So Canon has just announced a new feature for the Canon EOS 5D MKII and 7D DSLRs, locking dials! That’s great and all, really, it is – this should’ve been implemented in the beginning. Not sure why it took them so long to release this “update”. Then again, I can see that some people won’t like this feature and will find it a nuisance. For me, it doesn’t really matter. I do find that I sometimes inadvertently changed the shooting mode while handling my camera, thus seriously messing up my subsequent shots. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen – I’m sure it’s happened to all the camera owners at least once.
Reading through Canon’s release announcement, I was thinking kudos to Canon for bringing forth this feature change for those that want it. But as I continued reading, it got to the part of the service charge – in the US it’ll cost $100 to have your camera modified with this push button dial. Now that’s lame – $100? I wouldn’t mind paying to get this done by Canon, I can understand there’s a cost associated with producing and installing this mod, but $100? Boo, Canon! Kudos on screwing your customers over once again and giving us another big F-U. >=(
Source: Canon USA
Update – Aug. 7, 2011: So my friend got a 60D and it came with this locking dial (similar to the 7D as seen above). All I can say is, I hate it with a passion. I found it really combersome and annoying to work with. It’s just not a feature for me, I find it un-intuitive and slows down operational time. Maybe it’s all and well when you get used to it, but I prefer my 5D MKII without the locking dial. I can switch between shooting modes so much faster. Plus, on the 60D the video shooting mode is all the way at the end of the dial, so going from Manual mode to Video mode requires me to hold down that lock and turn the dial almost to polar opposites. That got annoying rather fast. For me, I don’t think I’d do it on my camera even if Canon gave me $100 to do it.
