Canon What do folks think about a Canon CSC?

wt21

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More rumors are point to a near-m43 sized sensor in the upcoming Canon CSC (which itself is still just a rumor).

What do folks think?

Here are my thoughts on Canon (from someone who has been shooting Canon DSLRs for the last 4-5 years):

1) I would be very interested in a FF mirrorless, but there's no indication this will happen, and is close to 0% probability, IMO.

2) I'm not sure I'd care about an APS-C sized mirrorless, as there are already good options in those categories. Yes, Canon has a lot of lenses, but they are all PDAF optimized, so the new camera would have to have some kind of PDAF option (adapter, or on-lens, ala Nikon 1) to make those workable.

3) If it's m43 sized, then I think I'm not interested. I would have been interested 6 months ago, but the OMD seems to really be powerful. What could Canon offer as an advantage over m43, if it has s similar sized sensor, and no native CDAF lenses (unless, as above, they have some kind of PDAF tech in the camera or adapter).

4) The ONLY thing I could think of is if they had a true RF-type body -- sort of a mini XPro1 -- that was a bit more like $1,000, but even then they'd need to launch with primes that could compete with the PL25 and Oly 45.

I've attached a poll too, because everyone loves polls!
 
I think they are going to go with a 4/3 sensor based on the quotes from them that it will "approach" dslr IQ. A safe way for them to dip their toe in the water and disrupt the market a bit. I don't know, maybe Nikon and Canon are smart in their safe approaches... maybe the CSC competition is really only eating into lower end DSLR and P&S markets. Maybe they can wait a bit longer before they have to respond.
 
My reservation with Canon has been the way in which their engineers choose to render colour: very differently from Panasonic and Olympus. And of course much depends on the lens range.
 
I think it's all about lenses for me. I don't really care about what camera/sensor they release: if they don't have the lenses I need I won't but it.
 
My feeling is that the G1X is something of a testbed.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the same sensor used in a multi-aspect configuration in the way Panasonic uses the sensor in the LX5.
Whatever I won't be buying Canon while Fuji keep producing really interesting cameras.
 
My reservation with Canon has been the way in which their engineers choose to render colour: very differently from Panasonic and Olympus. And of course much depends on the lens range.

They seem to have more than one rendering. The G series enthusiast P&S cameras have fairly vibrant colors SOOC, while the DSLR's I've used (40D, 450D) had more muted (read "blah") colors. Canon G similar to Olympus, Canon 40D similar to Panny GF1. At least to my old and fading eyesight...
 
I'm still unsure about the possible usage of the smaller G1X sensor in a Canon MILC. On the one hand it's certainly quite good and would allow them to compete head-on with Micro 4/3 in the lens size department, but it would be harder for them to leverage the continued use of their existing EF and EF-S lenses with another slightly odd crop factor. I personally would have little intention of adapting the SLR lenses since they are all hopeless at CDAF on EOS cameras and tend to be larger than most, but as a means to ween existing customers off their SLR systems Canon may look to place an emphasis on this. Either way, regardless of whether they use the existing G1X or APS-C EOS sensor they will be giving away a small head start to the Olympus E-M5 in sensor performance.

What I would like to see is for them to launch a more comprehensive system from Day 1, rather than the usual 1 standard zoom, 1 tele zoom, 1 superzoom, and 1 prime. Any interest I would have in another new system would be reduced if I had to wait another 2 or 3 years to build it out.
 
I needed another option halfway between 5 and 6

i.e. I am happy with what I currently have but if this turns out to be a) awesome, and b) offers something a bit unique or different than I would probably buy into it. In the end I just did a Canon fanboy vote because option 5 looked so lonely with no votes next to it's name.
 
They seem to have more than one rendering. The G series enthusiast P&S cameras have fairly vibrant colors SOOC, while the DSLR's I've used (40D, 450D) had more muted (read "blah") colors. Canon G similar to Olympus, Canon 40D similar to Panny GF1. At least to my old and fading eyesight...

Is it because the compacts (at least in the past) had CCDs and the DSLRs are CMOS???
 
What I would like to see is for them to launch a more comprehensive system from Day 1, rather than the usual 1 standard zoom, 1 tele zoom, 1 superzoom, and 1 prime. Any interest I would have in another new system would be reduced if I had to wait another 2 or 3 years to build it out.

Good point. I should have a vote that says something like "I will only buy if it has trinity fast primes (28, 35 and 50, or 28, 50, 85, or something like that), and a fast normal zoom, along with the kit zooms."
 
Is it because the compacts (at least in the past) had CCDs and the DSLRs are CMOS???

I don't think so. The G1X has a higher level of default colour saturation than an EOS camera, particularly the blues, and the jpeg engine is based on the Powershot/IXUS model rather than use the EOS-based "Picture Styles". It's actually a rather good combination: Powershot colours with EOS IQ.
 
A compact system camera with a full frame sensor would be great and I am sure that there are many who would buy that. But I am nearly completely hopeless that this could happen soon. All companies which could do that are afraid of loosing sales of their DSLRs until they are forced to change their strategy.
 
Did you therefore vote for #4, the RF option?

I voted for the satisfied with my current set-up. I won't buy a rangerfinder-esque camera. I have the X100. But if they made an actual rangefinder camera (and it was in the area of affordable), I would buy one (and I assume they could sell a truckload). It wouldn't cut into their DSLR sales because it is a different type of camera. Canon-ites would buy it and rangefinder enthusiasts would buy it. But they'll never make one.
 
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