In a surprising turn, Canon has announced that they are now exploring the concept of releasing a mirrorless system.
Yesterday, Masaya Maeda, head of Canon’s camera division, announced the prospect of a new compact model set to retain the functions and quality of a high-end DSLR. Canon is supposedly “considering the technical aspects”, and will launch “an interesting product next year”. There is no confirmed specifics on whether it will be a mirrorless model, or an extremely compact DSLR, but the company has apparently filed a patent for the former.
This is surprising news because last March, Rainer Fuehres, head of consumer imaging in Europe, mentioned that Canon had no need to create a mirrorless camera due to their successful DSLR sales. He also added that if ever Canon were to join the fray, they would try to introduce a revolutionary mirrorless sytem as opposed to simply adding another product to an already saturated market.
On a personal note, perhaps loyal Canon users would greatly appreciate a mirrorless sytem as well as an SLR-inspired design such as a digital version of the classic Canon AE-1 Program (pictured above), similar to the mod created by Diego Monge?
I guess we will all simply have to wait for a year to see what Canon’s “interesting product” will be.
Source: Reuters, Amateur Photographer,