1Ds mkIII speculations

I found this interesting post on FM foums:

Canon were testing a FF sensor last year with the same 6.4 x 6.4 pixel pitch as the 30D but with larger photodiodes and better pixel lenses. Compared to the current 1Ds II’s 7.2 x 7.2 sensors this gave a pixel density increase of 1.266 giving a sensor size of 21.8mp with an effective size of 21mp. This sensor also had a built in 1.25 crop mode, giving a 16.7mp 1D IIn equivalent picture. The sensor (with dual DIGIC III etc) could do 5 FPS at FF and 8 FPS in crop mode…. The photodiodes were approximately the same size as those in the 1Ds II’s 7.2 x 7.2 pixels and with the next generation noise reduction etc this sensor delivered 3200 ISO native and 6400 with High mode enabled…

And (surprise ) they were also testing a FF 16.6mp sensor with the 7.2 x 7.2 pixel size, new micro lenses and close to 5D sized photodiodes (presumably for the new high end 5D replacement). What is interesting is if you reverse the maths, for the 1.255 crop this gives you exactly the 1d III sensor when cut down from FF…. Which makes a lot of sense

Now what remains to be seen is what they release… But if I were a betting man it will be dam close to the above (ie IDs III with 21mp and the 3D or 5D Mark II with 16.7mp)

Oh and BTW the testers LOVED the image quality on both cameras…
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And another interesting post, that was posted in the same thread. I totally agree with the poster, he described the FF camera I wanted Canon to announce for quite a long time. The benefit of only 8 mpix FF camera would be higher dynamic range and lower noise (because the pixels would be much larger, almost twice the size as those on 1Ds mkII), files would be smaller, so you wouldn't need large capacity memory cards and hard disks. And most of us don't even need more than 8 mpix (it's enough for up to A3 print, so it's usually more than enough for commercial photography as well). Anyway, here's the post:

I think a lot of beginners would jump for the FF 8 mp chip, that would be a great camera. Most of them don't need anything more than 5 fps or the rugged frame of the 1 series. Canon would sell tons, heck, it would be a great camera to take to the park.