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It appears that all Canon camcorders are compatible with the Firestore FS-4.

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=St andardDisplayAct&fcategoryid=102&keycode=camcorder _accessory

The Pixma series are completely square, and can even be backed up against a wall and still work.

If you don't mind not using the top feed (it has a top and front feed), you can put stuff on top of it too. My mother puts hers in a shelving unit, it's only accessible from one side (the front), but works great. She has to take it out to change ink cartridges or whatever, but you don't do that too often on a Canon.

Check it out, go to the link below and click the text that says "Click here to see how the new PIXMA dual paper path works."

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Ca nonAdvantageTopicDtlAct&fcategoryid=117&modelid=10 440&id=11662

...woo hoo... what an advance:

Merrill's Steven Milunovich believes the new technology makes HP more competitive, and that "the foundation for longer-term price competition is evident." In a research note, he said that competitors may be pressured to introduce similar photolithographic capability. While HP claims to have a years-long head start with the technology, Milunovich says it may take that long for HP's new technology to trickle down to mainstream price points. - Forbes

Oh yeah, do that research Forbes... later heard to say "duh... what's google?"

Canon Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) uses a high-performance 1,856-nozzle print head that ejects precise, consistent droplets as small as 1 picoliter, resulting in beautiful photos with virtually no detectable grain.

Frobes might also have check Amazon for those prices:

Refills of HP's new color Vivera ink cartridges will sell for $9.99, while older color ink cartridges can run $30 or more.

Canon BCI-6BK Black Ink Tank $9.99.

It'd be one thing if maybe the exact key words weren't so easily googled...

Fact checking, a lost art.

Canon's print head is not "built in" to the printer, meaning they've even developed a non-disposable printer too! Of course that's done really well for them...

Survey results show that 85.6% of respondents reported they would most likely purchase an Epson printer, while no other vendor reached even 7%.

I know you asked for flatbed scanners, but if you are seriously going to feed in 10,000s of pages, an actual document scanner would be better. Even the document feeders available on many flatbeds are deoptimal--they are slow and jam all of the time. Scanners which are meant to be used by workgroups to actually scan in documents typically dont curl the paper over itself, so are both quicker & jam less. But they are more expensive.

I am extremely happy with my Canon Canon DR-2080C. Note: It is the only piece of hardware I've bought, knowing that it won't work with Linux. I ran windows SPECIFICALLY to use this document scanner. It looks like it has been discontinued & the DR-2050C is the model to get now. Looks like it does larger documents, which is nice. These do duplex scans in one pass, so you can get about 40 sides (so 20 2-sided pages) per minute. These will probably set you back ~$600 new.

If you have more money to spend, there are even better document scanners available.

Go ahead and spend a hundred or more on a good quality flatbed for anything that needs better than 600dpi or is awkwardly sized/bound, but a document scanner will save SO much time.

I know you asked for flatbed scanners, but if you are seriously going to feed in 10,000s of pages, an actual document scanner would be better. Even the document feeders available on many flatbeds are deoptimal--they are slow and jam all of the time. Scanners which are meant to be used by workgroups to actually scan in documents typically dont curl the paper over itself, so are both quicker & jam less. But they are more expensive.

I am extremely happy with my Canon Canon DR-2080C. Note: It is the only piece of hardware I've bought, knowing that it won't work with Linux. I ran windows SPECIFICALLY to use this document scanner. It looks like it has been discontinued & the DR-2050C is the model to get now. Looks like it does larger documents, which is nice. These do duplex scans in one pass, so you can get about 40 sides (so 20 2-sided pages) per minute. These will probably set you back ~$600 new.

If you have more money to spend, there are even better document scanners available.

Go ahead and spend a hundred or more on a good quality flatbed for anything that needs better than 600dpi or is awkwardly sized/bound, but a document scanner will save SO much time.

"Well, who doesn't have a digital capable TV nowadays anyhow? Luddites!".

I don't and I'm not a luddite. Then again I mostly watch movies and some CNN. I'd love to have a bnig screen HDTV but I can't afford it and if I could then I'd get more photography equipment, cameras such as Canon's 16 MP EOS 1Ds Mark II, Mamiya's 23 MP Mamiya ZD medium format digiatl camera, and a bunch of lenses for them. Then instead of watching a bunch of movies I'd be spending a lot of tyme out and about taking photos or in my darkroom developing film and making blowups..

Where I worked we had seven Canon XM1s (or GL1 in the US) that were lent out to art students. Believe me: most students were not tech-savvy any even had trouble getting a tape in and out of these things. All the Canons survived, up to this day, being lent out nearly 24/7, except the one time when a student tried to film will standing on the back of a bike... They have 3 CCDs, a great lens and an excellent built-in mic for general filming. Unfortunately the XM1 was discontinued and replaced by the XM2 which was of a significant lesser build quality.

My Canon Power Shot G5 will take three photos in succession in AEB mode after pressing just once (if no flash is in use).

I agree, I love my Canon F60.
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delDetailAct&fcategoryid=124&modelid=7174
Lexmarks clog if you look at them funny. My Canon don't. Four separarate cartridges with no electronics in the cartridges, so cheap to replace.

...but from what I understand, a large majority of hardcore professional photographers use Canon equipment anyway and Canon's RAW format is supported by Photoshop, The Gimp and likely other photo editing software as well.

I haven't seen one yet from Nikon but Canon has full frame DSLRs. With the full frame sensor there isn't that annoying multiplication factor, wysiwyg mol. The camera I'd like to get now is the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II. I could then use the lenses I have for my film camera, lenses can be more expensive than the camera body. But that's not much of a problem with the Mark II unless you have lots of fast, macro/fish eye, or super telephoto lenses.

Flat panel SED

Photos of SED

Me, I buy Canon inkjets. They've gone off in a completely opposite direction: Imagine a world where ink refill cartridges were little plastic containers that hold only ink, no 'chips', no replacing jets each time you run out of ink, no corporate attempt to dictate who you shall buy your ink and/or ink refills from. That's Canon Think Tank.

