Canon 1D X Mark III Details Emerge: Some New Information, Lots of Confusion

Canon 1D X Mark III Details Emerge: Some New Information, Lots of Confusion

Various rumor sites got themselves a little bit excited in the last few days, inadvertently posting “complete specifications” for the forthcoming 1D X Mark III but listing the features of the Mark II instead. In among a lot of confusion, a few details may have become clear, at least.

In what seemed to be a confusing sequence of events, Canon Rumors posted a list of specifications (since updated) that listed the eagerly-awaited Canon flagship has having a 20-megapixel sensor (rather than the 24-megapixels that many are expecting), 61 autofocus points, DIGIC 6+ processors, and CFast card slots rather than CFExpress. Other rumor sites leapt on the news but readers were quick to point out the error.

Despite the furore, looking at the recently updated product page on B&H Photo, there are now some things of which we can be certain, despite the rumor site confusion. The number of megapixels is still being withheld, with B&H Photo describing it as “Not Specified by Manufacturer.”

What has been confirmed is the video recording: 4:2:2 10-bit (can we assume that this is internal?) and 4K at 60 fps — with no mention of the 6K that many were expecting. Along with the number of megapixels, there is another key feature that Canon is keeping quiet about: what level of crop will the 4K have, and will dual pixel autofocus be available? Notably, there is still no mention of IBIS.

Those wishing to dig a little deeper might want to check out TheNewCamera.com which has offered a fairly comprehensive list of specifications: it claims 20 megapixels and 4K 60 fps, though without DPAF in 4K. However, this list still doesn't mention the processors, so it's not quite the "full specifications" that are claimed.

There's plenty of talk of 5.4K raw video, but it's a little odd that the B&H Photo product page describes 4K 60 fps but doesn't mention anything else.

An announcement will probably arrive very soon but in the meantime, anyone wishing to sate their anticipation a little can check out some high-resolution images of the mysterious 1D X Mark III by clicking here.

Other than further rumor site frenzy, what are your expectations? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

Log in or register to post comments
13 Comments

so its going to be a camera for vloggers again. 20 mgp. can you print a cover of magazine with 20 mgpx? what happens if editor asks you to crop it a little?

Assuming that the magazine is an 8.5x11", at the common 300dpi printing resolution you'd need a 3300x2550 pixel image which is ~8.4MP (maybe more, since the aspect ratio of a magazine cover isn't 3:2). So in the case of your question of what happens if the editor asks you to crop it a little: you have sufficient ability to do so. Even an original 12.8MP 5D from 2005 could provide sufficient resolution for magazine sizes and still leave some room to crop.

yeah yeah, i know the math. its enough to print for A4-ish magazine... but will it actually look good? to make it look good you need to hassle image some... adding grain, or something... anything to hide those "pixeled" look.

If you think an A4 image printed @ 300dpi will look pixelated from a 20mp camera then you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

You're doing something very wrong if you're getting a pixelated look. Just for the heck of it, I printed out a 1080x1350 (1.5 mp) @ 96 ppi to a 8.5x11" paper. There's no pixelation. Also, I was actually expecting it to look very very very soft. It doesn't.

All I want to hear is video codec. After the mjpeg shite of the mark 4 that ruined video for me with that camera (4gb per 1 minute of video). Throw in the most amazing auto focus and then ruin it with oversize unworkable file size and format was a killer.

Supports HEIC, so it should support HEVC if you want small video files

I hope for the Canon shooters that I'll be a smashing camera but you'd better be prepared for a disappointment. Canon haven't introduced a world class camera in years.

The 5DmkIV is a world class camera for its intended usage. As is the Eos R. But no, you don't want a camera company to produce a sports stills camera or a studio stills camera, or a vlogging camera, no. You want them to produce just one camera. One camera to rule them all. Amirite?

A camera which can shoot blockbuster cinema films but which is also a vlogger's flipscreen delight, and also a wedding photography camera, and also a sports camera, studio camera, micro, macro, slow motion, architecture, all weather etc. The list goes on.

Only then will you consider it to be *world class*.

It needs pet AF and needs to be super light for people that don't lift. The mark 4 would've been the perfect camera for me if the video codec wasn't huge. I still would want my Blackmagic and GH5 but it would've been nice to be able to shoot pics and grab some video if the mjpeg video files didn't use up all my cards in 10 min and then take an hour to upload to the comp.

But being able to plug a T5 drive into the BMPCC 6K has ruined me. I don't want to mess with expensive cards at all now.

I ran some of the doc through google translate. Here's some good & bad:

Canon log
OFF ON
Recording format RAW (12bit)
Audio linear PCM
Video recording quality
RAW (5472 × 2886), 4K DCI (4096 × 2160), 4K DCI Crop (4096 × 2160), 4K UHD (3840 × 2160),
Full HD (1920 × 1080)

Dual pixel CMOS AF
* AF is not available when recording RAW or 4K 59.94 p / 50.00 p (NTSC / PAL) movies.

A newly (?) released video from Canon regarding the 1DX MKIII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPLgfnRk6WQ

$6,499.00 (USD) at B&H Photo.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1512601-REG/canon_eos_1d_x_mark_i...