5D Mark III Information [CR1]

[Picsfor]

Here's an interesting thought -

what if the 5D3 came out with 21-24mp, 12800 working ISO with H1 & H2 up to 51k - but 9 full cross AF points that were all responsive to f2.8.

Would you all be trading up? Or would you stay with 5D2's?

[juwi]

I don't even think that 9 Points were necessary if they just were better (i.e. cross points).

Looking at neuroanatomists Link to the digital picture, (for which I'll have to +1 him ASAP) the current layout of 5DII focus points looks less than idea. Essentially they're crowded in the image center and all but the center point are not cross type. I think many people would be totally okay with just 6 points if they all were to be cross type and spread further from the center. Currently all but the outer right and outer left point are in the center grid if you look at the rule of third grids. What about an AF with one cross sensor in the center and one in center top, center bottom, center left, center right each. That would add up to 5 cross points. I think that would already be an improvement. Maybe throw in some line points in between, but basically a larger field with a few cross points would imo be an improvment already.

[mccrum]

Here's an interesting thought -

what if the 5D3 came out with 21-24mp, 12800 working ISO with H1 & H2 up to 51k - but 9 full cross AF points that were all responsive to f2.8.

Would you all be trading up? Or would you stay with 5D2's?

To be honest, I'd trade up with one point in the center that worked as well as the Nikon system.  I have no problem focusing and recomposing, the problem is getting a decent focus in low-light situations in the first place.  9 points that worked with great ISO like that and equal megapixels would be fantastic as far as I'm concerned.

[V8Beast]

Personally for a 5d I dont need 45 point AF anywhere from 11 to 19 would be fine as long as the points are fast accurate and have good focus tracking ability.

Anyone's who has shot with a 5D or 5DII would probably agree. Canon isn't going to put an AF system that comes anywhere close to the 1-series, so the best we can hope for is a handful of cross-sensor AF points that are very accurate, or a buttload of non-cross AF points.

People tend to get fixated on whether AF points are cross-sensitive or not, but IMHO there are benefits of in certain situations of having a greater number of AF points, even if they're not cross-sensors, opposed to having a fewer number of AF points that are cross sensitive. Just for kicks, I dug my old 1DIIn out of the attic today, hooked it up to my 70-300L, and shot some pan blurs of cars in rush hour traffic. In this configuration, only the center point is cross sensitive. You need f/2.8 or faster glass for the other 6 cross sensors to work.

Even a body as antiquated as the 1DII has a nifty AF expansion function that varies based on focal length. At shorter focal lengths, it expands to the 6 AF points adjacent to the chosen AF point, and at 200mm and longer, it expands to the 12  AF points that are adjacent to the chosen AF point. Compared to my time shooting under similar circumstances with a 7D, the 1DII yielded a noticeably higher percentage of sharp, in focus images despite only having one cross-type AF point. If not for the 1DII's extra 26 AF points, I'm certain the 7D would have stomped it.

[wickidwombat]

My old 1D mk1 AF kicked the hell out of the 5dmk2 AF

[V8Beast]

My old 1D mk1 AF kicked the hell out of the 5dmk2 AF

Why do I not find that surprising? My Powershot G7 focuses more quickly than my 5D.

[awinphoto]

I think alot of people are missing the potential for the return of eye control to be great, with the exponential increases in processing power we have seen since the elan 7e do you really think it will be just a cut and paste?

The potential for the eye control ai servo mode for say shooting a runway model or model walking towards /away from you. the eye control has the potential to make this camera own the portrait modeling arena if the AF is fast and accurate. Personally for a 5d I dont need 45 point AF anywhere from 11 to 19 would be fine as long as the points are fast accurate and have good focus tracking ability.

As far as points go with the 5d2 all you really need to do is add 2 more points in the narrow axis and space them out a bit further to make it 11. I would also be happy if they just bolted the 7D af system in as Neuro points out the spread is basically the same

Now make those 11 points all cross type and perhaps make the center 5 points f2.8 (center and 2 each side on the narrow axis closest to the golden lines and canon will have a sales hit they will struggle to keep up with I seriously doubt something like this would take sales from the 1Dx.

I would like to see increasing weather sealing to 7D levels (mainly better battery door and memory card door)
Canon need a pro build non gripped body

I really wonder what sort of sensor they will use I hope the 5D line stays as a clean high iso perhaps a high MP low frame rate lower iso performer 6D using the same body could be developed to keep the Hiigh MP crowd happy.

