Now that’s unusual to see. A couple of weeks ago Sony announced that it will have a product launch on April 20. Weird enough today Canon announced it will have a product launch event on April 20 too.

Now before you get too excited know that this is stuff that was supposed to be unveiled at the NAB show: Which means expect new camcorder and Cine lenses. I hope Sony will at leats tease us something about the future A7sIII…but my hopes may be misplaced :(

Ted Forbes writes:

There are reports that a new high megapixel Canon speculated to be either an 80 megapixel or 150 megapixel (very unlikely) is currently being tested. I think there’s a strong possibility we will see something like this. Between the R5 and R6 cameras that are coming, it makes sense that Canon would offer a camera for high resolution shooting.

CanonWatch reports this list of EOS-M lenses that might be announced within the next two years:

• EF-M 15mm f/2 STM
• EF-M 52mm f/2 STM
• EF-M 62mm f/4 Macro IS STM
• EF-M 18-45mm f/2.8-4 IS STM
• EF-M 100-300mm f/5.6-8 IS STM

I still think Canon should kill the EOS-M line and make EOS-R APS-C cameras instead.

In a response to one of our readers OPC Optics (owner of Meyer Optics) confirmed the new Biotar 58mm and 75mm lenses will be released later this year.

In Korea there is a new rumor about the next Samsung flasgship smartphone camera featuring a new 150MP sensor. Sammobile.com translated the rumor:

Samsung may be developing a new 150-megapixel sensor for flagship phones, according to a fresh rumor passed along via Twitter. It claims that the sensor has a footprint of around 1 inch and that it uses the same Nonacell technology that was employed by the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor.

The rumor further suggests that Xiaomi will be the first third-party company to utilize the 150MP shooter in one of its flagship phones scheduled to be unveiled in Q4 2020. Other companies including Oppo and Vivo will supposedly employ the module in the first quarter of 2021. They’ll pair the sensor with the unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 chipset which will presumably beat at the heart of their premium models.

Nonacell is seemingly reviving the race for more pixels

Now, since the sensor is said to rely on Nonacell technology, it should combine nine pixels into one to achieve higher light absorption. And because the sensor is said to have a resolution of 150-megapixels, the final shots should technically have a pixel count of around 16MP, as opposed to the ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor which delivers 12MP shots.

It’s interesting to see how this camera technology is giving Samsung a real incentive to aim for a higher pixel count for its sensors. For the most part, the race for more pixels had slowly died off in recent years, but the introduction of Nonacell is seemingly reviving that philosophy, even though it may be doing so for different technical reasons.

Samsung could be creating this sensor specifically for its clients in China; in other words, there’s no way to be certain that the Korean giant will use the same exact sensor in one of its future flagship phones such as the Galaxy Note 20 or Galaxy S21. But a variation of it, at least, is likely to be developed for Samsung’s own purposes.

This MP race will never end…

Fujirumors reports that Fuji scrapped the X-E line and there will be no new X-E4 model. Finally Fuji landed on planet earth and just like all other companies is starting to realize that it’s pointless to have a zillion of camera lines :)

CanonWatch is starting to hear whispers about a possible new crazy 150MP Canon EOS-R camera. This camera surely would be a headline grabber and attract the curiosity of the photography community. I am pretty sure Sony is working on a 100+ MP camera too that may become the future Sony A7rV.

Does it make sense to have 150MP images? Of course not….but who cares :)