Canon upgrades best selling EOS 20D

Notes and media contacts

The EOS 30D features:
• 8.2 Megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor
• 5fps and 30 large JPEG frame burst
• 2.5", 230K pixel, 170º wide viewing angle LCD screen
• Picture Style image processing parameters
• Spot metering and High Precision 9-point AF system
• DIGIC II image processor with 0.15 sec start-up time
• Digital Photo Professional RAW processing software
• 100,000 cycle shutter durability and rugged magnesium alloy body
• Simultaneous RAW and JPEG recording
• Wide 100-3200 ISO range
• E-TTL II Flash
• PictBridge compatibility
• Complete compatibility with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites
• USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and Video Out connectivity

About Canon Middle East

Canon is a world-leading innovator and provider of imaging and information technology solutions for individuals and businesses. Canon provides both individual products and complete networked technology solutions for information input, management and output. Its product range is divided between Business Solutions (developing IT products, solutions and services for both the office and professional print environments) and Consumer Imaging (photography, video and digital camera, Bubble Jet printers). Canon Middle East is the operational headquarters for Canon in this region, and is based in Dubai, UAE. Further information about Canon Middle East is available at: www.canon-me.com

Canon Contact:
Ruta Bublyte
Marketing Department
Canon Middle East FZ-LLC
Tel: + 971 4 3915050
Direct: + 971 4 3915079
Fax: + 971 4 3916715

Agency Contact:
Linsey Worgan
G2 Dubai
Tel: (9714) 331 0331

Technologies Explained
Picture Style
Picture Style pre-sets simplify in-camera control over image quality. Picture Style pre-sets can be likened to different film types - each one offering a different colour response. Within each easily selectable pre-set, photographers have control over sharpness, contrast, colour tone and saturation. The camera's factory default configuration is set to deliver immediately-usable JPEG images without need for additional menu settings. Picture Style presets applied to a RAW image do not degrade the image in any way and can be revised with Canon's Digital Photo Professional software.
The six pre-sets include: Standard - for crisp, vivid images that don't require post-processing; Portrait - optimises colour tone and saturation and weakens sharpening to achieve attractive skin tones; Landscape - for punchier greens and blues with stronger sharpening to give a crisp edge to mountain, tree and building outlines); Neutral - ideal for post-processing; Faithful - adjusts colour to match the subject colour when shot under a colour temperature of 5200K; Monochrome - for black and white shooting with a range of filter effects (yellow, orange, red and green) and toning effects (sepia, blue, purple and green). The User Defined pre-set can be used to store up to three customised pre-sets, or any of the pre-sets available for download from Canon's web site.

DIGIC II
Now found across the EOS range, DIGIC II is a purpose built, dedicated image processor responsible for the high speed calculations necessary in order to providing exceptionally accurate colour reproduction in real time. Canon's second generation imaging engine, DIGIC II performs the duties of a number of separate processing units to speed processing, save space, and optimise battery life.

To avoid the trade off faced by other manufacturers between camera responsiveness and image quality, Canon has created a processor so fast it can read, process, compress and write image data back to the buffer between exposures. This allows for longer continuous bursts at maximum frame rates before the buffer fills. Moreover, each image can be subjected to the full complex processing algorithms required in order to deliver superb image quality.

CMOS
Canon's award winning CMOS technology is one of the company's key competitive advantages. With noise reduction circuitry at each pixel site, Canon's CMOS sensors have lower noise and lower power consumption characteristics than CCD sensors.

CCD sensors use a bucket relay system to transfer each pixel's accumulated electrical charge to a corresponding gutter. The operation is time consuming and draws considerable power, which limits battery life and generates unwanted heat, further increasing noise and lowering image quality.

By contrast, signal conversion in Canon's CMOS sensors is handled by the individual amplifiers at each pixel site. Unnecessary charge transfer operations are avoided, vastly speeding up the process of getting signal to the image processor. Noise generation is reduced and power consumption limited.

Digital Photo Professional Software
Digital Photo Professional software provides high-speed processing of lossless RAW images. Processing with Digital Photo Professional allows real-time display and immediate application of image adjustments, giving control over RAW image variables such as white balance, dynamic range, exposure compensation and colour tone. The camera JPEG images can be recorded in sRGB or Adobe RGB colour space, and the Digital Photo Professional application supports sRGB, Adobe RGB and Wide Gamut RGB colour spaces. An ICC (International Colour Consortium) profile attaches automatically to RAW images converted to TIFF or JPEG. This allows faithful reproduction of colours in software applications that support ICC profiles, such as Adobe Photoshop. For improved efficiency, a set of image adjustments can be saved as a reciepe and applied to multiple images.