In a far past, as a marketing manager, I was responsible for the display on big international shows. If, at any time, my company would have had a major novelty coming - like the 5D mkII firmware update- I would have trained my booth staff to answer politely, even if and when there were asked a thousand times.

Moreover, I would have given them more precise information concerning the release date so that they would'nt have to answer with a vague 'before june 2010' This is very poor marketing and even worse communication. In fact, I would have sent ghost buyers to check how my show staff responded and if any of them behaved like the one you described, I would have reprimanded my PR-manager heavily for his poor handling of the matter. But that was twenty years ago, apparently in the meantime 'keeping the customer satisfied' has been redefined. Nowadays, some people seem to forget that their salary is paid by the guys and girls who are buying their company's products. These last words formed the first sentence in my 'trade show manual' for all staff working on the booth.

In general:

today we have a better tecnology

yesterday we had better (and kind) people

Is this a good progress? Not 100% sure.

They are coordinating it with the release of the EOS Movie plugin E1, for Final Cut Pro.

This plugin supports Log and transfer of movie files from 5D mkII, 7D and 1D mkIV.

My guess is that they are taking their time assuring that everything works as advertised before making a joint release.

The EOS E1 plugin is planned for an early March release:

Canon Digital Learning Center - Introducing EOS Movie Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro

I'd say we're still two to three weeks out, round about...

Andree

I think you're bang on the money here Andree, and keep taking the medicine Billy. It sounds like you missed a dose there.

There's no reason to think we won't be getting the update soon, and every reason to think we'll get it by the deadline regardless.

I do think Billy makes a fair point about the manner in which Canon have handled this. They should have shut up or put up earlier IMO. Leaving us hanging around while other models turn up with the updates we require makes some of us feel cynical towards the company. But i have no doubt it's on its way, and having just bought a hoodman viewfinder at Earl's court last week, i'm looking forward to shooting when it arrives.

At the end of the day if it don't happen, well I had fun with the 5DMk2 I bought it on the day of release in 2008.

I'm sure if Canon had the firmware ready it would be out now, better to have a stable 30p than a troublesome firmware upgrade that was pushed out to early. It's coming, relax.

If canon released a 5DMK3 with no aliasing and variable frame rates tomorrow, I wouldn't be upset, I'd embrace the next stage in the development of video DLSR.

If they then in 6 months released a 5DMK4 with less compression artifacts I would still be happy.

You gotta love the way its going.

Since this thread really can't get anywhere until the firmware is released, it's time to close her down (I have already removed one rant from public view today -- note: this is a *technical information* web site. I'm not interested in rants. If you want to rant, start a blog).