The Canon EOS-1D X Mark III is coming in 2020

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AFMA can be a pain, but once done for a particular body/lens combo it works fairly well without needing to be redone very much, particularly for primes.

The real advantage of main sensor based AF over dedicated AF sensor based PDAF is that it's right at all subject distances if the camera optically confirms AF rather than only confirming the lens moved the instructed amount (which is what the most advanced PDAF systems do when shooting fast bursts). By the time the lens has moved, the mirror is already swinging up again and the lens position is measured by position sensors rather than optically. But some DSLMs also do not wait to optically confirm AF before resetting the shutter curtains to take the next frame in a fast burst. That's why some DSLMs also have forms of micro adjustment - to calibrate the lens' AF position sensor(s).

You can't use a DSLR in Live View with your eye to a viewfinder.
You can use a DSLM with your eye to an EVF.

There's still a fundamental difference there. Sometimes camera stability is critical in an environment where using a tripod is not practical or even possible.

Maybe there is someone somewhere that does it that way, but I know of no pro or even advanced amateur who uses a rear LCD screen to shoot sports/action stills.
Excellent way of describing the difference of the systems. I would also add the ability of accurate focus across nearly all the sensor area. With the Sony A9 for example, 693 phase-detection autofocus points offering 93% frame coverage. The ability to hit nearly any part of the frame and keep it in focus is amazing technology.
 
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I'd be surprised if its below 30 MP.
I'll be interested if they increase the FPS.
I assume it will be at least 1 stop better in ISO.
I wonder how silent it will be. I can see press conferences in the future banning noisy cameras with the mirrorless option available.
Once it starts it spreads. Weddings too the click click is distracting. I'm sure Canon could make a fairly silent mirrored camera (of course mirror lock up allows for fairly silent shooting).
Yes I'll be very interested in this one. Could be the last great mirrored camera.
It will be years before a mirrorless camera will match its battery performance.
30mp is ambitious. 1 stop better ISO is ambitious. It will be around 24mp and 1/4 stop better ISO.
 
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Nothing but GAS gets in my way of continued use and it doesn't take herculean strength to avoid it's siren call, just a teeny bit of willpower.
Are you sure you didn't mean Odysseus? Forgive me nitpicking but... you know... the kids learn from the Internet almost exclusively now... ;)
Surely Odysseus could display Herculean strength? The Herculean reference preceded the Odysseus reference so I do believe siclick is fine ;)(y)
 
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Here is my vision on this case: Canon already had the 1Dx mark III ready and was testing when Sony brought their mirrorless A7 / A9 to the market. Lots and LOTS of pro's converted to Sony, thanks to Sony's proactive way of convincing professional photographers by organising events and taking the pro's to nice hotels and tropical test sites. Canon fell asleep, the past 10 years they simply increased the shutterspeed, ISO and thought they were good to go for another 4 years. How many people have made the switch to Sony, I guess around 15 - 25%. Canon is very clearly having a hard time keeping up with all technological inventions competitors come up with.

So, the 1Dx mark III was tested, ready for market, WTF do we do with it, the Japanese must have asked themselves. There were two options:
1. We bin it, we cannot afford to launch a noisy prehistoric product while competitors are kicking with mirrorless cameras with much better performance. If we launch this product Canon will be known as the brand that is not up-to-date and selling vintage camera's.
2. We launch it anyway and see what happens. It has costed a lot to upgrade the 1Dx mark II so why putting 4 years of work to waste?

I think it is a very very risky period for Canon. They cannot afford another mistake, bare in mind the 1D mark III focus issues. I have owned two of these garbage bins and it took me 1 year to finally get Canon to admit something was severely wrong in their AF system. If Canon launches the 1Dx mark III and something is wrong with it, it's over and out. There is no way they will be back in pro business (*) like they were a few years ago. If they DON'T launch the 1Dx III in 2020 most of the pro's will be using Sony by the time the Mirrorless Pro body is ready for market somewere around 2021.

