Rumor: Video to be the forefront of the next generation of cameras

It would come as no surprise to conclude that Canon to date as been lagging behind in the video front, having only just recently managed to put 4K on a small camera, the EOS-M50.

The EOS-M50 is the first camera out with DIGIC 8 which appears to have an efficient 4K H.264 codec built into it. It stands to reason for Canon to quickly implement the DIGIC 8 and related video improvements across the lineup, only if, however, they resolve the crop factor, and DPAF not being in place for 4K video. These are two serious flaws in then M50's video arsenal that need to be corrected to be competitive with the rest of the industry.

We thought since the first time we shared the EOS-M50's rumored specifications that this was a harbinger of things to come in Canon DSLR's and mirrorless, and probably fast paced.

Looking at our camera timeline (see the image of it at the end of this article), we can see that in the next 18-24 months we may see a transition of the entire lineup similar to what transpired around 2016-17. We know that Canon will intruduce a new 1DX camera before the 2020 olympics. They always do. It would be a more rapid switch than what would be traditionally suggested now. However, in the past Canon has had no qualms about replacing a camera 2-3 years into it's life cycle is there was a good reason to do so. Too many people I find, take the lengthening release cycles as gospel and make it seem like Canon is inflexible in this regard. As diminishing returns occur in product development, it stands to reason that life cycles increase. however, if there is a dramatic change in product capabilities, there's nothing stopping those life cycles from decreasing.

Two rumors come to mind with regards to this.

In one CR states;

A couple of sources have said to expect an accelerated product development cycle over the next 18-24 months over the entire imaging lineup. We’ll let you guess what that means.

and in another CR states;

We’re told a big selling point of all future Canon prosumer camera bodies will be video capabilities. Internally Canon has had a lot of discussion about improving the perceived feature set of prosumer cameras to match the likes of Sony and Panasonic.

We'll certainly hear and know more as this year continues to progress and after Photokina this year