Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Body Price At Announcement

[AdamJ]

$3500 may be too much for you, but what makes you think it's too much for everyone else?  Sure I'd love the thing to be $1500, but I'm trying to be realistic.  The first batch is going to sell before it even hits the shelves, why should Canon not take advantage of that?  Out of the kindness of it's multi-billion-dollar heart?

Just because strong initial demand makes it possible to inflate the price does not mean the manufacturer will inflate the price. Such a practice carries a high risk of bad PR.

[awinphoto]

I think I will go for TBA, even though I voted 3300.00. Can I find out from you guys, is the price on B&H consider the lowest available? I.e 2,399 for 5dmk2 on B&H consider street price or somewhere else is lower.

For the most part Adorama and BH alternate at being the lowest depending on the day/incentives/etc... adorama offers more "kit's" and incentives at times which may make the same price purchase more valuable, but only you can weigh how much it's worth to you...  I bought my 5d2/24-105 kit from adorama for $2990 including grip, extra battery, case, etc where both bh and regular adoramas 5ds/24-105 kit were both selling for $3200...  But between the two of them, you have a good baseline to make an educated purchase. 

[CanonLITA]

For the most part Adorama and BH alternate at being the lowest depending on the day/incentives/etc... adorama offers more "kit's" and incentives at times which may make the same price purchase more valuable, but only you can weigh how much it's worth to you...  I bought my 5d2/24-105 kit from adorama for $2990 including grip, extra battery, case, etc where both bh and regular adoramas 5ds/24-105 kit were both selling for $3200...  But between the two of them, you have a good baseline to make an educated purchase.

I would also say they continuously track each other. At canonpricewatch.com you will notice that whenever one has the lowest price one day, the other tends to align the next day. They don't want to leave nothing on the table either, so it also works the other way around: whenever one has the higher price one day, the other tends to align the next day. This is the reason why is not unusual they "swap" prices..

[CanineCandidsByL]

Yeah, I think the list is more likely to be in the $3500 range, unless Canon feels that its getting too close to the price of the 1Dx.  That price will probably be pretty close to street until near/after the olympics. Then the street price may come crashing down to the mid/upper 2k range.

[justsomedude]

I'd easily pay $3,500 for a FF 22MP body with 7fps burst rate and a 61pt AF system.  It's like a 5D with 7D sickness.  Win-win!

If it's $3499 or less - and is indeed the specs I just listed above - I'll be ordering one the first day preorders are accepted. 

WANT!

[SebSic]

I'd easily pay $3,500 for a FF 22MP body with 7fps burst rate and a 61pt AF system.  It's like a 5D with 7D sickness.  Win-win!

If it's $3499 or less - and is indeed the specs I just listed above - I'll be ordering one the first day preorders are accepted. 

WANT!

But the real question is : will you buy it if 5D III price is ONLY $2800  ?
Cause I will buy it too, but it will be easier for me if it costs only $2800 and not 3500 ...

[LACityPhotoCom]

I see absolutely no point to upgrade to a 5D3.  Especially for a $1,000+ price increase.  61-point AF system?  Who cares?  Who shoots with multiple points anyway?  Center-point focus and recompose.  That's how any serious photographer shoots anyway.  Do people want their cameras to compose their shots for them too? 

Leave it up to your camera to pick your focus points and you will end up lots of throw away shots. 

It's just another fear-tactic designed by the marketing dept. at Canon (or any other company for that matter) into making you feel your current gear is obsolete.  Even the 5D Classic is WAY more than enough (WAY WAY WAY more) for the vast majority of users.  I had a 5D Classic since 2005 and JUST recently sold it for a 5D2.  Although the 5D2 is great, I kind of regret the switch.  I wasn't expecting a bump in image quality, I just wanted it for the video capability.  The 100% increase in file size and all the software updates I had to do to support it just was a hassle. 

I am glad that Canon is keeping it at 22MP.  Last thing we need is a MP war with Nikon. 

[unfocused]

Seems like quite a bit of optimism here, when the approximate $3,500 is rated CR3.

I wouldn't be surprised if Canon brings it a little closer to the D800, but doubt it will go as low as some people are hoping for. Keeping the 5DII in the lineup and dropping the price may be Canon's way of saying: "if you can't afford the latest model, we have this really good one available for $1,200 less."

[scubasteve03]

I see absolutely no point to upgrade to a 5D3.  Especially for a $1,000+ price increase.  61-point AF system?  Who cares?  Who shoots with multiple points anyway?  Center-point focus and recompose.  That's how any serious photographer shoots anyway.  Do people want their cameras to compose their shots for them too? 

Leave it up to your camera to pick your focus points and you will end up lots of throw away shots. 

It's just another fear-tactic designed by the marketing dept. at Canon (or any other company for that matter) into making you feel your current gear is obsolete.  Even the 5D Classic is WAY more than enough (WAY WAY WAY more) for the vast majority of users.  I had a 5D Classic since 2005 and JUST recently sold it for a 5D2.  Although the 5D2 is great, I kind of regret the switch.  I wasn't expecting a bump in image quality, I just wanted it for the video capability.  The 100% increase in file size and all the software updates I had to do to support it just was a hassle. 

I am glad that Canon is keeping it at 22MP.  Last thing we need is a MP war with Nikon.

I don't think you know very much about photography. Focus and recompose is not a possible in MANY situations. Have you ever shot sports? How are you going to compose your pictures if you use center point in every shot. Have you ever shot with a 1.4 or 1.2 lens? Focus and recompose is going to get you very inconsistent results and many OOF images. No one is making you upgrade. It's called technology, it will always be advancing. Some people like to have more options.
And having 61 AF points doesn't mean the camera is going to select your AF point automatically unless you tell it to. It's great for BIF. Upgrading a 4 year old camera is not a "fear-tactic designed by the marketing dept. at Canon."

[justsomedude]

I see absolutely no point to upgrade to a 5D3.  Especially for a $1,000+ price increase.  61-point AF system?  Who cares?  Who shoots with multiple points anyway?  Center-point focus and recompose.  That's how any serious photographer shoots anyway.  Do people want their cameras to compose their shots for them too? 

I don't think you know very much about photography. Focus and recompose is not a possible in MANY situations.

+1

I have to agree with ScubaSteve here.  Using the center point to obtain focus, and then recompose the image can yield disastrous results at very wide apertures when shallow DOFs are being implemented.  I was trying to find a link to the Canon tutorial video I saw on this very subject about a year or so ago.  It was was a great lecture series where Rudy Winston of Canon demonstrated in his powerpoint how even the slightest re-aiming of the lens (after locking focus) can put the subject inches, or even feet, outside of the focal plane.  The video was titled "A Look at the Canon Autofucus System" and was part of B&H Photo's lecture series - but it looks like it disappeared when B&H revamped their website.

Even though the video is unavailable, there are plenty of articles that address this topic:

http://improvephotography.com/216/photography-focus-recompose-compose-portrait/
http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/focus-recompose_sucks.htm

That said, I do agreed that in some instances, focusing-and-recomposing can work, but in many situations it is generally considered poor practice.  Regardless, making blanket statements like "that's how any serious photographer shoots", shows you just don't know that much about photography.  It also makes it difficult to take any other part of your post seriously.

[Fandongo]

$3500 may be too much for you, but what makes you think it's too much for everyone else?  Sure I'd love the thing to be $1500, but I'm trying to be realistic.  The first batch is going to sell before it even hits the shelves, why should Canon not take advantage of that?  Out of the kindness of it's multi-billion-dollar heart?

Just because strong initial demand makes it possible to inflate the price does not mean the manufacturer will inflate the price. Such a practice carries a high risk of bad PR.

It can't get bad PR regardless of price.  Preorders will overflow in a matter of minutes... even if it was $4000 body only.

All video people are salivating over this update, tired of "video" cameras being awful for video, 4x (to 100x) the price, and 5x the needed size.

Artifacts finally removed, rolling shutter reduced...  This will be the best possible camera for the purposes of 99.5% of the people who need video.

The .5% will be resolved with 4k/global shutter/raw(or at least full HDMI out).

All these people have been waiting very (im)patiently for Canon to stop releasing the exact same camera - 7d (t2i, t3i, 60d).  They will swarm to this.  Production facilities will buy large quantities, because they're still relatively dirt cheap.

Also, I expect Chris Dodd will personally be buying up several mass shipments just to defecate on in a misguided attempt to save Hollywood.

[Cinnamon]

While I agree that $3,500 is a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if that is in fact the MSRP. Whatever bad publicity Canon gets will immediately be overshadowed by the loyal customers who will flock to buy it, regardless of price. Just think back to how tech columnists talked negatively about the iPad for essentially being a gigantic iPod Touch, and not really something revolutionary that could replace a computer. 3 years later, iPad sales are stronger than ever. While people often don't need expensive technology, they certainly want it!

[ttmphotography]

So, it's a 7D with Full frame for about $2,000 more than the 7D. Canon has to be laughing all the way to the bank with this one!

[dedrick427]

So much negativity!  I just want my 5DMkIII or 5DMkII... either one and I'd be giggly as a f-ing school girl.  I've been saving up for the 5DMkII, and now that I have this saved-up monies anf a MkIII could be around the corner!?!?!  I even have lens for the camera that I don't own yet.  Eitherway I go, I know I'll be annoyingly happy.  Whether it's a 18MP, 22MP or a bazilionawesomepixels with three popup flashes- don't care.  I don't have time for such negativity when there are awesome pictures to be taken! 

[rumorzmonger]

I see absolutely no point to upgrade to a 5D3.  Especially for a $1,000+ price increase.  61-point AF system?  Who cares?  Who shoots with multiple points anyway?  Center-point focus and recompose.  That's how any serious photographer shoots anyway.  Do people want their cameras to compose their shots for them too? 

Leave it up to your camera to pick your focus points and you will end up lots of throw away shots. 

Al the pros are nodding in agreement with this comment, and all the noobies are in denail...  LOL