"Canon U.S.A. is still on target to begin shipments of the EOS-1D Mark III to its authorized dealers by the end of May. This is the same information we supplied to dealers on April 16th, and there have been no changes in our plans since then. "By the end of May" is as close as I can say for now. Shipments may begin sooner than that (they have not begun yet in the U.S.A.), but they most likely won't begin any later than that. Again, this is U.S.A. information only. Shipment schedules in other markets may differ.
As I am sure you can imagine, demand for this camera is going to exceed available inventories for an unknown period of time. As a result, the camera will initially be "on allocation" to authorized U.S.A. dealers. It's difficult to say when a specific dealer will receive merchandise, or how many cameras will be shipped on a per-dealer basis. The basic idea is to spread the distribution as fairly as possible according to the orders we've received. We expect to receive shipments from the factory in Japan regularly, and shipments to dealers will be scheduled accordingly.
Please understand that as a member of our Marketing team, I have no way of checking the allocations or shipping schedules for individual dealers. That's a Sales issue, so my best suggestion is to keep checking with your dealer for updated information.
Best Regards,
Chuck Westfall
Director/Media & Customer Relationship
Camera Marketing Group/Canon U.S.A., Inc."
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I'm not sure how confident I am that I'll have mine by the time I go on vacation in mid-June .... but I keep hoping it arrives before then.
