Canon Rumors is reporting on a tip received from a known and credible source that Canon will launch the new Rebel T4i/650D alongside a new mirrorless camera in June 2012.
The Rebel T4i (if that’s what it ends up being called) is inevitable. The entry level Rebel T3i is due for its annual update.
The more interesting proposition, however, is a new mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The $800 G1 X is an interesting camera – but it doesn’t quite compete with Sony’s NEX line and the Micro Four Thirds cameras from Panasonic and Olympus.
I’m very anxious to see what Canon cooks up for a mirrorless camera. Will they go the way of Nikon 1 series with a tiny 2.7x crop sensor? Or will Canon compete more directly with DSLRs and use an APS-C sized sensor?
There’s also a growing cry for an affordable (i.e., sub-$3000) full frame camera. If Canon were to introduce a mirrorless full frame camera sporting an EF lens mount at $3000 or less, I think it would difficult to keep such a camera on the shelves in 2012 (assuming the appropriate feature set).
What’s on your wish/expectations list for Canon’s upcoming cameras?
I am interested in a FF camera in the sub-$3K range. Particularly, given that the only alternative is $10K + when you bolt a lens on the front.
Unfortunately, what I believe is holding back makers, other than Leica, is the need to ramp up design and manufacturing of a new line of lenses for such a camera.
If course, the fastest way a maker could steal some FF mirrorless market is to build the (now public domain) M-mount on the body…..but there is the fun in that ( and the profit) for anyone else other than Leica. And of course Leica can’t keep up with demand now.
Everyone of these camera companies fails to put out an ideal DSLR/Mirrorless, why? For example manual level audio control on video enabled SLR’s. Sony denys us, but gives us the best bitrate and quality with AVCHD 2.0, but that is near useless if i can’t have manual level audio control, but Nikon and Pentax gives us crap video specs (60p only at HD resolution, and usually with jello effect) but they give us the essential manual level audio control! Sony makes the sensors which Pentax and Nikon use, but Pentax and Nikon make it perform better with near-zero moire and near-zero noise in dark areas at ISO 100, whereas Sony’s cameras perform poorly in these areas. Nikon and canon give us crappy small viewfinders with tunnel-vision effect, but Sony gives a nice big clear pro-size viewfinder, but then also some companies SL:R’s have glare and low visibility in the LCD’s on a sunny day, but others have good clear viewing…my point is this, these are not really cost issues, all these fundamentals should have been dealt with years ago, certain specs and performance anomalies on this latest generation of DSLR’s should not be so, for they are the fundamentals which we all need, expect, and appreciate when done properly, if i was a camera maker with excellent technical resources like Sony etc, i would not release a midrange SLR without addressing all these fundamental issues first; even now in 2012 we are having to toss-up between all the strong-points and shortcomings, which really should not be. I think the only thing we should have to be weighing-up between different cameras is how heavy it is, or does it sit comfortably in our hand, does it look cool or crap, what is the battery-life, what is the price, and how good is the JPEG plus any bonus exclusive features, and also the speed of operation, the other performance aspects should not need to be part of the buying equation when deciding. I am an aggrieved camera enthusiast as you can see and i am not happy about this current state of affairs, when will they wake up and stop dicking us around.