PRESS RELEASE: The world's fastest D-SLR remastered - Canon's EOS-1D Mark III:
 

United Kingdom, 22 February, 2007: Canon today sets new standards for professional photography with the launch of the

EOS-1D Mark III. Delivering 10 frames per second at 10.1 Megapixels for a maximum burst of 110 Large JPEG images (30 in RAW), the EOS-1D Mark III replaces the EOS-1D Mark II N as the world's fastest digital SLR. Dual "DIGIC III" processors drive the camera's high speed, high resolution performance, and bring 14-bit image processing to the EOS series for the first time.


A redesign from the ground up introduces a host of new features and advancements to Canon's flagship EOS-1 series, including a 3.0" LCD with Live View mode, EOS Integrated Cleaning System, new auto focus system with 19 cross-type sensors, and 63-zone exposure metering. The camera's APS-H size (28.1 x 18.7 mm) CMOS sensor enables a wider 100-3200 ISO range as standard, expandable to L:50 and H:6400.
"The EOS-1D Mark III represents a complete reappraisal of everything Canon has learned over the past 20 years of EOS development," said Tsunemasa Ohara, Senior General Manager, Camera Development Center, Canon Inc. "In building this camera, we started with a blank canvas. Every facet of the photographic process has been refined, every design decision re-evaluated to bring us to this point: a camera that combines familiar EOS ergonomics with a vastly enhanced specification. Our engineers are overjoyed with the result."

Pricing and availability
Pricing and availability TBA.

Andy, I must say with the announcement of the EOS-1D Mark III I am tempted to switch over! Not sure though if I want the hassle of selling my Nikon gear though? 1 body, 3 lenses and 3 TC's?

Cheers

Nick

I notice that there is no mention as to crop factor is it full frame or has it the 1.3x the same as 1D Mark II N. Just dreaming.

The size of sensor is APS-H (1.3 crop factor) same as 1D Mark II N

No dream, reality when available.

They give a rough price of around £3,050. a bit to expensive for me.

I must admit that's pitched in at a price beyond what I had thought... i'd have said £2.5k, though it's surprising how quickly these initial prices drop down.. so I'd say it could be £2.5k in 5 months.

Christine, where did you get the rough price of £3,050, I can't find anyone quoting prices in the UK? In the US there are rumours of $4000 ? so I guess we would have to add 25% on top of $4000?

Cheers

Someone on BF has ordered one and was quoted £3,050. In the states it is $4,000 which would convert to just over £2,100 at current exchange rates but then everything photographic is more expensive here than in the states.

Thanks Roy, you posted before I did, it was reading the rough price on BF that gave me the figure.

Personally, after all the hype - I think this announcement is very dissappointing.

The only useful thing in this camera is the live remote viewfinder feed, as I do a lot of shoots from a laptop remotely this could prove useful on a DSLR but hey my £200 Canon Pro1 does that at a fraction of the price.

I was looking forward (based on rumours) to the 5D getting the 16mp sensor and a lower priced 12mp version. Hey Ho!

I hope that Canon's usual product launches continue and they release some more in the Autumn.

I couldn't agree less with you John. The 1D III has more good things than you can poke a stick at:

Clean high ISO, up to 6400 - huge advance
Much lower noise
Vastly improved ergonomics. (BIG change.)
More dynamic range with 14-bit colour
The extra speed will be handy
Higher resolution - now has the same pixel pitch as a 1Ds II, i.e., better than a 12Dm not as high as a 30D. Notie that there is a trade-off here: the higher the pixel pitch, the finer the detail, but the worse the noise. 10MP in a 1.3 sensor is getting pretty close to ideal.
Live view promises to be great for macro and remote tethered shooting with a laptop.
The new AF system looks awesome ....

There is a great deal to like about this camera. I've 95% decided to buy one. Price is $6500 in Australia: it's quite a bit, but what price do I put on accurate autofocus for flying birds?

Of course, it all depends on what you shoot. If you are a landscape or a wedding photographer, then a 5D would suit you better. But for me, as a nature man, the 1D III looks just about perfect.

Roy / Christine, I have looked at the prices of Canon EOS-1D Mark II N in the US at B & H New York the price is $4000 at Warehouse Express £2149 which is very similar.

