Or so they’d have us believe.
Canon has created a teaser on their website proclaiming the arrival of something new, something retrieved from the realm of the unbelievable, complete with a countdown ticker to the announcement… currently about 22 hours away. I’m expecting we’ll start getting rumors before that, though.
So, what can this be? First, of all, I’d guess that it’s something that isn’t going to production any time soon. If it were a stable product with high quality prototypes, why would Canon have failed to show them off at Photokina last month? Perhaps they didn’t want to be lost amidst the other product announcements (but why announce the 7D Mark II, then?), or perhaps they just missed their deadline.
My suspicion, though, is that Canon has realized that the 7D Mark II didn’t make a very big splash, and that they’re starting to lose a lot of ground to Nikon’s consistently higher resolution, lower-noise sensors, and to mirrorless cameras like Sony’s A7 line. Canon has even fallen behind from where they were once a runaway leader: SLR video. None of Canon’s cameras are offering 4K capture, yet, while everyone else seems to be announcing 4K capture: GoPro, Panasonic, Sony, the new Samsung NX1, and even many new smartphones.
So, what is the announcement going to be?
It could be the announcement of a distant high-megapixel camera to compete with the Nikon D810. Maybe available in the spring of 2015. Or, it could be a mirrorless addition to the EOS line, with an EVF. Perhaps a rebel series camera with a high frame rate, but otherwise a similar sensor to the 70D.
I hope I’m wrong. I hope that it’s a firmware update announcement for current EOS SLRs that adds 4K video capture, perhaps using the h.265 codec.
Of course, it could just be something else… not even a camera. It could be a lens, or a printer, or a projector. Ugh. I hope not. What do you think? Leave comments below!
