142 replies to this topic

[meister]

Maybe some rubber cement would do the trick? :-)

Another possibility, Why pay more...

Edited by meister, 30 October 2008 - 06:53 AM.

[Tjsnapper]

Another possibility, Why pay more...

[Viz'art]

Some say the 15mm is still the best U/W lense ever made and most of them are just collecting dust.

Unfortunatly the lens was optimised for film and I seriously doubt it would yeld the same level of quality with a demanding hi res full frame sensor.

[bertschb]

Does anybody have any news/rumors about when Ikelite might have their 5DII housing ready?

[Drew]

I'm not a weather sealing expert; anyone have any idea on how Canon pro weather sealing compares to Nikon? Does Canon have some super pro weather sealing beyond Nikon? As far as I know Nikon tends to have similar weather sealing on their higher end prosumer cameras like D700 and D300 as the D2x / D3. Is that correct.

Jeff, Canon extends the environment sealing to the newer L lenses which protect the system more completely than Nikon. As one benchmark, the 1D series and the newer L lenses (listed in a previous post) can handle rain up to 10"/hr. Thom Hogan once told me the figure for the Nikon D2X was like 1"/hr, but I forget if it's with lense on or the body alone. I do know that Nikon lenses do not have the same extensive environment sealing as the Canon L series. However, Canon is VERY selective on how to treat water damage while under warranty. My then new 24-70 L AF stopped working after it was exposed to heavy dew/condensation in South America. Canon refused to fix it. My IS on the 70-200 also became wonky after being dunked in a river with the 1D2. Repaired without question by CPS. YMMV

[Paul Kay]

Some say the 15mm is still the best U/W lense ever made and most of them are just collecting dust.

Don't you think that this statement is a bit of a contradiction in itself?

But seriously, its a very old design now and I doubt that a well set up dome and good prime will produce substantially different image quality underwater for the same FoV.

[Drew]

It seems with the ¥ going so strong, the camera may be selling at a higher MSRP. Canon Canada has raised prices from CAN$2799 to 3099. It'll be interesting to see if they do raise prices elsewhere and how it'll affect orders.

[Drew]

Canon Japan and Australia acknowledges the black dot issues on their website. Seems they have learnt about responding to customer complaints quickly. Wonder why no one caught it in the preproduction phase?
Canon Japan translated

Canon Australia

[bertschb]

[quote name='Drew' date='Dec 19 2008, 08:02 AM' post='194598']
Wonder why no one caught it in the preproduction phase?

I think it's because it's difficult to reproduce and see. I've taken several hundred shots with my 5D Mark II in various conditions and I just don't see the dots. I'm not saying they aren't there....I just haven't noticed them.

[StephenFrink]

Canon Japan and Australia acknowledges the black dot issues on their website. Seems they have learnt about responding to customer complaints quickly. Wonder why no one caught it in the preproduction phase?
Canon Japan translated

Canon Australia

I took delivery of a Canon 5D MKII Christmas Eve. In the spirit of the holidays, and with curiosity about the "'black dot issue" I took this picture of a tree ornament.


I realized there would be lights in the background, the exact kind of pinpoint light sources that the Internet seems to be abuzz with. A perfect test for black dots. Here are screengrabs of a couple of different lights at 100%.


and


These were shot in RAW (ISO 400), and I can't replicate the problem. Seems much consternation about very little, as far as I can tell. Very nice camera, and I'm looking forward to the arrival of my Seacam 5D MKII housing in February. The first production housings will likely be shown at upcoming BOOT show.

Edited by StephenFrink, 26 December 2008 - 08:09 AM.

[Drew]

Stephen
You need to boost ISO to 1600-6400 to see it manifest. I've found it on mine.

[StephenFrink]

Stephen
You need to boost ISO to 1600-6400 to see it manifest. I've found it on mine.