You would think that the MKIII would be parallel to the MKII:confused: ?

Perhaps the UK dealers are jumping the gun? or can see an opportunity to RIP us off:mad:

Cheers

I'm just supprised Canon haven't made any inroads back into the pellix design as seen on some film Eos cameras and more than a few other makes (tho Canon were always better at it).
Somehow the even higher mega high speed drives possible without a mirror design (or even an LCD 'shutter' replacing a mechanical which was reportedly experimented back in the early 90s) would make much more sense now you don't have to stop every 36 exposures to change a film.

I was looking for a 40D but my wife is happy it has not been announced! :D

You make a very interesting point, Joe. On the face of things, a pellicle mirror has obvious advantages: no mirror slap, no mechanical movement to waste battery power and wear out and blow the dust around, frame rate limited only by the shutter iteself and (of course) the electronics, live view very easy to achieve .... there is a lot to be said for it.

One imagines that it is (relatively speaking) a simple task. (Surely it's easier to make a 50% reflective mirror than it is to do the near-impossible they already do with moving mirrors.)

On first sight, the cost seems excessive: only half as much light falls on the sensor, and slightly more than half of the available light goes to the viewfinder. (Less than a 50% drop to the VF because we already lose a bit because the existing mirror isn't 100% efficient. Too small a difference to worry about though.)

But half as much light is only one stop. Thinking about the viewfinder first, sure, your lenses would all be darker, but a single stop would be quite bearable in most cases: a 50mm f/1.8 would be as bright as an f/2.5 lens is through your current camera, a 24-105 f/4 would "look like" an f/5.6 unit. But using something like a 400/5.6 with a 1.4 converter (f/8 native) would be pretty dark at an effective f/11. Still, the advantages are probably worth it.

But there is a second factor to consider: focus. Auto-focus systems love light. Would we really want to live with a 1 stop degradation in our auto-focus? It make a very noticable difference. For example, when I put a 1.4 converter on my 500/4 (making it effectively a 700/5.6) it takes about 60% longer to focus. I'm not sure I would want to use a camera that did that to all my lenses, all the time.

And finally, there is the loss of 50% of the light hitting the sensor. Again, it's only one stop, but that turns your 50mm f/1.4 into an f/2, your 100mm f/2.8 into an f/4, your 400 f/5.6 into an f/8 .... pretty scary stuff. Better and better high ISO performance will help, of course, but then we all want to press that advance into service to shoot in lower light or gain faster shutter speeds.

So: some big trade-offs. On the whole, I think I'd rather stay with the mechanical mirror. But it may be different for you, and different again for the next person. It would be nice to have the choice. Will any of the SLR makers offer it to us anytime soon?

Canon did a pellicle mirror SLR years ago (I can't remember the model designation off the top of my head) which was presumably aimed at sport and action photographers but can't have sold in sufficient numbers for Canon to do a follow up model and the idea has just faded away. With the speed and reliability of the present set up it is just not worth it I guess.

Here is link to a write up on the camera. Its a shame they never continued to make improvements and add the features to the latest DSLR. Just think no-more mirror failures.
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...S-RT/index.htm

Yep, thats it and it obviously had no trouble with autofocus. The AP write up, if I remember, said the screen darkening was barely noticable. With a full size sensor and modern coatings the loss of light would not be a problem but as I said it must not have sold enough for Canon to continue with the idea.

The design first came about in the mid sixties, was repeated in the 80's with the Canon F1 and Nikon F3 variants, then again in the 90's with a couple of Eos film models.
By the very nature of the design it had massive advantages for action photographers, but like many specialist kit, it also had major dissadvantages.
A pure guess on my part is if this design ever surfaces again we're more likely to see it on mid then top end model rather than entry level models.
I can't much see a pelix design becoming a big seller for any manufacturer for reasons above...in the past they were only made in small numbers, but manufacturers don't make as much profit from any top flight models to purely justify there own existence....The likes of 300,350 and 400D for canon have enabled that investment and in some cases features to be implimented into their mid and top end models. By pure economics the 400d's will make more money for a company than any 1d's will.
I suspect that as mirrors have got much smaller, drives faster anyway, the pros for a pellicle design dim very slightly too. a shame really as it'd have advantages with a good processor and high capacity memory card
Incidentally the EOS RT sold out in no time at all...can't get one at the right price for love or money then!...in my view the demand was higher than production at the time
The posting I made earlier first mentioning it was just an idea.......most of us will never know the reasons and decisions in the boardrooms of the major camera manufacturers..........
Maybe we shall see a gold plated Eos camera one day too?!! (hell knows ...Contax kept pushing those pieces of jewellery out in the past! LOL)

