The New EOS [CR3]

[Bob Howland]

The strategy makes sense to me. Aim the amalgamated 1D at those professionals - sports and photojournalists - who really benefit from the bomb-proof build, who often have several 1D's clonking together around their waist as they run to take position for the next money-shot.

Spec the 5DIII to cement its position as the studio / wedding / landscape camera of choice, replacing the 1DSIII, the bomb-proof build of which is, I suspect, largely wasted in this segment.

Almost perfectly stated. However, the wedding photographers I know neither need nor want a lot of pixels. The two I know best use Nikon D700's, replacing 5D2's. Both state that they wouldn't mind a slight increase in resolution to, you guessed it, 18MP. Both are pretty obsessive about wanting more DR, something to do with blowing out the fine detail in the brides' wide dresses. However, neither of them needs the ruggedness of a D3 or 1D4 and neither wants to spend the money to get it.

Correction: "white dresses", not "wide dresses"

[gene_can_sing]

I'm not a big mega-pixel guy at all. I actually prefer low mega-pixels because I do video.

With that said, it's strange that an 18 megapixel camera is going to be Canon's flagship camera, especially since Nikon is going to release a 36 mp FF camera that is going to be their mid-range camera.

I'm hoping it's going to be the lower megapixel, video friendly full frame (3D or 6D or whatever it's called). Now if that was 18 mp, that would make sense. But the Flagship camera? I don't think so.

[Rocky]

The post did not say that it will be a 1D. It is another EOS camera. Looks like Canon is trying to make a "speed demon" and an "owl" out of this camera. The highest MP in the FF for Canon is 21.1MP. Between 18MP (proposed) and 21.1MP, there is only a lost of reolution of 8% (linear). It is no big deal. If it give us a  better noise performance at high ISO, better dynamic Range  and an "insane" speed of 12-14 FPS. It may be worth to give up the 8% resolution.  In fact, i would rather it is not a 1D. Instead I would like to see it with the body similar to 5D II, without the vertical grip. I also have dreamed that it will be a copy of the Leica M9 with Leica M mount.

[smallFish]

Whatever this new body is we need more graceful clipping in the highlight area.
a900 is not perfect but better than Canon for sure. so better Dynamic Range please....

[pmad40]

I dont believe its a 1 series personally. The specs alone are pretty unexciting. My moneys on this being the new Canon Mirrorless... :-)

[dr croubie]

If these are the new specs, and they're correct, and it's an 18MP FF sensor, then it can ONLY be one of the following:
a) Not the flagship and something better will come later (more likely)
b) A foveon-type sensor (my hope)
c) A corporate suicide note.

[macfly]

I get the feeling from that ad that was linked to that we're going to see the entire EOS line upgraded, and if that is the case then the rumor mill has really been starved of credible info.

[Woody]

Camera just needs to be better than current Nikon D3s

Canon needs to do better than beating a 2 year old camera - they need to be competitive with whatever Nikon brings forth to replace the D3s.

Arguable. Consider the following:

12 MP, 6 fps Nkon D300 announced 23-July-2007
12 MP, 7 fps Nikon D300s announced 30-July-2009
18 MP, 8 fps Canon 7D announced 1-Sep-2009
16 MP, 6 fps Nikon D7000 announced 15-Sep-2010

Since the D7000 is still not up to 7D in both pixel count and fps, merely on par in terms of high ISO performance (although it excels in low ISO dynamic range), we can safely say Nikon has yet to surpass the 7D with a competing model 2 years after the release of the 7D which was announced 2 years after D300.

With the 1D5 set to surpass the D3/D3s in almost all aspects (low ISO dynamic range is still an unknown), this is merely history repeating itself.

[Woody]

Not the flagship and something better will come later (more likely)

I won't consider the 1D5 the flagship. It's designed to be a speed demon that overtakes both Sony and Nikon in terms of bragging rights. Sony likes to tout its A77 is capable of 12 fps (although only with either aperture set at f/3.5 or first frame AF), and Nikon's fastest professional D3s camera is 'only' capable of 9 fps.

The megapixel monster from Canon should be announced next year. Didn't CR mention something like the 1Ds3 successor is going to be a departure from the current 1Ds line?

