Canon officially announces EOS-1D X Mark III

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Officially announced just in time for this summer's Olympics in Japan, Canon have debuted their newest flagship DSLR: the EOS-1D X Mark III.

An update to the four-year-old 1D X Mark II, the Mark III features a newly-designed 20MP full-frame CMOS sensor that uses a 'high-detail' low-pass filter.

The body

Physically, little has changed over the Mark II. The main feature is a new AF-On 'Smart Controller' that relies on touch to move the focus point. In our brief hands on it was akin to using a smartphone and very responsive. 

Inside, there's the usual high-level weatherproofing you would expect, and there's now dual CFexpress cards. According to Canon, the familiar LP-E19 battery from the Mark II can now take approximately 2850 shots using the viewfinder and 610 in live view.

Ports are numerous, including Ethernet, now upgraded to Gigabit speeds, and there's also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, a 3.5mm mic and headphone sockets along with a mini HDMI port.

Autofocus

The big advances are all inside. There's a new 191-point AF system with 155 cross-type points, and there's also been a considerable upgrade made to the autofocus algorithms, with Canon saying the new camera uses deep learning to make AF more consistent and more reliable, especially with head and face tracking.

Seemingly taking the best parts of mirrorless cameras and bringing them to the more traditional DSLR format, in Live View users can use Dual Pixel AF that has 90% horizontal and 100% vertical coverage plus face and eye detection. Rivaling Sony's A9, in Live View the III shoots at 20 fps, but even through the viewfinder the camera can still shoot at an impressive 16 fps. The buffer is also greatly increased over the II, and can now take over 1000 shots per burst.

Processor

The advances are thanks to an all new Digic X processor, which Canon says boosts image processing speeds by three times over the Mark II, and processing by 380 times. There's even a dedicated Digic 8 processor just for autofocus and metering through the viewfinder.

HEIF or JPEG

The 1D X III is one of a new generation of cameras to offer 10-bit HDR HEIF photos as an option. HEIF files encode a wider range of tones using the PQ gamma curve, meaning images have more dynamic range, contrast and wider colors when viewed on an HDR monitor, as well as being typically smaller than copmparable JPEGs due to their compression. As you might expect, the more traditional RAW and JPEG are also available. 

Video

The 1D X Mark III is no slouch in the video department either. At its ultimate output it can record 12-bit 5.5K/60p Raw video internally at a bit rate of 2600 Mbps, but there's also uncropped DCI 4K/60p, downsampled from 5.5K, in Canon Log with 10-bit 4:2:2. 

Pricing

No local pricing has been confirmed yet, but in the US the EOS-1D X Mark III will be available in mid-February for $6,499 ($9,431 AUD), so you could expect it to cost more than $10,000 in Australia. However, Canon tells us the camera will come bundled with a 64GB SanDisk CFexpress card and matching card reader, so that should make the price a little easier to swallow.

You can pre-order yours here, and read two Canon-released 'white papers' about some of the developments behind the camera at the Canon USA website. 

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