Canot
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 12:05AM 
The 500D, AKA the Digital Rebel T1i, was indeed announced, and as expected it features various things, and stuff, and what the fricking hell?
That was my reaction anyway, when I got way, way down to the bottom of the specs, to the place where the leaked details of its “video” are confirmed: 720p at 30fps and 1080p at, seriously: 20fps.
I know I keep saying less is more, but there is such a thing as too much less.
Oh, whatever. I feel like the nerdy kid played by Michael Cera who finally realizes that the popular girl has been mistreating me and I need to get on with my life. I’m tired of hanging out on your lawn with a boombox Canon. Where the heck is Kat Dennings?
From cameratown.com’s post entitled Canon EOS Rebel T1i HD Video Misses the Mark:
While the EOS Rebel T1i does indeed capture HD video, it does so with lackluster monaural sound. If that isn’t bad enough, Canon decided NOT to add an auxiliary audio input, making the video mode on the Rebel T1i less useful to virtually anyone interested in capturing high quality footage. Canon also didn’t place any emphasis on getting full-time AF working in video mode, so the average dSLR user who might buy this camera in hopes of capturing precious family moments in HD will be disappointed when they realize that they’ll have to set up focus prior to recording. This was barely acceptable on the professional 5D Mark II and is unacceptable for a second generation model aimed at the consumer market.
It is also surprising that Canon crippled the video mode of the Rebel T1i knowing that Panasonic will start shipping their Lumix DMC-GH1 this summer. The DMC-GH1 promises cinematic 24fps 1080p video, 60fps 720p video, a more advanced auto focus system, internal stereo microphone, AND an auxiliary microphone input.
It seems that Canon was more focused on getting the phrase ‘HD video’ into their literature and less on actually creating a usable HD video mode.
The article continues with the popular theory that Canon is intentionally crippling the video on their SLRs to avoid sabotaging their camcorder market. Because, uhm, it’s bad when people buy one Canon thingy instead of another? Or instead of a Panasonic thingy? Or a Nikon one?
Whenever I hear a conspiracy theory like this, I think of Hanlon’s Razor. Never heard of it? Oh, it’s good. It goes like this:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Canon is not shrewdly crippling this to protect that. They are blindly stumbling into this “video” world. Which is fine, but what’s not fine is that they are blatantly ignoring their flagship users who are patiently explaining to them the few simple things they need to do to wipe the floor with the comptetion in this new space that everyone is certain marks the future of making pictures.
