Dragonfly is an innovative, multi-lens array designed for ultra-low surface brightness astronomy at visible wavelengths. Commissioned in 2013 with only three lenses, the array is growing in size and proving capable of detecting extremely faint, complex structure around galaxies.

….Dragonfly is designed to reveal the faint structure by greatly reducing scattered light and internal reflections within its optics. It achieves this using ten, commercially available Canon 400mm lenses with unprecedented nano-fabricated coatings with sub-wavelength structure on optical glasses.

via Dragonfly – Dunlap Institute.

Looks like something is coming from Canon. Nothing from Canon USA yet, but the above is from Canon China. My Chinese is non-existent, but my friend and colleague Shun Cheung (ShunCheung.com)  tells me that it’s an invitation to attend Canon’s product announcement on March 22nd and that the president of Canon China will be present.

Note that China is 13 hours ahead of the US east coast, so that morning in China on March 22nd is evening in New York on  March 21st.

There will also be a Canon press conference on March 21st at 10am in Prague. That would be 4am on the 21st in New York.

So it looks like we will hear from Canon on Thursday March 21st about new products for the Spring. Obviously they are going not to say exactly what products ahead of the event, but I would not be at all surprised to see a new crop of Powershot digicams, a successor to the EOS 60D (EOS 70D?), an update or addition to the EOS-M line and perhaps a lens or two. Eventually the EF 200-400/4L IS USM Extender is going to be released. It’s been around in development for years and I actually played with one last fall in New York, so sooner or later they must be intending to sell it! I won’t be able to afford one but I’m sure there will be people waiting in line for it once it’s available.

Canon have extended some EOS body/lens rebates and introduced some new ones, so no there are rebates on the EOS 5D MkIII, EOS 6d, EOS 7D, EOS 60D, Rebel T4i, Rebel T3i, Rebel T3 and EOS-M. With the Rebel bodies and the EOS-M you have to buy a lens too, but with the others you have the option of buying the body only or a kit with a lens. This new program runs through March 30th 2013

The current lens and speedlite program also runs through March 30th 2013.

Canon Rebates – 2013

Canon have announced a new full frame 35mm sensor designed for Video use. The sensor has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 43mm diagonal (since they say it used the full image circle of EF series lenses). Though they don’t give size or pixel count, by my calculations (solve the equationc…) it looks like it is around 37.5mm x 21mm and the pixel count is just over 2MP as would be expected for a 1920 x 1080 full HD image. Each pixel has about 7.5x the area of an EOS-1D X pixel.

TOKYO, March 4, 2013—Canon Inc. announced today that the company has successfully developed a high-sensitivity 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor exclusively for video recording. Delivering high-sensitivity, low-noise imaging performance, the new Canon 35 mm CMOS sensor enables the capture of Full HD video even in exceptionally low-light environments.

The newly developed CMOS sensor features pixels measuring 19 microns square in size, which is more than 7.5-times the surface area of the pixels on the CMOS sensor incorporated in Canon’s top-of-the-line EOS-1D X and other digital SLR cameras. In addition, the sensor’s pixels and readout circuitry employ new technologies that reduce noise, which tends to increase as pixel size increases. Thanks to these technologies, the sensor facilitates the shooting of clearly visible video images even in dimly lit environments with as little as 0.03 lux of illumination, or approximately the brightness of a crescent moon—a level of brightness in which it is difficult for the naked eye to perceive objects. When recording video of astral bodies, while an electron-multiplying CCD which realizes approximately the same level of perception as the naked eye, can capture magnitude-6 stars, Canon’s newly developed CMOS sensor is capable of recording faint stars with a magnitude of 8.5 and above.

via Canon Global : News | News Releases.

Canon have a number of EOS 5D MkIII refurbished bodies in their online store. My guess is that they don’t have many. In the past popular refurbished bodies have sold out quickly. Refurbished directly from Canon is usually like new. I’ve bough refurbished items from them in the past and they’ve been perfect.  Their price is $2397.33. A new EOS 5D MkIII from B&H is $3149 and a new EOS 5D MkIII from Adorama is $3299, so buying a refurb directly from Canon will save you at least $750.

EOS 5D Mark III Body Refurbished from the Canon online store – $2397.33

Depending upon the shooting conditions, it may take slightly longer for the EOS 5D Mark III and EOS-1D X digital SLR cameras to acquire focus when using the Speedlite’s AF Assist Beam, compared with that of the EOS 5D Mark II and EOS-1D Mark IV digital SLR cameras using the Speedlite’s AF Assist Beam.

We are developing a solution to enhance the focusing feature for the EOS 5D Mark III and EOS-1D X and plan to release a firmware update based on following estimated schedule:

EOS 5D Mark III: (estimated) Late April, 2013

EOS-1D X: (estimated) Late May, 2013

via Canon U.S.A. : Support & Drivers : Consumer & Home Office.