In addition to my love of all things Japanese, I am a hopeless gadget nut, so I’ll be sneaking more tech news in to zonjineko! but I will be keeping it just to gadgets made in or available in Japan…okay yep I know that’s pretty much everything!

Firstly let me admit I am a big Canon fan from way back and currently own a 5D Mark II and I think it is the best camera I have ever purchased.

I bought the 5D Mark II at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara (7 storeys of gadget heaven) when I was last in Tokyo several months ago. The full HD video mode, full-frame sensor and outstanding high ISO performance did the deal for me and so I nervously laid down the credit card for the AUD$3,500+ purchase (damn Aussie dollar against the yen) but it is worth every cent.

As is always the case in the land of gadgets, a new model is always just around the corner and so it was with some sense of inevitability that the much-rumoured Canon 7D was announced recently and what an announcement it was.

The 7D has a simply amazing list of features for this price range and will bring the whole DSLR Full HD video thing to a whole new market, which is going to be great for everybody.

For my use, the only letdown with 7D, if you could even call it that, is the lack of a full-frame sensor but maybe that is not going to bother the customers that Canon is targeting with this camera.

I’m very thankful it wasn’t full frame as I really wanted a full frame DSLR with a fast frame rate but couldn’t justify the cost of a 1D Mark III. I may just have had to slap myself down for buying my 5D Mark II if that was the case.

With the release of the 7D, Canon has firmly drawn the line in the sand and it will be intriguing to see what Nikon will announce next to compete at what is essentially a whole new price point/feature matrix. Never before has there been so much camera technology packed in to such a low price tag – US$1699.

Features

• 18 megapixel CMOS Sensor
• Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors
• ISO 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800)
• 8 fps
• Full HD Video at 1920×1080 (30p/24p/25p), 1280×720 (60p/50p) and 640×480 (60p/50p)
• Intelligent Viewfinder with 100% field of view
• New 19-point, all cross-type AF system
• Magnesium body with shutter durability up to 150,000 cycles

Pricing and Availability

The Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR camera is scheduled for release in the US at the end of September 2009, and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated retail price of US$1,699.00.

It will also be offered in a kit version with Canon’s new EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens at an estimated retail price of US$1,899.00.

The Canon WFT-E5A wireless file transmitter is scheduled to be available in early November 2009 and sell at an estimated retail price of US$699.99.

Camera Words

As this is a Japanese blog I guess we better learn some words today. In the table below are a selection of several camera-related words to test your katakana and kanji knowledge.

Try also reading through the text on the 7D website at Canon Japan for more practice and use a site like Tangorin if you want to look up any words you don’t know – make sure you give it your best shot before you look them up otherwise you’re not going to learn anything.

Word	Meaning	Hiragana
レンズキット	Lens Kit	re-n-zu-ki-t-to*
CMOSセンサー	CMOS Sensor	CMOS-se-n-sa-a*
キヤノン	Canon	ki-ya-no-n
高画質	High Resolution Image	ko-u-ga-shi-tsu
画質	Image Quality	ga-shi-tsu
CFカード	CF (Compact Flash) Card	CF ka-a-do*
カメラ	Camera	ka-me-ra

Heads Up Katakana Newbies

The words marked with an asterisk above feature two katakana quirks you may not have seen. The first is the small tsu (ッ), also known as sokuon (促音), in the word レンズキット, which works the same as the hiragana small tsu (っ) by indicating the need to double the consonant that follows it. Check out my small tsu article or at Wikipedia for more on the tricky small tsu.

CMOSセンサー and CFカード both feature the katakana syllable ー called a chōonpu (長音符), which indicates to the reader that they need to double the last vowel of the previous syllable. For example, in CMOSセンサー the second last syllable is サ (SA), which is followed by ー so the sounds becomes SAA (サー) rather than SA (サ).

You may think the double up of a vowel doesn’t really matter but you only have to look at the words for Grandmother (おばあさん -> obaasan) and Aunt (おばさん -> obasan) to realise you could be in a whole world of pain at the next family dinner if you double your vowel to the wrong person.

Add Your Comment | zonjineko! Free Monthly Newsletter