Japanese electronics companies constantly receive jabs because of their product naming conventions. The model names are often confusing, filled with numbers, and have no apparent logic to them whatsoever.
Canon, my camera of choice, is no exception. Their prolific nest of consumer-level models is mind-numbingly confusing. Just to name a few: G9, SX110 IS, TX1, SD890 IS, A470, and of course, E1.
Why do they do this? I know for a fact it confounds customers. In fact, one company recently lopped off the right two digits of all it's models when they realized they all had the same "00" stuck on the end.
Moving up the ladder, Canon's DSLR cameras have a slightly more straight-forward naming scheme, although, interestingly, backwards.
The lowest models are called Rebel in America. Variants are: Rebel, Rebel XT, Rebel XTi, and Rebel XSi. Like American cars, the public here generally prefers names to numbers.
Now, these same models in the rest of the world are given 4-character alpha-numeric names in order of sophistication: 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D, etc.
In the middle of the DSLR range, cameras you could call "entry level professional", models are given 3-character designations, also going up numerically with more sophisticated models: 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D.
Moving up to the professional models, we find that Canon does show a pattern, as they lose one more character. The models at the top have 2-character names: 5D, 1D, etc. However, unlike the lower two rungs, in which the numbers go higher with increasing sophistication, the LOWER the number here, the higher-end the camera.
The king of all Canons is the mighty $8,000 1Ds Mk III. You may have seen a couple thousand of these beauties at the Olympics sporting white lenses the size of fire hydrants. No, I don't know what the little "s" means. See below for the "Mk III" part.
Confused? I think you should be. If you're not, please re-read the above.
My next camera will be the "5D Mk II" which just came out but which I will need a few more photo jobs to pay for. It's got gobs of professional features that are becoming more and more important to me as I get into this business: It's got an incredibly fast shooting rate, 21 Megapixel self-cleaning, full-frame sensor, water-tight seals, tough magnesium body, and very fast auto-focus.
Did you catch it? That "Mk II" at the end of the name? Yes, sometimes when Canon improves a camera (or lens), they decide not to change the name (as in 300D to 350D), but just add "Mk II or Mk III" to the end of it instead.
But, just sometimes. And knows why.
3 comments:
Dude, the s in the 1Ds indicates full frame sensor size. The 1D has most of the same fast features but an APS-H size sensor; that's the one with a 1.3 zoom factor.
Even though the 1Ds has twice the resolution as the 1D, the pixel length of the 1D is larger, which as you know means you can collect more data per pixel on the lower resolution sensor.
1Ds pixel length = 6 microns
1D pixel length = 7 microns
Dennis, that can't be what the little "s" stands for. After all, the 5D MkII also has a full-frame sensor and sports no "s".
In lenses, the "S" (upper case this time) means it's designed exclusively for the APS-C sensor, so, go figure.
There are long and extensive arguments about that little "s" online, and the reasoning that seems to be winning is that the "s" stands for "studio". Which is really misleading because they are used for sports more than studio work.
You are correct about the pixel size, but in this case it's close and the extra pixels gives more leeway to crop the hell out of a shot. Plus, you need to take into account that the newer sensors capture more gradients of light per pixel/micron than older ones do.
You guys are SDXG9110 freaking out of your minds!
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