The More Things Change...

Canon’s EOS-1Dx Mark III

With CES around the corner and this year being an Olympics year, it’s safe to presume that there will be new gear on offer from the big players.

I don’t get press notices from all the makers, and to be honest, don’t really go looking for them, but both Canon and Nikon hit the inbox today and I thought that it would be worthwhile to look at the announcements.

Canon EOS 1Dx Mark III

First up is Canon’s announcement of the EOS-!Dx Mark III. To call this expected is obvious. Both Canon and Nikon typically update their pro grade sports cameras to be ready for a summer Olympics. Nikon announced the D6 last fall and Canon has followed suit with the 1Dx Mark III. I am a 1Dx and 1Dx Mark II owner and think that they are superb products. I’ve reviewed what is available on the new model and would call it evolutionary instead of revolutionary. This is likely a smart move on Canon’s part. We see a 20 megapixel sensor with one stop of low light performance improvement. I shot the Mark II for high school football at 25600 for a championship game and the results were awesome, so giving the shooter one more stop is a good thing, There are more AF points, which I suppose is nice, although I only use one 98% of the time and have learned through conversation with other pros, that I am in the majority. There are dual CF Express slots and a maximum burst in traditional mode of 16 fps, 20fps in Live View. I was never in need of more than 14fps and don’t personally shoot stills in Live View, so nothing really killer there for my use cases.

Video is substantially improved at up to 4K 60fps with proper 10 bit 4:2:2 in camera including Canon Log and 5.5K RAW. Have lots of big spare cards for RAW Video, plus extra batteries. That’s not a Canon issue, it’s reality for these high density offerings. Also be prepared for a lot more time editing and rendering. Canon Log is more attractive to me as I could get excellent recordings into DaVinci Resolve and get stuff edited and rendered without having to buy a giant new computer and invest days of render time. This is a huge leap over the lame video in the Mark II.

With an MSRP of $8999 CAD and an expected MAP price of the same, this is going to be a very specific purchase for a small number of buyers.

Nikon D780

This is the replacement for the venerable and well loved D750. One of the criticisms of the D750 was the high shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second. I’m not sure who this really limited, but the D780 goes to 1/8000th of a second. It also offers better low light performance and 4K video at up to 30fps. This is driven from a 24.5 megapixel sensor that can capture stills at up to 7fps. A very usable product with an MSRP of $3199 CAD and an expected MAP of the same. For those looking for a high mids DSLR in the Nikon lineup, and who will not leverage the higher resolution of the D850, this looks like a decent choice.

Again, it’s not revolutionary, it is a evolution of a proven body type and style.

Thoughts on these bodies

While I personally think both announced cameras have had pricing set by people high on acid, they will probably sell well with the faithful.

That’s going to be important to both Canon and Nikon. The photo retail industry is basically in free fall. Brick and mortar retail stores are closing and those that remain open have lost their top sellers in favour of less experienced but more social media savvy staff. It’s been a long time since I was able to learn anything of consequence from a retail seller, and today’s buyers who are not buying at the consumer level have done more research than ever before. This means that this space is a buyer’s market and with little value add from the seller, price becomes a driver. Anyone can get the same specifications from the web as from a sales floor person and many on the floor sellers are not photographers at all. So diminished, some would say zero, value in that regard.

What is most interesting is that both are DSLRs and both from the last companies to embrace mirrorless and who are to a large extent still well behind the mirrorless curve. Are these announcements indicators that mirrorless cannot keep up with the DSLR space or is it a means to milk the DSLR space as long as possible which has higher margins due to reusability of components? You have to make that determination yourself. From a business perspective, I would understand this decision as being reasonable in the short term, but very dangerous in the long term.

Other Announcements.

Nikon made some other announcements as well. There is the Coolpix 950, a 16MP, 4K “bridge camera” which translated to English means a very small sensor and a really big zoom range. There is a very narrow market for such critters and $1099.99 MSRP puts this one near the top end of a very small market here in North America.

Next up is the 120-300/2.8 E lens for F mount DSLRs. Sigma has had a lens in this range for years that is very good indeed and for far less than the $12,899.95 of the new Nikon lens. That’s a lot of cash to outlay particularly as camera bodies improve low light performance so the demand for a fast zoom diminishes in relation to the massive increase in weight and cost. I have one of the Sigma lenses. It’s superb, but I can no longer handhold it and it’s a pain to transport. For this one, I would like to see the market research that says it’s going to sell and who the buyer will be.

The best lens announcement from Nikon, in my opinion is the 70-200/2.8 Z lens. This is the first telephoto, of decent focal length for the Z platform. I liked both the Z7 and Z6 in my evaluations and noted in both cases that the lack of a useful telephoto zoom was a major gap, particularly given the lacklustre AF performance when using a mount adapter and F mount lenses. The new Z lens is priced $100 LESS in CAD than the F mount variant. This is a huge step and contrary to past tendencies to have the mirrorless lens cost more than the non-mirrorless variant. I still maintain that the price is too high for either and that given the diminishing marketplace they both need to be sub $3000 but the market will actually decide. If I were a buyer, I would be waiting for one of Nikon’s semi annual lens rebate sale offerings.

Conclusions

I find it both interesting and somewhat disappointing that both Canon and Nikon led 2020 off with DSLRs instead of mirrorless cameras. I am pleased to see the Z 70-200 from Nikon as this adds legitimacy to the Z family. I really don’t care about the Coolpix as I think that for the majority, that ship has sailed into the sunset. The release of the 120-300/2.8 at this late stage leaves me scratching my head. In both cases, the makers are really going to need to step up the knowledge transfer on their new products and cut out all the bombastic claims of the past in order to convince the new buyer that the products make sense, because that buyer is not going to get any useful KT from web based sellers, and the quality of photographic knowledge in some many declining brick and mortar stores is so poor as to be a detriment not an advantage.