Canon has unveiled a new ultraportable camera in its lineup: the PowerShot V1.
I remember when I was just starting out, I used to carry my camera everywhere. Like, everywhere. To the park, to the ballgame, to the afterparty… on a date. Again, I apologize for that, Jessica.
Of course, by “my camera,” I mean my DSLR. And a couple of flashes. And my Batman-style utility belt lens holder with a couple of zooms, just in case something happened on my five-minute trip to the Frosty Freeze at the end of the block.
Eventually, love of photography or not, upon the eighty-eighth time my mother gave me side-eye for insisting on bringing a loaded camera bag into the local Walmart, I had to admit that I had a problem. There was no way I was going to stop carrying a camera. But the least I could do was make it smaller.
In stepped the Canon PowerShot. It was small and portable. I could carry it everywhere without causing too much trouble. And I never had to choose between a photograph and a date again. Again, Jessica, I’m really, really sorry about that.
That was years ago, and much has changed since then. I still love a good snapshot, but these days, those images are as likely to be moving as they are still. And just as I try to keep up with the times, Canon is trying to stay ahead of them.
To address the needs of emerging content creators, the company is announcing the new PowerShot V1. It’s just like the old PowerShot cameras in terms of looks and handling. But this new compact body was made with video in mind. You can still create 22.3 MP stills with the 1.4-inch CMOS sensor. But now you can add to that 4K/30 full-width video recording (4K/60 with a crop), C-Log 3, and improved autofocus tracking borrowed from the R6 Mark II.
Canon is aiming this camera at short-form content creators—those who want a bit more than their phone can offer but don’t yet need a full-on cinema camera. The V1 offers longer video recording than similar models and has built-in cooling to protect against overheating. It has a built-in 16–50mm f/2.8–4.5 lens (35mm equivalent). It has a flippy screen to help creators film themselves and offers a product mode setting for those instances where one might need to hold up an object to display and the camera needs to quickly shift focus.
The MSRP on the new model will be $899 and is expected to ship April 8.
Oh wow, this is a direct shot at the Sony ZV-1 - I love that camera as a stills/video travel camera that I can easily shove into a bag, but to have a larger, M43-ish sized sensor makes this one ...very intriguing.