I love cannons because they're good for blowing stuff up.

I believe you mean Canon.

Check your volumes. Then factor in the price of a print head.

I assume you are comparing something like a HP 45 at USD 29.95 with a BCI 21 bk for USD 8.75. The HP 45 is a 42ml cartrige that HP say does 833 pages. The BCI-21 bk canon don't seem to want to tell us the volume, but will (if you dig) tell you that it will only do 225 pages. So that alone should make the HP cartrige slightly cheaper per page.

Then we factor in the print head. The HP print cartrige comes with a print head built on. The Canon one dosn't.
So.. if we were to count the purchase of a print head as well, the we would get a BCI 21e at USD 55.95 and take off the price of the color tank USD 23.25. That leaves us at $US 27.70 for 225 pages using the "cheaper" canon ink.

As usual buying the cheap stuff will cost you more.

Check your volumes. Then factor in the price of a print head.

I assume you are comparing something like a HP 45 at USD 29.95 with a BCI 21 bk for USD 8.75. The HP 45 is a 42ml cartrige that HP say does 833 pages. The BCI-21 bk canon don't seem to want to tell us the volume, but will (if you dig) tell you that it will only do 225 pages. So that alone should make the HP cartrige slightly cheaper per page.

Then we factor in the print head. The HP print cartrige comes with a print head built on. The Canon one dosn't.
So.. if we were to count the purchase of a print head as well, the we would get a BCI 21e at USD 55.95 and take off the price of the color tank USD 23.25. That leaves us at $US 27.70 for 225 pages using the "cheaper" canon ink.

As usual buying the cheap stuff will cost you more.

I know this is slightly OT, but our office has a multifunction device (page breaks in firefox. get with the program canon!) that really is great at all tasks. The scanner is only useful for documents/ocr, but it works great for that. It is a great printer and the fax and photocopier features are superior to our old copier and fax machine. Perhaps the crappy consumer grade multifuntion machines suck, but I think the scanner/copier/printer is a great solution for most small offices.

The Canon S1 IS has 10X optical zoom, image stabilization, 30fps 640x480 movies, 3.2 MP still shots, and uses CF cards - all for around $300. Check out this review.

Oops link fix:
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delDetailAct&fcategoryid=124&modelid=7174

I love my Canon F60. http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delDetailAct&fcategoryid=124&modelid=7174/ It has the colors in separate cartridges, and there's not a bit of electronics in the cartridges, so refils are very cheap.
Now the Lexmark Z33 I used to have - what a POS. Every time I printed I had to fight with the overpriced cartridge to unclog it. I will NEVER buy Lexmark again.

I agree that open would be nice, but I can see several reasons why the camera's remain closed.

1. Competitive reasons: if documentation comes out before the camera (it would need to in order to make openness contribute to the camera's success), the competition gets to see/copy/out-market the new camera
2. Japanese: Most cameras are now designed and built by Japanese companies. Translation of the documentation, code, and specs into English (the open standard language) is a cost.
3. Proprietary chips: Companies such as Canon use custom hardware such as the Digic Processor making it hard to be open.
4. Support costs: Devoting engineers to supporting SDKs and openness initiatives would add cost.

The big problem is that camera electronics don't have the market persistence of other computer technologies. New generations of the electronics and software inside of cameras wholly supplant old ones. Its not like cameras run on decade's old protocols such as those found in networking and servers. The rapid design-sell-drop cycles leave little room for post-launch open source initiatives and the proprietary/competitive nature of the camera business leaves little room for design-phase involvement by non-employees.

As long as the camera supports a few simple open standard interface protocols (storage, USB, printing, etc.) then the internals can be (and will be) proprietary black boxes. At best, open source can help post-process images. Although a few geeks, such as the poster and myself, might complain at black-box cameras, we represent such a small sliver of the user base as to be easily ignored.

The problem with OLED is that it's a technology which is basically being developed from scratch. Variants on OLED are even being developed, to circumvent (among other things) the longevity issues with especially the blue component of OLED (10,000 to 20,000 hours so far).

The thing is that SED and FED are pretty much evolved versions of the venerable CRT: they've got 'electron guns', a vacuum, and a layer build up out of phosphors. Only big differences are the number of electron guns (tens of thousands instead of three) and the distance between the electron guns and the phosphor layer (millimeters instead of tens of centimeters).

SED in particular stands a good chance, as it uses existing manufacturing techniques for the electron gun-layer and further basically replicates a CRT. FED tries to do things a bit fancier, which requires more R&D, and thus more time to bring it to the market.

So in summary, OLED and FED are still (partially) in a research stadium, while SED is ready to be marketed: the first SED displays (TVs) will apppear in 2005, with computer displays appearing in 2006. That's according to Toshiba's PR-department, at least :p

Link to general information on SED: SED

I bought a Sharp Aquos LCD television last year. It's only a 20" model, not a giant one, and it's only normal TV, not HDTV.

It's way better than the CRT it replaced.

There are no issues with ghosting; it clearly refreshes fast enough for TV, DVDs, or console video gaming.

I am looking forward to the day when I get a much bigger one (the 37" and 42" both look nice). When I get the bigger one, it will be a model with a DVI input, and I'll hook up a computer to that. I want to play first-person games on a giant screen with my living room's surround sound all around me.

steveha

P.S. I figure LCD is pretty much a stable technology at this point. It's basically a large laptop screen, and those have been around for years. Plasma has burnin issues, and OLED may simply fade with time. I look forward to SED displays... but LCD is here now and getting more affordable every year.

Ok, I said Got an iPod? Try this (link ommitted). Much nicer.

For the RatBastards of the world, that is a conditional statement. It would say "if you ALREADY HAVE an iPod".

Now, as to the rest, I don't see how your unsubstantiated opinion is any better than mine. If you saw something totally amazing about that device, I certainly will not stop you from buying it.

