Talking about finalizing a 2019 roadmap. Sure would be great if Canon would reveal it to us mortals.
That caught my eye too. Canon hasn't been big on "roadmaps." He might have been referring to an internal roadmap, but he seemed to suggest there was to be a public one. It does make business sense for them to do so, given that they've left the market uncertain that the pro body will come to match the amazing lenses they've put out. Nikon addressed this same issue (having caused the opposite problem - pretty respectable bodies with mediocre lenses) by putting out a roadmap. Problem for Nikon is that the roadmap they released reveals that the lenses they're going to push out for the Z mount still won't come close to Canon's ambitions.
If Canon's 1DX-like R mount camera is going to come out 1.5-2 years from now, then they might do better with uncertainty, rather than revealing the chasm of time before release.
Couple points of interest:
1 - I find it interesting that multiple people in the comments don't consider the 1DX2 to be the be-all of pro cameras. Its resolution and fps and size makes it a bit of a niche camera, versus perhaps a more common pro use case of high resolution and lower fps.
2 - Following on that, I consider myself to be in a bit of a temporary place with my 5D4 cameras. They don't have the fps needed, but they're better than the 1 series for my purposes, due largely to resolution. The slow fps was the main weakness of the 5D4 release, in my opinion, although I like the cameras very much. I bring this up because Canon can't release an R mount camera that is sort of like the 5D4 that has slightly lower or same fps and still inspire a massive upgrade cycle among us 5 series owners. I don't think they'll inspire quite the upgrade cycle unless they give pro users an upgrade in some important metrics, such as sensor quality/ISO, fps, although features such as IBIS and a few other nifty new mirrorless tricks will certainly provide some bait.
3 - If Canon indicated a 5DSR upgrade in R mount in 2019 on a roadmap, I'd by an R right now and start shifting lenses, selling off some EF glass in particular for the 50 and the 28-70. But, if precedent holds, we all have some time, and maybe the current R won't be the backup body I want when the real pro body comes out in 2020-2021.
Random side note. I'm very curious what's going to come out from Panasonic and Sigma in terms of L mount bodies. As it is now, I have 6 or 7 Art lenses on Canon mount, and find them in most cases superior to the Canon equivalent, with a few exceptions (35 & 85 f/1.4s come to mind). Sigma hasn't exactly blown everyone away with their bodies, as they've hitched their wagon to their very innovative-but-perhaps-not-the-most-practical sensor tech. Panasonic, on the other hand, is impressive as heck on the body side of things. I bring this up because at some point in the next couple of years we're going to be able to compare Sigma's Mark 1 Art series to a perhaps-redesigned set of primes for the new L mount they're supporting. Yes, they could just add L mount to existing designs, but I suspect Sigma will want to exploit the design flexibility of the newer, shorter flange distance, much like Canon has done of late. This may give us the option of having better-than-Canon glass from Sigma on Panasonic bodies that use Sony sensors. You may all flame me now.
