Canon Development Announcement: 1D-X III and two RF Lenses

Earlier today Canon released a development announcement about its future 1D-X III camera, a successor to its flagship camera that should come in early 2020 for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. The company also announced the pricing and availability of two RF lenses – the RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM and the RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS (the new version with Defocus Smoothing).

Canon had a very technical announcement with no hands-on videos and just a few images but it was still more than what Nikon recently gave us with the development announcement of the D6 which basically had no info at all.

So what do we know about the upcoming 1D-X III? well, this camera actually brings in a very long list of new and improved features including some very dramatic and unique video capabilities that will make it one of the most capable stills/video cameras on the market.

The new high-end future hybrid flagship from Canon – 1D-X III

Here are the main points that we are aware of (some are also summarized in the B&H video above).

  • A New CMOS sensor and new Digic processor (with better low light capability).
  • 28x more resolution than the 1DX Mark II AF sensor with 525 selectable AF areas.
  • Improved AF in low light and new learning AI subject detection AF system.
  • New AF point selection control.
  • support for HEIF file format (more flexible than JPEG less size then RAW file format)
  • Improved battery life for LP-E19 battery.
  •  Illuminated buttons.
  • 4K 10-Bit 4:2:2 Internal video recording with internal Raw video recording.
  • 16 fps shooting with the viewfinder and 20 fps using Live View.
  • Dual Pixel CMOS AF across approximately 90×100 percent of the sensor with 525 AF areas.
  • Dual CFexpress card slots with 5X the 1D-X II buffer.
  • WIFI/low power BT and GPS built-in and WFT-E9

Again, we have no exact release date or pricing at the moment but it will be before mid-July 2020 (the start of the Tokyo Olympics) and we can suspect that pricing will be upwards of $6000.

Compact, extending 70-200 f/2.8 with a high price tag

As for the two new lenses that were already announced before by Canon, we now know that the very light and small (although extending) RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM will start selling in November 2019 for $2700 and the ultra-fast RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS will arrive on December 2019 for no less than $3000.

Bonus video: Gordon Laing hands-on with the RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM

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New specialized Defocus bokeh monster –  RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS

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Bonus video: Canon’s demo of how the new RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS Defocus Smoothingworks

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Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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