Some pre-PMA news... anybody else catch this? The Canon 1D has been updated to the Mark II version at 8.2mp and shoots 8.5fps. And it's only $4500!

See:

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos1dm2/index.html

and:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/canoneos1dmkii/

Canon is really sticking it to Nikon. Assuming this camera delivers the speed and image quality the specs suggest, the Nikon D2H is pretty bland.

This sounds like a good advance on the original 1D. Did you also see the clues to the new lenses on their way, 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 DO IS USM (from April 2004*) and 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 L IS USM (from April 2004*).

The lenses aren't real exciting to me, but offer better quality over the models they're replacing. Hopefully more lenses will be introduced at PMA, but i doubt it.

Yeah, not big on my list either. It will be interesting to see if the 75-300 DO is sucessful since the 400 DO wasn't that big a hit.

I'd like to see an improved fisheye that works better with the 1d. I really love my fisheye and the 1.3 kind of kills it a little.

Gents:

I sniffed out a very attractive deal on a refurbished 10D for the same price as a new Rebel, and am now considering lenses...can you weigh in on the seemingly endless are-Tamron-lenses-good-enough debate? Just want to make sure that I would be paying for more than the name with the Canon L series, obviously nice glass but is it that much better. I'm probably looking at two zooms to cover the range I need, 17-150+ (i.e. 28-200 35mm format)

I had a closer look at the specs and a few things, other than the obvious ones have changed too.

Flash sync has been reduced from 500 to 250and max shutter speed is down to 8000 from 16000. The LCD has been upgraded from a 2" 120 000pix to 2" 230 000 unit. ISO range is basically the same but can now be extended down to 50 instead of 100. And finally battery life has been improved from approx 500 shots @ 20 degrees C to approx 1200.

Therotically, it's an improvement, especially now they have added the zoom function to the LCD, but we'll have to wait and see how it performs in the field.

Charles,

I'm a month late in responding, but...

I own a Canon 10D. It is literally the best dollar to value item I have ever purchased in my lifetime. I also bought some Tamron lenses because I couldn't afford the big glass with the Canon label.

Will the Tamron lenses do what you need them to do? Sure they will and don't let any lens snob tell you different. (Do you know anyone who can look at a photo and tell you what kind of lens you used?) I've seen some knockout photos taken with the cardboard/plastic lens throw-aways you can purchase at the grocery checkout line.

With that being said, I just sold my Tamron lenses (28-105, 200-400) and purchased a Canon 17-40 and 100-400 IS. Are they better? For what I need to do they'll be much better.

First, I was able to purchase these lenses due to the procedes generated by the Tamron lenses. If you recall, I couldn't (or didn't want to) afford the Canon lenses early on. Second, These lenses fill a very specific need. I need the 17-40 to capture all the grandeur of a tight space - I want to see as much as possible and the 17-40 does that without too much of the fisheye effect.
The 100-400 IS (which I just received yesterday) will help me with moving shots at slow shutter (125-180) speeds when fully exnded to 400mm (actually 640mm when coupled with the 10D).

A number of shots taken with Tamron fully extended came back slightly out of focus due to camera shake, and believe me, throwing away what would have been an amazing shot is like throwing an interception. You want it back, but you can't have it back - heartbreak. No amount of manipulation in PhotoShop will ever fix a bad photo and there's no such thing as almost in focus, it either is or isn't. The IS (Image Stabilizer) will help me with that issue and allow me to slow my shutter speed even more.

I have enlarged my best photos up to 16x20 and they look excellent. They were digitally printed on photo paper at the local lab.

My Tamron lenses worked great, but the Canon lenses will raise the bar and ensure that the great majority of my photos will be keepers.

This link will take you to photos captured with my Tamron lenses.

http://www.henry1.com/photos.htm

Let me know if you have any complaints... :)