Canon Developing Stabilized Full-Frame Mirrorless

2020.02.13

Today Canon announced that it will be joining all other manufacturers of Full-Frame Mirrorless Digital Cameras by offering their next model with built-in image-stabilization. The Canon EOS R5 will feature an entirely new sensor with at least 42 megapixels needed to produce 8K video which requires 4X the pixels of 4K Ultra-HD. While the video frame rate is unspecified, the R5 will be capable of 20 FPS using an electronic-shutter and 12 FPS with a mechanical one.

Most crucially, Canon is developing sensor-shift technology which can also coordinate with optical image-stabilization. This will allow it to stabilize any lens, including adapted ones, which will bring Canon inline with its competitors for the first time. At this time, no other camera records 8K video, so Canon is racing to be the first. The new R5 will be flagship among its RF series of mirrorless and will offer dual control-dials, an 8-way joystick and an EVF with an Eye-Start Sensor. There will be dual card-slots of unspecified types, most likely CFast which Canon adapted on their high-end offerings and would be needed to allow recording 8K video and 40+ megapixels bursts at 20 FPS. This is promising to be the most exciting camera from Canon of the century!

Along with the EOS R5 development, Canon is adding some lightweight lenses to the platform. They started their RF system with statement lenses that are exceptionally bright but weigh considerably. This time, they are adding the dimmest zoom lenses ever built to dial into the other extreme. The RF 24-105mm F/4-7.1L IS STM and RF 100-500mm F/4.5-7.1L IS USM will be joining the native RF-mount lens lineup. The wider of these two lenses is scheduled to ship soon for $400 USD, while the latter is being merely pre-announced for now.

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