When will Canon replace its 11.1 megapix EOS-1Ds with something better?

The EOS-1Ds is a year or two old by now, so I am concerned about
dropping $7500 on it because I think it is due for a replacement.
Does anyone have any ideas about when the next one will come out?

I broke my old SLR so I am trying to decide between the EOS-1Ds now or
a cheaper film SLR to get my by until the next biggy comes out. I
like wide angle shots with my fisheye so I really don't want to go
with a digital without a 1-1 ratio with the zoom compared to 35mm
film.

Thanks for your ideas and speculations.

Chad

 

I understand your concern, especially with Canon revamping most of its DSLR
line. I really hope they do something great (and cheaper) even though I own
Nikon stuff and would prefer not to switch (for economic reasons). I'd just
like to see Canon give Nikon a good, swift kick in the direction of an
affordable 1X sensor DSLR. (I like my D70 but can't wait until I can
finally get the camera I really want.)

 

From: (Chad Little)

I bought a 1Ds about 3 weeks ago, so I'm guessing Canon will announce a new and
vastly improved model with significantly more pixels, deeper buffer, higher fps
and auto-sensor cleaning at a greatly reduced price any day now

Bill

 

Bill,

If Canon does come out with a 1ds killer soon, I will be glad to give
your old 1ds a happy home here

Steve

 

Nikon's pretty public about believing in the 1.5x sensor and not planning a
1x sensor. Honestly, I'd be pretty pissed, since I now have Nikon glass
that won't do a full image on a 1x sensor.

Tom

 

That's why I intend to stay away from the DX glass for a while. If they do
bring out a full frame sensor, then I'm OK, and if they don't then the price
of DX lenses secondhand should be lower in a year or so.

 

SNIP

Thanks! ;-)

Bart

P.S. Photokina at the end of September seems a good moment to announce both
an 8MP EOS 3 based model, and a successor for the 1Ds.

 

Greece is rumoured to have some silly buggers running around
and stuff soon...

--
Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd.,
+61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda.
West Australia 6076
comp.os.vms,- The Older, Grumpier Slashdot
Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked.
EPIC, The Architecture of the future, always has been, always will be.

 

And maybe we will get the eyed-controlled
auto focus at last.

Wim

 

Not until another manufacturer has a viable counterpart to the 1Ds.
The Kodak full-frame sensor DSLR reportedly lacks image quality. The
Contax full-frame sensor DSLR lacks system support. So Canon has full
reign over the high-end DSLR market. And, since the 1Ds gives
outstanding image quality (I've seen first-hand samples) with great
system support at a price reasonable for its place in the line-up, why
would Canon need to update it?

<snip>

You can spend your whole life waiting for the next best thing, or you
can enjoy the current best thing now. When I bought my 10D last
August, several of my gear-head friends said that I should wait for
the 8MP Canon EOS 3-based DSLR that was "sure to be annonced at
Photokina next month". I've made thousands of images with my 10D, and
there is still no EOS 3D on the market.

Michael

 

I know they said that...but, I'm hoping they'll go wherever the market
forces kick them. If I thought there was no hope, I'd sell all my Nikons
and Nikon glass, and take a fresh, unencumbered look at what to buy.

 

Not until another manufacturer has a viable counterpart to the 1Ds.

Kodak has revamped their 1X sensor offering.

I thought Contax's had been discontinued(?).

The reason Canon would (or would be tempted to) update it is that it is
primarily an electronic product...i.e., many improvements could be firmware
(algorithms...a "no cost" to Canon improvement), economies from a maturing
technology (lower cost for Canon), Moore's Law as it applies to advancing
hardware technologies (density/cost), etc. Wouldn't it be pretty tempting
to make the next generation when you don't have to just to seal your
position as a leader and keep the wanna-be companies out of the market?

 

I'd have to agree, with the R&D money that went into the extreme wide zooms
to make up for the 1.5 sensor, Nikon would have to be pretty silly to
suddenly about face and go the full size sensor route.

 

The obvious solution is to support both formats. A smaller, cheaper sensor
for the part of the market that cares about low prices and a full size sensor
for the people who need all the resolution they can get.

The question is what Nikon is going to do about the 1Ds. Can they provide the
same performance on a smaller sensor.

 

It is not all that obvious that Moore's Law applies to sensors.

 

The 1Ds is a dinosaur, it uses 386 to 486 level fabrication in its
horrendously low resolution senor. At 2.76MP before interpolation to
11.1M output pixels, it isn't competitive with pro DSLRs today. Try
the $620 SD9 with 3.43/13.72MP (non-interpolated/interpolated) instead
of the aged 2.76/11.1MP (non-i/i) Canon 1Ds. The new Simga SD10 uses
Pentium4-level CMOS fabrication, and it has a lot less noise at ISO
800 than the ancient Canon CMOS's have at ISO 100. See...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmasd10/page13.asp

 

Also, see the interpolated old 1Ds sensor get creamed here...

http://www.outbackphoto.com/artofraw/raw_05/essay.html

 

You mean this same Field-of-View comparison:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bvdwolf/main/downloads/SD-9_identical_FoV_to_1Ds.jpg
Also consider that the original comparison was designed to "fool" the 1Ds
with an unlikely color combination, and that the 1Ds image was low-pass
filtered to almost half the sampling resolution, whereas the Sigma wasn't,
resulting in horrible aliasing artifacts, especially noticable when output
is 5x7in or larger.

And for a more meaningful resolution comparison, compare:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/orig.asp?/reviews/samples/rescharts/sigma_sd9.jpg
which starts to misrepresent the finer lines above the 12 marker (even
counts only 4 or 5 black lines at the 20 marker instead of 9), with:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/samples/rescharts/canon_eos1ds.jpg which has
little trouble resolving the finest detail at the 20 marker (we need more
detailed test cards for this camera), and the Fuji S2 at 12MP output setting
on the same page http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1ds/page21.asp also
reaches a reasonable 18+ mark.

Bart

 

I have to agree with you that it is an unknown at this point...I should have
identified it as wishful conjecture on my part. Not baseless but
insufficient evidence is in at this point to tell for sure.

 

Then they have abandoned the professional market (once again). But it's not
easy to come up with a full-frame sensor. Expect Canon to milk that for all
it's worth.

We'll probably see a prosumer full frame model from Canon for $2500 or so,
by the end of this year.

I doubt if they'll drop the 1Ds price by much since there is no competition
for it. The Sigma-Kodak/Canon 14Mp will probably suffer from the same
problems as the Nikon-Kodak 14Mp.