Reason why I do not believe why a 1-Series MILC will come out in 2021 as of this writing
- Canon Inc is a for profit company that will produce products in line with customers needs/wants so long as it is profitable
- Customers of the 1-Series like bulk buying photo news agencies surveyed between 2017-2020 wanted an SLR and not a MILC
- EF 600mm & 400mm were updated to Series III in 5-Sep-2018
- 1D X Mark III was announced 378 days ago and was initially released in some markets on February 2020 while others got it as late as July 2020
- Market for flagship bodies is too small to support more than 1 "new" one at the same time
- Having 2 "new" flagships at the same time would halve that market, doubles the R&D cost and would not pay for the R&D of last year's model
- 1D X Series sees a replacement every ~4 years to coincide with the Summer Olympics that occurs months later
- Not enough RF mount lenses
- No 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, 600mm or even 800mm are available now
- This year's Olympics is 6 months away and there is not much lead time for the R1 to come out.
- The wants/wishes of outliers like those on a photo forum does not reflect the totality of the photographic market
- Rumors of flagship models gets a lot of clicks. How many times has CR published rumors of a Series II 800/5.6 or 200/2.0?
- Back orders for the R5 & R6 are high and are produced in batches on demand.
- Rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics occurring in July 2021 may even happen
Will the R1 be priced at
- $4,499 to compete with the Sony a9 II?
- $6,499 to compete with Nikon and Canon's 1D X Mark III?
- $7,149 to cover any development cost projected reduction of economies of scale?
As courtesy to people who do not give any citation for their counter position I did a bit of snooping for you
- 549 days is the shortest product cycle between 1-Series bodies
- This occured 22-Feb-2007 to 20-Oct-2009 from 1D Mark II to 1D Mark IIn
- As applied to the 1D X Mark III the R1 would have come out 22-Jul-2022, 2 days before the Olympics
- An R1 in 2021 could happen but it is unlikely to occur until Q1 2024
I feel safer with FAANG
Idealized R1 release would go like this
- 7-Jan-2020 would announce the R1
- 2018 would announce the RF mount 600mm, 400mm, 70-200/2.8 IS, 70-200/4 IS, etc.
- 2018-2020 would announce 200/2.0, 300/2.8, 500/4 or even 800/5.6
To be honest I was surprised Canon even bothered offering the 1D X Mark III because of the RP, R and Ra bodies then it dawned on me that those buying a 1-Series body are very conservative with their mission-critical hardware so prefer SLRs over MILC.