Many are wondering when Canon's primary focus will shift from DSLRs to its mirrorless line and in particular, when a professional-level mirrorless camera might be on the way. DP Review recently sat down with Canon for an interview, and they had some interesting insights that provide some illumination on the company's future plans.
DP Review recently sat down with Toshio Matsumoto, Senior Principal Engineer, and Kazuyuki Suzuki, Chief of Operations at Canon, to discuss the forthcoming 1D X Mark III and the future of the both the EF and RF mounts and mirrorless cameras. The interview features a lot of interesting tidbits. Perhaps most interesting is that Canon mentioned there is still a strong demand for DSLRs, particularly for the benefits of an optical viewfinder. In fact, when asked about the potential design of a future mirrorless flagship, Canon was not yet sure. Altogether, DP Review interprets the company's responses as an indication that a professional-level sports-oriented mirrorless camera from Canon may be a bit further off than we had hoped, with most of the attention being focused on the 1D X Mark III as it inches closer to its release. There are a lot of interesting tidbits, though, so head over to DP Review to read the full interview.
Here's how the conversation goes when I talk to pros who use DSLRs about the benefits of mirrorless.
Me: "You'd love having an EVF, you can preview your exposure and see the histogram so you never miss exposure."
Her: "I don't miss exposure now, though."
Me: "Eye detect AF is amazing!"
Her: "I don't have a problem focusing on eyes."
Me: "Um, flange distance?"
Clearly, yes, it seem Eye detect can be a great feature. Are we all shooting portrait here? I don't for sure. For the little I may do, it's certainly not worth the cost. Is this a portrait debate? I have no use for f0.95 either.
I may be wrong, but it seems Tony is pointing out that mirrorless or dSLR doesn't matter. It's the photographer making the image and if they can make the image without the mirrorless advantages, they aren't in a rush to switch systems.
True. The Sony brain washing massive amount of posts and advertising I have seen these past two years seem to be almost 100% dedicated to portraiture and I tend to get annoyed quickly and possibly come to wrong conclusions. If anything I tend to be repulsed by Sony for that single reason and have no plan on giving them a chance. I have no rush, when Canon has something, I'll look into it and decide.
Does flange distance even make a real difference to image quality?
Yep, and if you save raw and process after the fact, you don't really see what you get in the EVF, either.
Canon: DSLR sales are tanking.
Also Canon: There is high demand for DSLRs, we swear!
Am I the only one stoked about the 5D Mark V? #&$@ a bunch of mirrorless.
Not at all! I'm looking to move up from my Mark III and the Mark V will probably be where I'll land. But, canon has a way of underwhelming at times. So, I'm not getting my hopes up until there's some idea of what they'll do with it. I don't really care if it's mirrorless or DSLR.
If they bring out a 7D3 there's an extremely good chance that I'm part of that demand. If the only sport/wildlife oriented crop body DSLR they 're going to offer is the 90D there's a decent chance that I'm part of the demand.
And if they bring out a mirrorless with the capabilities of the 7D2 coupled with a 24 to 32MP sensor there's pretty much zero chance that I'll buy another DLSR, even though I'd need an adapter for my 100-400. Once I can get the same performance without it, I just can't imagine why I'd want the mirror