Unofficial Canon Mirrorless Concept

A Canon mirrorless concept
We know a mirrorless camera from Canon is likely to appear in 2012. What form it takes is anyones guess. I am from the camp that Canon should do a higher end large sensor mirrorless along with a lower cost APS-C style camera.

David Riesenberg has done what I think is a fantastic concept design of a Canon mirrorless camera. Anyone at Canon listening?

The camera is based around the following ideas (Direct Quote)

• Full Frame – Might as well be the pinnacle of 35mm. Especially if a new lens mount is required. Future proof.
• 18.1MP sensor from the 1DX – This camera will not rob sales from the 1DX on form factor alone so it makes sense to use an existing sensor instead of a new one. Plus, it will make an excellent pair to someone with an 1DX.
• CM-D Lens mount – That was the source of most headaches for me. Naturally, I wanted to design it around the EF mount for reasons that I don’t need to state but it proved to be very problematic. Both the flange depth and actual mount diameter meant that the camera needed to be much thicker and possibly taller to accommodate EF lenses. So this “CM-D” lens mount is roughly FD sized which keeps the dimensions close to the original and enables lenses that are not too huge.
• 50mm f/1.0L “Kit Lens” – Fast primes. What can I say? I love them and they probably the best match to a system as I outlined above. So their existence is no less realistic that all the other items here. While I am far from being an optics expert, I designed this 50mm lens based on a combination of schematics of the Canon 50mm f/1L. FD f/1.2L and Leica f/0.95 so it should be a realistic representation of the dimensions of such a lens. It also features an aperture ring for direct control as well as an Auto mode for shutter priority or auto mode.
• Viewfinder – Design wise, I knew from the start that I wanted to incorporate the prism hump of the AE cameras. It is a prominent feature that without it, the context of the design gets somewhat lost. At the same time, it is obviously not a technical requirement in mirrorless cameras so making it detachable while housing the EVF felt like the optimal combination of form and function. After all, if this is a camera for photographers, a viewfinder, even if electronic, is a must.
• Flash + Flash + Flash – I regard flashes as an integral, must have feature of any system and I didn’t want to handicap its use in any form. Not when taking snapshots with the built-in one and not when the viewfinder is either attached or not.

Read more  and view tons of images of the concept

**NOTE This is an unofficial concept design. It is NOT a Canon Inc. concept

Thanks Saso K

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