5D replacement has arrived at Photokina

If it's true, it's no big surprise. The only surprise would be if Canon didn't announce a new full frame DSLR to replace the EOS 5D at Photokina. That would be much bigger news than if they do!

The question is - how much will it be? If its too good it will be top dollar

If true, it would seem Santa will be very busy this Christmas... 40D, 50D, 5DMKII, new lenses... and thats only Canon.. ;-)

It will be what it will be. Canon have a very delicate balancing act to perform here by not making it so good and so cheap that they shoot themsleves in the foot and kill off sales of the 22MP 1Ds MkIII ($8000), but by making it good enough and cheap enough that it competes well with the 12 MP Nikon D700 ($3000). If they keep it down to 15MP, hold off on too many high end features and keep the price around $3000, they may be able to do that. If it's much more expensive they may lose sales to the D700. If it's much cheaper or has 20MP they may lose 1Ds MkIII sales. The 1D MkIII is probably safe unless they put >6fps in the 5D MkII.

If I was Canon what I'd do would be to drop the price on the 5D to $1999.99 and keep it as a basic "entry level" full frame camera, then have a 5D MkII/3D/7D at $2999.99 to go head to head with the D700, but with more pixels and a similar (but different) feature set.

It will be even more interesting to see if Sony actually bring their 24MP, in-body stabilized full frame DSLR to market this year as they said they intended to, and at what price point they put that! I believe that they have a press conference scheduled for Spetember 9th, so perhaps more information on the "A900" will be available after that.

I'm excited!. I hope they have 2 versions of the new 5D (Sr and Jr). I read somewhere about massive cutting price on the current 1D series since next year they'll release new releases.

"These same sources have been unwilling to specify the name that eventually will have this format SLR complete nor the exact date of launch.

In any case, bearing in mind that the emblematic Cologne fair opens its doors next September 23, the announcement will have to occur within a maximum of about three weeks."

Well I'm sold. That is certainly the most definite of the 1000's of various rumors we have seen over the past 3 years.

The specs have been up for a few days now. Pop Photo had a leak for a few hours and northlight is always hot on the trail of canon eos rumours:

http://www.canonrumors.com/index.php?entry=entry080827-094825

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_5d2_3d_7d.html

"5D Mark II Specs [CR3] UPDATE

Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 09:48 AM - Canon 5 Mark II 5D Mark II

This comes from a dude that seems to be right a lot lately.

* 21.1 MP 1.0x * DIGIC IV * ISO 100-6400 L:50 & H:12800 * 5 FPS * 3.2" High Resolution Screen (LCD) * 19 point AF * HDMI Out * Liveview * HD Movie Mode * Viewfinder: 100% Coverage * Full weather sealing * EF Lenses only

I will scour until I find a leak.... it's coming.

From Northlight

"The 50D sensor and image processing are a major step forward in what has been a multi-year strategy for Canon to take sensor technology to the limits of physics, simultaneously achieving higher ISOs, lower noise and higher dynamic range. Note Chuck Westall’s announcement that the 50D sensor has 1 to 1 and a half stops better noise than the 40D sensor despite the smaller pixels. Several core strategies have been pursued simultaneously for this:

* Reducing the micro lens gap to capture all the light hitting the sensor. This has been highlighted in the 40D, 1D III and 1Ds III sensors and the new 50D sensor now achieves effective 100% coverage. Only very minor improvements are expected from this point on (e.g. shaping the lenses towards the corners of the frame to capture angled light.

* Reducing the noise level of each pixel. Canon have made changes over several generations of sensors to achieve this, bringing the amplifiers closer to each pixel, changing micro-circuit configuration and lowering voltages so the sensor runs colder. Again the design of the 50D is a big step forward here from the 40D and 1D III etc. Canon have one more big jump lined up, with low voltage cold running CMOS designs to gain at least an additional stop in lower noise at higher ISOs or long exposures.

* Better digital noise reduction. These are the changes in DIGIC noise processing. First with the Chroma Noise reduction in DIGIC III and now with more advanced multi-level noise reduction options in DIGIC IV. Canon believe they have made most of the gains possible via processing algorithms but do still have some areas to develop. The next focus will be faster noise reduction processing so that it does not come at an impact on frame burst rates (look to the 1D3 replacement for example)

* Pixel binning for high ISOs. A new technology enabled by the complexity and processing power of DIGIC IV where they can bin 2, 4 or 8 pixels together at the raw level and average out the noise between them. This is seen by Canon as a key technology in balancing very high resolution sensors (in the 50mp range) with low noise at very high ISOs. Right now they are not pushing this too much with the 50D so as to not create confusion in the market (they see more potential for the technology as sensors get larger and in the pro-market).

* Increased image resolution – This is a newer strategy (most evident on the 450D where they have changed the anti-aliasing filter (thinner and closer etc) so as to achieve a crisper image per pixel without loosing the benefits of anti-aliasing filter on diagonal edges etc.. The 50D has the same technology. One further option for the future is for Canon to drop the anti aliasing physical filter and do it in a future DIGIC generation where there can be smarter allocation of colour values than the blurring achieved by a light based filter.

* Increased raw bit depth for improved dynamic range. Here Canon have made the jump to 14 bit and will move to 16 bit in their future sensor technology generations. Canon see the main usage of extra bit depth as providing the dynamic range to translate the sensor image into a printable or viewable image with a higher dynamic range. In other words mapping the 14 or 16 bits into an 8 bit viewable or printable image that mimics the dynamic range in the scene.

* Dynamic range preservation options – Canon are putting a lot of focus into how to provide the photographer with the best options for preserving the dynamic range of the original image in both a RAW file and the 8 bit JPEG. The highlight tone preservation option on the 40D, 1D III etc was the first step. The new 'automatic brightness' options in the 50D are another, where they try and optimise the brightness of various parts of the image to reduce the dullness from shadows. Canon are planning much more in this area, down to the equivalent of varying the ISO level across the different parts of the sensor when the image is taken (easier in live view mode of course)."

If it has 21.1 MP, ISO 100-6400 L:50 & H:12800, 5 FPS, weathersealing. lower noise and a high resolution LCD, Canon might have to start giving away a free 1Ds MkIII as a premium with every 5D Mk II purchased.

Why spend $8000 when you can get for (presumably?) around $3000 a camera with the same resolution, weathersealing, frame rate, a wider ISO range (by two stops) and lower noise, a higher resolution LCD and the ability to shoot movies ?

Why would you spend $5000 more for a 1D MkIII? Just so you could hammer nails in with it (assuming it has heavier duty construction)?

It seems to make no sense unless Canon are just giving up on the 1Ds MkIII. The specs sound more like a 1Ds MkIIIn or a 1Ds MkIV than a 5D MkII.

I suspect that many "rumor" pages (but not mine!) are simply there to attract as much attention as possible, publishing anything they hear without confirmation. In fact the more outrageous the rumor, the more attention it gets, the more traffic the site gets, the higher the page is listed by Google and the more advertising revenue the pages earn. I guess I should get on it and report some rumors that the 5D will also have stereo sound, built in GPS, built in WiFi and will cost under $2500. I could quote some "anonymous sources" of course, just to add to the credibility.

Well 1D Mk III has more AF points Bob :-). That what causes $5,000 more *chuckle*.