PMA 2009

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.

Canon's new EF800mm F/5.6L IS USM lens will set you back a cool $12,000 when it hits stores this May.

(Credit: Canon)

While prototypes were on display at the PhotoPlus Expo last fall, Canon has finally made the massive EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM and EF200mm f/2L IS USM lenses a reality. Both lenses carry Canon's L moniker and sport the putty colored finish that demark the cream of Canon's crop. Both lenses include Canon's optical image stabilization, as well as fluorite and UD (ultra low dispersion) lens elements to combat chromatic aberration, and includes moisture and dust resistant seals.

Compared to Canon's old EF200 f/1.8L USM, the new EF200 f/2 sacrifices a negligible amount of its maximum aperture while adding optical image stabilization. For such a long lens, it has an impressive close-focusing distance of 6.2 feet and includes a circular aperture system so that out-of-focus portions of the image should be nice and smooth.

The new EF200mm f/2L IS USM updates the classic EF200 f/1.8L USM with optical image stabilization.

(Credit: Canon)

The super tele EF800 f/5.6 IS USM looks quite large, and it certainly is, but it weighs less than Canon's EF600mm f/4L IS USM and is about the same size. Canon says that the new EF800's lightweight magnesium alloy lens barrel helps keep the weight down. Canon is also touting it as the longest focal length lens available with optical image stabilization, with the caveat that the claim is based on published competitive data as of today.

The EF200mm f/2L Is USM is expected to hit stores this April with a price tag of about $6,000, while the EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM is slated for May availability with a hefty cost of about $12,000. Start saving up now kids.

Canon's newest top Rebel boasts a 12.2MP CMOS sensor and a live view shooting mode.

(Credit: Canon)

Editor's note: This blog has been updated to reflect new information from Canon regarding the number of JPEGs the Rebel XSi can shoot in a single burst.

Canon fans looking for an update to the 5D will have to wait a little longer it seems, since the company just announced an update to the entry-level XTi as its big PMA SLR news. You shouldn't be disappointed, though, since the new Rebel XSi makes a good showing in the entry-level dSLR category. The XSi has a 12.2-megapixel APS-C size (1.6x field of view conversion factor) CMOS sensor, 14-bit A/D conversion to allow for more possible color gradations when shooting RAW, a Live View shooting mode with contrast detection autofocus so the camera doesn't have to lower the mirror to focus in that mode, and (some might say finally) a 4 percent spot meter.

A 3-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD provides a nifty screen with which to frame shots in Live View mode, though it's not quite as versatile as the articulated screens found in Panasonic's DMC-L10 or Olympus' higher-end E3. As in its predecessor, sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to ISO 1,600. I was hoping Canon would at least push that up to ISO 3,200 this time out, but since their competitors haven't pushed their entry-level SLRs that far yet, we can't hold that against Canon too much. It does say that the Digic III processor in the Rebel XSi, along with the high-ISO noise reduction inherited from the high-end EOS 1D Mark III and large microlenses over each pixel, should make for lower noise at higher ISOs when compared with previous Rebels. We'll have to wait and see once we get a review sample, though we were quite impressed with the noise profile of the 1D Mark III.

With its bigger 3-inch screen, the XSi demanded a different button layout than its predecessor, the Rebel XTi.

(Credit: Canon)

While the Rebel XSi sticks with a nine-point autofocus system with the same placement as the XTi, Canon says it's using a new AF sensor in the XSi that the company claims will improve subject detection compared with previous models. The center AF point uses a cross-type sensor that provides enhanced performance with lenses that have a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or faster. That doesn't help much with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (image stabilized) lens that comes with the kit, but if you decide to buy one of Canon's fancier lenses in the future, it may come in handy. However, lenses with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 tend to be expensive and aren't what I'd expect a Rebel XSi owner to buy, with the possible exception of specialty lenses, such as a macro. On a positive note, it is nice to see Canon include an IS lens in its entry-level kit, since some of its competitors now include sensor-shift IS in their entry-level dSLRS. It was also pleasing to see that Canon increased the viewfinder magnification to 0.87x from the XTi's 0.8x.

Soccer moms should like the fact that the Rebel XSi is the fastest Rebel to date, able to pop off 3.5 frames per second for up to 53 large/fine JPEGs or up to 6 RAW images. Strangely, that's a step up from the XTi's maximum of 27 large/fine JPEGs, but a step down from the XTi's 10 RAW frames per burst. According to Canon, this increase in JPGs comes from the Digic III processor's ability to process JPGs significantly faster than the processor found in the Rebel XTi, while the decrease in RAW images is due to the increased resolution of the XSi's sensor.

The camera also includes the same Highlight Tone Priority mode found in the 1D Mark III, which helps preserve detail in the brightest portion of a scene. Also, the XSi includes Canon's Auto Lighting Optimizer, which automatically adjusts contrast and brightness in case the image you captured isn't quite perfect. Introduced last year in the 40D, the Auto Lighting Optimizer is now available in all exposure modes and employs face detection to prevent underexposure of backlit faces. That's nice, since underexposed backlit subjects was one of Lori Grunin's gripes about the Rebel XTi.

As you might expect, there's not much room to spare inside the new Canon Rebel XSi.

(Credit: Canon)

Unfortunately, Canon didn't address one of my big gripes with the XTi-- its lack of a dedicated status LCD. Instead, the XSi sticks with the lone 3-inch screen, which doubles as a status display and automatically shuts off when you raise the camera to your eye, thanks to a sensor just below the optical viewfinder. If you're not careful when you switch lenses, you'll like that Canon kept the Integrated Cleaning System in the XSi. It shakes the sensor so that any loose dust falls away from the low-pass filter in front of the sensor and is held on an adhesive strip in the bottom of the camera.

In case that's not enough, you can have the camera map any persistent specks so the Digital Photo Pro software that comes with the camera can remove the resulting spots in your image. In case you want to risk cleaning your sensor yourself, the camera can also hold the mirror up so you can reach into the body and risk scratching the low-pass filter while you try to remove any particles.

Joining the growing number of dSLRs that record to SD instead of Compact Flash cards, the XSi will record its images to SD or higher-capacity SDHC cards. For users stepping up from a compact camera this may be convenient, though previous Rebel owners looking to step up will likely have to run out and buy some SD cards. Remaining specs are in line with the previous Rebel. For example, shutter speeds range from 30 seconds to 1/4000 second with a flash sync speed of 1/200 second and the camera employs a 35-zone TTL metering system. Canon plans to offer the Rebel XSi both as a body only ($800) and as a kit with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5/6 IS lens ($900). Both should be in stores by this April and it should be noted that the Rebel XSi will be available in silver and black finishes and Canon will also offer the BG-E5 battery grip for the new camera.