Canon 5DIII - 5D Mark 3 Spotted Testing on Shoot?

It looks like the Canon 5D Mark 3 might finally have been spotted out being put through its paces on a shoot. Blog "Aperture Academy" has images of an unidentified Canon camera being used with two new lenses.

There are two camera bodies in their images, one looks like it could be the 1DX as it has an integrated battery grip and second display. The other has a separate battery grip which may be the Canon 5DIII or could be a Canon 7D replacement although the 5D3 looks more likely as the camera body pictured doesn't have a built in flash.

http://blog.apertureacademy.com/2012/01/canon-200-400mm-and-600mm-prototype.html

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.

Canon 5D Mark 3 Rumours and Spec Sheet

It is now nearly 3 years since the Canon 5D Mark 2 revolutionised the world of photography and video by being able to shoot full HD 1080p video on a DSLR. It is also nearly 6 years since the original Canon 5D was released.

On these timescales we should be due the Canon 5D Mark 3 being announced in the next few months. What features should be on the Canon 5D Mark III spec list?

Clearly HD video has now become an integral part of every DSLR and as the 5D2 led the way with this in the same way the original 5D led the way as the low cost full frame DSLR, Canon are likely to have something up their sleeve to be another game changer.

The features that seem certain to be on the Canon 5D Mark3  are:

Rotating/ moveable LCD screen
Wireless flash control built in
Basic HD video editing in camera
720p HD video (hard to remember that the Canon 5D2 only has 1080p and 640x480)
HD crop mode to give digital zoom of up to 10x
ISO range up to 102,000

So which innovative feature is likely to appear that is the next game changer?

Shooting stills from video - not far off already?
Higher ISO range - unlikely to go much above
Higher pixel count - likely to be higher but not above the Canon 1DS Mark4
Higher frame rate? - possible or may be enable video still extraction
Auto focus for video? Would be highly popular

What do you think the Canon 5D Mark 3 should have on its spec?