New Minolta 7HI??

[jimtong]

Hi, got this news from dpreview.com

Dunno how true. Has anyone heard of it??:dunno:

 

[matthew]

Originally posted by jimtong
Hi, got this news from dpreview.com

Dunno how true. Has anyone heard of it??:dunno:

I noticed a week ago while poking around in the Firmware upgrade files for the D7i that the firmware loader had a list of 'platforms' it supported.

The following is inside the 'ram.bin' file which appears to be what the camera loads into RAM and then uses to flash the main firmware image
--
This is Customer Update File.
This is Strip File.
FlashROM updating is imcompleted: 0x%04x
Date: %d %d %d %d %d %d %d
Minolta Co., Ltd.
DiMAGE 7Hi
DiMAGE 7i
DiMAGE 7
DiMAGE 5
DiMAGE S304
DiMAGE S404
Ver.
FlashROM ID = 0x%04x 0x%04x
readFlash Offset = 0x%08x
--

I imagine that the entire camera line uses similar architecture internally - and the above is the list of platforms the firmware loader will work on. One of the cameras listed is 7Hi.

The 7Hi is probably real - athough it remains to be seen if pictures posted on Bryan's forum are clever work in PS or a real 'leak'.
Guess we find out when Photokina starts in Köln in a couple of weeks.

 

[jimtong]

This is interesting... why release a new model of the same form factor as D7i in less in 1 year of D7i launch. Guess we will need to wait ans see.

Originally posted by matthew


I noticed a week ago while poking around in the Firmware upgrade files for the D7i that the firmware loader had a list of 'platforms' it supported.

The following is inside the 'ram.bin' file which appears to be what the camera loads into RAM and then uses to flash the main firmware image
--
This is Customer Update File.
This is Strip File.
FlashROM updating is imcompleted: 0x%04x
Date: %d %d %d %d %d %d %d
Minolta Co., Ltd.
DiMAGE 7Hi
DiMAGE 7i
DiMAGE 7
DiMAGE 5
DiMAGE S304
DiMAGE S404
Ver.
FlashROM ID = 0x%04x 0x%04x
readFlash Offset = 0x%08x
--

I imagine that the entire camera line uses similar architecture internally - and the above is the list of platforms the firmware loader will work on. One of the cameras listed is 7Hi.

The 7Hi is probably real - athough it remains to be seen if pictures posted on Bryan's forum are clever work in PS or a real 'leak'.
Guess we find out when Photokina starts in Köln in a couple of weeks.

 

[matthew]

Originally posted by jimtong
This is interesting... why release a new model of the same form factor as D7i in less in 1 year of D7i launch. Guess we will need to wait ans see.

I think its really quite clever - the technology market (for better or worse) demands a new model every 3 to 6 months or your company gets a reputation for being 'slow' and people stop buying your product.

A lot of R&D goes into these things, particularly Digi cams where the techology has not really stabilized yet.

Minolta is going for 2 years of product life out of the D5/7 hardware platform. Pretty good going in this market....

It also steals some of Sony's F717 thunder. Sony finaly release their 'improved' 707 to compete against the 'improved' D7i and Minolta come out with an improved improved D7Hi

Sony now has to come out with a F727 to compete and Nikon needs to announce the 5700i

 

[ninelives]

it is ture, read the front page news.