* maybe Canon does not want to be no.1 anymore when it comes to pro cameras, since Research and Development is costing a fortune.
It would be much more profitable to focus on semi-pro and consumer series (i.e. 5D series) and simply do a little RND yourself, but mainly copy stuff from other brands and put it into the semi-pro series a few months later. Canon is still a well known A-brand and I am sure lots of people are willing to buy it, even if it's not the highest megapixel camera or the shutterspeed is 1 fps less.

So...
Canon is falling behind. They have quickly launched the Canon EOS R just to have a mirrorless body on the market.
The EOS R is the camera YouTubers have quite some complaints about. It's design is not even close to what the pro's need, it only has 1 card slot and it is not silent in burst mode. Just imagine screwing an EOS R on your 400mm 2.8. Looks like attaching a post-stamp to a ... well I don't know, but the body would look small and ridiculous.

And what about all those loyal Canon pro's that -year after year- have invested in EXTREMELY expensive L-series lenses?
Canon is clearly not interested in developing EF lenses anymore, and is putting the pedal to the metal on RF series.
Bought a nice 400mm 2.8 lately? Too bad, byebye 13k. These buckets of glass are going to become useless in 2 years.
Be sure to be ahead of the game when Canon is launching new RF products, chances are the prices of EF lenses will drop like crazy.

Is it all negative and doom here? No.
I am pretty sure Canon will come up with a nice mirrorless pro body somewere end 2020 begin 2021 (and I'm pretty sure it's gonna cost 5 - 6k too).

But every day they wait will make Canon users switch to other brands... Canon has to step up, launch a mirrorless pro body ASAP!
And when they do, they have to be sure they are not launching a product that is already using outdated technology, since Sony seems to come up with new (semi) pro bodies every year.
Canon needs to increase their interval on launching new pro bodies, and they need to come up with something good SOON! Also they need to listen to their European and American users, WE HAVE BIGGER HANDS AND FINGERS HERE GUYS! So bigger grip please.. and dont put all them buttons on a square inch.

And last but not least, Canon needs to compete in pro gear pricing. The pricing has been ridiculous for the past decades, due to their monopolist status, but those times are over. And we have to thank Sony for that. So I never thought I would say this, but "thank you Sony."

Please Canon, make us (pro photographers using Canon) leading again AND charge reasonable prices.
And we'll be good to go for another decade. Focus on Photography, who needs 6K video and all that. Save that for C-series.

What we need is:
RELIABILITY, HIGH SHUTTER SPEED, WIFI, HIGH ISO PERFORMANCE, IMAGE QUALITY, FLAWLESS AUTOFOCUS, SHARPNESS, SILENCE.

Mr. Imo
 
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30mp is ambitious. 1 stop better ISO is ambitious. It will be around 24mp and 1/4 stop better ISO.
I don't think it will be that low. I don't think the Nikon D6 will be that low either. I'm guessing 28-30 for all three pro systems (canon, nikon, sony). From the snippets we've seen of the newer sensor tech in the m6ii and 90d it looks like they've solved the throughput issue. A new Digic chip might be powerful enough to replace 2-3 chips from before, off the shelf licensed designs have had enormous leaps in the last few years, a custom design could even be faster. It'll be interesting to see the outcome of this.
 
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rbielefeld

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These buckets of glass are going to become useless in 2 years.

Nope, they do and will continue to work great on R bodies and for that matter even on Sony bodies. Don't like adapters, well, that of course is a personal choice, but they work great for me and I like all the lens options going this route provides me.
 
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Nope, they do and will continue to work great on R bodies and for that matter even on Sony bodies. Don't like adapters, well, that of course is a personal choice, but they work great for me and I like all the lens options going this route provides me.

I totally agree... EF glass is a great complement to the R system.

I do hope that everyone hates adapters and ditches their EF glass though.... so I can pick some up for cheap
 
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rbielefeld

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I totally agree... EF glass is a great complement to the R system.

