Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII, reflex da 21 milioni di pixel - [NEWS]

[MAN]

Rivolta al settore professionale e concepita, nelle intenzioni del produttore, per infastidire anche le soluzioni basate su medio formato, la terza serie delle reflex digitali full frame Canon offre un sensore da 21,1 Mpixel, 5 scatti/secondo, bi-processore Digic III , elaborazione colore a 14bit , display LCD posteriore da 3” con funzione LiveView e sistema di pulizia automatico del sensore; condivide molte nuove implementazioni tecnologiche con la nuova Canon EOS 1D MkIII già in vendita da qualche mese.

Tra le funzionalità che riteniamo essere più interessanti, oltreché lo scontato aumento di risoluzione del quale si farà -anche a sproposito- un gran parlare, è l' HighLight Tone Priority , ovverosia la possibilità di estendere il range dinamico per catturare dettaglio anche nelle zone delle alte/basse luci.

La qualità dell'immagine è infatti una delle caratteristiche fondamentali che contraddistinguono l'offerta super-professionale basata sul medio formato rispetto alla “concorrenza” in formato 35mm: la generosa dimensione del sensore e quindi la relativa grandezza delle singole celle fa in modo da avere un rapporto segnale/rumore molto favorevole con il risultato di catturare immagini prive di “grana”, soprattutto nelle zone più scure; a ciò si aggiunga la possibilità che hanno molti dorsi digitali per medio formato di catturare 14 o addirittura 16bit di dati per il colore.

Da qui si capisce come, per particolari campi d'applicazione, il medio formato sia da preferire al 35mm full frame... fin'ora.

Pur essendo certi del fatto che il regno del “645” non si possa conquistare facilmente, pensiamo che la nuova Canon 1ds MkIII di frecce ne abbia parecchie al proprio arco e crediamo che la versatilità e la velocità del sistema 35mm rispetto al MF sia uno dei punti chiave che potrebbero indurre molti professionisti se non a soppiantare almeno ad affiancare all'attrezzatura “classica” la nuova ammiraglia giapponese.

La prima foto rilasciata ufficialmente da Canon e scattata con la nuova 1Ds MkIII. Clicca qui per visualizzare l'immagine nelle sue dimensioni reali (pagina ufficiale Canon USA). A sinistra l'immagine per intero; a destra il crop al 100% dell'occhio della modella. Dati. Risoluzione: 5.616x3.744pixel ISO: 100 Scatto: 1/320sec @f1,8 Obiettivo: Canon 85mm f1,2 MkII Punto di bianco: automatico PictureStyle: Neutral (Sharpness 2)

Una cosa però vorremmo aggiungere: con oltre 60MByte occupati in memoria da un singolo file JPEG non sarà forse il caso di pensare a computer sempre più potenti, oltreché capaci?

Prezzo di circa 8.000 Euro, disponibilità intorno alla fine dell'anno ( Novembre 2007 ).

Per il resto, facciamo parlare le specifiche tecniche più importanti riportate di seguito e riprese dalla scheda ufficiale, in lingua inglese, del sito USA (in rosso le caratteristiche di maggior interesse).

Image Format

36.0 x 24.0mm ( full-frame sensor )

Sensor Type	Full-frame, high-sensitivity, high-resolution, single-plate, CMOS sensor
Pixels	Approx. 21.10 megapixels
Total Pixels	Approx. 21.90 megapixels
Memorie	CF Card Type I/II, SD/SDHC (1 slot cad.), e/o media esterni (USB v.2.0 hard drive, Canon WFT-E2A), UDMA-compliant CF/SDHC SD

Image Format	JPEG, JPEG+RAW, RAW (Canon CR2)
Processing power	Dual DiGiC III system; 14bit
File Size	JPEG/Large: Approx. (TBA) MB (5,616 x 3,744) JPEG/Medium 1: Approx. (TBA) MB (4,992 x 3,328) JPEG/Medium 2: Approx. (TBA) MB (4,080 x 2,720) JPEG/Small: Approx. (TBA) MB (2,784 x 1,856) RAW: Approx. (TBA) MB (5,616 x 3,744) sRAW: Approx. (TBA) MB (2,784 x 1,856)
Color Space	Selectable between sRGB and Adobe RGB
Interface	USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, mini-B port. NTSC/PAL for video output

Settings	Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, five Custom WB settings (1-5), user-set Color Temperature (2,500~10,000K), five Personal White Balance PC-1 to PC-5
Auto White Balance	Auto white balance, taken from imaging sensor
Personal White Balance	White balance bracketing: Three consecutive images, Up to +/- 3 levels in 1-step increments White balance shift: blue/amber bias and/or magenta/green bias +/- 9 levels; manually set by user

Viewfinder Type	Eye-level SLR with fixed pentaprism
Coverage	Approx. 100% horizontally and vertically
Magnification	0.76x (-1 dpt with 50mm lens at infinity)
Eyepoint	Approx. 20mm
Dioptric Adjustment Correction	-3.0 to +1.0 diopter
Mirror	Quick-return half mirror (Transmission: reflection ratio of 37:63)
Viewfinder Information	AF (AF points, focus confirmation light, point selection mode, registration), Exposure (metering mode, spot metering area, shutter speed, aperture, manual exposure, AE lock, ISO speed, exposure level, exposure warning), Flash (flash ready, high-speed sync, FE lock, flash exposure level), Image (JPEG recording, RAW recording, shots remaining, maximum burst, white balance correction, memory card information), Battery check
Depth-of-Field Preview	Enabled with depth-of-field preview button; possible in Live View Function
Eyepiece Shutter	Built-in