Not that I really care, but here are some differences:

1. The Belkin device (going for between $50 and $100) is already available.
2. The iPod is easily replaceable, and independantly useful. Some people might even have more than one!
3. I can upload photos to a photo iPod and view them quite easily.
4. iPods can run Linux .

However, my photo rig has only my Canon, 5 1GB cards, two extra lenses, and my two tripods. I like being able to pop the cards directly into a photo printer, and I haven't yet reached the point of having 80GBs of perfect photos in a single shoot. Of course, I never shot 3 dozen rolls of film in a single shoot, either.

If you are in need of tons of storage, these have wireless to dump your pics down to a machine.

-WS

IIRC, the Canon XL2 can do 16:9, but I dont recall if that's the native resolution of the CCDs or not (though I think it may be). I think there are also a couple of Sony (yuck!) cameras that have 16:9 resolution.

Forget using consumer-level cameras altogether. You're going to have to start at the prosumer level at a minimum. The XL2 may be a good point at which to start your search.

You're trying to be funny, but, sadly, some people probably believe you.

Some of the nicest cameras I've ever seen have no flash. Most view cameras don't tend to have flashes -- you'd never see Ansel Adams hitting the pop-up flash.

And it's this "must ... use ... flash" philosophy that leads to the crappy photos you see on most tech review sites. Look at reviews of motherboards, and you'll usually see a harsh blue-white light, horribly sharp shadows, and a big white blob of glare right in the middle of the photo. Ugh.

You *should* say: A photographer, of all people, should know to avoid flash if at all possible.

Well, the i9900 does give the R800 a run for it's money on gamut. The i9900 has a better green gamut all around, and beats the R800 on dark reds and pinks. But the R800 has a significant advantage in blues, indigos, and violets, as well as saturated yellows and yellowish greens. It's hard to tell which color gamut covers a larger total volume in an animated 3D rendering, but it's a close call. They both certainly have their advantages and disadvantages. I have to admit I haven't kept up that closely with Canon, and didn't realize they were using an 8-color inkset now. (Although I know it's been 10 months since Canon's press release.) Yes, it's competitive in gamut, and resolution (i9900 at 11 million dpi^2 and the Epson at 8 million dpi^2, both of which are arbitrarily high) and minimum droplet size (i9900 at 2 picoliter, R800 at 1.5 picoliter.) But it's not at all comparable in longevity, if that's something that you care about.

As for the "bronzing" issue. Yes, the spray does fix the bronzing issue. The reason you get the "bronzing" with Ultrachrome inks is that the inks are thicker and they actually lay down a thick coating of ink that sit on top of the UltraCrome compatible microporous-coated inkjet papers. Since the paper is glossy, and the ink puts down such a thick layer on top that it does not fully soak into the paper, you can see it standing on top and it looks matte comapred to the paper. Putting a glossy layer on top of the ink completely fixes the problem. Yes, I've seen this first hand. Yes, other people have seen this first hand. And yes, it is marketed by experts for this quality. It's the exact same thing that the new R800 does to solve the problem- put down a glossy layer on top of the matte ink. Therefore the whole print surface is glossy- problem solved. Since I've done this dozens of times, and it works, I'm curious what your evidence is that makes you say "Sorry, but a "protective spray" doesn't fix the bronzing issue"

As for underestimating the seriousness of the problem- I made a series of 8.5 x 11 prints, including some with lots of blacks, on papers known to exhibit the problem (including Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper), and showed them to a group of 8 people. First I asked for comments without mentioning the bronzing effect. No one mentioned anything like it. Then I told them about the effect, and asked them if they could see it. Only one out of eight people said they could see this effect on their own, without me suggesting they angle the paper. These people were sitting around a table in a room with multiple bright lights, passing the prints around, so it's not like I was controlling the lighting or viewing angle. And that one person who saw it thought it was cool! They said it brought out details in the darkest regions of the print that they otherwise could not see, and gave it a "3D look." I have looked at a lot (a thousand?) prints from the 2200, and including hundreds of black and white prints, where the bronzing is supposed to be most noticeable. Unless the light catches it at certain angles, the problem is completely invisible. With a controlled viewing angle where you don't get glare off the paper, I defy anyone to tell me if a print was made with ultrachromes or not based on seeing "bronzing." I've got otherwise identical glossy prints right here in front of me as I type, from an Epson 2200 and an HP, and I can't see the difference unless I tilt the pages to get glare off the light. Even with a magnifying glass. And I'm using a bright, diffuse, flourescent light- which is supposed to be the worst viewing conditions for bringing out the problem. Have you actually seen this problem, to be so sure that "the problem is more severe then then you're suggesting"?

Canon has a page that describes their proposed system. They describe using a similar ink-jet system for building the semiconductor array.

Admittedly, OLEDs, if they ever are practical, will be far more flexible, lightweight, just flat-out cooler than SEDs. But, the way that they keep moving the release date out a-year-per-year has me wondering if they will *ever* be practical.

Thad

Have you thought about the fact that these big companies are 'bankrolling' the new IP only company because they are just trying to protect themselves?

How very noble of them!

Of course, once they have the power, what is to stop them from using it? Oh, that's right! (litigous bastards) corporations don't sue other corporations over intellectual property.

In a surprise move early this morning, the GNAA announced its new policy of open support for Iraqi Freedom Fighters, pledging aid and expertise to the troubled region. GNAA spokesman Gary Niger appeared on the Orly Factor this evening to field questions about the alliance. What follows is an unedited transcript of his response to a question on the GNAA's motives for alliance.

"I don't think it's surprising. We were initally skeptical of these people's ability to deliver, since we discovered that Jews, not arabs were the ones responsible for WTC 9.11 NEVAR 4GET. After the Nick Berg affair, we got interested."

"We looked over the Saddam Loyalist\Radical Fundamentalist adgenda and found that we had a lot in common with these guys. These guys are really focused. Just look their insistance that women keep their homely faces covered at all times, to keep men focused on men, the way our Gay Nigger God, Allah intended."

