Canon statement on 5DmkII

jeffreaux2

snagged this from dpreview....


Canon statement:

To Owners of the EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera

Thank you for using Canon products.
We have learned that some users of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera have identified two types of image quality phenomena that appear under certain shooting conditions.

1. “Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
2. Vertical banding noise

We are currently investigating and analysing the causes, and examining measures to reduce or eliminate these phenomena by providing correction firmware. An announcement will be made on www.canon-europe.com as soon as measures have been determined.
Details of the phenomena and shooting conditions under which they are likely to occur are as follows.
1. “Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or above on a monitor or if extremely large prints of the images are made.
2. Vertical banding noise
If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background.
▪ Vertical banding noise is not noticeable if the recording format is set to sRAW2.
▪ Vertical banding noise does not occur if the recording format is set to RAW or JPEG.
▪ Noise can be reduced if C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority is set to 0: Disable.
Canon apologizes for any inconvenience caused and thanks photographers for their patience.

davev

The first step is admitting that you have a problem.
This is for sure, the earliest that Canon has done that.

I'm now sure that they think this can be fixed with a firmware upgrade.
Now that they have sent notice that there is a problem, if it ends up being hardware, they'd have to either
recall the cameras that have been shipped, or refund if the problem couldn't be fixed.
Of course, a person could always keep it the way it is also.

jeffreaux2

davev wrote:

The first step is admitting that you have a problem.
This is for sure, the earliest that Canon has done that.

I'm now sure that they think this can be fixed with a firmware upgrade.
Now that they have sent notice that there is a problem, if it ends up being hardware, they'd have to either
recall the cameras that have been shipped, or refund if the problem couldn't be fixed.
Of course, a person could always keep it the way it is also.

I thought it was interesting they offered workarounds for the banding, but nothing for the dots.

It is good of them to be up-front. There were issues with some of the XTi bodies after their first release concerning underexposure. Those had to be sent to Canon for repair, and I don't recall Canon ever admitting there was a problem. Mine was unaffected, and has proved to be a very good tool.

davev

I had (still have) a Canon 70-300is lens that if you turned the camera into portrait orientation, the lens wouldn't focus right.
It took Canon 7 or 8 months before they did a recall.
I sent mine in to be fixed, and it's been a great lens ever since.
It's to bad that it took months of people complaining for them to do any thing.