Canon EOS M Shipping News And Video Review

The good news is that the Canon EOS M should start shipping by tomorrow, October 31st. I am still eagerly awaiting mine to arrive.

The other news is that DigitalRev notified me that they have the Canon EOS M in stock and ready to ship. Various kits are offered, click here to see all their EOS M related bundles and items. As usual with DigitalRev the price depends by your check-out location, but: they told me the EOS M kits are now slightly lower in price. Check it out to see if it works for you. Customers based in Asia should be fine with DigitalRevs location-based check-out system. One thing is sure: for the time being DigitalRev has the richest set of EOS M kits and bundles, and they are all ready to ship today.

I am checking the other sellers, but for the time being neither Amazon nor Adorama and B&H have the EOS M listed as in stock. More tomorrow, or as soon as there are news.

In the meantime have a look at the video above (DigitalRev’s Kai reviewing the EOS M) and on Techcrunch’s hands-on. Techcrunch writes:

[…] the EOS M [is] a camera that feels great in the hand and that lives up to the expectations of the MILC category. Canon’s big advantage over others in this space may just be the adapter ring, which makes it possible to use the EOS M with Canon’s extensive catalog of EF lenses, a huge selling point for existing Canon DSLR shooters who want something more portable to shore up their collection.

There are slowly starting to be “EOS M”-tagged pics on Flickr, click here to see the pics. Finally, in the case you missed it, here is an interview with Canon’s David Parry about the EOS M:

Canon EOS M price and availability check for your country: [shopcountry 6091]

Canon EOS M Shipping News And Video Review

Is The Next Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L Around The Corner (with image stabilization)?

Canon Rumors reports a rumor saying that Canon is testing prototypes of an EF 24-70mm lens, supposedly named EF 24-70 f/2.8L IS. Quoting CR:

[…] received two separate communications in regards to an EF 24-70 f/2.8L IS  being in the wild in prototype form. We knew this prototype has existed for quite some time, however we figured the concept was dead with the release of the EF 24-70 f/2.8L II. Canon would bring this lens to market alongside the non-IS version. Canon already does this with the 70-200 f/2.8s & 70-200 f/4s, so it’s possible they bring it to the standard zooms as well.

None of my sources confirmed this rumor to me. However, according to CR an image stabilized version of this lens definitely exists.

[via CR]

A Little Bit Of Everything

A little bit of everything….

It’s Getting Crazier: Canon EOS 5D Mark III Price Tumbles Down Even More (now $2994)

Canon EOS 5D Mark III Price Tumbles Down Even More

If things are going on that way I will have to post a EOS 5D Mark III deal every day. The price of the Canon EOS 5D Mark III dropped again (it dropped just five days ago). Both Amazon and B&H are now selling the body only option for $2994 (Amazon | B&H). Last week it was around $200 more than today! These are not eBay sales, but offerings coming from the big, official sellers. Both Amazon and B&H show exactly the same price, I guess these price drops are suggested directly from Canon. However, while Amazon doesn’t refer to any sale or rebates program, B&H says that it is an offer that ends on November 24th. Don’t know what is going on.

And that’s not all. All the EOS 5D Mark III kits have also gone down with the price. Now the kit with the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens is yours for $3749 (Amazon | B&H). That’s just $250 more than the price the 5D Mark III body only option was sold when the camera was introduced (6 months ago). Crazy!

What about the Canon EOS 5D Mark II? The price is still down to $1,699 for the body only (Amazon | B&H) and $2,499 for the kit with the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens (Amazon | B&H). I don’t really expect other significant price drops for the EOS 5D Mark II in the near future. But then, who knows.

These are all “official” prices, and it could be hard to find better options even on eBay. I wonder how much the EOS 5D Mark III will cost in April 2013, when Canon will release an important firmware update for it.

 

Canon Files Another Patent For Phase Detection Auto-Focus

Canon Files Another Patent For Phase Detection Auto-Focus

I reported about two similar patents filed by Canon in the past (here and here). Now Canon files another patent for phase detection Auto-Focus, explicitly referring to phase-detection AF for a camera with “removable lenses”.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides an image- pickup apparatus in which a focus detecting pixel is arranged in a part of an image sensor to perform focus detection based on the phase difference detection method. With this arrangement, it is possible to reduce the frequency of lens driving upon focusing while preventing a hunting phenomenon upon focusing.

The image-pickup apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention capable of mounting a removable lens unit with an image-pickup optical system including a focus lens thereon,

comprises: an image sensor in which an image-pickup pixel to receive a light beam passed through an exit pupil of the image-pickup optical system and a focus detecting pixel to receive a light beam passed through the exit pupil, partially shielded, of the image-pickup optical system are arrayed; focus detection means for detecting a shift amount of the focus lens from a focus position based on a phase difference in an output signal from the focus detecting pixel; and acquisition means for acquiring ray vignetting information of the image-pickup optical system, wherein, when a position detection resolution of the focus lens is lower than a drive resolution of the focus lens, the focus detection means detects the shift amount of the focus lens from the focus position using the ray vignetting information in a predetermined position of the focus lens specified based on information from the lens unit.

Could this be the patent for a new method to get phase-detection AF? Maybe it is for Canon’s next, pro-oriented mirrorless camera.

[via freepatentsonline]

Remains of the Day