Drew - I don't doubt you see what you see, but I still can't replicate, even at higher ISO. The tests below are screengrabs at 100% of the same bulb, in the same Christmas tree setup above. Please note that camera was not tripod mounted so there is crop variability between the two cameras, but just as a general ballpark comparison I did a similar shot with both 1DsMKIII and 5DMKII.

Here is the 5DMKII at 1600 ISO:


Here is the Canon 1DsMKIII, also at ISO 1600:


And finally, here is the Canon 5DMKII at ISO 6400:

I can't speculate on what others are seeing, but my camera seems just fine, and performs very favorably when compared directly against the 1DsMKIII for this particular "black-dot" issue.

For more detail on the specific images, go to http://stephenfrink....dot-or-not.html and click any of the shots to enlarge.

Edited by StephenFrink, 25 December 2008 - 07:46 PM.

[Drew]

Hehe Stephen. It's not that big a deal really. I'm just annoyed they didn't catch it in the QC before launching. You'd think with so many complaints it must've been seen by someone.
Have you tried 3200 or 6400? It's more pronounced then.... if not... don't leave your camera lying around with a bunch of 5D2s. It may be "suddenly" manifest

[StephenFrink]

Have you tried 3200 or 6400? It's more pronounced then.... if not... don't leave your camera lying around with a bunch of 5D2s. It may be "suddenly" manifest

Yeah, tried 5DII at 2000, 2500, 3200, and 6400. No sign of black dotting. I just did the 1600 comparison with 1DsMKIII because that's as high as I could go with MKIII. But I did try 5DII all the way to 6400.

I'm amazed at the performance they've packed into a camera at such a modest price point.

[Drew]

Canon has released firmware to rectify the banding and black dot issues.
http://web.canon.jp/...2/firmware.html

Now DPP and PSE software to handle the issue is here:

http://tinyurl.com/669dlq

[photovan]

Canon has released firmware to rectify the banding and black dot issues. ...

Done... not that I'd seen a problem ... now just hoping there's no bug in the update that crashes my camera.
For those interested, I've checked and Canon failed to add all our other wants.. 25p, manual control etc etc to the firmware update... oh well

[Drew]

Errr don't hold your breath. They are not going to hurt their own video camera sales until the competition forces them to. I also think the Digic processors aren't fast enough for broadcast HD... yet.

[hyptest]

Errr don't hold your breath. They are not going to hurt their own video camera sales until the competition forces them to. I also think the Digic processors aren't fast enough for broadcast HD... yet.

Huh? The 5DII does 30fps 1080p video. That's more than broadcast HD... I'd definitely agree that for many other reasons it's not an all-around replacement for a video camera in all cases, but processing speed doesn't seem like one of them.

[Drew]

Hyptest, the resolution is 1920x1080 and it is 30P. However, look at the vectorscope and artifacting/macro blocking and it won't pass broadcast standards for principal capture for many docos and such. The Digic IV processor is limited in processing power to extract great video without cutting some corners in compression. Reality TV and ENG it'll pass (except the CMOS rolling shutter wobble will probably keep people for using it as a run and gunner) but not much more I don't think. For web, it's perfect.

[TheRealDrew]

Hyptest, the resolution is 1920x1080 and it is 30P. However, look at the vectorscope and artifacting/macro blocking and it won't pass broadcast standards for principal capture for many docos and such. The Digic IV processor is limited in processing power to extract great video without cutting some corners in compression. Reality TV and ENG it'll pass (except the CMOS rolling shutter wobble will probably keep people for using it as a run and gunner) but not much more I don't think. For web, it's perfect.

Interesting. My 30D is out for shutter repair and I am thinking of grabbing a 50D. Need to take stills and video and will not have alot of room to carry things. Was going to take a small Sony HDV camera (older model-HC-3) and the still camera, with some lenses 10-22mm, Tokina 18-250. None of this is for broadcast, but it is beginning to sound like the 5D with the Kit lens may be able to do the same thing and probably does a better job on video at this point that the older Sony...I may have missed it in the thread, but how does the audio stand-up? Probably as well as the Sony I would gather?