*UPDATE* 5D Mark III - February 7, 2012 [CR2]

[LetTheRightLensIn]

- I also expect we won't see any more than a doubling of the ISO speed, probably up to 12,800, but much more usable and probably software limited just to keep it from eating into the 1D X sales. Hopefully we'll see a nice jump in the DR too. But expect the 1D X to trounce the 5DMK3 when it comes to low light and DR performance, even if Canon has to kneecap the upper ISO select-ability of the 5DMK3 to do so. I don't think Canon will let the selectable ISO be anywhere near the 51,200 of the 1D X, even if the noise levels for the two look identical up to 12,800... the 5DMK3 will just not have anything higher available.

I don't think so, Canon has never once intentionally crippled sensor performance. That way would also make them look poor too easily in the tests that will pop up all over the net. That is one game they don't mess with.

And you forget that the higher ISO are all pushed anyway, so even if they left above 12,800 you'd get the same (plus more highlights preserved by pushing RAW in post), well as much for jpg or video shooters but. and thos ehigher ones often look a mess anyway.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

One thing though, someone on one of the forums who claims to have already held the 5D3, his hints wouldn't seem to fit in with the CR2 specs very well though. Sure he could be full if it, but he has tended to pop-up right before each release and offer reasonable hints before.

I was about to point this out, but you beat me to it. According to that fellow, the 5D3 handled just like the 7D... I suppose he was referring to the frame rate. But the 61 AF pt? Is that real??? Wow!

Actually his hints fit these specs pretty well. He was misinterpreted to hint at higher resolution but he did not. And he did not call it a 5D III. If anything he hinted it was a union of the 5D and 7D line.

But didn't he say one of three main specs in that one guy's list were wrong? That guy listed:
6fps
22MP
19 pt AF with Digic 4 assist

Two of those specs don't appear to match this CR2 info.

 

[npherno]

61pt AF

CR-Guy: Do you believe any S___ in your inbox?


This will NEVER HAPPEN!

I do think 61-pt is somewhat of a stretch, but you never know. He's been right many times before and has reliable sources and wouldn't CR2 this if he didn't think it was probable. Everyone is saying these specs are unbelievable based on a price of $2500 (which I highly doubt will be the final cost). But if the camera is $3000-$3500 it seems like it could be possible.

I agree that it's much more likely to get a variant of the 7D AF, but if it did come Spec'ed as rumored, and at a reasonable price, Canon would have a hell of a camera to sell. It would be like the D700 we wished we had.

Does anyone know how many D700's sold vs D3's? Im not sure about the specifics of the Nikon line, but perhaps the accountants at Canon rather sell volume rather than a limited number of the high-end?

 

[briansquibb]

I have been out playing with my new to me 'slow' 1Ds3 and had no problem with taking BIF - if the new 5DIII matches that I would be pleased

AF point on left of centre, whereas on the 5DII it would have had to be the centre point (cropped off right side)

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I have been out playing with my new to me 'slow' 1Ds3 and had no problem with taking BIF - if the new 5DIII matches that I would be pleased

Nobody here has said the 1D3 AF is slow have they? Who has said that?
Fps isn't that fast on it, but the AF is fast.

 

[briansquibb]

I have been out playing with my new to me 'slow' 1Ds3 and had no problem with taking BIF - if the new 5DIII matches that I would be pleased

Nobody here has said the 1D3 AF is slow have they? Who has said that?
Fps isn't that fast on it, but the AF is fast.

- 1Ds3

 

[DzPhotography]

lol d800 is coming next week good luck waiting for the 5dmk3

so? : And no, it's in two weeks

So Canon was just waiting for Nikon to then release theirs, this is cat and mouse game for me: Nikon cat and Canon mouse.

