Canon has a BIG target for the 5dmkIII

Don't get your hopes up too much. Canon has a history of protecting the sales of their pro-models. They tend to cripple the prosumer cameras. Whatever the specs will be, they will be significantly different (e.g. less) than the 1DX (with the exception of resolution).

Canon will learn a hard lesson, no question, about this camera and the mirrorless market. Like the saying goes (taken from Jobs' biography) if you don't' cannibalize your produce line, someone else will. The last report I saw about market share in Japan (sometimes a decent indicator of future worldwide patterns) the biggest selling lens mount was m4/3. Hopefully, Canon will introduce something decent and now worry about one product line eating another. Whatever the 5D III is, Canon should smarten up and stop dumbing it down, like they did with the 5D II.

That said, I'm not jumping ship for some very specific reasons: the 24-120 and 70-200 f4 IS. Nikon has nothing like them.

There's a major photo show in Japan starting today where all the manufacturers are showing their products. Nikon for the moment seems to have an edge with the new D800. I'm sure Canon has an answer coming in the future (5D3/1DS4?). Some quick specs on the D800 from Nikon:
36mp (full frame), ISO 50-25600, 51 af sensors with 15 cross sensors, af works down to F8, dual card slots - CF/SD, 900 shots per battery charge, weather & dust sealed, 4 fps or 6fps with battery grip option, buffer capacity 21 raw or 56 jpeg, $2999

Being a D700 and a 5D MkII user, Nikon has just raised the bar considerably. I love my Canon 5D MkII as it simply works better in my hands. BUT unless Canon can produce a prosumer camera that rivals the D800, I may be returning to Nikon. All of this, of course, is assuming the the D800 actually performs in the real world. Specs are one thing, but the final test is performance in each individual photographers hands.

I agree with you guys. The 5D mk3 better step it up, of Nikon WILL overtake Canon in the commercial photo world, and elsewhere. Here in Minneapolis, I'd say a large share of shooters are still Canon because of the 1Ds mk2. Shooters I work for are still using them. I've already talked to a few people that say they will consider switching if Canon doesn't match.

The D800 is a major game changer.

I think the OP's point is that when the competition (in this case Nikon) seems to be moving away from "protecting" the top-end models, that Canon (and anyone else trying to compete in this space) will have a harder time maintaining much higher pricing on similar models unless they have other ways to differentiate their products.

In the end, this is part of the ongoing forward motion in the development of digital camera technologies and the process of bringing the prices of these technologies to lower levels. The competition is good for buyers and users of all camera brands.

Sure looks like we are going to benefit from the competition once again.

Yes, Canon's pricing will have to be competitive. Nikon's achievements can only be good news for those of us who still shoot primarily Canon.

I am not worried about the number of megapixels the next Canon will have. I am sure that there will be plenty. (After all, 21 MP is plenty.) I would like to see some other improvements, including better weather-sealing and a more reliable auto-focus. I have been missing some shots lately due to auto-focus on the 5D II, and I really don't know what I could have done differently. (Well, okay, I could have shot in better light, but I like shooting near dusk or later.)

Canon once ran away with the full-frame market before the D3 and the D700. I would like to see Canon hit a home run with whatever is coming.

--Lannie

I seems to me that whatever the designers have already built into the 5D M3 will be what we see. At this point in the development process, I would be surprised if Canon had much wiggle room to change the M3 without pushing the M3 delivery data to the right by a significant amount.

It seems like anytime somebody puts a new camera out everybody drops their pants and pulls out a ruler to see how what they have measures up.
Before it was they have better ISO but we have more MP. Now its they have more MP etc etc ad nauseum.
It gets old hearing the same old complaints. The pendulum will never stop swinging and the farther you are to one side the farther away it gets. Until it swings back your way again and you get to sit at the top of the pile.
Either way, I like it when new cameras come out because it makes that 'Next Best Thing' from 5 years ago that much more accessible to me.