Friday 26 August 2011

Canon 5D Mark III Rumours - Announcement Sept 2011?

There seem to be some fairly strong rumours circulating that Canon will be announcing a new camera in Sept 2011 which could well be the long awaited Canon 5D Mark III. It is now 3 years since the Canon 5DII was launched and 6 years since the original Canon 5D so on the same 3 year cycle a new Canon 5D3 is due now.

I've no inside knowledge from Canon but based on the Canon 600D that I am currently testing I would fully expect the following features to all be part of the Canon 5D Mark 3 when it is announced.

  • Tilt/rotate LCD screen
  • Flash controller built in as per the Canon 600D
  • Video zoom up to 10x
  • Video modes to include 50fps/60fps at full HD
  • Additional JPG modes for smaller size files
  • Convert RAW to JPG in camera applying various settings
  • ISO up to 102400
Resolution of the Canon 5D III is likely to be an increase given that the Canon 600D is 18Mp and the current Canon 5D2 is 21Mp but I guess that the ISO performance is more important to most photographers than increasing the resolution above the current camera. Personally I still use my original Canon 5D in preference to the Canon 5D2 for some shoots as I just don't need the higher resolution and the subsequent slower response to opening the CR2 files on my PC.

As the Canon 5D was the first affordable full frame DSLR and the Canon 5D Mark II was the first DSLR to feature full 1080p HD video there is also likely to be an additional feature in the Canon 5D Mark III specification or spec sheet that is completely unexpected.