[niccyboy]

I wonder if it will have the GPS capabilities like the d3 line.

[thepancakeman]

I wonder if it will have the GPS capabilities like the d3 line.

I see lots of comments about GPS and honestly I don't quite get it.  Is it for landscape/street photography to note where you were, or what's the purpose on a pro level camera?  (This is an honest question, not sarcasm or anything.)

[Chris_BC]

I don't see this as being the new flagship either.  I know there are a ton of people on here who totally disagree with the "megapixel war", but you need to take your opinions out of the equation.

As a couple earlier posters mentioned, this would be 3 MP less than Canon's now 3 plus year old 5D MKII.  Meanwhile the 1Ds III has been languishing for over 4 years now.  It just doesn't make sense for Canon to lose resolution from the 5D II at this point.  They need to be upping the resolution of the 5D II and achieving better ISO and dynamic range for it to be a new flagship.

I can see this being a new 1D V, with no amalgamation.  So Canon announces a 1Ds IV shortly thereafter.  I could also see it being a new line, but that is perhaps less likely.  The only thing arguing for that is the comments from the sports shooters pointing out that they will lose zoom going from 1.3x to FF.

To anyone who thinks this is about sales volume and/or dollars of the flagship itself, think again.  The money Canon brings in from their top end cameras is small potatoes compared to their P&S and low and mid range DSLRs.  This issue is the prestige and branding image that comes with the perception that your flagship camera demonstrates technology that exceeds the other brands.  That perception drives sales of the a good portion of the more inexpensive cameras where the money is made.

I can't see a new flagship coming out at less than 24 MP.  I also agree with the other posters who said that Canon has to meet or exceed whatever Nikon is about to do with their flagship.  I would not be at all surprised to find out that Canon originally intended to bring out a 1Ds IV 18 to 24 months ago but ran into issues, and perhaps one issue was that their prototypes were not up to competing with the Nikon.  (I think that's been discussed here before.)

Like a few others here I could perhaps see this as a flagship if Canon has improved the high ISO noise substantially and increased the dynamic range to where it comes close to the human eye.  That's a pretty tall order.

[Bob Howland]

To anyone who thinks this is about sales volume and/or dollars of the flagship itself, think again.  The money Canon brings in from their top end cameras is small potatoes compared to their P&S and low and mid range DSLRs.  This issue is the prestige and branding image that comes with the perception that your flagship camera demonstrates technology that exceeds the other brands.  That perception drives sales of the a good portion of the more inexpensive cameras where the money is made.

From what I've seen, most Canon P&S and Rebel owners have no idea that a 1D-series even exists. Furthermore, most Rebel owners seem to leave their camera mode set to that little green box where the camera makes most of the decisions. In short, most of them are very unsophisticated. Most 1D buyers, on the other hand, are much more sophisticated or at least sophisticated enough to know what camera performance parameters are limiting their work. It doesn't seem to be resolution that they find limiting.

[neuroanatomist]

Since the D7000 is still not up to 7D in both pixel count and fps, merely on par in terms of high ISO performance (although it excels in low ISO dynamic range), we can safely say Nikon has yet to surpass the 7D with a competing model 2 years after the release of the 7D which was announced 2 years after D300.

The D7000's competition is the 60D, not the 7D, so it's not surprising that the D7000 falls short of the 7D, spec-wise. The 7D's match is the D300s, which has no successor to date.

[Woody]

The D7000's competition is the 60D, not the 7D, so it's not surprising that the D7000 falls short of the 7D, spec-wise. The 7D's match is the D300s, which has no successor to date.

Precisely. Nikon has yet to produce a direct competitor to the 7D 2 years after its release. So, it's not exactly a bad thing for the 7D to surpass the specs of a 2 year old D300 model. In fact, Canon has now set the bar for the D300 successor. If Nikon was originally thinking of releasing an 18 MP, 8 fps successor, they know now they have to do better than that.

In the same vein, if Canon produces a 18 MP FF 12 fps 1D5 with excellent high ISO performance and wide low ISO dynamic range, then Nikon knows their D4 has to be better than that. Whatever original plans they had for the D3/D3s successor must now be discarded and improved upon.

This is the benefit of healthy competition.