SnapperTalk

Canon have announced the latest iteration of their top professional camera - the EOS-1D Mark III. They say it was designed from the ground up - re-evaluating every aspect of the Mark II - and it clearly shows in the number of improvements. The following links have all the gory details:

Canon EOS-1D Mark III homepage
Canon EOS-1D Mark III press release
Canon EOS-1D Mark III sample images
DPReview article
Rob Galbraith article
Canon Mark III white paper hosted by Rob Galbraith

10.1 megapixel, 10 frames per second using two drive motors, 110 JPEGs or 30 RAW maximum burst, DUAL DIGIC III image processors, 3.0-inch LCD monitor with 230,000 pixels, basically faster and better performance in almost every aspect …. but which of the new features are noteworthy from a photojournalist’s perspective?

• Live view - As is common on every compact camera you now get a live view of the image on the rear LCD. I’m curious to see whether this really changes the way people shoot but it will prove very useful when covering demonstrations and such like where you need to shoot from above your head. Without this feature it can be a bit hit-and-miss as to whether you’ve got your framing right. In addition one will be able to check exposure just by looking at the screen, instead of having to fire a frame and review it like with previous cameras. The live view video output will also be accessible via USB cable or the optional new Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2/E2A making this a hugely attractive camera for remote use e.g. in courtrooms.

• Low light capability - Until it comes out we won’t really know, but my guess is that the low-light image quality is much improved. They’ve expanded the ISO range - now ISO 100-3200 with extension to 50 and 6400 and presumably they’d only do this if it reflected increased quality over the Mark II. The new DIGIC III processor is claimed to produce “50% less shadow noise than previous EOS digital SLRs”… and it’s got two of them. Also, you can now select the amount of noise-reduction for high ISO images. The new CMOS chip is also said to be more efficient at getting the light to the actual sensor, or as they put it “Improved microlens array and pixel fill factor plus optimized photodiode structure to increase light-reception efficiency”. Cameras sound more like computers every day….

• 14 bit A/D conversion - the new sensor captures 14-bit depth color rather than 12-bit resulting in 16,384 levels per color rather than 4,096 at 12 bits. The gain from this will mostly be seen by RAW shooters, but the benefits should also be seen by JPEG (8-bit) shooters as the image will come from a superior source.

• “Silent” single shooting mode - Unsure how this works, something to do with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control whatever that is but Canon claim it reduces the noise from 77 dB for normal single shooting to 70 dB in the silent single shooting mode.

• Highlight Tone Priority - Apparently this extends the dynamic range of highlights by about one stop.

• New batteries - Finally the EOS-1D has got lithium ion batteries instead of the old NiMH batteries enabling the user to see remaining capacity via the rear screen in 1% increments or shots remaining. This increases the estimated shots per battery from 1200 to 2200. The new batteries are more compact and there’s a new compact charger too, both of which do not look compatible with previous models.

• Weight - The new batteries enable the Mark III to weigh 1,335g/47.1oz compared to the Mark II N’s 1,560g/55.0oz equalling a 215g/7.9 oz reduction.

• Integrated Cleaning System - The sensor vibrates itself ultrasonically when the camera is turned on/off, and the shutter fires 3 times, in order to shake off dust. Additionally it “records the location of any spots that may remain on the sensor as Dust Delete Data and this information is appended to the image file” and they can then be removed by the Canon DPP software (please make a Photoshop plug-in for this).

• Water resistance - The Mark III has improved dust and water resistance including redesigned hotshoe waterproofing.

• sRAW - SmallRAW recording format “has all the flexibility of standard RAW data recording, but at one quarter the resolution and approximately half the file size of conventional RAW images” i.e. at 1,936×1,288 pixels. I guess it’s always good to have options but am not sure why one would want to shoot RAW at less than full resolution… surely the point of shooting RAW is when you want absolute maximum quality?

• Custom white balance - Now you can store up to 5 custom white balance settings… useful if you frequently cover certain venues e.g. stadiums.

• Shutter - Increased shutter durability of approximately 300,000 cycles, up from 200,000 in the Mark II. Now your shutter may even last until they bring out the next model! Which is good as that 10 fps is gonna mean people overshoot even more than they do now…

• Faster image transfer - The new processor is said to improve card access speed with Compact Flash access speed 1.3x faster and SD card access 2x faster. The camera also has the ability to shoot direct to USB hard drives but only with the new Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2/E2A.

• R.I.P. Firewire - the Mark III has a USB 2.0 connection but has ditched the additional Firewire port of its predecessors.

So when can you buy one?

Canon say they will demonstrate the new camera March 8 - 11 at the PMA trade show in Las Vegas, and it will become available in the U.S. in “the Spring”.

Until then you can either drool over all the new features (the white paper linked to above is actually well worth reading), start reading rumours about how much better the Mark III N or Mark IV will be, or realise that all cameras these days are plenty good and go outside and shoot some pictures instead….

Update: Imaging Resource has now posted a comprehensive review of the new camera, including a load of hands-on sample images. Also, Guardian staff photographer Dan Chung weighs in with his thoughts on the new camera.