"But what really sealed the deal was compassion. When we looked over their financial records, we were shocked. These brave, oily men are out there on the streets of Fallujah every day, risking their tight asses, and they're not seeing even 1% of the revenue associated with their heroic actions."

"Look at the Nick Berg video. Here you have a great artistic vision, marred not only by poor equipment, but also by the scheming jews at Ogrish.com who unjustly stole their copyrighted material and made a huge profit on it. It's unconscionable."

"Fortunately, we at the GNAA believe in freedom, and we believe in helping out the underdogs. That's why I'm so pleased to present the freedom fighters of Iraq with the following gifts:"

"To prevent further exploitation, we are assigning our top programmers to share our DRM (Dong Rights Management) technology with these valiant men. Biometric Dong Recognition is becoming widely recognized as the most secure means of identity establishment, and with our new vibrating scanners, it's easier than ever."

"While these guys don't lack heart, their VHS camcorders have got to go. We're supplying not only three professional Betacam SP units, but also 25 Canon XL1s camcorders, for agents in the field. This will greatly increase not just the number of beheadings caught on tape, but also the quality."

"Say goodbye to grainy, choppy beheading videos. The next time you see some poor bastard getting his shit lopped, it's going to be in 3 CCD quality, with image stabilization. With Canon's XL lens mounting system, you can now be decapitated with Mohammeds's (PBUH) full blessing, at potential focal ranges between 24 and 17,280 mm."

"And of course we'll be encoding it all with 'Terrorist's Choice' OGG Theora\OGG Vorbis."

"Finally, I would like to present one gross of top of the line Husqvarna 3120XP chainsaws. We've all watched with embarassment at the struggling efforts of these spindly-armed arab boytoys. Now, junk lopping can be accomplished in a fraction of the time, even by the pathetically malnourished."

"This is a great day for both the GNAA, and the movement to free Iraq from its oppressors. Allah Al Akbar. Jews did WTC."

Mr. Niger concluded his speech by blasting semen into Mr. O'Reilly's eyes, effectively ending the debate.

About Iraqui Freedom Fighters

Iraq has long been known as the world's premiere terrorists to meet, greet, and defeat their zionist oppressors. With the Israel-led coalition forces squatting on holy sites, Iraq is a modern day decapitation bonanza. Iraq's Freedom Fighters are well known as the world's most industrious

Everyone is too used to doing it the old way, though, so I doubt it would ever happen.

It looks like Canon may be picking up some of Intel's slack:
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delDetailAct&fcategoryid=131&modelid=10678

26 refills, $17. Color printing is a serious hassle. After having many problems, we spent a lot of time researching it. We bought a Canon S820 and a Canon S520, and we have had good luck refilling the cartridges using a kit from IMS, which we bought at a Costco store. The refill kit is NOT available on the Costco web site. Each kit allows something like 26 refills, and the kits cost $17 at the Costco store. The second time you do a refill, it is extremely easy. We inspected photos and font characters under a magnifying glass and were not able to see a difference between the hugely expensive Canon ink and the refill ink. There has been no difference in fading.

The S820 has six separate cartridges. It is very slow, but photos are much nicer. The S520 has 4 cartridges. It's faster, and good for printing labels, for example. We have had no problems with print heads, which are separate from the tanks. Both use the same refill kit, which comes with 6 ink colors.

Buy low. Then buy low again. Our experience is that it is far better to pay $50 for a printer, and replace it often with a new $50 printer, than to pay a lot and buy a "good one". The technology is changing so fast that the $50 printer of a few months from now will be better than the $400 printer sold now.

HP: Ugh. In the past we have bought several HP color printers, and been badly burned. HP is expensive, and we have encountered many quirks. (Since Carly Fiorino took over HP, we see a lot of HP printer software seriously failing, right out of the box. Can someone with little technical experience lead a technically oriented company? It's like a horse that can do math. It appears to be possible, until you realize that it is just a series of tricks.)

Canon: Canon is an extremely adversarial company, in our experience, but less adversarial than the other printer manufacturers, at present.

Canon does product churning, and apparently deliberate product confusion. Before, all the companies sold 6 tank printers as "photo printers". Now Canon is selling 4 or 5 tank printers as photo printers. The Canon USA web site has liberal use of web developer resume-building technologies like Flash and Javascript that tend to defeat use of Mozilla's tabs, and provide for menu choice surprises. There are extremely long URIs which are difficult to email.

The Canon i860 is not related to the S820. Note that the web page says, "... it provides true 4 color photo printing...". One day a few months ago, the InkJet printer companies switched from "true 6 color photo printing" to the present "true 4 color photo printing". I don't know their motivation, but the 6 color printers print MUCH nicer photos, in our experience, with much better shadow detail. Tech company marketing departments take extreme advantage of any ignorance they find in customers.

Testing in the store. At the time, Fry's was doing its insane prices thing with Canon printers. It was possible to buy "refurbished" Canon printers for $30 and $50, which is what ours cost. They weren't really refurbished, it seemed. We tested them in the store and found that 1/3 taken from sealed boxes did not work. The third time we tried opening boxes in the store and testing printers with a laptop, we were told not to do it. The only alternative was to take printers back to the office and find that some of them didn't work. I can understand Fry's position; I can understand mine, too. We bought all the printers that we opened that worked.

Rebates: Be really careful with Fry's rebates; often we have had experiences where they use some trick. We bought Netgear products from Fry's with rebates. All of the rebate receipts were v

26 refills, $17. Color printing is a serious hassle. After having many problems, we spent a lot of time researching it. We bought a Canon S820 and a Canon S520, and we have had good luck refilling the cartridges using a kit from IMS, which we bought at a Costco store. The refill kit is NOT available on the Costco web site. Each kit allows something like 26 refills, and the kits cost $17 at the Costco store. The second time you do a refill, it is extremely easy. We inspected photos and font characters under a magnifying glass and were not able to see a difference between the hugely expensive Canon ink and the refill ink. There has been no difference in fading.

