DVPhoto

Well earlier this week, the Canon EOS 50D information was leaked, and then quickly followed with the official announcement. It has many new features, but most impressive was 15.1 megapixels and a maximum ISO of 12800.

photo credit: Fox O’Rian

15 megapixels? I am still happy with 8! I’ve printed 36×24 inch prints with it and was quite pleased with them. Admittedly a pickier viewer might have complained they were not sharp enough… after practically touching the print with his eye. Do we really need it? I’m not the only one who thinks we should stop increasing megapixels.

Those calling for more resolution sometimes state large prints as a reason why they want the extra pixel, though more often these days is the claim of improved ability to crop. But how often is this actually the case?

At 15MP on a 1.6 crop sensor the diffraction starts to show up at and aperture of about f8 onwards. So from f8 onwards, the extra resolution is just showing the airy disk, and cropping becomes less and less of an option. Open the aperture up and the problem of diffraction is not longer noticable.

So now one has to ask how sharp your lens is. A brief look at the sample photos on the canon site shows us what lenses and apertures were used.

• EF600mm f/4L IS USM @ f/8
• EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM @ f/4.5
• EF50mm f/1.2L USM @ f/8
• EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM @ f/8

A nice selection of very good lenses, and mostly stopped down to f/8 which should reduce chromatic aberrations. And yet when I viewed these images at 100% (pixel peeping if you will), I noticed CA immediately on several of the images. It was small, and wouldn’t be noticable in a normal print; yet already this limits just how much you can crop some parts of the image. These are all quite decent lenses, so consider how more mundane low end lenses might perform with this sensor; not well I would think.

Now this new 15MP sensor is managing an maximum ISO of 12800! Many people complain that such high ISOs are pointless since they only ever use lower ISOs themselves. Others claim the current autofocus doesn’t work properly in light which requires high ISOs. I look at it from the point of view of a user with a cheap lens in bad light. The lens needs to be stopped down to f/8 to provide good results, and thus the ability to up the ISO without sacrificing too much quality becomes quite important.

If Canon can squeeze ISO 12800 from a 15MP sensor, what could they do from a 10? ISO 25600, or even higher; clean 1600, very usable 3200 or maybe even 6400? Suddenly the poor photographer who cannot afford several thousand dollar lenses as well as a camera, can suddenly use his cheaper zoom in dim light.

photo credit: respres

The lower megapixels make problems with the lens less apparent, and the higher ISO allows greater flexibility in different lighting.

Of course that is probably the reason we won’t ever get the lower mega pixel high ISO camera; less reason to upgrade the lenses…

Today, I am in a black and white mood.

Of course I forgot to bring the Kiev 4 along with me, and so only the Canon 350D is immediately available. Now you can always take photos with your colour bayer array sensor digital SLR, but you immediately lose many of the benefits of B&W photography. Reduced dynamic range as well as less sharpness due to bayer arrays and anti-aliasing filters. If only there was some sort of full frame B&W sensor with a full 10 stops (or more) dynamic range.

Alas, there is no such thing (apart from one attempt from Kodak in the past); and the immediate future doesn’t hold much promise either, due to a complete lack of demand. The lack of demand is of course due to the fact that not many people want a camera that does only B&W, especially when it is extremely easy to convert your colour digital photos to B&W anyway (despite the drawbacks).

So I wish once again, for a modular digital system. Not something like Leica’s digital R system, where they separated digital camera, from a glorified lens holder. No I wish for a system where as much as possible is reused in the camera itself, with little more than a cartridge encased sensor being the easily replaceable part. I obviously a system like this is far off, and probably further than it needs to be, since camera companies benefit from the constant rebuying of bodies every time a new sensor is developed.

Now imagine a future where you buy one camera body. The range/cost is defined by the memory bandwidth, shutter speed, autofocus, etc. The sensor is not included, or comes with a basic 1.6x crop sensor, say 12 megapixels and usable ISO up to 3200. Now I decide to splash out and get a full frame B&W sensor for my camera, it is 12 megapixels as well, but with ISO all the way up to 25600. At the lower ISO’s it has a dynamic range of 12 stops, and it’s images are amazingly sharp. Add to this a 2x crop sensor, say 10 megapixels, perfect for nature and outdoor sport; a full frame high resolution colour sensor perfect for extra large prints of landscapes; a lower resolution full frame colour sensor could provide amazing colour rendition and dynamic range.

Suddenly you have system that allows you to carry one camera with you, yet gives you the flexibility to use a sensor that is most suited to the job at hand. Done properly, I would hope you could get the equivalent of 4 digital SLR’s for the price of 2, and throw in the chance of 3rd party sensors (want a Foveon sensor in that Canon body?).

I’m sure there are many technical issues I don’t know about, and these hurdles may never be passed, but one can dream.

It started with a leak from Amazon.com yesterday, and ended up with Canon making the official announcement today. The 40D and 1DsMKIII are now official, as well as a new 14mm wide angle lens and a new smaller simpler 4 stop IS system in two of their low end lenses. If pouring through numbers is your thing, then DP Review has all the info you need.

Obviously most of the buzz is around the new 21 mega pixels of the 1Ds, and of course the average Canon user is understandably happy that they now have an option that competes with Nikon’s D200. For me however the interest is in the IS, and most importantly the 14bit RAW files.

More Bits Equals More Detail

The 1DMKIII was the first Canon camera to come out with 14 bit RAW, and with the release of these new camera’s it is clear Canon intend for all their camera’s to have this from now on. For those that don’t know why this is a big thing, you need to understand how the camera stores the image. When the photo is taken, the sensor, which is actually an analogue device, needs to have its signal converted to a digital representation for storing. The resulting digital information used to be restricted to 4096 levels of brightness per pixel. While this seems like a lot, you need to understand that the levels are not linear. The brightest stop has half of these, with the next stop having half of what remains, and so forth until you reach the shadows where there are very few levels of brightness. This results in less shadow detail and is why many digital photographers suggest exposing to the right (another words exposing the image so that it is as bright as possible and then bring it down in post processing).

Now 14 bits goes from 4096 levels to 16384! This translates to better detail and tonality and one hopes, a noticeable increase in shadow detail. With Canon now having 14 bits as the norm, we can hope the other manufacturers follow suit, and in the end we all benefit.

IS for the caffeine lover

Canon’s new IS appears to be much smaller, and we hope cheaper, than the existing IS solution they have. They claim it’s effectiveness is equal to the old IS, and from the lenses they have decided to release it with, it seems clear that they intend to make IS available to as many people as possible.

I’ve been avoiding buying IS lenses due to the cost, but when these come out, my willpower may well be sapped.