I had an interresting talk with five Japanese tourists at the winners ceremony.
They had professional Nikon and Canon cameras and told me that Nikon will release a top Crop Camera in spring this year and update their Nikon 100-400 pedant (80-400 or so).
The Canon 7D2 will be priced much higher than an D300 successor, near the 5D3 .
The Camera will be an class for its own. A small 1Dx. Fast AF and high fps. A special product for all persons that will need high speed and do not have the money for an 1Dx.
The Canon successor of the 100-400 will be at 270.000-300000 Yen.
One of them said, that in Japanese photography chatrooms many think, that Canon should buy some of the parts at thrid party companies. Today the Sony chip is much better than Canons.
And if Canon will not change their strategy, they will be soon in financial problems
Interesting. I mean there is no way those people likely have any inside information whatsoever. That said, those comments sound fairly reasonable all the same.
Well, this forum is contains rumors.
You are right, no one (or nearly no one) knows, what is fact and what Canon will really do.
But, sometimes you meet persons that live near the factory and know persons that work there (e.g. relatives,.... even if these products they produce are under NDA) or work for an company that delivers something for a new product. Or sometimes you accidently see a new product.... You know, what I mean.
So, if there are some tourists, that are working as photographers for an big japanese magazine, i tend to think, that these persons have more truth in their rumors, than others.