More Rumors swirl around the 7D Mark III

Canon Watch today released some more rumors with respects to the 7D Mark III.

Much of this is a re-ititeration of prior rumors with a bunch of "since Nikon has it, Canon should as well" added in for good measure.

I still believe that we will see this camera sooner than later, and as with the 7D Mark II feature the start of a new sensor generation.

The 7D Mark II did feature the start of a new generation of sensors, even though the DR wasn't as good as what some claimed it should be.

This of course escaped most people as it's most likely canon's first ADC on chip sensor. No, moving ADC's on sensor does not immediately grant a high DR.  In actual case, ADC's on chip can have a higher degree of drift, thermal noise, etc.  

Note the pinout array on this sensor. this is not the same sensor as the analog sensors that predate the 7D Mark II and even the 70D which featured a DPAF sensor has the older analog pinout arrangement.

So what to expect from the 7D Mark III.  As we look through the massive amount of patents that canon applies for, we have seen a continual trend in the last 12 months or so; the amount of stacked sensor patents solving problems with stacking a sensor and processing chip have increased dramatically.

Could this be the next generation sensor? It stands to reason because a stacked sensor allows Canon to use it's own fabs for manufacturing the sensor, and outsource the processing chip to another fab plant that has smaller design rules.  This saves Canon money and effort in upgrading their sensor fabrication plants once again.

I'm not sure why some rumor sites are big on Canon announcing a DSLR at NAB.  They have never done so, and announcing a sports orientated DSLR at NAB strikes me as a ludricous suggestion.

I'll stick with my working theory that this gets announced in time for Canon to place prototype units in the field for the Winter Olympic games, with an official release just before FIFA 2018 starts up in Russia.

In any case, we should certainly see far more credible rumors coming out in the next 1-2 months.  The Winter games whether it's announced or not, will certainly have this new body out in the wild, even if it's locked up tightly under NDA.