Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Introduction

Canon has released their new Canon EOS-1D Mark III. The 1D family has always been reputable for its high frame per second (fps) speed and also using the very special APS-H sensor giving a 1.3x Field Of View (FOV) crop. The camera is what I regard as a big step forward and might increase Canon’s share of the high fps professional market if Nikon, the only other main competitor in this price range, fails to respond.

Improvements

1. Sensor: 10mp APS-H CMOS sensor giving FOV 1.3x. The previous generation, the 1D Mark II, has already an impressive megapixel count of 8mp. This is not be a significant step up in resolution, but something worth noting. Hopefully, it uses a similar technology as the Canon 400D which apparently was able to achieve a higher pitch density while keeping noise in control.

2. FPS. While 8fps of the 1D Mark II N (8mp) was impressive, it was matched by competition, including the Nikon D2Hs (4mp) and Nikon D2Xs (12mp, but can achieve 8fps only at 6.8mp, FOV2.0x crop mode), all achieving 8fps. The 1D Mark III beats all competition, including its predecessor the 1D Mark II N, in fps, achieving a record high of 10fps. This is particularly significant since it not only beats competition with a high fps but at the same time achieving a higher megapixel count. This lays more strain on the processor and buffer, which has to handle more data per second then previous generations.

3. “Dual core” like Digic III processing. Canon has reached the dual core age by using 2 Digic III processors in the 1D Mark III. I believe this is important in allowing the 1D Mark III to achieve 10fps at 10mp. By simple calculations: 10 X 10 = 100mp/s, we can see that the 1D Mark III is able to handle 100mp worth of data per second. When we compare this to the 1D Mark IIN, its predecessor, which can only do 8fps at 8mp, 8 X 8 = 64mp/s. This is a 56.25% increase in data per second! Image processing at 14 bits may be useful for post-processing, but we have to wait for reviews to see its significance.

4. Inclusion of the EOS Integrated Cleaning System. First introduced in the 400D, I believe this is a useful function for all cameras. While there are no formal tests (not that I have heard of) to determine how effective the cleaning system is, by theory it should work to a certain extent (though the extent is unknown). If effective, this will add value to the already whether sealed camera body.

5. 3.0 inch LCD. The 1D Mark III is physically huge camera when you see how “small” the 3.0 inch LCD looks on the 1D Mark III. This should be well liked as it allows users to check focus more easily.

6. Live View mode. This is a bit of a surprise, and I am not sure whether this function will be regarded highly. Live view mode first appeared on the Olympus E-330 in 26 January 2006 for DSLR (if you do not consider the Sony R1, released in 8th September 2005 as a DSLR). While both the E-330 and R1 are not considered to be a professional grade camera, this feature has made its way into the 1D Mark III. This, combined with the large 3.0 ich LCD, may prove to be an interesting feature. I prefer not to comment on whether this feature is useful or not, leaving that question to professionals to decide.

7. New 19 cross-type sensor. Not being an expert on auto focus sensors, I am not able to give a fair comment on this new addition. However, I guess that it might be faster and more accurate. Let’s wait for users and reviewers to comment instead.

8. ISO 3200 with H:6400. I think Canon didn’t push it up to ISO12800, probably because they want to keep their reputation for having low noise in DSLR for high sensitivity instead of playing with marketing. This is an insult to the Olympus FE-250, which holds the record for the highest ISO sensitivity of ISO10000, which is either called marketing joke or a miracle (lets wait for reviews…). Lets hope noise will be lowered (or at least maintained, since megapixels as gone up from 8p to 10mp) since Canon seemed to be capable of doing so seeing that the 400D has an smaller sensor pitch but controls noise well.

9. Bigger, brighter viewfinder. No specification but this is always something good. Lets wait for users and reviews to comment on whether the difference is significant or not.

10. Increased shutter count by 50% to 300 000. This is hard to test (no one is going to waste time and money to test this). This is of course a welcomed feature, but then, do people exhaust their camera’s shutter life often? Maybe for full time sport professionals, so I will leave this point as such.

