Well after all the excitment of the chase, we have finally this morning seen the announcment of the new 5d replacement, the unsurprisingly named 5d mk2.
Despite all the rumours, the new camera appears to be more evolution than revolution, with 3 primary flaws.
1) There appears to have been no improvement in the camera’s AF system, according to Rob Galbraith the new camera basically carries over the old cameras system, instead of picking the new 40d or 50d system. This is a key flaw, the main problem that I have had with the old camera was its poor AF performance when shooting even moderate action.
2) Capture Rate is improved, but only to 3.9 fps. Again, a major flaw, the capture rate should have come in at 5ps, (Which the new Sony A900 does), which is a much more useable capture rate for action/news or even sport.
3) Pricing at £2400 is way to high, at nearly twice the price of the machine it is replacing. I note that the US price is $2700, so once again the UK is getting it in the neck, when with the current exchange rate we should be seeing this machine at something like £1650
These problems are compounded by Canon’s failure to replace the 21mm lens with something useable. I am sure the 24 L II is going to be very nice, but the real problem lies in the lack of a useable prime 21 or 20.
Canon has failed to deliver the affordable cross over killer camera that we needed, one that would be capable of both Corporate/Commercial and press work, with a price that would be sustainable given the current state of the industry.
Whilst Nikon are delivering the price and feature combination with the D700, they dont have a file size that we need for our corporate work, Sony OTOH is looking pretty good with A900 and the Zeiss lenses.
We have been waiting a long time to upgrade our machines, and Canon have missed a unique opportunity to really kick the opposition. Dissapointment all around I think.