Canon APS-C lens patent surfaces, mirrorless cam to follow?
updated 03:40 pm EST, Mon February 20, 2012
Canon lens patent confirms mirrorless camera due
A new patent application found online on Monday has lent strong support to the belief Canon is working on a mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera. The patent is for an 18-45mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens explicitly meant for APS-C mirrorless cameras. Allowing for the crop factor, the lens is equivalent to 29-70mm if it were full-frame.
Canon has been leaning in the mirrorless direction. Its PowerShot G1 X is a fixed-lens camera, though it's meant to compete with mirrorless cameras and sports a very large 1.5-inch sensor. Many believe this same sensor will find its way into the company's first mirrorless, but APS-C would potentially be more advantages still and see Canon compete with Sony's similarly equipped NEX cameras.
If and when Canon unveiled a camera using the lens wouldn't be apparent from the patent. Should it get involved, it will be virtually the last major camera designer in the category, after Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Sony, and previous holdout Nikon all released their cameras in roughly the past two years. [via Canon Rumors]
