I belong to the camp that is hugely dissatisfied with this successor to 1Ds line !
However thinking about this more and judging from the jubilation on other forums (In fact this is the only thread I have found so far where majority have voiced their dissatisfaction, possibly because the nature of Lula crowd), I think the writing was on the wall.
The biggest customers of Pro series cameras are not individual photographers, but news and sports organizations who buy these cameras in boatloads. What do they buy? Obviously they need speed and AF and also high ISO. So they go out and buy 1D series cameras. Who buys 1Ds series? Landscape and high-end commercial and fashion photographers. A sizable percentage of them just go to MF anyway. So the market is comparatively pretty small.
Now that we look back, I think this was the reason that Canon upgraded 5D Mark II to 1Ds sensor. Canon is a mass market company, not a specialty or niche provider. What they could not sell in 1Ds3, they sold in 5D.2 in boat loads. 1Ds probably was not making money for canon even before 5D was introduced, so there is no need to keep it alive.
It seems to me that they will come up with the next version of 5D with higher resolution in the price range where there is a mass market but that is only a guess. So I have to be contended with the 21MP that I have.
I would be happy to switch over to Nikon or Sony, only if their lens lineup was as logical as Canon's.
That sums it up right there. This camera is quite clearly an
action camera, not a static "fine art" camera.
If massive mpx is what a person wants, to maximize large, static "fine art" or billboard shots, they should go medium format. This simple truth is
most professionals aren't trying to create "fine art" with their cameras. Hell, even most nature photographers don't have any real need to blow-up their photos to massive proportions, and surely most news/sports photographers don't either.
So what is Canon supposed to do? Create a specialized super-high mpx camera to satisfy a very small "fine art" sector (but who basically can't afford medium format) ... or should Canon build an
overall workhorse of a camera that will satisfy
far more professionals overall?
The simple truth is an all-new 18mpx, rapid-fire, low-light-capable camera, with leading-edge AF and excellent rugged durability ... all supported by the best overall lens lineup of anyone ...is simply going to
sell more cameras to more total professionals (not necessarily "specialty" professionals) than would any other option.
I think they did the right thing, really.
Jack
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