Techcrunch has just dropped some new news coming out with rumors that Canon and Nikon are reportedly planning full-frame mirrorless cameras, coming as soon as this year. According to Canonrumors.com, Canon will announce their 2 new mirrorless cameras at Photokina this September, hopefully ready for sale before the holiday. This rumor is stated as C3 which is essentially known as a “fact”, which is great news!
And on the Nikon end, Nikonrumors.com is reporting that multiple mirrorless cameras are planned, which is rumored to be announced as soon as the end of July, released in August, and maybe even shipped before Photokina. Though, like Nikonrumors.com states, it’s more likely to be announced at Photokina alongside its rival.
So what’s going in these new cameras? Well the Nikon cameras are looking at a slimmed down version, similar to Sony’s A series line, which has since dominated the market. There’s also rumors of 25MP and 45MP variants (similar to Sony’s A7R and A7S), 5 axis IBIS (in-body stabilization), a new “Z” mount (this is not good), XQD and CF Express memory options, EVF, and it’ll be released alongside 3 new lenses – a 24-70mm, 35mm, & 50mm – which is a great lineup that should cover most use cases. The crazy thing is the rumored pricing at $3,000. If this camera is priced that high, it needs to pack features that slap Sony’s cameras in the face, which is likely not going to happen. I’m talking 4K 60fps 10bit internal recording, flip-out touchscreen, much better AF system, much longer battery life, and even then it’ll have a hard time competing against a camera that packs so many features for less.
Canon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras are a bit more tight-lipped. Their looking to pack a 30MP full-frame sensor with a lower res model, 4K video, maybe a removable EVF, and that’s pretty much it. Again, this looks like a jab at Sony’s A series, which separates cameras by their use cases. The a7R series being the higher res, more “photo” option, and the a7S series being more focused on video.
I’m very excited about this news. I’ve switched to Sony from Canon once the a6000 dropped, and have since purchased the a6300, RX100V, a7S II, and a7RIII – and I couldn’t be happier with the switch. The amount of amazing photo and video features, packed into a slim, relatively cheap product, is too hard to pass up. That said, if Canon were to release a camera that directly rivaled the A7R or S, with Canon’s color science, top tier glass, auto-focus, usability, and hopefully a flip-out screen, then I may have to make the switch back. But right now, I’m happy with Sony who doesn’t hold back features for their more expensive options.