Almost four years after launching its flagship EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR, Canon has finally announced the impending release of its successor. The Mark III will go on sale mid-February.
We already knew it was coming as Canon revealed it was in development back in October last year. But now we know when it will go on sale and how much it's expected to cost, plus a few other blanks have been filled in.
The Mark III is built around a brand new 20.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with a newly-designed "high detail" low-pass filter. It will work with the Digic X image processor to offer 3.1x the processing chops of the Mark II, a light sensitivity range of ISO100 to 102,400 (which is expandable down to ISO50 and up to ISO819,200), up to 16 frames per second continuous shooting through the optical viewfinder and 20 fps in Live View. And there's a monstrous 1,000-image buffer available for burst shooting.
The Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus gets a 380x speed boost too, and there's a dedicated Digic 8 processor for the autofocus system. Framing shots through the viewfinder offers 191-point AF with 155 cross-type points, with face and head tracking also benefiting from deep learning tech. Live View gains eye-detection AF tracking. Canon says that the AF sensor now has a square pixel design based on an image sensor that gives it 28x higher resolution in the center.
Users can also capture 10-bit stills using the High-Efficiency Image File format for the promise of a wider dynamic range than you would get from 8-bit JPEGs, and improved color.
On the video front, the Mark III is reported capable of recording 5.5K RAW video, and crop-free 4K/80p downsized from the 5.5K readout in Canon Log with 10-bit 4:2:2 color for 12 stops of dynamic range.
Elsewhere, there are backlit buttons for easier after-dark control, dual CFexpress card slots, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, built-in GPS, and dust- and weather-sealing for all-weather shoots.
The EOS-1D Mark III is due for release in the middle of February for a body-only price of US$6,499.
Source: Canon