I do hope that everyone hates adapters and ditches their EF glass though.... so I can pick some up for cheap
I am totally with you on this. Please, everyone, dump your EF glass off at Goodwill so I can buy it.
 
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SteveC

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Indeed, but I was just reacting to the original post, which implied it didn't happen. The Digic 5 was first in the 1D X (announcement - it took a long while to appear)

The appearance of different digic chips over the years and in different models. This is the latest I've used (good to see Digic 4 still going strong from 2008 [50D])

View attachment 186663
I suspect we'll see some big changes to the bottom the table in just a few years - perhaps time to spit it into DSLR and Mirrorless versions.

Just wanted to say I found this graphic highly illuminating in setting out history.

I also notice you've labeled the different "strata" (from Entry to Best) for the DSLRs. I guess my cameras are higher-level than I thought. I will say the M50 has features that the T6i does not, so it ought to be at least a Mid--unless, of course the fact that it's newer changes expectations.
 
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Has anybody done a list of what they'd like in the 1DX MkIII? Here is mine from another thread.
I'd like:-
  1. 30MP
  2. Illuminated buttons
  3. Full touch screen in all modes including touch drag AF
  4. Tilt screen
  5. Built in intavalometer
  6. Built in WiFi
  7. 240fps 1080 uncropped
  8. Same stills fps
  9. C-Log
  10. .CR3
  11. Much fuller wireless control via Canon app (Current software is a joke compared to CamRanger and DJI)
  12. Uncropped 4k
  13. Built in RT flash controller
  14. Dual pixel sub image RAW option
  15. Dual CFast
  16. Newer smaller CODEC
  17. 120 4k
 
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How many people have made the switch to Sony, I guess around 15 - 25%. Canon is very clearly having a hard time keeping up with all technological inventions competitors come up with.
<snip>
Canon is falling behind.
Your guess: 15-25% of Canon users have switched to Sony

The actual market share data: Canon has lost no market share (still at ~49% of the ILC market), Sony has gained ~3% market share (going from 14% to ~17% ILC market share in the past 2 years).

Even if your guess is correct (which seems very unlikely), it means that Canon gained as many users as they lost, so the net effect is zero.

I’ll leave you to consider the implications of the lack of data on which Mr. Imo is basing opinions.
 
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unfocused

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Here is my vision on this case: Canon already had the 1Dx mark III ready and was testing when Sony brought their mirrorless A7 / A9 to the market. Lots and LOTS of pro's converted to Sony, thanks to Sony's proactive way of convincing professional photographers by organising events and taking the pro's to nice hotels and tropical test sites. Canon fell asleep, the past 10 years they simply increased the shutterspeed, ISO and thought they were good to go for another 4 years. How many people have made the switch to Sony, I guess around 15 - 25%. Canon is very clearly having a hard time keeping up with all technological inventions competitors come up with.

So, the 1Dx mark III was tested, ready for market, WTF do we do with it, the Japanese must have asked themselves. There were two options:
1. We bin it, we cannot afford to launch a noisy prehistoric product while competitors are kicking with mirrorless cameras with much better performance. If we launch this product Canon will be known as the brand that is not up-to-date and selling vintage camera's.
2. We launch it anyway and see what happens. It has costed a lot to upgrade the 1Dx mark II so why putting 4 years of work to waste?

I think it is a very very risky period for Canon. They cannot afford another mistake, bare in mind the 1D mark III focus issues. I have owned two of these garbage bins and it took me 1 year to finally get Canon to admit something was severely wrong in their AF system. If Canon launches the 1Dx mark III and something is wrong with it, it's over and out. There is no way they will be back in pro business (*) like they were a few years ago. If they DON'T launch the 1Dx III in 2020 most of the pro's will be using Sony by the time the Mirrorless Pro body is ready for market somewere around 2021.

* maybe Canon does not want to be no.1 anymore when it comes to pro cameras, since Research and Development is costing a fortune.
It would be much more profitable to focus on semi-pro and consumer series (i.e. 5D series) and simply do a little RND yourself, but mainly copy stuff from other brands and put it into the semi-pro series a few months later. Canon is still a well known A-brand and I am sure lots of people are willing to buy it, even if it's not the highest megapixel camera or the shutterspeed is 1 fps less.

