kevl said:
The hardware in the various bodies may look similar but it is not the same. Each component needs to be conceived, designed, tested, tweaked, produced, and then supported for a significant period of time. You can't take a mainboard from a 1DX and put it in a 5D3. There may be some components which are the same but the vast majority of them are distinct to each model.
The same goes for software. While I am confident the code is similar it has to be coded for, tested on, and supported for completely different hardware. While Canon surely knows how to make AEB work, there is significant cost involved in developing it for new hardware in every body they produce.
The long term support of features & hardware cannot be ignored. Not only does Canon have to produce the bodies they are going to sell, they have to produce, store, and maintain enough parts to support the fleet of bodies for the next 10 years.
Then there is documentation and customer support including training support staff on each feature on each body...
There is a multitude of extra costs added for every feature that a manufacturer puts into each body, "just software" or not.
If the job is done correctly, then many of these aspects can be placed modules, black boxes as you will. Just as 99% of Windows does not have to be retested on my Dell laptop as your Acer desktop. *IF* Canon has architected their systems correctly, much of the software, and a reasonable amount of the hardware can flow between various models.
It is the ID, the mechanical bits that change. I would suspect the only thing the same between the mirror sub-system between the 80D and the 1DX-ii, is well, they both have mirrors. But yet the firmware that controls the mirrors is probably vastly the same, except for constants.
The best example that I know is Microchip processors, the PIC line of system on chips that are all over the place. Last count, over all of their different processors, they had 3 different ADC converts, 2 or 3 UARTs, and for each SOC, they pick the correct ADC or UART for the part, how many of each, and then place them on the die. Canon should be able to do the same with their firmware.
Again, Industrial Design/Mechanical will change from model to model, but still, concepts will be similar. And some components, like the detent system for function wheels would be the same from model to model.
romanr74 said:
They certainly DO want to differentiate their products, also on software features. There are products that are solely differntiated through software features. So nothing to do with costs necessarily, certainly not classical "manufacturing costs".
I think what you are going to find, especially since so many of the features are firmware based, between cameras in Canon, you will either have a GPS chip put in or not. But, other than mechanical considerations (ie. where does the antenna go) and marketing considerations, the R&D penalty for adding GPS to a camera, should be, at this point, nothing to Canon.
The marketing department should be able to dial up a camera product spec (with-in known limits) and product development will deliver. The envelope of those current limits is displayed in the 1DX-ii, 80D and 7D-ii.
Let's let that sink in. Their current envelope is the 1DX-ii, 80D, and 7D-ii. I guess I should add, that 120MP beast their showing off. What else do they have lying around??
So, my guess is, the 5Div, has to be a holly grail, wedding monster, that cements Canon as the DSLR to go to. It is the bread and butter. They want to keep dip-sh*ts like me away from Nikon and Sony, and ensure they don't have any defections.
So, for guys like me, they add in GPS and WIFI, maybe show us some 8FPS love, maybe 10 in live view. Drop in full sensor width 4K/60fps, 1K/120fps, anti-flicker, class leading AF, and so on.
The only thing they don't have on the shelf (from the 1DX-ii to 80D) is the full width 4K/60fps. And whoaah, the DIGIC 7 is now out. It is very possible, the DIGIC 7 was not going to be available just in time for the 1DX-ii, but is for the 5D-iv? Who here knows at this point?
But the DIGIC 7 is now out in large quantity, obviously, does it have that scaling engine to pipe to create the full sensor width 4K??
I would also suggest, the 6D and 5DS might be the only 2 big boy DSLRs that do not get DPAF, and you may see the 6D-ii slot in at the 30-36MP, and the 5DS-ii come in around 55-70MP.
So the portrait/landscapers will have midrange (6D-ii) and topend (5DS-ii) to chose from. Where the jack of all will have the 5D-iv (24-28MP), with DPAF.
Anyway, from all that I have learned from the forums, and my own product development knowledge, that is the way I see it. And one thing for certain, all of the mechanical work is complete, all of the molds are done, all of the semiconductors are on production lines, the mirror mechanism is in mass production, the design is complete.
