This is a big load of crap. Why does Canon not bring out quantup leap upgrades? Because no one can touch what they already provide.
YOU may not shoot at high ISO but there are a LOT of people who do. And until these other companies quit with the pomp & circumstance and make sensors that work like Canons do, Canon won't have to do much. They provide a tried and true system that's been relied on for years, with customer service to match. That says a lot.
Oh and if Canon's so bad...why are you shooting a 1 Series?
That's mostly BS - Canon is better in the sports area, purely because of it's AF performance, but that's about it. In other genres of photography, it's pretty even. By your logic, you're saying that everyone that uses Nikon et al doesn't know what they're doing and has a crap camera.
As to noise, up to ISO 800 they're reasonably even from what I'm seeing. Furthermore, I expect it's common for most people shooting at higher ISOs to use a noise reduction application such as Neat Image or Noise Ninja to clean the noise up? Since they both seem to do a reasonably good job from what I've seen, arguing about noise is a bit moot, no? Nikon images are sharper out of the box, have you seen how many threads have been started recently about Canon cameras producing not so sharp images and requiring post production? If Canon is doing such a good job with its sensors, this shouldn't even be a topic that's coming up.
We did a model shoot in a studio a week or so ago for my digital photography course, and let's just say that Nikon's images (D70s, D200 and D70) looked just as bit as good as the images from the 350D and my 1D. Especially at higher ISOs. So I think you're exagerating on the noise issue my friend. True, Canon is better at higher ISOs, I'm not going to deny that, cos they are. But not by the huge leaps and bounds that you're trying to pen.
As to customer service, I waited 4 weeks for a basic service checkup on my 1D earlier this year, that's not an acceptable time frame in my books and I certainly don't consider it good service. Judging by what a lot of people post here, 4 weeks isn't a good turn around time. It seems that Australian customers get very lax support from Canon Australia (unless you're a CPS member of course). I don't appreciate Canon discriminating against me because I'm not a CPS member, especially when I've spent a fair amount of money, probably as much as most pros using CPS have. So much for service eh?
Why do I use a 1D? Because I've got X amount of money invested in Canon lenses and accessories. Sure, I can see them, and get a reasonable return on my investment, but I'm still losing money. Canon's film SLRs were better than the competitors, no questions asked. Their DSLRs efforts though, whilst good, aren't markedly better than their competitors imho. Sadly, we have a lot of Canon lovers (as is to be expected) and in their eyes, Canon simply cannot do anything wrong - EVER. That's a rather dangerous attitude to have. Canon do a lot of things right, but they're not perfect, far from it.
As to upgrades etc, true, no one is forcing me (or anyone else) to upgrade. Just imagine though if everyone didn't upgrade, but waited 3 or 4 years for these "quantum upgrades" to appear. Firstly, Canon wouldn't be doing them because these types of ugprades cost money for R&D. If they lose sales, R&D loses income. That means less features/upgrades etc. I'd be really interested to see DSLR sales, but I bet my bottom dollar that Canon's market share is slipping, and badly. Going from 70% to 45% (which is my guesstimate) sort of tells me that the competition is doing a better job than they used to, and that the competitor's cameras are good enough to stop people buying Canon products.
Dave
I understand your point, but my point is that I'm not going to change just because another company brings out a camera that has different (and to me, unimportant) features than what I'm currently shooting. I have too much money, time and energy invested in my system to make it worth while. Besides, I think most of the this is purely talk about chasing after the latest and greatest......
