Hybrid EF/RF Camera on its way?

For a while now, we've known that Canon was working on a 1 series camera for the RF mount, due out in 2021.  This camera was originally rumored with some kind of method of supporting both EF and RF lenses, at the times, we thought this meant some kind of adapter.

CanonRumors today mentioned again, that from their sources that this camera would support both the RF and EF mount lenses on the same camera - with no adapter.

There are some engineering tricks that would have to be done on this camera to compensate for the different sensor to flange distances between the RF and EF mount (20mm versus 44mm).  The only way that I can think of that this would happen is that if the sensor itself is on a movable platform that moves the 24mm closer to the mount if it's an RF lens, or moves back to the 44mm position if it's an EF lens.  This could be a mechanical switch, or it could be motorized when the lens is first detected.  Because there's no mirror, there is no danger of the EF lenses hitting the sensor.

On top of that, the electrical interconnects while similar, do not exactly match either, however there is a fair amount of "slop" as the connectors on the lens are fairly wide.  This may be enough to allow for the RF and EF mount to use the same common connectors, with the additional connectors for the RF mount.  The RF mount was originally designed to switch in between the EF mount protocol and the RF mount protocol.  This, of course, makes it easy for adapters to be used on the RF cameras for EF mount lenses.   I would also then assume that the pinout layout for EF mount and RF mount share the same common pins, with the RF mount having additional pins for the control wheel, etc.  However, that right now is simply an assumption on my part.

It's certainly possible to take the lug positions on the RF and EF mount and combine than so that an EF lens will physically mount on an RF camera body.  You would basically take the two smaller lugs from the RF mount, and the one smaller lug from the EF and merge them.

Another possibility is borrowed from the CINI line, where the CINI cameras have replacable mounts, specifically EF and PL.  It's possible for Canon to use that knowledge and come up with a replacable mount. In fact, they already were looking at something that appears to be based upon a mirrorless camera body, in this patent application.

So is this possible?  Anything is possible given enough time and money.  It would be an intriguing cross over 1 series camera that would allow users to use both their existing EF lens collection and take advantage of new RF lenses as they come into being.  It certainly appears as Canon made the RF mount and the various protocols with this in mind.

• CanonRumors