I had been wondering whether Canon would drop a new EOS M or two in the mix before PhotoPlus 2013 (I first saw the original EOS M last year at PhotoPlus 2012). As a of right now, Canon only has the 70D to show off at PhotoPlus. While there are plenty things to be excited about in the 70D, it won’t quite be as fresh when the end of October rolls around.
New rumors of an EOS M follow-up, however, could spice things up a bit for Canon at PhotoPlus. By now, Canon must know that it has a hit on its hands with the new Dual Pixel AF system in the 70D. Surely Canon would take advantage of the positive spin from the 70D by packing the Dual Pixel AF into any EOS M follow-up.
Such a move would go a long way to separate the new camera from the stigma attached to the original EOS M and its slow AF system – even though that was largely rectified with a firmware update.
As previous rumors indicated, there could be two new EOS M cameras unveiled at the same time. One would be a minor upgrade from the original EOS M, while the other would sport the new Dual Pixel AF system and share the 20.2MP sensor of the 70D.
If there is truth to this pair of EOS M cameras, my suspicion would be that the minor upgrade would share many of the same components of the original EOS M, including the image sensor. The firmware would be optimized out of the gate for better performance from its contrast AF system.
Canon probably expected the original EOS M to sell better than it did and has a backlog in its component supply chain that it would like to move; however, it can’t quite do so with the current model. As a result, Canon would be forced to essentially rebrand the original EOS M as a new model to make use of the component orders and minimize the loss taken by the poor performance of the original model. Not that any of that is a bad thing though. If Canon will keep the price lower on the new EOS M entry-level model, it should be a worthy camera thanks to the updated firmware.
The new Dual Pixel AF model will be where it is all at though. That version should be the cat’s meow of mirrorless cameras with pricey accessories like EVFs available for it as well. My fear, however, is that Canon will think it’s worth a lot more than most of us consumers do and then blame people’s lack on interest in mirrorless cameras as a reason to delay or kill off future models. My suggestion to Canon would be to simply pay attention to what Sony is doing with its mirrorless camera lines.
So, maybe we will see some new Canon mirrorless cameras in the next few weeks leading up to PhotoPlus 2013.
Stay tuned.
[via CR]
Peter K Burian says
I suspect that Canon really does not want the EOS M to steal sales from their DSLRs … but they *had* to have a Compact System Camera because every other manufacturer does. Having said that, CSC’s make up 50% of sales in Japan, and are quite high in some other countries too. So, eventually, Canon will need to have an attractive Compact System to keep people from switching to other brands.