The S820 has six separate cartridges. It is very slow, but photos are much nicer. The S520 has 4 cartridges. It's faster, and good for printing labels, for example. We have had no problems with print heads, which are separate from the tanks. Both use the same refill kit, which comes with 6 ink colors.

Buy low. Then buy low again. Our experience is that it is far better to pay $50 for a printer, and replace it often with a new $50 printer, than to pay a lot and buy a "good one". The technology is changing so fast that the $50 printer of a few months from now will be better than the $400 printer sold now.

HP: Ugh. In the past we have bought several HP color printers, and been badly burned. HP is expensive, and we have encountered many quirks. (Since Carly Fiorino took over HP, we see a lot of HP printer software seriously failing, right out of the box. Can someone with little technical experience lead a technically oriented company? It's like a horse that can do math. It appears to be possible, until you realize that it is just a series of tricks.)

Canon: Canon is an extremely adversarial company, in our experience, but less adversarial than the other printer manufacturers, at present.

Canon does product churning, and apparently deliberate product confusion. Before, all the companies sold 6 tank printers as "photo printers". Now Canon is selling 4 or 5 tank printers as photo printers. The Canon USA web site has liberal use of web developer resume-building technologies like Flash and Javascript that tend to defeat use of Mozilla's tabs, and provide for menu choice surprises. There are extremely long URIs which are difficult to email.

The Canon i860 is not related to the S820. Note that the web page says, "... it provides true 4 color photo printing...". One day a few months ago, the InkJet printer companies switched from "true 6 color photo printing" to the present "true 4 color photo printing". I don't know their motivation, but the 6 color printers print MUCH nicer photos, in our experience, with much better shadow detail. Tech company marketing departments take extreme advantage of any ignorance they find in customers.

Testing in the store. At the time, Fry's was doing its insane prices thing with Canon printers. It was possible to buy "refurbished" Canon printers for $30 and $50, which is what ours cost. They weren't really refurbished, it seemed. We tested them in the store and found that 1/3 taken from sealed boxes did not work. The third time we tried opening boxes in the store and testing printers with a laptop, we were told not to do it. The only alternative was to take printers back to the office and find that some of them didn't work. I can understand Fry's position; I can understand mine, too. We bought all the printers that we opened that worked.

Rebates: Be really careful with Fry's rebates; often we have had experiences where they use some trick. We bought Netgear products from Fry's with rebates. All of the rebate receipts were v

they're written in either VB or some extremely Windows-oriented GUI builder so they're no-go on Mac, Unix, Linux, etc.

I've also noticed that hardware developers are shooting themselves in the foot by not providing drivers and software for different platforms, or at least software with equivalent features as their Windows counterparts, especially if their hardware uses USB. One example is Visioneer. They make a great paper archiving setup, and had a Mac version up until OS X, when they dropped support for the platform. Another example is Canon. I noticed that although the software they provide for their LiDE 50 scanners look similar on both platforms, there are slight differences that matter. The Mac version of their Toolbox lacks the option of manually handling the numbering of files when you use the "Save" function in the toolbox. And their ScanGear software lacks the "Text Enhanced" feature that the Windows version has, which is important for compression. Not having these options set up prevents their scanners from being efficiently used for paper archiving on the Mac in comparison to the Windows version.

they're written in either VB or some extremely Windows-oriented GUI builder so they're no-go on Mac, Unix, Linux, etc.

I've also noticed that hardware developers are shooting themselves in the foot by not providing drivers and software for different platforms, or at least software with equivalent features as their Windows counterparts, especially if their hardware uses USB. One example is Visioneer. They make a great paper archiving setup, and had a Mac version up until OS X, when they dropped support for the platform. Another example is Canon. I noticed that although the software they provide for their LiDE 50 scanners look similar on both platforms, there are slight differences that matter. The Mac version of their Toolbox lacks the option of manually handling the numbering of files when you use the "Save" function in the toolbox. And their ScanGear software lacks the "Text Enhanced" feature that the Windows version has, which is important for compression. Not having these options set up prevents their scanners from being efficiently used for paper archiving on the Mac in comparison to the Windows version.

It seems to be approximately 57.6 MB per an image file in the RAW format and ~8-15 in JPEG

Eh, that's pretty much bullshit. It's about 15 MB for RAWs and 5.5 for JPEGS. The finished TIFF from the RAWS may be about that size, but that's not something that's going to be handled by the camera.

Specs listing

Nope. Even the high end DSRLs still have a small crop factor. I think the 1ds has a 1.3 crop factor, small, but still there.

First of all, it's not a "crop factor" - that's a misnomer. It's a focal length multiplier, or if you're Canon and want to be cute about it, a "conversion factor". There's an important difference there, which relates to the focal length of the lenses you're using.

The original 1DS had no focal multiplier - it used a full-size CMOS sensor just like the new one does. See here and here (see the focal length multiplier, which is "1").

Kodak also produces cameras with full-size CMOS sensors (see here; they make basically this same camera with both Canon and Nikon lens mounts). Keep in mind, though, that "full-size" is a relative term and is basically a misnomer just like "crop factor" is - the only reason it even matters is so that photographers can match the lenses already on the market to their new digital camera. Otherwise it doesn't matter if the CMOS is 37mm or 40mm or 32mm or whatever, as long as there's enough room for however many pixels you want to stuff into it.

Canon's WFT-E1 Wireless Transmitter reportedly also works on Canon's three newest digital cameras, including the 1DsmkII (as mentioned), as well as the 20D ($1500, 8mp, 1.6x crop factor, high end consumer level) and 1DmkII ($4500, 8mp, 1.3x crop factor, pro body).

Rob Galbraith has a much more information here, as Canon's site appears to still need an update.

For the non-pro enthusiast, the 20D looks to be a great camera. It can handle 5 frames per second, instant on, and has ISO 3200 performance that beats most ISO 400 digicams. They are finally trickling into the market, and Calumet likely has a few in stock (they have several kits locally here in Boston). Just give them a call.

