Earlier today, Canon announced some new products:

• Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera body (press release here)
• Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT (product page here)
• Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT (product page here)
• Canon Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E7 (product page here)
• Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2 (product page here)
• Canon Battery Grip BG-E11

Pricing is expected to be as follows

• Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera body - USD$3499 body only (USD$4299 with the EF 24-105mm lens)
• Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT - USD$630
• Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT - USD$470
• Canon Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E7 - USD$850
• Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2 - USD$390
• Canon Battery Grip BG-E11 - USD$490

The 5D Mark III, 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT are expected to be available at the end of March 2012, and the WFT-E7, GP-E2 and BG-E11 are expected to be available at the end of April 2012.

The 5D Mark III camera body, 5D Mark III with 24-105mm lens and the 600EX-RT flash are currently available for pre-order at B&H.



This announcement finally puts an end to the speculation about specifications of the Canon 5D Mark III in recent months, with the announced specifications being:

• New 22.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor
• New DIGIC 5+ processor
• New 61-point High Density Reticular AF system
• 6 Frames Per Second
• Multiple Exposures - an EOS first
• Inbuilt HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode - an EOS first
• ISO 100-25600 (with expansion of L:50,H:51200/102400) enabling sharper images in a broader range of lighting conditions, especially in low light
• Intelligent viewfinder with 100% coverage
• Shutter Life of 150,000 cycles

Canon 5D Mark III camera body

The Mark III features a minor increase in pixel count (22.3 megapixels compared to the Mark II's 21.1 megapixels), a new DiG!c 5+ processor, lots more focus points, and a larger ISO range.
Multiple exposures are likely to prove useful for some artistic photos, but is unlikely to be widely used. Built-in HDR functionality is interesting, as there are some situations where it could be useful. However, due to the many completely overdone HDR photos seen on the internet, many people disdain HDR.



The Speedlite 600EX-RT and Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT feature a new 2.4GHz bi-directional communication, with a range of up to 30m. Up to 15 individual flashes can be triggered by a single transmitter, in 5 groups. It supports ETTL II, manual flash, stroboscopic and external flash metering.
Canon have also done away with the 2CR5 lithium battery used by the ST-E2, and the ST-E3-RT now uses a pair of AA batteries.

  

Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT - front view and top view

One of the very big limitations is that the new ST-E3-RT can only be used to control the new Speedlite 600EX-RT flash - it cannot trigger any of Canon's other flashes. This means anyone wanting to start using this new technology from Canon will need to buy a ST-E3-RT transmitter, as well as a complete set of new 600EX-RT flashes, which will not be particularly cheap.
Apparently the 600EX-RT flash can be used in radio mode (triggering other 600EX-RT flashes) or in optical mode (triggering 430EX / 550EX / 580EX flashes), but not both at the same time.

Third-party solutions for wireless TTL flash triggering, such as the Phottix Odin, Pixel King, Radio Popper, etc, are a much cheaper option for people who already have a set of flashes. Not only that, but most (all?) third-party wireless TTL flash triggers provide a much longer range than 30m, typically capable of 100m or more.

The new ST-E3-RT does not have a focus-assist light. This will definitely be a concern for photographers relying on focus-assist lights when shooting in low-light conditions.

The specifications indicate that the ST-E3-RT supports second-curtain shutter sync and high-speed sync, something that the ST-E2 does not support (but third-party wireless TTL flash triggers such as the Phottix Odin have supported both for some time already).



The GP-E2 allows you to geo-tag your photos with location information. However, it is only fully compatible with the Canon 7D (requires firmware update), the 1D X, and the just-announced 5D Mark III.

Connecting the GP-E2 to a compatible camera's hotshoe (not supported for the 7D) or via a cable allows GPS data (latitude, longitude, altitude, direction) and UTC time to be stored in the EXIF data of each photo.

Alternatively, the GP-E2 can be used in a disconnected mode, where it is not electrically connected to your camera. In this mode, the GP-E2 periodically stores location data at a user-configured interval, and the location data can then be inserted into the EXIF data of your photos on a computer. This allows the GP-E2 to be used with any EOS digital camera (or presumably with almost any camera at all).