from Pentax, Panasonic, and Samsung. And Canon's top-end 1Ds Mark III accepts both SD and CompactFlash.

Now if we could just get rid of xD Picture Card from Olympus and Fujifilm and Memory Stick from Sony, we'd all be better off. Fujifilm wisely has started selling compact cameras with a dual-use adapter that can accept SD as well as xD, and I'm hoping that's a harbinger of things to come.

Canon's EOS Rebel XSi goes on sale in April.

(Credit: Canon)

Canon hopes the new EOS Rebel XSi will help it reclaim the top spot in SLR camera market share in 2008 in Japan, according to a report Thursday.

Canon lost the top spot in Japan to Nikon, but the new entry-level Rebel XSi (called the 450D in Europe and the Kiss X2 in Asia) should help the company fight back this year, according to Canon director Masaya Maeda, quoted by Thomson after a Canon press conference.

Canon's ambitions are broader than just Japan and SLRs, though its lead isn't as threatened in other segments. "In 2008, we aim to capture the top market share in Japan as well as globally, in both the compact and SLR camera segments," Thomson quoted Canon president Tsuneji Uchida as saying.

SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras are costlier and bulkier than compact cameras, but they offer higher performance, interchangeable lenses, and other advantages. The market segment is growing faster than compact cameras, too, and once a customer is won, they're more likely to stay loyal because one camera maker's lenses don't work on another's camera bodies.

Canon announced the XSi Wednesday a week before the Photo Marketing Association trade show in Las Vegas. The camera, costing $900 including an image-stabilized kit lens, competes with Nikon's D40 and D40x and, if rumors are anything to go by, an imminent successor called the D60.

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.)