Canon's WFT-E1 Wireless Transmitter reportedly also works on Canon's three newest digital cameras, including the 1DsmkII (as mentioned), as well as the 20D ($1500, 8mp, 1.6x crop factor, high end consumer level) and 1DmkII ($4500, 8mp, 1.3x crop factor, pro body).

Rob Galbraith has a much more information here, as Canon's site appears to still need an update.

For the non-pro enthusiast, the 20D looks to be a great camera. It can handle 5 frames per second, instant on, and has ISO 3200 performance that beats most ISO 400 digicams. They are finally trickling into the market, and Calumet likely has a few in stock (they have several kits locally here in Boston). Just give them a call.

No. You're probably thinking of the 1D Mark II (the previous, 8MP Mark II), which did have a 1.3 crop factor.

I don't think so!
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delTechSpecsAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=10 598
From here.

4992 x 3328 pixels over a (36 x 24 mm) 1.4 x .94 inch CMOS array essentially tells you they have a cmos with a 7micron pixel pitch. This is hardly revolutionary. Assuming the optics are similar in quality to a comparable film camera, to have the same image quality that would be equivalent to saying that ordinary film has 7 micron light sensitive (silver?) particles. This is ridiculous!

http://science.howstuffworks.com/film3.htm
here says that "The imaging layers contain sub-micron sized grains of silver-halide crystals that act as the photon detectors". That's submicron.

So it's a nice camera. That doesn't mean it's a fantastic sensor - it still suffers from the same attributes that other CMOS/CCD sensors do. They've got phenomenal ADC's but the sensors just can't be packed as tightly as silver can be.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~fyiglover/articles/ resolution.html
says that "All three silver microfilm manufacturers (Agfa, Fuji & Kodak) certify their medium speed microfilms to have the ability to achieve 800 lines/mm of resolution."

In a surprise move early this morning, the GNAA announced its new policy of open support for Iraqi Freedom Fighters, pledging aid and expertise to the troubled region. GNAA spokesman Gary Niger appeared on the Orly Factor this evening to field questions about the alliance. What follows is an unedited transcript of his response to a question on the GNAA's motives for alliance.

"I don't think it's surprising. We were initally skeptical of these people's ability to deliver, since we discovered that Jews, not arabs were the ones responsible for WTC 9.11 NEVAR 4GET. After the Nick Berg affair, we got interested."

"We looked over the Saddam Loyalist\Radical Fundamentalist adgenda and found that we had a lot in common with these guys. These guys are really focused. Just look their insistance that women keep their homely faces covered at all times, to keep men focused on men, the way our Gay Nigger God, Allah intended."

"But what really sealed the deal was compassion. When we looked over their financial records, we were shocked. These brave, oily men are out there on the streets of Fallujah every day, risking their tight asses, and they're not seeing even 1% of the revenue associated with their heroic actions."

"Look at the Nick Berg video. Here you have a great artistic vision, marred not only by poor equipment, but also by the scheming jews at Ogrish.com who unjustly stole their copyrighted material and made a huge profit on it. It's unconscionable."

"Fortunately, we at the GNAA believe in freedom, and we believe in helping out the underdogs. That's why I'm so pleased to present the freedom fighters of Iraq with the following gifts:"

"To prevent further exploitation, we are assigning our top programmers to share our DRM (Dong Rights Management) technology with these valiant men. Biometric Dong Recognition is becoming widely recognized as the most secure means of identity establishment, and with our new vibrating scanners, it's easier than ever."

"While these guys don't lack heart, their VHS camcorders have got to go. We're supplying not only three professional Betacam SP units, but also 25 Canon XL1s camcorders, for agents in the field. This will greatly increase not just the number of beheadings caught on tape, but also the quality."

"Say goodbye to grainy, choppy beheading videos. The next time you see some poor bastard getting his shit lopped, it's going to be in 3 CCD quality, with image stabilization. With Canon's XL lens mounting system, you can now be decapitated with Mohammeds's (PBUH) full blessing, at potential focal ranges between 24 and 17,280 mm."

"And of course we'll be encoding it all with 'Terrorist's Choice' OGG Theora\OGG Vorbis."

"Finally, I would like to present one gross of top of the line Husqvarna 3120XP chainsaws. We've all watched with embarassment at the struggling efforts of these spindly-armed arab boytoys. Now, junk lopping can be accomplished in a fraction of the time, even by the pathetically malnourished."

"This is a great day for both the GNAA, and the movement to free Iraq from its oppressors. Allah Al Akbar. Jews did WTC."

Mr. Niger concluded his speech by blasting semen into Mr. O'Reilly's eyes, effectively ending the debate.

About Iraqui Freedom Fighters

Iraq has long been known as the world's premiere terrorists to meet, greet, and defeat their zionist oppressors. With the Israel-led coalition forces squatting on holy sites, Iraq is a modern day decapitation bonanza. Iraq's Freedom Fighters are well known as the world's most industrious head-choppers.

About Husqvarna Chainsaws

In a surprise move early this morning, the GNAA announced its new policy of open support for Iraqi Freedom Fighters, pledging aid and expertise to the troubled region. GNAA spokesman Gary Niger appeared on the Orly Factor this evening to field questions about the alliance. What follows is an unedited transcript of his response to a question on the GNAA's motives for alliance.

"I don't think it's surprising. We were initally skeptical of these people's ability to deliver, since we discovered that Jews, not arabs were the ones responsible for WTC 9.11 NEVAR 4GET. After the Nick Berg affair, we got interested."

"We looked over the Saddam Loyalist\Radical Fundamentalist adgenda and found that we had a lot in common with these guys. These guys are really focused. Just look their insistance that women keep their homely faces covered at all times, to keep men focused on men, the way our Gay Nigger God, Allah intended."

"But what really sealed the deal was compassion. When we looked over their financial records, we were shocked. These brave, oily men are out there on the streets of Fallujah every day, risking their tight asses, and they're not seeing even 1% of the revenue associated with their heroic actions."

