Canon apologist would say the 5DIII sensor is not a bad one and an improvement over the previous gen but I don’t see it that way. Yes it’s not a bad one if the world has been standing still but the technology landscape is very different now. One more MP and perhaps slightly better noise with no improvement in DR for three and half years while the rest of the world has been progressing in leaps and bounds just put them in such a bad position.
Three and half years ago Canon’s 21MP sensor had absolutely no peer. Few short years later everyone from phone camera to dslr sensor makers are able to develop much better sensors except for Canon. iPhone at that time had a noisy measly 2MP sensor. It now has an 8MP sensor that is able to take very nice pictures even in relatively low lights. Nokia’s 41MP sensor with varies crop and down sampling modes produces great low noise still and full HD video images. It even beats the 5DIII sensor in video over-sampling amount. Not to be lost here is those are sensors come with phones which cost just a small fraction of the high end dslr and can also make phone calls or surf the web.
On the higher end front Sony have the nice 36MP full frame sensor they made for Nikon camera and perhaps their own later. Even their aps-c sensor has more MP than Canon’s full frame sensor with IQ not far behind, or even exceeds it in certain areas. Fuji’s innovative aps-c sensor in X Pro 1 was said to be as good or better than most full frame dslr sensor for high or low ISO IQ. Imagine what if Canon have technologies similar to what Sony, Fuji and those phone sensor makers have to put into the latest camera? Is Canon supposed to be the leader or we are expecting too much?
Three and half years ago Canon’s 21MP sensor had absolutely no peer. Few short years later everyone from phone camera to dslr sensor makers are able to develop much better sensors except for Canon. iPhone at that time had a noisy measly 2MP sensor. It now has an 8MP sensor that is able to take very nice pictures even in relatively low lights. Nokia’s 41MP sensor with varies crop and down sampling modes produces great low noise still and full HD video images. It even beats the 5DIII sensor in video over-sampling amount. Not to be lost here is those are sensors come with phones which cost just a small fraction of the high end dslr and can also make phone calls or surf the web.
On the higher end front Sony have the nice 36MP full frame sensor they made for Nikon camera and perhaps their own later. Even their aps-c sensor has more MP than Canon’s full frame sensor with IQ not far behind, or even exceeds it in certain areas. Fuji’s innovative aps-c sensor in X Pro 1 was said to be as good or better than most full frame dslr sensor for high or low ISO IQ. Imagine what if Canon have technologies similar to what Sony, Fuji and those phone sensor makers have to put into the latest camera? Is Canon supposed to be the leader or we are expecting too much?
