I would agree but they do accept raw files and it could be very useful to professionals as well. Opens up a lot of possibilities or I guess a better way to say it is that it makes doing some things that could be accomplished other ways even easier. The confusing thing is they allow the R5 which has higher megapixels and larger file sizes than any of their other bodies including the new R3. The R5 can under the right circumstances shoot at up to 20fps with electronic shutter which is faster than the flagship 1DX Mark III - so it isn't about the quantity of images from the 1DX series. I just don't get why they will enable a tool for everyone from a $200 camera to a $3800 camera but restrict it for $6,000 pro bodies. I could see it if they didn't want the bandwidth required to transfer raw images but they even allow video.
"You can upload still images (JPEG, HEIF, RAW images) and movies (MP4, MOV, CRM) taken with your camera."
So if they allow 8k raw movie files from the R5 the images from a 1D series body shouldn't be a problem.
The confusing thing to me is the features are powerful enough for a pro - raw pictures and video - so why not reward the customers who spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars with them, who buy lenses that cost more than their flagship bodies, plus multiple flagship bodies etc.?
I get they are trying to complete with smart phones bus so are professionals in a sense. In other words we live in a world where everyone thinks pictures and videos are easy because they are on an iPhone. People don't want to wait for photos. They want to seem them right away. They don't understand the workflow required to move large quantities of large files off media cards and upload etc. So the thought process of people who use iPhones or feature-packed point-and-shoot cameras is basically, "if I can do it with my phone or cheap camera why can't you?"
They really shouldn't offer something that can improve workflow or enable increased customer satisfaction only if you don't use their best bodies and force the buyers of better equipment to cobble something together themselves.
There are lots of applications for image.Canon in professional use cases and it would save time. The best thing about it is that anytime you turn on your camera and it can connect to a network it works without having to do anything manual to configure.
So Canon I hope you are listening. Enable this on the R3 and 1DX Mark II and 1DX Mark III as well as any rumored R1. Help your pro body owners improve their workflow at least as much as you help everyone else. It would take several hundred typical customers to generate the revenue that one of your pro body and lens owners does because they typically have multiple pro lenses and bodies. It alienates us when we can do something with an R5 or less that we can't do with a 1DX Mark III.
What you are doing would be akin to Ford taking sync or push-button start or heated seats or adaptive cruise control or anything else that improves usability, comfort, ease of use off of the most expensive Super Duty trucks made for people who use their trucks day in and day out for work and putting all of that on the light duty truck that may never leave the pavement or pull a trailer. If the lighter-duty people have things that makes their lives easier then so should the professional grade users. The pro bodies should enable more not less.
Other brands like Ford get it. I mean Ford could have only offered back up cameras or collision avoidance or Sync or other conveniences only to cars and light duty trucks but they know that people who rely on their trucks for work want the same kind of conveniences. They pay more for their trucks so they don't want to get less.
There is a reason Canon has earned the reputation of "cripple hammer" due to artificial things that are marketing decisions. I get it for separating products to some degree. But certain things like putting a 30 minute limit on recording on a camera that doesn't overheat (1DX Mark III) but eliminating it on R3, not allowing 1DX Mark II or 1DX Mark III or R3 users to use image.Canon, etc. are just an unnecessary irritant to a large segment of your most valuable customers in terms of lifetime customer value. I can think of at least 15 Canon photo and video bodies I have purchased and probably 40 plus lenses not to mention battery grips, wireless transmitters, GPS receivers, batteries, chargers, flashes, remote controls, etc. So you need to think about how people who are loyal to Canon and stick with your products might feel about the decisions you make. Especially when it would be easy for you to offer them. I mean fix the 30 minute limit via firmware for goodness sake. Enable all cameras with wireless capabilities to use image.Canon. Give us an intermediate codec in the C200. Things like that would go a long way toward helping us feel appreciated rather than taken advantage of. Ending support for EF lenses and crippling things that don't need to be crippled give us reason to think about Sony or Nikon if we are going to have to replace all our EF glass anyway. In the past the investment in EF lenses would have kept people from switching brands. But if buying all new glass anyway it is much easier to change and moves like EOL for very popular (and recently sold EF glass) tend to make people more likely to look elsewhere. You make great products, I think the best in the world, but others are catching up and in some cases have surpassed Canon. But you sure know how to make people feel unappreciated at times. A few small things would go a long way toward fixing that. Four I have mentioned in my particular case. (1) Enable image.Canon for any wireless capable camera. (2) Eliminate the 30 minute video recording limit for 1DX and 5D series. (3) Add an intermediate codec for C200. (4) Continue support for EF lenses because you were selling very high-end cameras with only EF mounts through 2020 and you still are. Those bodies cannot be adapted to R series glass. All can be done with firmware updates or a business decision. Whatever it costs you would be more than recovered in future purchases when we upgrade to whatever is next.
