Canon has announced development of the next iteration of their flagship camera: the 1D X Mark III.
The 1D X Mark II is a heck of a camera relied upon by many photojournalists, sports photographers, and more, but it is also getting a bit long in the tooth. The industry expected at least one more generation of top-shelf professional DSLRs from Canon before they move exclusively to mirrorless, and the company has just confirmed that with the development announcement of the 1D X Mark III.
The 1D X Mark III will come with a new autofocus algorithm that leverages deep learning technology to improve its already excellent performance, along with 525 AF areas in Live View mode using the Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, with 90 by 100 percent frame coverage. Users can expect a continuous rate of 16 fps using the optical viewfinder and up to 20 fps using Live View and both the mechanical or electronic shutter. Dual CFExpress cards will boost the raw burst depth to five times that of the Mark II, though I've never once actually seen my Mark II fail to keep up with a burst, no matter how long I kept shooting.
The camera will also feature a new sensor shooting in a new 10-bit file format (for Canon), HEIF (High Efficiency Image File), as opposed to JPEG, along with traditional raw output, of course. On the video side, it will have 4K 60p with 10-bit 4:2:2: CLog internal recording. There will also be additional AF point control built into the AF-ON button, along with improved battery life.
Canon hasn't given a release date, but expect to see the body in the hands of photographers at next year's Olympics.
Hang on, I thought DSLR was ‘officially’ dead.
It's like saying Film cameras are dead but it really isn't.
Come back to us in about 4-5 years and let us know how well the DSLR is doing...
Probably amazing as everyone obsessed with their automagical mirrorless has moved on and the DSLRS bought in 2014 are still running smoothly. There is way too much inertia from the millions of existing lenses for people to hurry to a new mount. Maybe fifteen years from now there won't be enough high quality DSLRs to fit the needs of the industry
Come back in about 4-5 years and let's see where the DSLRs will be. Maybe you're right. Probably not.
I really don't see say Canon replacing the acre of lenses for full frame at events like the Olympics with thee few available for mirrorless and with pro dslrs having real world lifetimes of 300K shutters plus. I just don't see mirrorless as having a killer app to brush off the dslr, as much as I love my Fujis there are maybe 1% of the lenses for them vs Canon
Doug's shirt.
This is truly exciting! Especially the improvements on the video front that are making the Mark II quite frustrating to use!
4K 10 bit 4:2:2 internal? On a Canon? Seems suspicious.
In all seriousness, seems like a great camera. Really surprised they can hit 20fps with mechanical shutter. Impressive.
Does it have 5-axis image stabilization for the video?
How about using a gimble? Seems to be a new generation of whiners only wanting a camera that does every little thing for them and super easy. Don't let the customers know or they might just skip paying you and buy the do it all, super cute and light cameras and shoot their own stuff.
Yes you can do it with a gimbal. But it's always good to have same specs as the other companies does so it can beat them down from the beginning...
So now Canon and Nikon are now "announcing development" of their flagship cameras. Feeling the heat from mirrorless take-up .
Not like they just started working on them. Development can take years. Will be funny in a couple of years listening to Sony people whine about limited upgrade features after they've innovated enough to gain fanboys. I've yet to see anyone like a pic based on what it was shot on so who cares what anyone else uses. What you shoot with doesn't change my business model.
I don't recall Canon or Nikon "announcing development" of previous flagship, or other models, but they're doing it now. I suspect all the noise in mirrorless is making people look elsewhere.
The writing's on the wall however. It's a safe bet the 1DX Mk III and D6 will be the last flagship DSLRs.
Holy crap canon is going all out on this one. Raw video recording and 20fps mechanical shutter.
Let's just wait and see if they throw in a crap codec like they did with the Mark 4. 4gb per one min of video.
Looks like it’s going to be HEIF which is great and also the ability to shoot raw is incredible.
Am I the only one excited to see HEIF?? It's really a HUGE step forward - half the file size means your memory cards last twice as long, your pics transfer twice as fast, your buffer is essentially twice as big.
Before we get too excited about the video, keep in mind that they haven't mentioned the megapixels of the camera or if there is a crop... 10-bit & 4k/60 video might only work with a heavy crop.
The 20 FPS mechanical shutter could be crushing to the Sony a9 II because it matches the FPS but eliminates the possibility of banding. I wonder, though, how good the live view focusing will be for tracking sports (because it's not great now) and how sports photographers might adapt to using the non-tilting rear screen instead of the OVF. You really need to have your eye to the viewfinder for most telephoto sports shooting scenarios.
I think the HEIF is great. Should be a boon for photojournalists and sports shooters transmitting images as well.
The 20 fps mechanical shutter is super impressive, but I wonder about Live View focusing as well. Then again, 16 fps through the OVF is awfully fast and probably sufficient for all but the most demanding applications, so I wouldn't be surprised if sport photographers just stick to that most of the time.