Canon 5D mkII Firmware update

Full control of Aperture with Canon 5D mkII from Tony Eckersley on Vimeo.

Canon just announcement and made a firmware update for the Canon 5D mkII availble for all regions. Great right? But what does it include:

Hit the Jump to read more

Perfect! Those who suffered from those big issues can now rest and be happy that all is now well with the image quality shooting bright lights in a dark scene. Although, I have to admit – “Improves and mitigates” the issue doesn’t really sound like it has gone forever…

Luckily, I have never suffered from these issues and strangely, I have never tried to replicate such a problem to convince myself I didn’t have it! But, overall I am a little disappointed.

Which leads to to the video above. Is full manual control ever going to come to Canon 5D mkII? And better yet – 24/25P?

I still have hope, as they must have read all these comments about the number one thing missing from this camera. I am quite an optimistic person, and I really enjoyed keeping up with the pre-launch of the 5D mkII, especially keeping up with Vincent Laforet’s blog and news. The blog post where he requests commenters to simply state “WE NEED 24P” went incredibly well, and that has over 1000 comments now with conversation over this feature. No one has said it is impossible, and Vincent Laforet himself said Canon are listening.

One interesting thing Laforet says is:

First of all – I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of cool companies these past few years – in the development of both software and hardware – and if there’s one thing I’ve learned (actually two):

You need to find out right away if something is technically (im)possible – is what you’re asking for something that the hardware / software can do… obvious – but easy to overlook – don’t waste your energy pushing for something that simply can’t be done…

And this brings me to my big issue that actually drives this blog post. With communication being what it is today with all these outlets, blogs, twitters, websites etc etc, is it really hard for Canon just to acknowledge this? Just make a quite note saying “Hey loyal Canon fans, we hear your cries and are working on fullfilling your craving for 24/25p and manual control in video mode.” Or maybe to say “Sorry people, it cannot be done.” Just something… Why so secretive about these things?

Also, surely Canon must be seeing people “hack” the camera a little by using the “twist off” method like in the video above, or simply by using some Nikon glass and an adapter. What if people are actually ruining their sensors by doing this? Should Canon warn us?

I guess my point is, I have seen some great examples of major companies protecting their brands by utilizing online communications. Maybe Canon should also talk to us more…

Update:

Stephen Shankland of CNET News has found some positive results so far posted at his blog. Great stuff – Good job Canon