GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

A rather strange piece of news comes to us from Canon. If you have either the EOS 7D or 5D Mark II, you can send it off to Canon and get a brand new mode-dial. Why? Because this one locks in place, requiring you to push a central button to turn it.

Presumably Canon has received enough complaints from users that it deems this a worthwhile upgrade. I have used both cameras briefly and never thought that the mode-dial was particularly loose. Perhaps that’s something that worsens with time?

Even odder is that this upgrade will cost you $100, which seems steep for something that Canon seems to see as a fix for a design flaw. So if you’re the kind of person who can’t glance down to check what mode your camera is in, and if you don’t mind being without your SLR for what will presumably be a few weeks, then go ahead. Canon will be happy to have some of your money.

Slippery Knob upgrade page [Canon]

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You may remember that last month, Canon’s flagship G12 compact camera was leaked in an accidentally published CNET review. Now, over three weeks later, the same camera is officially official.

One of the annoying things about Canon is the artificial hobbling of features to make its cameras fit into the product line hierarchy. The cameras all use the same processing chips (currently the DIGIC 4), but only have a subset of features switched on. All manufacturers do this, but the G-series has been a particularly bad example: After the G9, released back in 2007, Canon switched off hi-def video in its top-of-the-range compact. Why? Nobody knows.

Now it’s back, and the G12 will shoot 720p video at 24fps. The camera keeps its sensor at a sensible ten megapixels and will shoot up to ISO3200. The rear 2.8-inch LCD has a rather pedestrian 461,000 dots, then optical zoom runs from 28mm to 140mm (35mm equivalent) and the aperture ranges from a fairly wide 2.8 to 4.5.

Mercifully, Canon’s other additions are also useful to the serious photographer. Instead of a slew of gimmicky extras (cough Samsung NX100 cough), Canon has added an EOS SLR-style front control dial, hybrid image-stabilization (which works in multiple planes) and multiple aspect-ratios, so you can shoot wide-screen or square pictures in-camera. These come in addition to the already popular manual control knobs.

The G12 is a very solid (literally) update to the G11, although now it has some serious competition in the form of Nikon’s almost identical P7000. That is, of course, great for us buyers. The G12 costs $500.

G12 product page [Canon]

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In what’s a sure sign that the megapixel race in cameras is out of control, Canon has announced that it has developed a 120-megapixel image sensor.

That’s 13,280 x 9,184 pixels packed into an area that’s less than 29 millimeters or 1.4 inches. It’s the highest level of resolution in a sensor of its size, says Canon.

Most cameras today used either a CCD (charge-coupled device) sensor or a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) sensor. Canon’s latest innovation is for a CMOS sensor.

The 120-megapixel sensor is about 7.5 times larger and offers a 2.4-fold improvement in resolution over Canon’s highest comparable commercial sensor. Canon’s highest-resolution commercial CMOS sensor is currently the EOS-1Ds Mark III and EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR cameras. That sensor incorporates approximately 21.1 million pixels.

Cramming more pixels into a sensor is not necessarily indicative of the quality of the photos. Many consumers think more megapixels in a camera means better photos. But sometimes packing more light-sensitive pixels on a tiny sensor can result in greater noise in the photos. Cameras also require strong processing capabilities to take all the data from the sensors and translate into a beautiful picture.

With most CMOS sensors, camera makers use parallel processing to read data at high pixel counts. But that has to be balanced against problems such as signal delays and deviations in timing, all of which can affect image quality.

Canon has modified the method to control the readout circuit timing to get about 9.5 frames per second. This can support continuous shooting of ultra-high-resolution images, says Canon.

The newly developed CMOS sensor also includes full HD video (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) output capability.

For now, the 120-megapixel sensor is a proof-of-concept. It’s an engineering flight of fancy but it shows camera makers are trying to find ways to pack in greater capability into increasingly smaller sensors.

