Canon Mirrorless thought....

[Jettatore]

With the rumors saying that they are, and competition from Sony, Pan/Oly, and now Nikon, etc., Canon probably will make a mirrorless camera offering soon (just a guess)?? I just have one simple suggestion. Make it a full frame, 35mm, camera. That might specifically be what gives it an edge over Nikon 1 and Pan/Oly micro4/3rds systems, even if it means for a slightly bigger body and larger lenses. Although I must say, the 40mm Pancake at f/2.8 is rather unimpressive.

In many situations I would quite like to trade a large, heavy, Full frame/ASPC DSLR with a hulking L lens for a smaller, lighter, and easily bag-able option. I would probably take a hell of a lot more pictures if I had a more compact/discreet setup. The best option for me currently would likely be Pan/Oly, but I won't trade what I have now for a cropped system. Micro 4/3rds system is also great, and if I could get something like it in full-frame I would most definitely switch, but I don't want to lose the DOF mainly, or even the quality of sensor that I feel Canon does better for stills.

So basically Mirrorless for a small reduction of full-frame (5Dish) body size and weight, along with fast pancake prime lenses. Another idea that might be insane but is worth at least testing, two sensors and two lens mounts on the same camera so that you could walk around with two different focal length pancake prime lenses on the same system or shoot in 3D. I can do without that bit altogether, just a thought.

 

[itsnotmeyouknow]

You'll see flying pigs before you see a FF mirrorless with highest quality fast glass in a size as small as the Pan/Oly cams. Technology has come a long way and will continue to drive forward, but it won't be able to beat physics. A mirrorless system will always be a compromise. Olympus have been using FT sensors before the first mirrorless PEN. They had an advantage as they already had a smaller sensor.

i'd like to see a FF mirrorless, and I'd no doubt use it. I can see it being either APS-C or G1X sized sensor. Personally if I was a betting man, I would put my money on the latter. To have a FF with highest quality glass you'd be pitching at the kind of people that would normally buy the 5D3. This isn't mirrorless' ideal demographic. Mirrorless is getting more respected, but it still has some way to go.

 

[Jettatore]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this sort of what Lieca already does with the M-system only at horribly hefty niche price-points? If I am wrong no worries, won't be the first time and I've never even held a digital Lieca, just been to their website a few times. Otherwise, doesn't it make this already well and possible from a physical standpoint?

I just look at it like, not going into the mirrorless market is about the smartest move Canon has made. Nikon's efforts seem to be full-fledged consumer end and being a modular format in that low-end seems more of a failure out of the gate/hinderance, than it will be any long term benefit. Pan/Oly are doing a great job but they are still heavily cropped cameras, just not as bad of a crop factor as Nikon's. Lieca has it's thing, seems a reasonable area for even professional use, and is so absurdly priced that a consumer and pro-end market might actually exist in the mainstream. There are many occasions where I would much prefer a Lieca M style body and a pocket-full of small prime lenses to a heavy 5D and a zoom + bag with more crap in it. Otherwise, the directions I can assume are open for development are in Medium and Larger format photography where prices are as well, entirely absurd. Continued development of point and shoots, in particular, high quality models with higher degrees of control, and better yet, smart phone devices with well thought imaging controls, higher quality optics and sensors seem like fairly open playing fields. Other than that, simply mirroring what Nikon is doing or mirroring what micro-4/3rds is doing, just seems like a waste of energy.

http://fama.net/genefamaphotos/09/IMG_2041.jpg
With the above image as reference for the size difference in mind, and my preference to shoot in manual or near manual anyways, I'd much prefer a Leica to anything outside of action or (long telephoto shooting which I do little to none of). The thing that keeps me far far away from a system like this, is price, and only price. If I had the money to spare, and I definitely don't, I'd either keep but modify my current Canon setup for action events (and probably just rent it when needed instead) and get a Lieca with 3 (maybe 4 lenses). Because of the price of the Lieca, and the high quality of the 5D sensor paired with L Glass I can't switch to anything else and be happy, but I'm stuck with a system size that I have grown to not care for at all for the kinds environments I like to shoot in, but I'll continue to make it work and continue to wish I could afford a 5DIII as well as a Lieca, neither of which I can.

 

[wickidwombat]

thats why I think they should take the whole market by storm and make the first mirrorless APS-H
It would really change things up alot IQ would be awesome and the can make the new lenses APS-H and obviously make it to accept EF lenses too. no one else has APS-H so canon has a chance to wipe the floor with an entire market where APS-C is the current king of the sensor size heap

 

[Marsu42]

It would really change things up alot IQ would be awesome and the can make the new lenses APS-H and obviously make it to accept EF lenses too.

Since the first mirrorless systems won't be there to replace better dslrs, I guess the ef compatibility will be just the icing on the cake and to ease transition from the eos systems. Canon might use the opportunity of this radical technology change to re-design the lens system, too, so ef will be usable with an adapter and maybe not exploiting all features of the new camera bodies.

The same goes for the sensor size - if the mirrorless systems start at the lower end of the scale, they won't use an aps-h sensor that delivers iq that the targeted customer ground won't max out.

Mirrorless is getting more respected, but it still has some way to go.

Mirrorless will only get more respect if it doesn't only comes in smaller camera bodies or with lower price tags, but delivers features that mirror systems cannot have. And this is on-the-fly image processing with an evf (zebras, focus peaking) or smart af - face detection or imagine your af system being able to track a bird automatically because of image recognition and movement analysis...

 

[moreorless]

I just look at it like, not going into the mirrorless market is about the smartest move Canon has made. Nikon's efforts seem to be full-fledged consumer end and being a modular format in that low-end seems more of a failure out of the gate/hinderance, than it will be any long term benefit.

Equally though look at how sucessful Nikon's releases have been early on, I think Canon know that they don't need to delivery something revolutionary in order to create strong sales with the combination of there brand and the mirrorless hype. Granted Nikon are likely to run into big problems in the future due to the small sensor size they've gone with but the talk is of an ASPC sized canon mirrorless and I think that format has a very long term future as a comsumer product.

When your dealing with lens size on larger format mirrorless I don't think you can overlook most users prefference for zooms nore the Leica's lack of AF and extreme price. Thats going to make it next to impossible to create a system with the same appeal as a FF SLR and the size of the M9.

If someone is going to make a cheap M9 then thats exactly what there likely to need to do, make a cheap M9 with the same focus on wide/normal primes(maybe an UWA zoom), thats obviously a very different market and I think its easier to see why Canon would believe its not anywhere near as large/rich as a comsumer mirrorless.