02Mar Canon 5d mark III price drop, 5d mark IV on the way?
Canon announced official $300 price cuts on retail 5d mark III and Canon 6d bodies over the weekend and it seems to fall in line with the extremely low 5d mark III ebay prices we’ve been seeing over the last few weeks. There were a lot of grumblings about the Canon 5ds possibly being the only new 5d branded camera coming this year, but I wonder if Canon simply wanted to give each camera it’s own time in the spotlight. After all the 5ds won’t actually start shipping until the end of june.
Canon could have waited until NAB to announce the 5ds if it were the only new camera they had coming. Instead, they decided to announce it at the beginning February. I’ve talked with Mitch from planet5D quite a bit on the podcast and he seems to be leaning towards a video oriented 5d body coming sooner rather than later.
Canon Rumors has already started posting some possible specs for the next 5d body:
- 18mp Full Frame CMOS
- ISO 100-204,800
- 61 AF Points (all crosstype)
- 12fps
- Dual CFast
- 4K Video Capture
There are a few things to note in this possible spec list. First and probably the most interesting for me is an 18mp Full frame sensor. A smaller megapixel count means larger pixel units, which means better low light performance. This seems to be reflected in the expanded ISO range. The second point is 4k video capture. I find myself shooting 4k video more and more on the Panasonic GH4, but when I need to shoot in a low light setting I end up moving to the 5d mark III or Sony a7s which are both limited to 1080p. While I don’t “need” 4k low light shooting, I kind of want it to round out my kit and i’m already knee deep in Canon lenses.
I think we’ll definitely be seeing a 4k 5d offering from Canon and hopefully the price isn’t as extreme as the 1dc. I think my threshold for a new Canon body is $4000, any more than that and I’ll stick with what I have.