Photo: CMOS sensor/Canon

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It’s clearly the season for new camera gear, and today it’s Canon’s turn in the spotlight. Along with a few new lenses comes the EOS 60D, a “replacement” for the two-year-old 50D. Those looking to upgrade from their 50D should look elsewhere, though, perhaps to the 7D, as this new camera is more for consumers than enthusiastic amateurs.

The magnesium body of the 50D is now plastic, and the 60D uses SD-cards instead of Compact Flash. It also gets a slew of gimmicky image processing features (Toy Camera, anyone?) and the obligatory video capabilities.

In fact, video seems to be what this camera was made for. The rear screen is the pop-out, tilt-and-swivel type, Canon’s first on an SLR, and has the over a million dots of resolution (or around 330,000-pixels). Video is shot at varying sizes and speeds. 1080p is available at 24p, 25p or 30p frame rates. Drop to 720p resolution and you can shoot at up to 60fps. Whatever picture you choose, you get full manual control, including sound with 64 audio-levels.

The 18MP sensor (like the LCD panel) is the same as that found in the 550D (or Rebel T2i), the AF system comes from the old 50D and the 63-zone exposure meter comes from the 7D. It’s almost like the Canon engineers just picked through a shelf of existing parts and snapped them together like Lego, producing what seems like a pretty sweet-looking camera.

The 60D will go on sale in September for $1,100 body-only, or as part of a $1,400 kit with a 18-135mm lens.

EOS 60D product page [Canon]

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Not to be outdone by today’s announcements from Nikon, Canon also has a few new cameras out, and one of them is an update to a Wired.com favorite, the S90. The new model is called the S95, and is little more than an incremental upgrade to its low-light-shooting predecessor.

Thankfully, the S95 has kept all that was good about the S90. It has the same large-ish sensor, the same sharp, 3-inch (and 461,000-dot) LCD screen, the same 2.0-4.9 28-105mm (equivalent) lens and the same control-wheel surrounding that lens.

The biggest new feature is 720p high-def video, up from the rather poor 640 x 480 resolution of old. That video is recorded at 24-fps in H.264 MOV format. It also gains “Hybrid IS”, an image stabilization system that works in more directions, and you can now pop in a high-capacity SDXC memory-card.

Apart from a few stylistic tweaks, that’s about it. If you, like many Wired staffers, already bought the S90 then you have no reason to upgrade. It’ll still take great shots, and still uses the big sensor found in the high-end G11. If you are in the market for a pocketable $400 compact, you should check this one out.

S95 press release [Canon]

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Accessory maker Novoflex has a new lens adapter that will let you use Nikon F-mount lenses on Canon EOS bodies. It adds one big extra over previous versions: you get a ring to control aperture on Nikon G-lenses (those without an aperture ring.)

One of the great things about the little mirrorless cameras like the Panasonic G-series, the Olympus Pens and the Sony NEXes is that their currently meager lens line-up can be supplemented by other lenses old and new, just by using an adapter. SLRs, on the other hand, are pretty much stuck with the glass that was made for them.

An adapter has a thickness, and when you put one on a lens, you move that lens away from the film (or sensor). This stops the lens focusing at infinity (and will also allow it to focus a little closer). Thus, mounting a Canon lens on a Nikon body doesn’t work so well. The mirrorless cameras already have a lot of extra space to spare, so the adapters have room to fit. Novoflex has managed to get this ring thin enough not to cause focus problems.

The new EOS/NIK-NT adapter has an integrated aperture ring so that you can still set the hole-size. As G-series lenses are controlled entirely by electronics in the camera body, they need this extra to work on a Canon camera. Thus, auto-exposure (aperture priority) will work by actually stopping down the lens. Focus will still be manual, although infinity focus is maintained. If you have lenses with aperture rings, another adapter is available.

The problem is that there are plenty of great lenses for both Canon and Nikon, so we wonder why you’d need this adapter. For quick, fun experiments it will be great, but otherwise its hard to see the point. Especially when you consider the price, a rather odd $292.99.

Novoflex Adapter Finder [Novoflex via Photography Bay]

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