Canon is traditionally a very conservative brand, and it’s rare to see it stray too far from the middle of the road, but in what might have been a comparatively bold move, for a moment, it seemed that the forthcoming EOS 1D X Mark III would have a wonderfully old school design.
Canon Rumors reported that it had received an image of a prototype of the 1D X Mark III, and its stylings are very much a throwback to the likes of the ELAN II pictured above (the EOS 50 to European readers, or the EOS 55 for those in Japan), a film SLR that was launched in 1995. Its two-tone design was very much of its time, and if the photograph proved accurate, the 1D X Mark III would have been the first flagship in some time to stray from the traditional all-black design that we’ve come to expect.
For Canon, this would be a pleasing way to round off two decades of DSLRs that began with the EOS D30 in 2000 or perhaps even some sort of collector's edition given that a Mark IV will almost certainly never come to market.
However, Canon Rumors was taken for a ride when it emerged that the 1D X shown in the photo was not a prototype Mark III, but a modified Mark II belonging to photographer Petra Selbertinger:
I'm a little disappointed.
Appearance aside, Canon Rumors is also reporting that the camera should be ready to ship in April, with an announcement potentially arriving in February. The opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics takes place on July 24, so the timeline for the announcement of the Mark III should fall into place early in the new year.
I'd love a retro design. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
Lead image by Ashley Pomeroy used under Creative Commons.
Who cares what it looks like, all that matters is how it performs.
I'm a fan of good design, not retro design. Retro often feels like a forced imitation of a past design.
Although there may be some questionalble designs, most retro designs I've seen are actually pretty good. It really comes down to how much experience one had with old film cameras, and what types.
For instance, many people pooh-poohed the Nikon Df, yet it feels perfectly natural in my hands, having worked for decades with an F and F2. The only thing out of place on a Df, as far as I'm concerned, is the hand grip. ;-)
So besides a perticular design, how one works with a camera goes a long way to feeling x, y, or z way about any retro design.