EOS magazine news

The best imaging products of 2010 were voted on at the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) General Assembly held from 8 to 10 April 2010 in New York. The judges were editors of the 28 member photo magazines from nine European countries plus Canada, South Africa and the United States. Canon received the following awards: Best DSLR Advanced - EOS 550D Best DSLR Expert - EOS 7D Best Large Format Printer - Canon imagePROGRAF iPF 6350 Best Multifunction Printer - Canon PIXMA MP990 Best Expert Compact Camera - Canon PowerShot G11 More details are available at www.tipa.com

Firmware Version 1.2.1 for the EOS 7D incorporates the following improvements and fixes. * Extends the timing at which the high temperature warning indicator is displayed and the timing of automatic shut down of the camera due to a rise in internal temperature during Live View or EOS Movie functions. * Optimizes program shift when the ISO setting of the camera is set to AUTO. * Corrects a misspelling in the French-language menu. * Corrects a phenomenon in which vertical magenta-colored banding appears in still images taken in movie-shooting mode. (This only occurs when in Manual exposure mode and when the ISO speed is set to "H". Note that this phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.0) The firmware upgrade can be installed by the user. Full instructions and downloads are available at the >> Canon Download Centre

Canon has launched its new, enhanced after-sales support scheme for professional photographers and videographers, the Canon Professional Services (CPS) programme. The CPS scheme offers professional users of Canon products exclusive, free access to a range of benefits, from CPS support teams at many international and local events, to a priority repair service and direct support from Canon Professional Representatives in selected  European countries. The scheme offers three types of membership to professional photographers, depending on the qualifying equipment registered with the scheme (for a full list of qualifying Canon products go to: www.canon-europe.com/cps Silver membership is available to photographers who register two bodies and three qualifying lenses. Repairs to CPS-serviced equipment will be turned around in five working days. Gold membership is available to those who register two qualifying bodies and three qualifying lenses. Repairs to CPS-serviced equipment...

Canon RAW Codec is a software plug-in that enables the import and display of Canon RAW image files when installed in Windows Vista (including SP1)/Windows XP SP2 and XP SP3. Windows Imaging Component (WIC) supported applications (Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery etc.) are required. Version 1.7 adds support for the EOS 1D Mark IV and 550D. Windows 7 32-bit version is now supported. 64-bit operating systems are not supported. You can download the update by going to: http://www.canon.co.uk/ and following the ‘Software and User Manuals’ link under the ‘Quick Links’ heading

Canon has responded quickly to the problems with firmware version 2.0.3 for the EOS 5D Mark II (see news story 18 March 2010). It has now introduced version 2.0.4 with the following message:   We apologize sincerely for the inconvenience caused to our customers by suspending the availability of the Version 2.0.3 firmware.  We are now introducing the Version 2.0.4 firmware. This firmware corrects the malfunction that occurred in the previous Version 2.0.3 firmware, in which the manual recording level changed and made recording impossible.  Customers who have the Version 2.0.3 firmware on their cameras should update the firmware to Version 2.0.4. The firmware upgrade can be installed by the user. Full instructions and downloads are available at the >> Canon Download Centre

The EOS 5D Mark II firmware update version 2.0.3 released a couple of days ago (see news item on 16 March 2010) has a malfunction and has been withdrawn. Here is the message on Canon's firmware page: Recently we have discovered a malfunction that occurs with Firmware Version 2.0.3, in which the manual recording levels for C1/C2/C3 are changed and the camera becomes unable to record audio if the power is turned off (or if Auto power off takes effect) after registering "Sound Recording: Manual" in the camera user settings. We apologize very sincerely for the inconvenience, but we are going to stop making this firmware available for download. For customers who have already updated to the new firmware, when using the camera with the mode dial set to C1/C2/C3, please either set the sound recording settings to Auto. We are currently preparing firmware that will correct this malfunction. As soon as those preparations have been completed, we will let you know on t...

Firmware Version 2.0.3 for the EOS 5D Mark II incorporates five enhancements to the movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function 1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates. NTSC: * 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps) * 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps) * 640×480 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps) PAL: * 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps) * 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps) * 640×480 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps) 2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels). 3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure. 4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies. 5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz. 6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cle...