CANON PRICE INCREASES

The photography forums have had posts here and there noting dealers’ comments about pending price increases this spring for the United States and Canada. The U.S. dollar has been the butt of many jokes lately, and now it looks consumers will pay the price. Rob Galbrath posted (original link) -

1. Canon USA is in the process of informing U.S. dealers about upcoming price increases on a broad range of its camera gear. Starting May 1, 2008, dealers will pay 3-5% more to Canon for most Canon EF lenses and all Canon EOS and PowerShot accessories (plus all Canon binoculars too). The dealer net on Canon digital SLRs is unchanged.
   

2. The price jump is attributed to "rising fuel prices" and "unfavorable exchange rates," says an April 24, 2008 letter from Canon USA to its network of retailers. Canon Canada is also raising the dealer net on a similar range of camera products, starting May 5, 2008.
   

3. These price changes may or may not be occurring in other world regions; each Canon sales company makes these types of price adjustments independently.
   

HOW WILL THESE PRICE CHANGES IMPACT US?

After looking at some pictures taken with the Contax N 100mm F2.8 Makro-Sonnar on a Canon 1Ds Mark II compared to those taken on a Mamiya 645AFD II & Phase One P25, I was pretty impressed with the Contax N - click here for the review. Yes, the Phase One P25 beat the Canon 1Ds Mark II in terms of detail and resolution, but the pictures from the Contax N 100mm Makro-Sonnar have a nice look.

Last summer (2007) the Contax N 100mm cost ~$900 + shipping, then shipping up to Vancouver Canada, $400’ish for conversion and then shipping back. It was an expensive process - about $1400 in total. Looking at the pictures, the thought of another Contax N 100mm with the 1Ds Mark III could be good pairing. Ten seconds later I dismissed the thought due to the cost.

The Canon 135L (click here to the read review) had always done a fine job with product shots too - and is much cheaper, or so I thought. Tonight the Canon 135L is $939 at B&H. Two years ago the 135L was $770’ish lens after rebate(s), so the notion of paying $940 plus shipping is unsettling to say the least. Meanwhile a Contax N 100mm F2.8 Makro-Sonnar just sold on Ebay for $749, so for about $1200 I could have another Contax Makro-Sonnar.  Hmmm...

Canon is not alone in their price increases. Zeiss raised their prices couple months. Leica raises prices just for the fun of it. Mamiya increased prices too. Sadly, raising prices is par for the course right now. As the prices of new lenses go up, used prices on alternative manual focus lenses look better and better. So, are the alternative lenses going to have a nice summertime market rally?

FIRMWARE UPDATED 1.1.2 FOR THE CANON 1Ds MARK III

On April 29, 2008 Canon released a firmware update (version 1.1.2) for the 1Ds Mark III. This update enables the joystick to select any of the 19 selectable auto focus points. The option is available under Custom Function 9 in the auto focus custom functions. There are also a couple other options to swap buttons for other functions. The firmware updated can be downloaded from Canon’s website - click here. Canon also published a PDF file explaining the updates - click here.

Firmware v1.1.2 is working fine with my 1Ds Mark III. Being able to select the any of the 19 AF points at any time with a simple push on the joystick is a big improvement. This how Canon should have released the 1Ds Mark III in the first place.

Selecting the auto-focus points with joy stick works okay. There is still a trial and error element to it because the joy stick might go on a diagonal instead of going straight up or across as intended. If holding the 1Ds Mark III in portrait orientation, I doubt any human thumb could make the stretch to the joy stick. So the enabling the AF point selection via the joy stick is good, but still, the AF point selection on the Mark III’s could be better - such as enabling ALL 45 points. This way the selection travel would be a simple AF point to AF point movement. Right now the “cursor” may jump 2 or 3 points, so it is not really clear what the next available AF point is. And the wheel jockeying is ridiculous.

To close out today’s entry, some pictures to show the 1Ds Mark III’s color - which I am beginning to think may be one of its best attributes.