Feb 25, 2007 -- Canon Inc. will launch EOS-1D Mark III, a professional digital SLR camera targeting photojournalists, etc. in late May 2007. It is a successor to EOS-1D Mark II N (released in September 2005). The company expects the initial street price to be around ¥500,000.
EOS-1D Mark III employs an all-new CMOS sensor with an effective resolution of approximately 10.1 megapixels, a sensor size of 28.1 x 18.7 mm and a pixel pitch of 6.4 µm. Although the pitch is narrower than that of the COMS sensor in the predecessor, the ISO speed recommended by the company for regular use is "3200, which is one stop higher than that of the preceding model." Reduced pitch of a microlens array provided on the CMOS sensor resulted in an improvement in sensitivity. The 12-bit A-D converter used in the existing model is replaced by a 14-bit converter in the latest model.
The latest product employs a 3.0-inch TFT LCD panel with a resolution of about 230000 pixels for a monitor screen. It also features the live view function that lets a user to shoot with the mirror locked up while looking at the monitor. This is the first Canon product to adopt the live view function excluding the astronomical camera which has been manufactured on a BTO basis. The latest model allows a fast continuous shooting at about 10 fps. This was enabled by parallel computation performed by two units of DIGIC III, Canon's proprietary image processing LSI. The camera boasts a short startup time of about 0.2 sec and a release time lag of 0.055 sec.
The durability of the shutter unit is upgraded from the existing 200,000 to 300,000 cycles. The maximum shutter speed is 1/8,000 sec as with the current model. The strobe sync speed is boosted to 1/300 sec.
The camera is equipped with an optical viewfinder unit with 100% coverage and a magnification of 0.76. It is provided with an indicator that always displays the photometry mode, ISO speed and remaining battery level. The camera has 45 auto focus points and the company claims that 19 of them can be focused accurately even when the aperture is set to 2.8 where focusing tends to be difficult.
Weighing about 1,155 g and measuring 156.0 x 156.6 x 79.9 mm, the main body is slightly smaller and lighter than that of the current model. The reduction was achieved by replacing the Ni-MH rechargeable battery pack used in the current model to the Li-ion rechargeable battery pack.