11. Warning sound and alarm message on LCD when memory card door is opened instead of wiping clean the buffer and powering down the camera. This is a major complain by certain people especially Mr Phil Askey of dpreview.com. Apparently, he stated that in his most recent Canon DLSR review, the 400D review, that the issue of Canon DSLR powering down and cleaning the buffer along with that, causing valuable image to be lost (reference 2), has been around since Canon started producing their own first DSLR, the D30 (not 30D) (reference 3), in October 2002 (reference 4).

12. Price of USD 3999 (the other prices mentioned later are all street prices I got from dpreview.com and not retail price). This is cheaper from competition, where the Nikon D2Xs costs USD4234 (reference 5) at the point of writing. The D2Xs has 12mp at 5fps, and can achieve 8fps only at 6.8mp in a special mode where the FOV crop becomes 2.0x. The other competitor is the Nikon D2Hs, at a price of USD2987 (reference 6) at the point of writing. However, the D2Hs only has 4mp (versus 10mp of the 1D Mark III), which means that the 1D Mark III can give you possibly significant higher resolution. Last but not least, the 1D Mark II N is a competitor to the new 1D Mark III. At a price of USD3696 (reference 7) at the point of writing, this might not pose a huge threat to professsionals who might be upgrading. New buyers might spend a bit more cash to get the ID Mark III. Of course, USD 3999 for the ID Mark III is the retail price and not the street price and hence might be even closer to the ID Mark II N. However, the prices for the ID Mark II N might fall as soon as the ID Mark III starts delivering.

Conclusion

Looks like Nikon has met a strong competitor in the area of professional cameras requiring high fps (e.g. in sports). Nikon might loses even more potential customers too seeing that the ID Mark III offers many more features than its only D2Xs lower price. Nikon’s D2Hs sales might also be affected seeing that mp gap has widened. Let’s wait and see if Nikon (or any other manufacturer) is able to give a strong response, though I think that this is not likely in the near future as the D2Xs is a relatively new model for Nikon and Nikon having a slow production cycle. It is more likely to think that Canon is going dominate this section fo the market for some years to come. And the competition begins!

Reference
Information from:
1. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022208canoneos1dmarkiii.asp
2. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/page5.asp
3. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canond30/page4.asp
4. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canond30/
5. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_d2xs.asp
6. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_d2hs.asp
7. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos1dmkiin.asp

(Sorry for not comment on the actual day of announcement/release as I was too busy)

Table showing the differences and similarities between IP1/2, IP3/4 and JC1/2

Alright, so the title sounds a bit scientific, but that is fine, since it gets the message across. Inspiration comes from dpreview.com, where they compare specifications of similar cameras.

Table showing the differences and similarities between IP1/2, IP3/4 and JC1/2

Point of comparison	IP1/2	IP3/4	JC1/2	Remarks
Free lockers	Yes	No	No	Lockers cost $10
Fixed classrooms	Yes	No	No	–
Type of teachers	Selected	Any	Any	–
Sponsership for overseas trip	Yes	Yes	No	$650 as of writing
Teaching style	Classroom	Lecture-Tutorial	Lecture-Tutorial	–
Students	IP only	IP only for popular subject combinations. Others: IP and mainstream mixed	IP only for popular subject combinations. Others: IP and mainstream mixed	–
IP-only overseas trip	Yes	No	NA	–
Number of Chinese scholars	4-5	No limit/restrictions	No limit/restrictions	–
Size of class	~30	Range from less than 10 for Art classes and more than 20 for science classes	from less than 10 for Art classes and more than 20 for science classes	Depends on subject combination
Helmsman Programme	Yes	Yes	No	–
Amount of money paid for Helmsman Programme	No	Yes ($250 this year)	NA	–
Photocopying fees	No	Yes	Yes	–
Students council voting	IP1/2 students can only vote for IP councillors	Any non IP1/2 councillors	Any non IP1/2 councillors	IP1/2 have to listen to speeches by JC/IP3/4 councillors though they cannot vote

Note: This is NOT a compare and constrast table so dont be so caught up with me using “Yes” and “No”.
Note 2: Will update if there is any more significant differences

O Level Results is released today! Time for some statistics.