And with the pro-line Nikon was completely caught by surprise with the 1D X and had to quickly update their D3s just no to lose face in the Olympics. : Also your statement doesn't make sense.
If Canon waits and see what Nikon does, they have more chance to be the cat Also, what sense does a 36MP FF make? That's something for mediumformat. Too much pixles crammed in a FF sensor is gonna make a very noisy one imho.... :

Oh wait, maybe you're just a troll well go trolling on the nikonrumors forum then. :

 

[dealaddict]

I just switch to Sony ... but if the spec is true, I think I may switch back to Canon

I really don't get this... Not only that I don't see a reason to switch to Sony but also; what will happen if Olympus announces a super-duper camera 3 months later? And then Pentax announces a better one? And then Nikon with a killer deal?

I'll never understand this...

P.S.: No offence mate, nothing personal, just that your post reminded me what I wanted to say since a while...

Yes, I have my reasons to switch that I don't need you to understand or agree.

 

[dwischnewski]

Just what my guts tell me:

• 22mp - I expect a few more MP from Canon for the 5D line (though I don't think I want them)
• 61pt AF - Nope, will not happen. Rather a variant of the 7D or 1D4 focus system, if at all...
• 7.5fps (this I’ve only seen once) - With a single DIGIC processor? It's not going to work. 5 fps, if we are lucky. The 5D line is not a speed line
• DIGIC 5 - probably, maybe even the 5+ processor
• New Battery Grip with Joystick - Probable after we've seen those images a few days ago. And I'd really love that
• GPS Ready - Would be nice - but what is meant? internal BT-adapter, over the USB port, ... ?

Anyway, I believe we will see the new 5D3 somewhere closer to Photokina, around July/August.

 

[VirtualRain]

It's clear to me that even the fools who are trolling these rumors are out of touch with the market. Let's face it, the market for a 5DII replacement consists primarily of wedding, studio, or landscape/travel photographers and videographers. These people don't care about fps or Servo AI focus (which requires 50+ AF points)! No... these folks need ISO, dynamic range, and a few focus points spread out on the rule of thirds that work in low light. So, either the rumor trolls, Canon, or both, are completely out of touch with the market for a 5DII replacement. I personally hope it's just the rumor trolls that have it all wrong.

 

[capertillar]

lets be realistic here, for canon, its all about the bottom line. ALL they care about is improving sales and making more money. how they plan to achieve that ultimate goal is hidden in their secret board meetings and such, but outfitting the 5dm2 successor with features that go beyond what the market perceives the 5dm2 is limited to, well, thats certainly one way to break out of the "mold" and sell more units

ultimately, what im interested to see is how the 5dm2 successor will differ from the 7d successor... afterall, another concern for canon would be cannibalizing their own sales, in this case, the 7d sales, so in order to avoid that, i too agree that 7.5 fps is highly unlikely and 61 AF points is likely overstated, etc etc...

 

[Supreme]

This place is starting to make Macrumors look tame. I really didn't think that was possible!

 

[CanonGuy]

If those specs are going to be real now, then I liked to change my 7D to 5D3

 

[Kernuak]

It's clear to me that even the fools who are trolling these rumors are out of touch with the market. Let's face it, the market for a 5DII replacement consists primarily of wedding, studio, or landscape/travel photographers and videographers. These people don't care about fps or Servo AI focus (which requires 50+ AF points)! No... these folks need ISO, dynamic range, and a few focus points spread out on the rule of thirds that work in low light. So, either the rumor trolls, Canon, or both, are completely out of touch with the market for a 5DII replacement. I personally hope it's just the rumor trolls that have it all wrong.

At the moment, the main photographers are wedding, studio and landscape/travel, but the main repeating complaint is the autofocus and how it is so much worse than the D700. If Canon correct this and up the frame rate, the improved image quality of the full frame sensor over crop opens up the market for sports and wildlife too. At the moment, I use the 7D for wildlife and the 5D MkII where image quality is more important, i.e. landscape and macro and where I have low light. If the focus and frame rate was improved by the 5D MkIII (or by another line), then I would use that for most things, unless I needed the extra reach provided by the 7D. The 1D-X has already shown how Canon are willing to move the sports and wildlife photography from a 1.3x crop to full frame, so it's a logical progression. However, that doesn't mean they will actually do that, only time will tell.

