The 5D Mark II Team has been testing Canon’s prototype for a while now, and hopefully Canon is coming to a place where they can start marketing the controller to generate more buzz. This controller should be available for all Canon DSLR camera’s.
I image that many other companies out there are scrambling to come up with there own USB controller, much like View Factor Studios. So by the end of the year, I would image that we could see about 4 or 5 different brands of USB controllers. You can keep up with the progress on the Cinema5D blog. Personally, I think we’ll wait a bit to watch all the competition put their best work into their solutions, then maybe look at how necessary it is. But the exciting thing about this is that companies are constantly pushing technology to come up with better, and more useful solutions in DSLR filmaking.
The USB standard specifies relatively loose tolerances for compliant USB connectors to minimize physical incompatibilities in connectors from different vendors. To address a weakness present in some other connector standards, the USB specification also defines limits to the size of a connecting device in the area around its plug. This was done to prevent a device from blocking adjacent ports due to the size of the cable strain relief mechanism (usually molding integral with the cable outer insulation) at the connector. Compliant devices must either fit within the size restrictions or support a compliant extension cable which does.
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