But a panoply of new models arrived to satisfy the needs of experts and professionals in 2007. First was Canon's $5,000 EOS-1D Mark III, a rugged 10.1-megapixel photojournalist model unveiled in March that can shoot 10.5 frames per second. Alas for Canon, the camera's record was blighted with concerns about its autofocus performance.Source: CNET
But the floodgates opened in the second half of the year with Canon's top-end, $8,000 21.1-megapixel 1Ds Mark III. Canon hopes this full-frame model not only wlll keep professional SLR shooters loyal but also to woo studio photographers using even more expensive medium-format cameras. Announced at the same time in August and aimed at the serious enthusiast was the 40D, a $1,300 10.1-megapixel model.
A week later, Canon's biggest rival, Nikon, shot back with the $1,800 D300, and, more significant by far, the $5,000 D3, the first digital SLR to follow Canon's lead with sensors as large as a full frame of 35mm film. Large sensors are expensive, but the extra real estate means that individual pixels can be made larger for a given resolution, and larger pixels can work better in low light. The ISO sensitivity rating of Nikon's D3 goes up to a whopping 25,600.
Olympus, too, released a new top-end model, the $1,700 E-3, and two SLR newcomers expanded their ambitions with their second models: Panasonic's $1,300 (including a lens) 10.1-megapixel DMC-L10 and Sony's $1,400, 12-megapixel Alpha A700.
Digital SLR camera market booming
Posted on Sunday, December 30 2007 @ 16:35 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
As expected 2007 was a strong year for the dSLR camera market: