I am not a professional and have been wanting to upgrade from a 5DC to a 5DIII for a couple of years now. The 5DII never interested me too much because of the poor AF and it's specialization being weddings/portrait work(where I want a better camera for travel/all around.) I travel a lot and would like something semi quick, with great low light capabilities and not too expensive. 2000 dollars is a lot of money for me, but I finally decided i'd upgrade to the 5DIII if it was around 2500 dollars. Today, I am really disappointed as 3500 dollars is just wayyy too much to feel comfortable spending on a "hobby," especially when I've been wanting the 24-70 2.8 and the price has just nearly doubled. Unfortunately now, for my needs/wants, I think the D700 is the best choice for an upgrade. I can save some money on the body to put towards glass and I know the AF and low light is top notch.
Canon attracted a lot of buyers by having reasonably priced bodies and glass(compared to Nikon,) but that now seems to be changing. I just don't see how the 5DIII is worth 15% more than the D800. I don't care, and in fact, don't want 36mp, but to me, these cameras seem rather equal in different ways and i'm just not understanding the 500 dollar premium by Canon.
I know the 5DIII will be a huge seller and wildly popular, but from my perspective the 5DIII sounds like it fixed the shortcomings of the 5DII, and didn't wildly exceed the previous camera. I don't see why there should be a 700-1000 dollar price increase on this camera.
I think a lot of people who aren't pros will have to think really really hard before spending over 3000 dollars on a camera. I think Canon really missed the boat by not offering this camera at a price closer to the 2500 dollar range. While the extra money is not huge for people making money off this camera, I think that extra money on the price will prohibit a huge number of people from mindlessly clicking "buy" and upgrading(which I would have done at $2500)