Canon 1D Mk III
 

For any one who would like to hear the camera at full 10fps go to

http://bobatkins.com/photography/dig...I/shutter2.mp3

Amazing!

What a sound.
Puts submachine gun like tommy in complete shame...

That, i agree with.

Reminds me of a post in another forum. Guy buys a camera + spare batteries. That evening he so loved the sound of the shutter at high speed he played all night. Result camera returned for repair before he had even put one pic on CF card. :D :D :D

Don

Seeing as the mark III is supposed to be good for at least 300,000 shots the guy would be certified by the time he came to the end!

Hi Don, Did you have any luck on the lottery tonight, I know you said you were going to buy more lottery tickets, if you hit the jackpot perhaps you could buy a 1D MKIII and my kit:)

I'm eagerly waiting for my MKIII to arrive, I've provisionally sold most of my Nikon kit now so I'm committed to Canon now.

Cheers

Nick

Nick,

No win again :(

I would not know what to do with that frame rate. The X rarely moves off single shot. I think I need A/F long lenses first to replace my AIS lot. I tend to use my X like a digital F3. :D :D

Don

Further to the press release you were sent on 22 February, pricing has now been confirmed.

The updated press release is attached for you. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Pricing and availability
The EOS 1D Mark III priced at £3049.99 RRP inc. VAT.Availability TBC.

Still reckon it'll be £2500 in 6 months time, maybe a lot earlier after the initial panic buying/demand.

Given that Nikon have announced the replacement for the D40 (the D40X) less than 4 months after the D40 came out, I'd say 6 months is a long time in digital photography these days. I'll wager that the new Canon will be under £2,500 by then.

I just found video's on You Tube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glhMI...elated&search=

Don

OOOOH! I want one. Thanks for the link Don.

According to Arthur Morris the 1DMK3 could Revolutionise wildlife photography. He's claiming ISO 3200 on the new model is about the same as ISO 400 on the 1DsMK2 and has some very nice shots to prove it.

Online pictures I have seen back up that claim.

Anyone here not moving to Canon? I'm going to have to buy some Canon stickers to put on my gear. It's the closest I can afford. No-one will know the difference.

OK, I will go against the flow. I have no need of any features the MIII offers over what I have in the D2X. If I won the lottery on Wednesday I would get a few of the to me, currently exotic in that they are unaffordable, Nikon A/F lenses and then maybe consider a Hasselblad or maybe a Sinar or Linhof with a Leaf digital back :D :D :D

Don

I had to chuckle at the sound of the high speed drive on the Mark III........certainly that frame rate has been done before...but what's missing this time is the sound of film perforations being split or/and the end of the film being wrenched from the spool! lol

Yelvertoft/ Duncan,
Far from it for me to poo poo Nikon cameras, as I actually prefer them to Canon's...BUT....The D40 had some issues....we all preferred the older D50 at work, plus the inconvenience of the D40 with some D lenses, plus a weird habit of too many of these babies coming back for premature repairs/ exchanges, mainly due to firmware and electronic issues, we're all glad they're going.
It's a shame Nikon got rid of the D50 so quickly, I personally rated it higher....I just hope the D40x has had the issues we saw with the D40 ironed out.
The concept is excellent, and most D40' s are....just a few bad eggs spoilt it I think.

Memories of setting the MD2 to 36 then loading a 24 exp roll in the dark. :D :D

Don

The Nikon F2 high speed camera could hit 10 FPS with the MD-100 motor drive. Nikon cameras also had bulk film backs that could hold 250 or 750 frames of film. Imagine shooting that lot then realising you have set the wrong ISO ...