Auto Focus Type	TTL-AREA-SIR AF-dedicated CMOS sensor
AF Points	45-point (19 high-precision cross-type AF points plus 26 Assist AF points)
AF Working Range	EV -1 ~18 (ISO 100 at 73°F/23°C)
Focusing Modes	Autofocus (One-Shot AF, Predictive AI Servo AF), Manual Focus (MF)
AF Point Selection	Automatic selection; Manual selection: 19 AF points, or only inner 9 AF points (C.Fn III-9-1), or outer 9 AF points (C.Fn III-9-2)
Selected AF Point Display	Superimposed in viewfinder and on LCD panel
AF-assist Beam	None. Emitted by EX-series Speedlite or optional ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter

Metering Modes	63-zone TTL full aperture metering Evaluative metering (linked to all AF points) Partial metering (approx. 8.5% of viewfinder) Spot metering (approx. 2.4% of viewfinder) Center spot metering AF point-linked spot metering (C.Fn. I-7-1) Multi-spot metering (max. 8 spot metering entries) Center-weighted average metering
Metering Range	EV 0-20 (ISO 100 at 73°F/23°C with EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, ISO 100)
Exposure Control Systems	Program AE (shiftable), Shutter speed-priority AE, Aperture-priority AE, E-TTL II program AE (Evaluative flash metering, Averaged flash metering), Manual, Bulb
ISO Speed Range	Equivalent to ISO 100-1600* (in 1/3-stop or whole stop increments), ISO speed can be expanded to ISO 50 and 3200 (via C.Fn I-3) * Standard output sensitivity. Recommended exposure index.
Exposure Compensation	Exposure Compensation (user-set): up to +/-3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-half increments Auto Bracketing (AEB): 3 shots, up to +/- 3 stops, in 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments, in all exposure modes. Sequence can be changed via C.Fn I-5
AE Lock	Auto: Applied in One-Shot AF mode with evaluative metering when focus is achieved Manual (user-set): By AE lock button in all metering modes

Shutter Type	Vertical-travel, mechanical, focal-plane shutter with all speeds electronically controlled
Shutter Speeds	1/8000 to 30 sec. (1/3-, 1/2- or 1-stop increments), X-sync at 1/250 sec. (with EOS dedicated external Speedlites; 1/250 maximum with other shoe-mount flashes, and 1/60th-1/250th with studio strobes*) * maximum sync speed with studio strobes will depend upon flash characteristics and connection method; testing is encouraged to verify fastest possible sync speed with specific studio flash equipment
Shutter Release	Soft-touch electromagnetic release
Self-timer	10 sec. delay, 2 sec. delay
Remote Control	Canon N3 type terminal

EOS External Flash or Dedicated Speedlites	E-TTL II autoflash with all EX Series Speedlites
PC Terminal	Provided; accepts third-party flash units with sync line voltages up to 250V maximum

Drive Modes	Single, silent , high-speed continuous (approx. 5 fps) , low-speed continuous (approx. 3 fps), 10- or 2-sec. self-timer
Continuous Shooting Speed	Approx. 5 fps (at a shutter speed of 1/(TBA) sec. or faster in all recording modes)
Max. Burst During Continuous Shooting	JPEG: approx. 45 frames RAW: approx. 15 frames RAW+JPEG: approx. (TBA) frames (Large/Fine)

LCD Monitor Type	TFT color, liquid-crystal monitor
Screen Monitor size	3.0 in., diagonal
Pixels	Approx. 230,000 pixels
Coverage	Approx. 100%
Brightness Control	7 levels provided

Playback Image Display Format	Single image, 4-image index, 9-image index, Jump, AF point, Magnified zoom (approx. 1.5x to 10x), Brightness or RGB Histogram, Auto rotate, Rotate Live View Function: view image before shooting on LCD monitor; live histogram and live simulation of exposure level possible with C.Fn IV-16-1
Highlight Alert	In the single image display and (INFO) display, over-exposed highlight areas will blink

Image Protection	Single image, all images in a folder, or all images in the memory card can be protected or cancel the image protection
Erase	Single image, all images in a folder, all images in the memory card or check-marked images can be erased or unprotected.
Direct Printing from the Camera	Possible with compatible PictBridge-enabled printers
Compatible Printers	CP and SELPHY Compact Photo Printers, PIXMA Photo Printers and PictBridge compatible printers (via USB Interface Cable IFC-200U, included with camera kit)
Settings	Print quantity, style (image, paper size, paper type, printing effects, layout), trimming, tilt correction

Dust Delete Feature
LiveView Preview	LCD realtime view
Picture Style	WAV
Recording Time	Max. 30 sec. per recording

Menu Categories	Shooting Playback Setup Custom function/My Menu
LCD Monitor Language	18 (English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Finnish, Italian , Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Polish, Simplified/Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese)

Battery	One dedicated lithium-ion battery pack LP-E4 AC power can be supplied via the AC Adapter Kit ACK-E4 (included)
Number of Shots	At 73°F/23°C: Approx. (TBA) At 32°F/0°C: Approx. (TBA) The above figures apply when a fully-charged Battery Pack LP-E4 is used
Battery Check	Automatic, displayed in six levels. Precise readout of percentage remaining, shots taken since last charge, calibration recommended, and approx. remaining battery life are displayed with Battery Info menu setting.
Power Saving	Provided. Power turns off after 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 min.
Back-up Battery	One CR2025 lithium battery
Dimensions (WxHxD) - Weight	.