I love my Canon, but I'd jump ship too, for a uncrippled quality camera. I have no 'brand loyalty.' My devotion lies in the ease of workflow and quality of product.

That being said, PLEASE, CANON, Improve my workflow and keep the quality. Reward your customer base for trusting you.

I'm getting quite the stock of Nikon lenses. It won't make sense to stay with Canon if Nikon comes out with a nice video-DSLR.

Uncrippling the 5D as it is now would help push sales of an already existing model even further. What's wrong with that? Heck, they could even charge for the uncrippling, thus generating extra revenue between product cycles. That way they maximize R&D return for the current product cycle and then in a couple of years they can come up with an even better product. I think there's enough room for improvement to sell a better model down the line. Auto focus, less aliasing, less rolling shutter, more sensitivity, less noise, more dynamic range, faster frame rates, movie mode histogram, higher bit rate video, more megapixels, higher res video, etc...

JMHO.

Which nikon lenses do you have? the older ones? have you even checked if you would need an adapter for those too?

I beg to differ -- I doubt it will even take half of that time. Remember, it took Canon just 5 months to upgrade their 1D MKIII to a 1Ds MKIII. How quickly we forget ;^)

-- peer

Was the "s" a hardware upgrade, or just firmware? In fact, what was the change?

From what I understand, Canon normally upgrades their EOS bodies every two to three years. I could be wrong though. I'm new to the DSLR market. (Note to Canon, without the video feature I wouldn't have spent more than $500 on an SLR body. In fact, I probably would have spent zero. I simply wasn't in the market. That said, I used to have an AE-1, and then a Rebel.)

The 1D and 1Ds are different lines of product. 1D is built for high burst speed and is 1.3 crop factor. 1Ds is the flagship camera with a full frame sensor (It used to be the ONLY full frame DSLR in canon's lineup). Both have coexisted for a long time.

It got a 35mm full-frame sensor (previously 1.3x FOV crop), lager viewfinder, and they bumped it to 21 Mp (from 16.7 Mp).... and doubled the price, all within 5 months!

I don't think there's such a thing as "normally" when it comes to Canon ;^)

-- peer

Again, 1Ds is NOT an update to the 1D. The 1Ds MkIII was an update to the 1Ds MkII. The 1D MkIII is the updated 1D MkII. Both are different products for different markets. The 1D line has always had the fastest burst rate of the entire Canon lineup. The tradeoff has always been a smaller sensor to achieve faster burst rates. It is designed for sports photographers.

And this is exactly what we are talking about here (at least that's what I'm talking about) -- from the history I've had with Canon, I think they'll release a new 5D, the same way they did with the 1Ds, rather than giving the old 5D full manual controls.

-- peer

From what I understand, you can't really call the 1Ds an upgrade to the 1D at all. They're different beasts and they coexisted.

It would be more illuminating to look at the longevity of the 1Dx from Mark to Mark, as well as the interval from 5D to 5D Mark II. From what I've read on other sites, that's about 2 to 3 years. Anybody got the release dates at hand?

And that's my point. I repeat; I think Canon will rather release a new 5D, than simply upgrading it.

-- peer

I hope not. If that happens, how many people will brick their 5d2 by trying to load the new model's firmware?

I agree, I certainly hope Canon would give us a MKII firmware fix, and then release whatever new camera (with audio controls, etc.). But looking at Canon's history, I for one think a firmware fix is becoming less likely by the day, while it's more possible we'll soon see a new hi-end camera, like they did with the 1Ds. But what do I know?!

-- peer

I understand. But keep in mind that the 1Ds was far from just a firmware upgrade. Crop vs. full frame is a big deal.

My guess is that either there will be a minor FW upgrade (such as EF aperture control - gotta sell lenses, you know) or nothing. Also, I would be surprised if we see a 5D MkIII in fewer than 18 months. The new camera will need more than just video updates. It will need photo improvements as well. Maybe it will get a better autofocus, articulating screen, lower noise, who knows? If the MkIII has video improvements only, the still community will howl.