Last Updated on 04/14/2014 by Chris Gampat
Canon has recently patented a new lens for its EOS M mirrorless system, and it’s a rather unspectacular 22-46mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. With a focal length equivalent of 35-74mm and a short zoom factor of only 2.1x, it makes us wonder if Canon might be working on a small power-zoom lens with a pancake size factor. We’ve already seen such lenses for other mirrorless systems in the past: Micro Four Thirds has two lenses of this kind, one from Panasonic and one from Olympus, while there is also one for Sony E-mount and one for Nikon’s 1 system each.
A small, pancake-sized power-zoom lens makes the most sens on a small camera, together with which it makes for a truly pocketable setup. Seeing that the current EOS M cameras though relatively small for an APS-C system aren’t really pocketable, this furthermore makes us wonder if Canon could also be working on a smaller EOS M camera with a slimmer profile? In order to make its EOS M system more competitive, Canon will eventually have to diversify no only the lenses available but also the cameras.
An even smaller EOS M model might actually work with the entry-level crowd, and could make the system more popular. As to whether we’ll ever see more advanced EOS M cameras and lenses, we have our doubts as these would surely eat into Canon’s DSLR sales. But on the other hand, other mirrorless system are already doing that, anyway. So it would only logical for Canon to claim a piece of that cake. Only time will tell whether we’re ever going to see any of this.
Via Canon Watch