Canon recently announced a slew of high-end digital photography products.

The most interesting would probably be the 12.8 megapixel EOS 5D, creating a new category of DSLR cameras.
Here are some notable points:
- full frame sensor (yay)
- spot meter (yay)
- no built-in flash (yay)
- no built-in vertical grip, but the optional grip BG-E4 can take in AA batteries (boo)
- 3 fps (boo)

Then, we have the EOS-1D Mark II N which is an incremental upgrade from the EOS-1D Mark II (their naming scheme is getting ridiculous). Nothing really notable there.

They also have 2 new lenses - the 24 - 105 mm F4.0L IS USM and the 70 - 300 mm F4.0 - F5.6 IS USM. Both have the IS (image stabilizer) feature.

The 24 - 105 mm F4.0L IS USM is quite interesting. Having used the (heavy) EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM before, the light weight of the new 24 - 105 should be good news, even with it’s longer zoom range and the IS mechanism. You lose some light from the smaller aperture, but the IS compensates somewhat (unless you need the shallow depth of field). However, the 24 - 105 mm is more interesting to those using a full-frame camera (EOS 1D+, 5D), especially since it has some new distance metering information for the new E-TTL II flash system (see below) which works only with the 2 newest cameras (see above) .

The 70 - 300 mm F4.0 - F5.6 IS USM is a little less interesting. This also has the new E-TTL II flash system, but I wouldn’t bet my money on this one, having used the previous version of the lens (very poor image quality - way too soft). Especially if you’re using one of the above new hi-res cameras.

Finally, Canon also announced the Speedlite 430EX flash, replacing the 420EX. It’s an integral part of the new distance linked E-TTL II system. It also has an interesting white balancing feature:

The Speedlite 430EX automatically transfers colour temperature information to recent models of digital SLR cameras . The camera then sets the white balance optimally for the flash shot. This feature works when the camera’s white balance mode is set to Auto White Balance (AWB) or Flash white balance mode.

Okay, back to reality. Everything via dpreview.com.