I never wrote that it didn't have Firewire. Just that increadably its new USB port is 1.1 not 2.0.

Michael

I struggle with the allegation that people in NA didn't learn about the Canon announcements until this morning.  Some of us were up last night when it was announced (admittedly for non-announcement reasons), and are paying the price today.

April

The new Canon MarkII DSLR does have firewire, not just USB. I just checked it on Canon's web site.

Daddy's gotta have one!  

I have read that the Firewire is version 2, 800mb/s: if so, this has one huge advantage over all flavours of USB, in that it can operate with far greater cable lengths (100m compared to about 3m?). That could make it a great attraction for remote camera operation in sports arenas, big studios, and such. So maybe Canon views Firewire as the primary interface, with USB almost a token gesture to compatability.
  Still the economic or technical reasons for saving a couple of dollars on the USB hardware is a mystery!

I agree with BJL. It's practically ridiculous to not be USB 2.0 capable. Practically every PC and peripheral device on the market today is 2.0 equipped.  Some use both that AND 1394 and others use 2.0 alone.  

It's nice if they're future ready with Firewire 800 already; shows Canon is thinking ahead. But the 800 version is just barely becoming available now. Few and far between. When is the 1D-II supposed to be available? Maybe by the time the camera is widely available Firewire 800 will be more available also.

The USB port is only for direct printing, it will not work for image transfer or tethered shooting. The firewire port must be used for those purposes. So 1.1/2.0 is kinda moot.