14 DAY TRIAL // Reports regarding Canon's plans to replace the popular EOS 5D Mark II camera have been circulating around the Web since the beginning of April, and now the first specifications of the DSLR have come to light.
The new Canon camera will be called the 5D Mark III and, just like its predecessors, will feature a full frame 35mm sensor.
However, its resolution has now been raised from the 21.1MP of the Mark II to 32MP and Canon has also brought a series of other improvements such as a higher ISO range (which starts at 100 and goes all the way up to 25600) and an updated Digic V image processor.
This has been tuned to deliver better image quality and improved noise reduction when compared with its predecessor.
In addition, the camera also comes with a new 19-point auto-focus system, a slightly larger LCD that also uses a new aspect ratio, a new video auto-focus technology and is compatible with CompactFlash (Type I or Type II) memory cards.
The Mark III's continuous shooting performance has been raised from 3.9fps, for the current iteration of the 5D, to 4.2fps.
According to the Canon Rumors website, the Japanese company has built three such prototypes of the EOS 5D Mark III and these were sent out for testing to various key photographers.
No information regarding the release date of the Mark III is available, but this is expected to arrive before Canon rolls out a replacement for the EOS-1Ds.
The current version of the EOS-5D was announced in September of 2008 and it uses a 21.1MP full-frame sensor which is paired with a DIGIC 4 image processor.
The Mark II was the first DSLR to feature 1080p video recording and the Mark III is expected to improve the video capabilities of its predecessor.