Opinion: Photo pros had been simmering about Canon's silence on the issue, which has been known for months.Canon USA has confirmed the disappearance of images on its flagship 1DsII and 1DII professional digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras.
According to an announcement from Canon issued Friday, the problem occurs after reviewing—"chimping"—on the back LCD. Images that have been reviewed may later be found to have been lost.
Canon indicates that a firmware fix for the affected cameras will be distributed by the end of this month. The affected cameras are field upgradeable; firmware can be uploaded from a memory card inserted in the camera.
A second, different, issue of image disappearance appears to be specific to Lexar 80x Professional CompactFlash cards, when used in conjunction with a much wider range of Canon cameras.
The affected products listed in the release are the EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II, EOS 20D, EOS Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D Digital / EOS Kiss Digital N. Lexar has indicated that it will offer a free upgrade for the affected cards.
I would like to stress that professional photographers consider the loss of already taken images a most serious problem: Imagine being hired to shoot a wedding and seeing the pictures on the camera display, and then discovering later that they are gone.
The occasional disappearance of images, file corruption and lockups on the pro Canon models has therefore been the subject of considerable debate on Internet forums for a number of months as users struggled to independently diagnose the problems and develop workarounds.
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Canon has been repeatedly criticized by its customers, more so for its denial of these issues than for the technical faults themselves: Most photographers fully realize the complexity of modern camera electronics and no longer expect bug-free perfection from any device at initial release.
While it remains to be seen whether the lockups and file corruption issues that have plagued users in the field will be fully resolved by the next firmware update, I hope that the company will be more savvy at public relations, and more open in providing bug warnings and workarounds in the future.
Edmund Ronald has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, but he is currently on a sabbatical as a photographer in Paris.