"Look at the Nick Berg video. Here you have a great artistic vision, marred not only by poor equipment, but also by the scheming jews at Ogrish.com who unjustly stole their copyrighted material and made a huge profit on it. It's unconscionable."

"Fortunately, we at the GNAA believe in freedom, and we believe in helping out the underdogs. That's why I'm so pleased to present the freedom fighters of Iraq with the following gifts:"

"To prevent further exploitation, we are assigning our top programmers to share our DRM (Dong Rights Management) technology with these valiant men. Biometric Dong Recognition is becoming widely recognized as the most secure means of identity establishment, and with our new vibrating scanners, it's easier than ever."

"While these guys don't lack heart, their VHS camcorders have got to go. We're supplying not only three professional Betacam SP units, but also 25 Canon XL1s camcorders, for agents in the field. This will greatly increase not just the number of beheadings caught on tape, but also the quality."

"Say goodbye to grainy, choppy beheading videos. The next time you see some poor bastard getting his shit lopped, it's going to be in 3 CCD quality, with image stabilization. With Canon's XL lens mounting system, you can now be decapitated with Mohammeds's (PBUH) full blessing, at potential focal ranges between 24 and 17,280 mm."

"And of course we'll be encoding it all with 'Terrorist's Choice' OGG Theora\OGG Vorbis."

"Finally, I would like to present one gross of top of the line Husqvarna 3120XP chainsaws. We've all watched with embarassment at the struggling efforts of these spindly-armed arab boytoys. Now, junk lopping can be accomplished in a fraction of the time, even by the pathetically malnourished."

"This is a great day for both the GNAA, and the movement to free Iraq from its oppressors. Allah Al Akbar. Jews did WTC."

Mr. Niger concluded his speech by blasting semen into Mr. O'Reilly's eyes, effectively ending the debate.

About Iraqui Freedom Fighters

Iraq has long been known as the world's premiere terrorists to meet, greet, and defeat their zionist oppressors. With the Israel-led coalition forces squatting on holy sites, Iraq is a modern day decapitation bonanza. Iraq's Freedom Fighters are well known as the world's most industrious head-choppers.

About Husqvarna Chainsaws

In a surprise move early this morning, the GNAA announced its new policy of open support for Iraqi Freedom Fighters, pledging aid and expertise to the troubled region. GNAA spokesman Gary Niger appeared on the Orly Factor this evening to field questions about the alliance. What follows is an unedited transcript of his response to a question on the GNAA's motives for alliance.

"I don't think it's surprising. We were initally skeptical of these people's ability to deliver, since we discovered that Jews, not arabs were the ones responsible for WTC 9.11 NEVAR 4GET. After the Nick Berg affair, we got interested."

"We looked over the Saddam Loyalist\Radical Fundamentalist adgenda and found that we had a lot in common with these guys. These guys are really focused. Just look their insistance that women keep their homely faces covered at all times, to keep men focused on men, the way our Gay Nigger God, Allah intended."

"But what really sealed the deal was compassion. When we looked over their financial records, we were shocked. These brave, oily men are out there on the streets of Fallujah every day, risking their tight asses, and they're not seeing even 1% of the revenue associated with their heroic actions."

"Look at the Nick Berg video. Here you have a great artistic vision, marred not only by poor equipment, but also by the scheming jews at Ogrish.com who unjustly stole their copyrighted material and made a huge profit on it. It's unconscionable."

"Fortunately, we at the GNAA believe in freedom, and we believe in helping out the underdogs. That's why I'm so pleased to present the freedom fighters of Iraq with the following gifts:"

"To prevent further exploitation, we are assigning our top programmers to share our DRM (Dong Rights Management) technology with these valiant men. Biometric Dong Recognition is becoming widely recognized as the most secure means of identity establishment, and with our new vibrating scanners, it's easier than ever."

"While these guys don't lack heart, their VHS camcorders have got to go. We're supplying not only three professional Betacam SP units, but also 25 Canon XL1s camcorders, for agents in the field. This will greatly increase not just the number of beheadings caught on tape, but also the quality."

"Say goodbye to grainy, choppy beheading videos. The next time you see some poor bastard getting his shit lopped, it's going to be in 3 CCD quality, with image stabilization. With Canon's XL lens mounting system, you can now be decapitated with Mohammeds's (PBUH) full blessing, at potential focal ranges between 24 and 17,280 mm."

"And of course we'll be encoding it all with 'Terrorist's Choice' OGG Theora\OGG Vorbis."

"Finally, I would like to present one gross of top of the line Husqvarna 3120XP chainsaws. We've all watched with embarassment at the struggling efforts of these spindly-armed arab boytoys. Now, junk lopping can be accomplished in a fraction of the time, even by the pathetically malnourished."

"This is a great day for both the GNAA, and the movement to free Iraq from its oppressors. Allah Al Akbar. Jews did WTC."

Mr. Niger concluded his speech by blasting semen into Mr. O'Reilly's eyes, effectively ending the debate.

About Iraqui Freedom Fighters

Iraq has long been known as the world's premiere terrorists to meet, greet, and defeat their zionist oppressors. With the Israel-led coalition forces squatting on holy sites, Iraq is a modern day decapitation bonanza. Iraq's Freedom Fighters are well known as the world's most industrious

In a surprise move early this morning, the GNAA announced its new policy of open support for Iraqi Freedom Fighters, pledging aid and expertise to the troubled region. GNAA spokesman Gary Niger appeared on the Orly Factor this evening to field questions about the alliance. What follows is an unedited transcript of his response to a question on the GNAA's motives for alliance.

"I don't think it's surprising. We were initally skeptical of these people's ability to deliver, since we discovered that Jews, not arabs were the ones responsible for WTC 9.11 NEVAR 4GET. After the Nick Berg affair, we got interested."

"We looked over the Saddam Loyalist\Radical Fundamentalist adgenda and found that we had a lot in common with these guys. These guys are really focused. Just look their insistance that women keep their homely faces covered at all times, to keep men focused on men, the way our Gay Nigger God, Allah intended."

