Twelve Black Code Monkeys

Nikon recently announced its flagship 12MP DSLR, the D2X, close behind Fuji’s S3 Pro. Now Canon has gotten into the fray with it’s latest and greatest, the top-of-the-line professional EOS-1DS Mark II. The highest priced of these cameras it is also one with the highest resolution in terms of pure pixel elements – a whopping 16MP, which should be enough to equal or surpace that of 35mm film, maybe even some medium format film. The CMOS sensor is a new one, and with a full-frame 35mm size it promises to have minimal amounts of digital noise, but it otherwise is does not use any innovative new designs like the Fuji S3’s or the Sigma’s Fovean models. Like the D2X, the 1DS has new WIFI capability. At a cool $8,000 retail, this camera is not for the amateur. Well, unless the amateur has lots of disposable income! Lots of sports photographers use the EOS-1D Mark II as it is very competitive in terms of fast frame rates, but the 1DS actually has a lower frame rate, at least at the high resolutions, so I wonder whether such photographers or magazines will want to invest in something the main benefit of which (higher resolution) comes at the loss of speed. And let’s face it, the highest these images are going to be printed for the vast majority of applications is 8×10, for which a 6MP camera is perfectly acceptable…