I've talked to Canon reps for the past couple of years about what the next 5-series body would be like, and they always act like they're guarding the secret to cold fusion. Getting any kind of straight answer out of them has been impossible and honestly, it kind of pissed me off. As a working pro, knowing what 'might' be in the pipeline could really help me in my business and when your own rep can't tell you anything, the frustration you begin to feel makes any kind of brand loyalty secondary. At the last Photo Expo in New York when all anybody wanted to talk about was the 1Dx launch, there were a lot of guys like me feeling extremely left out by Canon. It's not too much to say that the 1Dx, while a very nice machine, is not the ideal body for the majority of photographers out there and that doesn't have anything to do with what it costs. But Canon was so hopped up about their new toy that any questions about what the 5D mkII's replacement might be like were met with a stony wall of silence.
So without any information coming directly from Canon, like everyone else I've recently been following all the leaks about the 5D Mark III or 5Dx or whatever they plan to call the thing. Whether any of them are true or not ain't gonna really change my life since I spend most of my time with my face pressed firmly against a Hasselblad with a Leaf back, but if Canon does stick to their guns and keep the new model's pixel count at the 22MP range, it will probably be the thing to push me back to Nikon after more than 20 years of being a Canon guy. I was very happy with the first 1Ds...for what it was...but moved to the 5D Mark II for obvious reasons, even though it has a fair number of shortcomings...the focusing system being my main concern. If Canon does have a new 61 autofocus point system in the new model it will help, but for a guy like me who constantly compares the files that pop outta my Leaf back to the less-groovy versions that the Canon spits out, then the Nikon D800...with it's 36.3 MP chip...is looking better and better all the time. And I get that if you're a news guy or a sports guy the lower megapixel count on the new 1Dx is less important than the high capture rate and better ISO range. Likewise, I also fully understand that for the majority of jobs, the 5D's 22MP capture is gonna be just 'fine'. But I really could give a damn about 'fine'. All things being equal, if I compare two DSLR's capturing 14-bit images, if one is using a 22MP chip and the other has a 36.3MP chip, I'm pretty sure I know which one is gonna come out on top. I'm gonna give the D800 a test drive, and if it does what I think it is capable of, I'll sell off my small but capable collection of Canon bodies and glass and pick up similar stuff with a Nikon badge. Like I said, my loyalty to Canon has its limits, and since they seem to think that 22MP is all a guy like me needs, then I'm sorry, but I think they're wrong.