First rumor!
I've been told today that internally Canon has bumped the 5D Mark III launch deadline ahead about 6 months. With the limitations of the Mark II as far as adding features via firmware (more on that in a second), Canon feels the camera needs an update to utilize the features of current dSLR's.
The email said we can rest assured that Canon will not be on a 3 year product cycle for the 5D line. The source went on to say the 3D is a myth, there are no plans for it currently. The 5D Mark III would get the full frame and 7D autofocus system and a better featureset for video.
720p & 60fps
A clarification. I'm told that Canon is omitting 720p and 60fps from the 5D Mark II firmware update. The firmware update will have the 24/25p update.
*UPDATE*
Before people start cancelling orders. I still think this is a late 2010/early 2011 camera and the rumor is CR1.
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195 Comments
The feature set on the 7 (bar the sensor) is up on the 5Dii, What could/would Canon add to a 5diii that the ii hasn’t got? Less pixels? Never, Anything added from the 7D will look like the 20-30D switch, pointless, people won’t buy it, literally and figuratively!! The name means nothing, sure the 5 as become synonymous with quality etc. but Canon are in the market to shift product, pure and simple, Profit is king.
R&D will always lag behind what the marketing boys want in a product, MP’s will increase, No ECF, The high ISO race is at an end, better DR and Image quality will be the next new thing to appear the line of bodies.
Already ? lol I was preparing my bank account to get the 5D mark II with a 24-105 :)
I tried to post a long post…it has been kicked out… I try to split it in several parts
In fact, it’s just the innovation of competitors that serves the customers of a given Brand. If there is no competition or barely no serious competition, Canon sense of business is far sharper than Nikon’s or Sony : The target is not to make good camera in a purerely photographic meaning, but optimize an industrial process targeted at making money. So : Acceptability margin in pro Lenses (hence the success of Lens Alignment tools), acceptability margins in pro bodies…and we don’t speak about the entry-level line which are basically made on production lines with similar scale reliability.
Having understood that, it’s easy to understand why the firmware is not issued yet, why no camera is really perfect (at least Canon’s) and why profitable choices are made, instead of photographic, or purely technical improvement – choices. Recycle 5D AF on 5D2 ? Good saving, 5D2 is targetted at portraitist, landscape, and some wedding stuff. No need for a terrific AF that will need resources to be developped…so less profitability. They are not to be blamed, we, customers have access to terrific technologies, huge ISO performances (made from sensors small improvements, but most importantly math algorithms of picture processing and noise detection formulas), and general all-round performances. The price to pay is that such a company, with financial ressources to fuel this R&D, has to be profitable and so accept that 80 / 20 rule = You spend 80 % of your time achieving the final 20% of a camera’s performance. Another comment : Look at Leica, all hand made, very strict reliability and default margins, but the M9 is 2-3 times more expensive than a 5D2, the “math/picture processing/sensors improvement features” are bad in comparison in Leica (look at a M9 1250 iso picture…let’s wait for DxO…). They don’t have the ressource to invest R&D in sensors, image processing improvement and Raw Un-matrixing refinements (look at the differents results from D3X and Alpha 900 with only some small differences in the sensors…).
According to me, this update could be credible, and if I were Canon exec, reading all the comments here saying “of that small improvement is so important, I’d buy this camera right now!” It totally validate the strategy.
Don’t forget that marketing, the art of selling and make people buy, is to constantly maintain and fuel the sensation of small frustration, lack, need to keep the masses entertained and demanding. Canon is so good at this game !
Nikon release is felt all the time as a reliable and worth of investment upgrade, that will last years (D300 is still a fantastic camera they didn’t have to improve that much, D3 is still great, D700 the same, D3X already seen in a lot of studios…).
I am not advocating anything but the strategies are different. It’s fare more profitable to be fuelling the demand with update, rewards, and frustration (and we talk about it, so it adds even more buzz), than providing really good camera with the boxes checked.
So Canon users…tied to the brand for the love of L lenses? and slave to the company’s will? There is hope : Competition…there would never have been a 7D without D300…and the switchers (especially among the agencies) were numerous…so the 1D mark IV hastily issued with a lot of improvements…