O level results for the people who are born on 1990 in Singapore is released today (9th February 2007)! Since my school is an IP school, (Integrated Programme not Internet Protocol) the only subjects that you are allowed to take is your mother tougue and your third language (French/German/Japanese).

Out of the 118 students, 10 are Indians (7 taking Tamil, 3 taking some other Indian language)and 2 are Malays. that gives us 106 students who are chinese. Out of these 106 students, 17 are not taking Higher Chinese, and hence, we have 89 students taking Higher Chinese. Out of this 89 students, 19 are from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), hence there are 70 Singaporeans taking High Chinese. Out of these 70 Singaporeans, 2 are Permenent Residents (PR), hence there are only 68 taking Higher Chinese are Singapore Citizens .

A summary:

Indians: 10 (7 taking Tamil, 3 taking some other Indian language)
Malays: 2
Chinese: 106
Singapore Citizens: 68
Singapore PRs: 2
PRC Scholars: 19
Not taking Higher Chinese: 17
Total: 118

The national average for Higher Chinese is 49% distinctions (A1 and A2), which our teachers were delighted that we had achieved an average of 50.6%, which is above the national average!

Are you sure? So 50.6% of 89 had distinctions?

50.6% of 89 gives 45 students. In other words, 45 out of 89 students got a distinction for their Higher Chinese. Apparently, if my sources of information are not wrong, there is only 1 PRC student that did not get distinction (even though this is not a grounded statistics, it is quite logical that the other PRC students shold get distinctions as they are good in their chinese). Hence, removing them, we have 70 Singapore students of which 27 have a distinction. Of the 2 Singapore PR we have, both got a distinction (even though this is what I got from asking around, it is quite logical since both PRs have their roots in the PRC). Hence, removing them, what we have is 68 Singapore citizens of which only 25 have distinctions!

Hence, the percentage of Singapore citizens who achieved distinction is approximately 36.8%. This is far below the cohort average of 50.6% and the national average of 49%. It is worth noting that the national average takes into account PRC students and PR. However, unlike in our school, where 19 out of the 89 chinese students are PRCs, in other words, 21% are PRCs, most other schools have a much less proportion of them (this is an assumption that has no available statistics that can be used for backing, but from an educated observation that PRCs often occupy at most 1 class in 10 out of schools that have PRCs.). Given that we remove PRCs and PRs from the calculations of the national average, I believe that the the average of 36.8% of distinctions for Singapore Citizens is not above the national average. (It is also worth noting that while 36.8% sounds good, only 4 Singapore Citizens (from what I gathered, not a grounded statistics too) got an A1. The rest of the Singapore Citizens got only an A2. This means that 6% of Singapore Citizens got an A1 while the other 94% got an A2.)

There are some assumptions, which would not permit for a valid conclusion to be made. What I hope, instead, is that we should not be too carried away by the fact that our school is above the national average. Instead, we should be more concerned that the Singapore Citizens in our school, might be slightly below, if not insignificantly above, the national average.

(By the way, please help correct any wrong data here, I am sure that there are plenty….)

Update 10/02/07: There are 3 students not taking chinese, malay or tamil, but some other Indian language. Hence all affected calculations are redone.

Speaker’s Corner, Singapore

There is a Speaker’s Corner in Singapore at Hong Lim park.

After searching on the internet for the past 10-20 minutes, I have finally found out how to register to speak in the speaker’s corner.

http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=416&type=4&root=0&parent=0&cat=0&mode=arc

Sounds simple enough, anyone interested?

Evolution???

Recently, in our school, a Koi from our Koi pond appeared on the edge of the pond (outside the water). Unless it is some evil prank, where somebody actually caught the Koi and left it in the die to die, this is indeed a mysterious death. How did the fish come out of its pond? Did it jump out? Of course, the most common guess would be that it jumped out, but then doesnt that make you wonder why they have so much strength?

Our biology lecturer gave a good explanation: the fish jumped out of the water in an attempt to evolve… (ok, he was just kidding, but I think this is worth a thought)