"But what really sealed the deal was compassion. When we looked over their financial records, we were shocked. These brave, oily men are out there on the streets of Fallujah every day, risking their tight asses, and they're not seeing even 1% of the revenue associated with their heroic actions."

"Look at the Nick Berg video. Here you have a great artistic vision, marred not only by poor equipment, but also by the scheming jews at Ogrish.com who unjustly stole their copyrighted material and made a huge profit on it. It's unconscionable."

"Fortunately, we at the GNAA believe in freedom, and we believe in helping out the underdogs. That's why I'm so pleased to present the freedom fighters of Iraq with the following gifts:"

"To prevent further exploitation, we are assigning our top programmers to share our DRM (Dong Rights Management) technology with these valiant men. Biometric Dong Recognition is becoming widely recognized as the most secure means of identity establishment, and with our new vibrating scanners, it's easier than ever."

"While these guys don't lack heart, their VHS camcorders have got to go. We're supplying not only three professional Betacam SP units, but also 25 Canon XL1s camcorders, for agents in the field. This will greatly increase not just the number of beheadings caught on tape, but also the quality."

"Say goodbye to grainy, choppy beheading videos. The next time you see some poor bastard getting his shit lopped, it's going to be in 3 CCD quality, with image stabilization. With Canon's XL lens mounting system, you can now be decapitated with Mohammeds's (PBUH) full blessing, at potential focal ranges between 24 and 17,280 mm."

"And of course we'll be encoding it all with 'Terrorist's Choice' OGG Theora\OGG Vorbis."

"Finally, I would like to present one gross of top of the line Husqvarna 3120XP chainsaws. We've all watched with embarassment at the struggling efforts of these spindly-armed arab boytoys. Now, junk lopping can be accomplished in a fraction of the time, even by the pathetically malnourished."

"This is a great day for both the GNAA, and the movement to free Iraq from its oppressors. Allah Al Akbar. Jews did WTC."

Mr. Niger concluded his speech by blasting semen into Mr. O'Reilly's eyes, effectively ending the debate.

About Iraqui Freedom Fighters

Iraq has long been known as the world's premiere terrorists to meet, greet, and defeat their zionist oppressors. With the Israel-led coalition forces squatting on holy sites, Iraq is a modern day decapitation bonanza. Iraq's Freedom Fighters are well known as the world's most industrious

I'd like to second (or third) the recommendation on the Canon A80 (or newer model). I got the [2Mpx] A40 back when it was new and have loved it, and that product line has just gotten better. I've recommended it to family and friends, 5 of which have gotten newer A-series cameras over the past 2 years. The newer models have a flip-out screens and nicer controls than the A40, but they all have manual aperture and shutter-speed control, making them the closest thing to an SLR (exposure-control-wise) in point-and-shoot body. Additionally, the A-series cameras take 4 AA batteries, a God-send in my opinion. With NiMH rechargebles, the batteries seem to last a long time; and emergency alkiline replacement are availible anywhere in the world for reasonable prices as AA seems to be the most common size everywhere.

As for camera resolution and printing, I just tried printing some 2Mpx images from my A40 on a Canon i9900 photo printer, the first that I've tried that prints higher res than the camera does.
The results:
- 4x6 prints looked flawless
- 8x10 prints looked flawless if your nose isn't pressed up to the picture. (in my opinion, good enough for framing and hanging on the wall)
- I haven't yet found 13x19 paper, but I imagine the results will be similar to the 8x10s, grainy close up, but not bad on the wall above the couch.

All this said, I'm hankering for a Canon Digital Rebel. As much as the aperture control of the A-series fits my creative needs, I am eager to return to the composition control provided by multiple lenses. I plan on keeping the A40 though, for remaining on belt in easy reach while the SLR is safely stowed in the backpack while skiing, etc.

Hope this helps!
Adam

Some of you may be interested to know that Canon Canon has implemented eye-controlled autofocus in some of their professional SLR cameras, namely the EOS Elan7ne. This tracks the movement of your eye using an infrared illuminator and a small camera-like sensor, to allow you to specify the the focus point simply by looking at it in the viewfinder! Neat stuff.

Some of you may be interested to know that Canon Canon has implemented eye-controlled autofocus in some of their professional SLR cameras, namely the EOS Elan7ne. This tracks the movement of your eye using an infrared illuminator and a small camera-like sensor, to allow you to specify the the focus point simply by looking at it in the viewfinder! Neat stuff.

Some info from 3 reputable sites:
http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorsize/
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=Pixel_Quality
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/counting1 .shtml

As for lens quality, it ought to be obvious that a better lens will provide better image quality. If it's not, go here, click on a couple lenses, and look at their MTF chart. If you're not familiar with how to read an MTF chart, here's the low-down: a better lens has all the lines closer to the top of the chart (for a more detailed explanation, check out Canon's glossary). Pick a couple lenses of comparable focal length, look at their MTF chart, and then compare the price. For instance, look at the 80-200mm f/4-5.6 compared with the 70-200mm f/4L or f/2.8L. The 80-200mm is currently going for $120. The 70-200mm f/2.8L is currently going for a little over $1100. FYI, lenses with an "L" in the name are their pro series. There's a lot more to a lens than just its ability to resolve detail and show contrast, of course -- look here for more info on why pro lenses are so much more expensive (and better) than consumer-grade lenses. And by "consumer grade" I'm not even getting close to the level of a camera phone lens.

I strongly suspect that the solution will be some sort of hardware image signing, rather than after-the-fact examination. Canon already offers a Data Verification Kit for their superb EOS 1-DS digital SLR. They don't give too many details, but my guess is that they can attach a cryptographically signed hash of the image data into the file header so that it's possible to confirm the integrity of the data later. Since the EOS 1-Ds can only save data in raw and JPEG formats, and since this doesn't make sense for raw data (which has to be processed to be turned into a viewable image) it seems likely that they have this working with JPEGs.