Fuji: Exactly in two hours (right now it’s 6pm London time here) Fuji will start the live show at the CES show in Las Vegas. One hour after the Fuji X PRO 1 will be official. I remind you here that I will follow the CES show news and keep you up to date with everything we can learn about the camera. You should also redo all your preorders you made in these days at Amazon. I am sure they are not valid. Will give you the right links right after the official announcement. If you find some news you think it’s worthy to be posted here drop me a message at mirrorlessrumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

Canon: The new super high quality compact camera is now available for preorder at Adorama (Click here).

DC.watch (Click here to read the translation) interviewed MR. Tian Rong Jin, Managing Director Canon Image Communication Business Division. He unveiled a couple of interesting things about their mirrorless plan. I don’t speak japanese and the google translation tool is not really 100% reliable. I ask my japanese readers to check if everything I understood is correct:

1) Canon will release a mirrorless system within 2012

2) First comes the image quality and than the downsizing. There should be a perception that the new mirrorless camera is a clear step towards from a classic compact camera. That statement clearly goes against Nikon’s decision to offer a mirrorless system camera with a smaller than m43 sensor (Click here to see the nIkon 1 system).

3) The lenses for the new mirrorless system need to be small.

It’s quite a surprise to see Canon talk that openly about mirrorless. And there is definitely a reason why they are now talking about it. I guess they want to warn the market by saying: “Hey don’t buy Sony, m43 or Fuji…wait for us!“. TO me it sounds like they will launch a new APS-C mirrorless system with a bunch of nice compact lenses. Photokina could be the right place for that.

One thing is sure: 2012 will be the year of mirrorless cameras. And I am here to give you every small bits of news and rumors I can get! Starting from the next post when I will talk about the exact Fuji X Pro 1 launch date and hour

And finally we know what Canons plan is to counter attack the mirrorless systems. An super compact camera with FIXED(!) zoom lens and with ASP-C sized sensor(!) is coming! Here is the full info:

Wellsfargoadvisors reports that “Canon is unveiling two PowerShot Elph-series point-and-shoot cameras and a new flagship Power-Shot G-series model. The G1X (shipping in February at a $799 suggested retail) will be positioned for advanced amateurs and professionals looking for a walk-around point-and-shoot model and offers a large 1.5-inch 14.3-mega-pixel CMOS image sensor and a 4x (28-112mm) optical zoom lens.
It is said to have a shallow depth of field and an aperture range of F/2.5-16 affording better low-light capability.
Other new features include 14-bit RAW file support, a new DIGIC 5 image processor with improved low-light support, high-speed burst HQ shooting of up to 6fps/4.5 fps at full resolution, multi-area white balance adjustment, expanded Smart Auto settings, child-weighted face detection system, handheld night scene and HDR mode. It will shoot up to FullHD 1080 video and includes a 720p Movie Digest mode to automatically compile a video log of all still shots.”

So Canon doesn’t want to create a new interchangeable system but instead launch a terrific high end compact camera. Don’t know what you think guys. But this sounds like a pretty amazing camera. I wonder how the lens will look.  Will it be retractable like in normal compact cameras? Smart move from Canon! Let’s see if it’s enough to scare the mirrorless camera producer.

The japanese “Impressjapan” magazine had an interview with Canon Managers. You can downlaod the magazine pdf here: https://www.impressjapan.jp/pr/monitor/1112_dcm/271201_free.pdf.

UPDATE: Our reader “Fh” (thanks!) translated the interview. here is what Canon thinks about the mirrorless future:
– Will you be releasing a mirrorless camera?
Well, the C300 is mirrorless; just very big. But as for a real mirrorless, we will look at the market this coming year in order to make the best decision.

– When you say “look at the market”, are you concerned that mirrorless cameras would affect DSLR sales?
No, just that when you look at the current mirrorless systems and how they are used, there are many different approaches.

– For instance?
For mirrorless cameras, being able to change lenses is certainly a big merit. But you have to wonder, are interchangeable lenses really the only point of mirrorless cameras, considering the added size for the lens mount? When you’re taking pictures, a standard camera size is fine, but when you’re not…

– Right, they’re still quite big.
And on either side, we are challenging ourselves to make DSLRs that are smaller, and compacts that have better image quality. So you have to ask if a mirrorless product is really necessary to fill the narrowing gap. Of course, we are more than capable of making a mirrorless camera, if we decide to.

– So you think current mirrorless cameras overlap DSLR and compact markets?
Right.

– But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t release a mirrorless that overlaps other markets, right? You mentioned you want to release a mirrorless in 2012.
Well, we want to release a mirrorless next year. But next year, the other markets will also change: there will probably be smaller DSLRs and compacts with greater image quality, which might eat into the mirrorless market.

In short, as the quotations from the interview highlight:
“Do mirrorless cameras really need interchangeable lenses?”
“DSLRs and compacts might eat into mirrorless market”
“Big improvement in image quality for consumer cameras than the past year”

The online PDF is cut short, so I can’t tell if any other information was given. But it was not strictly confirmed that Canon will release a mirrorless in 2012; just that IF they decide to release a mirrorless, they want to release it next year.”

Click on image to enlarge!

Canon customers received a survey asking questions about mirrorless cameras! The survey is available here but you need an access code: http://advisorypanel.vovici.net/se.htm. Anyway, the guys over at Canonrumors managed to get some screenshots of the survey.

What will be the result of the poll? The results will be kept secret by Canon Managers but the result will be one only. It is inevitable, Canon will make a mirrorless camera. Don’t be shy Canon!