 

[briansquibb]

Just to remind everyone:

1Ds3 specs:

45 point AF (not quite 1D4 level but close)
21mp ff (same as 5DII)
5fps

If this was in the 5DII (with its superior high ISO - 1DS3 max is 1600) that would make a very nice camera. It would take little development to implement (essentially engineering and firmware) - and not treading on any other cameras market place.

 

[Kernuak]

Just to remind everyone:

1Ds3 specs:

45 point AF (not quite 1D4 level but close)
21mp ff (same as 5DII)
5fps

If this was in the 5DII (with its superior high ISO - 1DS3 max is 1600) that would make a very nice camera. It would take little development to implement (essentially engineering and firmware) - and not treading on any other cameras market place.

Which is why a number of the higher profile wildlife photographers had both the 1D MkIII/IV and 1Ds MkIII, so that they had the option of better image quality/size, when the reach wasn't a problem. I know of one Pro Nikon photgrapher who got the D300 for the reverse reason, but expressed irritation that the full frame rate wasn't available without the battery grip and that he wouldn't have bothered if he'd realised.

 

[Flake]

As I remember Canon is stuck with its autofocs points because of the flash system which only has compatability with a few variations - from digital picture "The Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash's AF-Assist Beam is aligned with the focus points on all of Canon's EOS bodies - with 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 45 AF points. " I'm unsure of how relevant this is when the 7D has 19 or the 1Dx with 61, however the Nikon D700 currently has 51 points and that's not going to go down, a 45 point system still leaves Canon with fewer points, where the 61 point might give them an advantage and still leave enough space between the 1Dx & a Canon 5D MkIII. This is especially relevant if Canon drop the 1Ds line and Nikon moves the D800 to 36MP.

Imagine a not unreasonable spec for the D800 with 36MP, 51 point AF, where is Canons advantage going to come from? Although most buyers at this level won't be buying a first camera, Canon is not going to let its lead slip in every area, and although the 22MP sensor may give better noise and dynamic range, that's not something which makes the spec sheet. I'm unsure about the 7.5fps, the 1Dx can manage 11 with 18MP, but I gather that is because of mechanical limitations, not electronic, so it might well be possible. It's untrue that landscape photographers don't need fps, a hand held HDR always benefits from it being faster.

 

[briansquibb]

As I remember Canon is stuck with its autofocs points because of the flash system which only has compatability with a few variations - from digital picture "The Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash's AF-Assist Beam is aligned with the focus points on all of Canon's EOS bodies - with 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 45 AF points. " I'm unsure of how relevant this is when the 7D has 19 or the 1Dx with 61, however the Nikon D700 currently has 51 points and that's not going to go down, a 45 point system still leaves Canon with fewer points, where the 61 point might give them an advantage and still leave enough space between the 1Dx & a Canon 5D MkIII. This is especially relevant if Canon drop the 1Ds line and Nikon moves the D800 to 36MP.

I read the 1DX specs as being 45 active and 16 assist points - which ties in nicely with what you are saying

 

[Pyrenees]

Producing a camera that sells well and makes a ton of money is what its about. Selling a 100K 1DX cameras does not make the profit like selling 1 million 5D MK III's. Reducing the 1DX sales by 10% is not a concern.

That is a very good point.

I really would not be surprised if the rumoured specs for the 5d III are spot on.

 

[MazV-L]

It's clear to me that even the fools who are trolling these rumors are out of touch with the market. Let's face it, the market for a 5DII replacement consists primarily of wedding, studio, or landscape/travel photographers and videographers. These people don't care about fps or Servo AI focus (which requires 50+ AF points)! No... these folks need ISO, dynamic range, and a few focus points spread out on the rule of thirds that work in low light. So, either the rumor trolls, Canon, or both, are completely out of touch with the market for a 5DII replacement. I personally hope it's just the rumor trolls that have it all wrong.

Maybe the specs are right but the model name wrong, not 5Diii, something else....