1DX Mark III

[Kayaker72]

....that is one sexy beast.

As far as things we may see trickle down, I am really liking the optical sensor on the AF-on button to move focus points as well as the HEIF alternative to JPGs. From the side by side comparisons I have seen, HEIF is far superior. I would love to move off JPG.

The rest of it:

• 16 fps with AF and mirror and 20 fps with live view
• Close to 3,000 pics per battery charge
• basically unlimited buffer for stills
• Reportedly faster AF
• "Deep learning" AF which will hopefully now surpass the reported advantage Nikon had in the last interation
• CF express cards. Ok, I knew I would have to update cards someday, small with >1 GB/sec transfer speeds, these seem like a great next generation
• Reported IQ enhancements (weaker low pass filter, increased DR/etc)
• It just looks good

Hmmmmm.....I do not see anything in 2020 where I really need this, but 2021 may be another story.

[Dave Throgmartin]

Looks like a great camera for the high volume shooter.

Dave

[Jonathan Huyer]

I've made the pre-order! I knew I would do this the minute I saw the original notice about this camera several months ago. The focus adjustment on the AF-on button is the killer upgrade for me. If it works even half as good as it appears to in the demos, it will really boost my wildlife photography. I spend so much time moving the focus point around to keep the red dot on the animal's eye that it costs valuable action time. For example, if a bear is walking left to right across the frame, you want the focus point somewhere on the right side. Then the bear decides to turn around, and you have to rapidly swing the focus point to the other side before you can resume shooting. This new trackpad-style input sensor should really speed up that process. Also I'm quite keen to see how it does with focus tracking of subjects. Any improvement on birds in flight would be really helpful. When birds are against the sky, focus usually isn't that difficult. But when they are against a landscape background (trees, water), the Mark II tracking is really quite awful. So any improvement at all in those types of circumstances would be wonderful (and long overdue!).

[HDNitehawk]

I would have to dig in to it deeper, but my questions about it would be:
1000 frame buffer, Raw+JPEG. Is that 1000 of the largest size files or lower settings.
16 fps, is that with tracking. What is the fps for continuous shooting and tracking.

I was hoping they would add a few mp, but it seems Canon is still trying to up the fps. Hopefully they realized on this round that they matched the old silent films rate of 16 fps. Those photographers that need more than 16 fps I would think are a small minority.

I was thinking about the 1Dx III, after seeing the specs I may wait to see what Canon does with the mirror-less this year.

[Kayaker72]

I've made the pre-order! .

Congrats! After what you said in October and seeing the specs roll out, I was wondering if you would pull the trigger.

I would have to dig in to it deeper, but my questions about it would be:
1000 frame buffer, Raw+JPEG. Is that 1000 of the largest size files or lower settings.
16 fps, is that with tracking. What is the fps for continuous shooting and tracking.

I was hoping they would add a few mp, but it seems Canon is still trying to up the fps. Hopefully they realized on this round that they matched the old silent films rate of 16 fps. Those photographers that need more than 16 fps I would think are a small minority.

I was thinking about the 1Dx III, after seeing the specs I may wait to see what Canon does with the mirror-less this year.

I am even wondering how much "buffer" exists. The new cards are >1 GB/sec. Say 20 fps x 50 MB/frame (high ISO + jpg) = 1 GB/sec. I have always associated "buffer" with something similar to RAM memory, I assume they still have a little of that, but really, they could be writing straight to the cards. Interesting, but the 60 fps of the 5.5K RAW video also works out to be ~1 GB/sec (at ISO 100). So I expect there is a buffer for video to accommodate higher ISO. CF Express 1.0 is 1.97 GB/sec. CF Express 2.0 is 1 to 4 GB/sec. I have not drilled down yet to which is supported by the 1DX III.

Yes, tracking at 16 fps.

As for the MP, the claim that I have seen is that the low pass filter was modified enough that we should seen an "effective" bump in resolution equivalent to ~24 MP.

I really do wonder when they will introduce a mirrorless equivalent to the 1D lineup. While I have heard "professional R" body is expected to be released in 2020, it seems most people think this is high MP, not high fps. But, we'll see.