A cheaper, faster, sealed Canon line-up? Possible???

Now that Pentax K7's announced with seemingly so much more for so much less, I imagine Canon would have to respond in kind earlier than they anticipate. For the same price point, the K7 flat out bombs anything in the range. I think we may be able to soon see Canon 60D with at least partial weather sealing (OMG), better AF (OMG!), and better video for lower prices (est Q4 2009/Q1 2010)! And if it does go that way, prices will likely lower on the 5D and 1D series too!
What are your thoughts? Will Canon simply shrug it off, or will they bring in their own Howitzer?

We can only hope!

I also wish canon would release inbody IS like Pentax and Sony.
You would be able to disable it or use it in sequence with an IS lens.
Ive heard that inbody IS is better suited for shorter focal lengths, if thats so then this will never really hurt the sales of IS tele lenses, maybe the 24-105 EF L, 17-85mm EF-S, 18-55mm EF-S and 17-55 EF-S.

There are lots of cool things they could do that would get more attention but in pure business fashion they are holding the better stuff for later models.

They wouldnt want me making camera's for them, I would blow all the googies in one crazy body! :P


-Eric-

There is no doubt that Canon is milking each upgrade cycle with the bare minimum of feature upgrades. This will allow them to milk us for all they can over the longest time frame they can. Over time we will gain real improvements but at this rate it will take about 6-10 years to get to where most of us want it to be.

Pentax's K7 has a lot of what I want but it also is missing a lot of what I already have in the 50D.

Want.... full weather sealing, full view finder, more of and more sensitive AF points even more than the K 7's, All set preprogramed picture modes to be able to be over written by MY custom modes, After the picture is taken to have the LCD display the AF point blown up to 5x or 10x (my choice) to verify sharp focus and also display the histogram single or RGB histogram (my choice) with no more than one or no button pushes (my choice).

It looks like the 60D will get digicV but I would like to see at least a 1 stop improvement in noise and would rather see a 2 stop gain.

How about that little shutter on the eye piece to block light from leaking in through the viewfinder? Ditch that cheesy rubber cover once and for all.

If you are adding HD and it likes like they will then give us control over the ISO, and AV. If the video shoots at 30 fps then make the audio 30 fps and not 29.98HZ like the 5DMKII which over time disconnects the audio with the video and is worse than a cheap foreign film. Canon knows better but in their lust for forcing upgrades they are loosing their customer base big time. In this type of economy you cannot afford to mess with all the folks you worked so hard to get. Now more than ever you need to step up and do the right thing or go the way of the DODO bird.

Is any serious Canon shooter even going to have their head turned because of some features a Pentax has? How many people would actually switch? Canon has enough to worry about with Nikon I doubt they're worrying very little about Pentax.

Hey, I'd like all the bells and whistles in the xxD line that they put in the 1 series but the reality is that people will buy them anyway and Canon knows this. They have zero business reasons to do so.

That's the problem with monopolies or near monopolies so I'm all for Sony, Pentax and Nikon adding more features and charging less as eventually they'll put enough pressure on Canon to do the same thing. I just don't see Canon worrying about this Pentax though.

gooble wrote in post #8021149
Is any serious Canon shooter even going to have their head turned because of some features a Pentax has?

Me. But to be honest I was already looking at Pentax because of their pancake lenses when the K-7 info started trickling out.

Not me. 2nd system, yes. Switch, no. Then again, I don't plan to spend any money on Canon gear in the foreseeable future because they offer nothing I particularly want that I don't already own, but do plan on buying Pentax, so for the near term anyway it'll be like I've switched in terms of money spent.

Unfortunately Pentax are barely a blip on Canon's radar. I would love for Canon to imitate Pentax's maximize-bang-for-the-buck approach, but that's just not their style and they're not likely to be forced to do so by anything Pentax produce. If Nikon put out a K-7 equivalent maybe, but even then not necessarily. After all there are the D300 and D700--pro spec bodies in smaller form factors--that Canon have no direct answers for.

I think canon needs to at least keep up with Nikon, their cameras look pretty tempting, for someone like me (body and 2 lenses) a swap to Nikon would be pretty painless, I might lose a couple of hundred, might even come out in front if I was to buy second hand.

But I think most wouldn't even consider a swap to pentax, Canon and Nikon just have way too many accessories/lenses to choose from, the resale on their pro lenses is pretty good too.

But I think the best thing canon could offer us is is a fully sealed 50D for the masses that can't splash out on a 1D. And stop being skimpy with acessories like lense hoods and tripod colars.

I feel like we are constantly being ripped by canon.

Cheers
Daniel