Canon has finally made the development of the EOS R1 official with an announcement.
The highly speculated flagship mirrorless camera has finally begun development, which largely means that sharp-eyed camera enthusiasts will see various versions out in the wild this summer.
Image Credit – Canon
Described as a mirrorless camera geared toward professionals, the vaguely worded announcement of the EOS R1 promises top-class performance with the high reliability sought in a flagship model.
Canon’s press release states that with new “never-before-seen advancements” in Canon’s dual-pixel AF II autofocus, the camera is bound to exceed expectations within the realm of sports, news, and video production.
While mum on details at this point, the official announcement does hint at a new image processor known as DIGIC Accelerator, which will work arm-in-arm with Canon’s current DIGIC X architecture.
The new image processing system will also incorporate a new CMOS image sensor which Canon states can process large volumes of data at high speeds.
Global Potential
Canon has also been developing a global CMOS image sensor, and the R1 could potentially be the camera platform that gets its full attention.
The global shutter exposes an image to the entire sensor, eliminating pesky rolling shutter problems, and has appeared in some competing cameras including the Sony a9III.
To compete with professionals at a level Canon claims, a global shutter would almost certainly need to be deployed.
Whether it uses a global shutter or not, Canon does confirm that the image processing system will use AI deep learning to reduce noise and improve image quality in-camera, rather than rely on post-production processing.
The camera will also benefit from an expanded lineup of RF lenses for both photography and video content creation.
Canon will also offer a new function known as AF Action Priority, which will use AI to recognize subject movement and rapidly analyze it.
The function will then determine the action and shift the autofocus frame to best capture the action. This should be helpful when using the R1 to capture a sporting event where predicting what will happen next is difficult.
Olympic scale performance
Canon has a habit of announcing the official development of a camera after designs have been in the process for quite some time. Especially when using a new innovative technology.
As such, the company must feel pretty confident they have a winner on their hands since with the 2024 Olympics in Paris coming this summer, Canon has stated that the R1 will be undergoing field testing during this international sporting event.
So it’s likely that we’ll be seeing how well the camera functions in real-world conditions with images and video without even knowing it during the two-week athletic festival.
But the question remains about if the camera is designed to process huge amounts of data, could it go even higher in resolution and performance? Only time will tell.
[source: Canon]
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