Canon on Monday hoped to blur the lines between DSLRs and medium format digital cameras with its final camera announcement, the EOS-1Ds Mark III. The new full-frame camera is Canon's sharpest ever and more than doubles the resolution of the previous Mark III at 21.1 megapixels, rivaling Hasselblads and other digital backs in sheer resolution while still being portable enough to use in handheld form. Even at the full image quality, the camera can still be used for high-speed photography at five frames per second for up to 12 shots in uncompressed RAW or 56 for JPEG; offloading photos to and from the CompactFlash card is just as quick as the lower-resolution 1D Mark III thanks to support for new UDMA cards that write twice as quickly as the best conventional cards.

The 1Ds Mark III also adds RAW shooting modes throughout the entire pipeline, ranging from the full 21.1-megapixel depth to the use of the special sRAW format at 5.2 megapixels that captures large numbers of shots without sacrificing the editing advantages of uncompressed photos.

Several other features are inherited from the 1D Mark III to make the 1Ds Canon's best camera, including 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion, a micro-adjustable 45-point autofocus system, a live preview LCD, and a dust removal system that clears the sensor and the shutters of particles. The camera ships in November with Mac- and Windows-compatible image editing software for $7,999, though the company did not say whether the price includes the custom-tailored EF14mm f/2.8L II USM lens.