So...
Canon is falling behind. They have quickly launched the Canon EOS R just to have a mirrorless body on the market.
The EOS R is the camera YouTubers have quite some complaints about. It's design is not even close to what the pro's need, it only has 1 card slot and it is not silent in burst mode. Just imagine screwing an EOS R on your 400mm 2.8. Looks like attaching a post-stamp to a ... well I don't know, but the body would look small and ridiculous.

And what about all those loyal Canon pro's that -year after year- have invested in EXTREMELY expensive L-series lenses?
Canon is clearly not interested in developing EF lenses anymore, and is putting the pedal to the metal on RF series.
Bought a nice 400mm 2.8 lately? Too bad, byebye 13k. These buckets of glass are going to become useless in 2 years.
Be sure to be ahead of the game when Canon is launching new RF products, chances are the prices of EF lenses will drop like crazy.

Is it all negative and doom here? No.
I am pretty sure Canon will come up with a nice mirrorless pro body somewere end 2020 begin 2021 (and I'm pretty sure it's gonna cost 5 - 6k too).

But every day they wait will make Canon users switch to other brands... Canon has to step up, launch a mirrorless pro body ASAP!
And when they do, they have to be sure they are not launching a product that is already using outdated technology, since Sony seems to come up with new (semi) pro bodies every year.
Canon needs to increase their interval on launching new pro bodies, and they need to come up with something good SOON! Also they need to listen to their European and American users, WE HAVE BIGGER HANDS AND FINGERS HERE GUYS! So bigger grip please.. and dont put all them buttons on a square inch.

And last but not least, Canon needs to compete in pro gear pricing. The pricing has been ridiculous for the past decades, due to their monopolist status, but those times are over. And we have to thank Sony for that. So I never thought I would say this, but "thank you Sony."

Please Canon, make us (pro photographers using Canon) leading again AND charge reasonable prices.
And we'll be good to go for another decade. Focus on Photography, who needs 6K video and all that. Save that for C-series.

What we need is:
RELIABILITY, HIGH SHUTTER SPEED, WIFI, HIGH ISO PERFORMANCE, IMAGE QUALITY, FLAWLESS AUTOFOCUS, SHARPNESS, SILENCE.

Mr. Imo

Wow! This is bizarre. Completely delusional and divorced from reality.
 
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unfocused

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Has anybody done a list of what they'd like in the 1DX MkIII? Here is mine from another thread...

My list is a little shorter:
  1. Better Autofocus (In particular locking on eyes and staying locked on the subject -- for sports shooting)
  2. Wider autofocus point coverage (if possible)
  3. 30-34 MP
  4. Slightly better high ISO performance.
  5. Full touch screen in all modes including touch drag AF (If possible)
  6. A sensor that isn't a dust magnet
  7. 2-4 fps bump for stills
  8. Dual CFast
  9. Quieter "silent" shutter
 
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ethanz

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Has anybody done a list of what they'd like in the 1DX MkIII? Here is mine from another thread.

I'd like:-
  1. 24-30MP
  2. Illuminated buttons
  3. Full touch screen in all modes including touch drag AF
  4. Built in WiFi
  5. Same stills fps
  6. .CR3
  7. Dual CFast
  8. A sensor that isn't a dust magnet
  9. Quieter "silent" shutter
 
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Michael Clark

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Just wanted to say I found this graphic highly illuminating in setting out history.

I also notice you've labeled the different "strata" (from Entry to Best) for the DSLRs. I guess my cameras are higher-level than I thought. I will say the M50 has features that the T6i does not, so it ought to be at least a Mid--unless, of course the fact that it's newer changes expectations.

That chart appears to be a modified version of the one at Wikipedia (at the bottom of the article).

All mirrorless bodies are underneath all DSLR bodies in the chart.
 
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