Currently I am very happy with the 5D body and control layout. there are a couple of things i would like. AEB activation same as 1D (ie press 2 buttons together turn the wheel and boom AEB is set) some custom program buttons would be nice. (ie so can dedicate one to iso only)

I would like the battery to stay the same for backwards comptability as I wont be selling my 5dmk2 bodies any time soon

I would welcome the eye control but as we have learned about higher MP cameras, especially higher density cameras are even more demanding on the lenses and focus becomes more critical because it is much more magnified, with the 5d, the tracking better be pretty spot on or some some sort of secondary manual selection/override in case it fails, a secondary shooter uses it and their eye isnt calibrated, etc...   There's just so many what ifs, especially since I would guess more people would be shooting the new 5d camera than all the eye controlled film cameras combined. As long as its an option and not the only option, the. I'd be cool.

[wickidwombat]

on the elan 7 there is a switch to enable or disable the eye control pretty simple if you dont want to use it, I would guess they would put something similar on it

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Less than points than the 7D AF and less than 50D fps, i.e. same old pathetic tired old king of the hill behind the times reactive Canon.
Will the real Canon please stand up again, please?

[LetTheRightLensIn]

If the specs are as stated, getting the mkII now makes every sense.

+1 or better yet dumped your losses and aim for the D800

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Note also that GPS certification doesn't have to mean in-body. It could be a WFT portrait grip, too.

I find the rumored AF spec completely unsurprising.

I hope Canon finds it completely unsurprising when I stick with my 5D2 and start eying the D800 in earnest.

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Maybe someone could cannibalize a 5d and a EOS 3 into one?

Canon could, heck they had the tech when the 5D2 came out, but they prefer to let marketing rule the roost of engineering and play games.

[LetTheRightLensIn]

The specs coming out of this rumor may not be eye-popping or drool inspiring...but rest assured the mk3 will dazzle with it's low-light/high ISO performance.  It's not going to be a body you grab to shoot sports, and Canon hasn't intended to be. 

Unless you're going to spend $6k-$7k for a body like the 1D-X you aren't going to get a "do-it-all" body.  If you have a sub $3500 budget, you need to buy a second body like a 7D to be able to track your moving subject and have the burst speed to not miss as many shots.  And the 7D is going to have Rebel quality ISO performance.

But you definitely won't see a great AF system on a 5d body, not now, not ever....so please don't expect that.  Save up for a 1D-X 

I think people would rather save up for a D800 and get all that for a good deal less than the 1DX

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I wouldn't be surprised if AF was kept the same, but that wouldn't stop me from wanting to pick one up.  If it gets 2 stop improvement in ISO over the mk2, that means clean shots at 6400, and would most likely be enough for people to upgrade, however its reasonable to assume that we will also see improvements in metering/dynamic range, perhaps some other minor things.  But you definitely won't see a great AF system on a 5d body, not now, not ever....so please don't expect that.  Save up for a 1D-X 

The problem with this sort of rationalizing is that while a 5DIII with an antiquated AF system might make sense for product alignment within the Canon family, it will also be competing for market share with the Nikon D800. The D700 already crushed the 5DII in terms of AF (51 points vs. 9) and speed, but the 5DII's significant advantage in resolution was enough to win over many buyers. If Nikon comes out a D800 that maintains its AF advantage over the 5D, but then makes up for the D700's resolution shortcomings with its long rumored 36 megapixel D800, Canon runs the risk of losing market share to Nikon.

The problem with Nikon is that while the D700 "crushed" the 5dmk2 in terms of AF specs, it also crushed their own D3, which is something Canon will not do, they aren't going to over spec a 5d body to kill sales of their 1 series bodies.  And Canon seems to be doing fine when it comes to share.  Forget sales figures, because there isnt a breakdown between models...Just for comparison I went to B&H and had a look a the number of reviews for the 5dmk2 compared to the D700 (not scientific but fairly balanced way to look at it) and when you combine the reviews for the body only, and kit you get about 2100 reviews for the 5dmk2 and for the d700 there are just over 1000.  Sure its not sales figures but I would venture to guess the rate at which buyers leave reviews is not 1:1.  I dont think the d700 "crushed" anything and therefore Canon would rather have their own house in order because what they're doing works for them...share-wise and otherwise.

The 5D2 already crushed the 1Ds3 anyway. If they play a pathetic game again the D800 will start crushing them. DOn't forget that the D700 was wayyy behind in reach and detail and had no video. The D800 will not have their serious shortcomings....

[briansquibb]

The 5D2 already crushed the 1Ds3 anyway.

The 1Ds3 still produces better low iso images than the 5D2 - and it has a far better AF than the 5D2, plus all the 1 series benefits - such as weatherproofing

If you are happy to take pictures up to iso1600 a used 1Ds3 makes a lot of sense.

I think that cameras have moved away from a mp war to an iso war. Personally I dont take many images at 3200 or higher because by then I have usually got out the tripod of the flash.

I would love to see the focus of new cameras being on dynamic range to help cure the bette noir of photographers - burnt out highlights or lack of detail in the shadows