I know this is not a 'Sony' rumor but I thought it might be interesting to folks here. http://www.canonwatch.com/canon-going-serious-mirrorless-2015-full-frame-milc-coming/
They are imho approaching this from the wrong end... they need to fix their EOS M to where it's a "real" camera and not just a half-baked add-on to someone with a DSLR. I guess Canon still wants people to buy Rebels.
There are so many mirrorless "features" (actually staples) that Canon have zero experience or track record of doing well - electronic level, histogram, zebra, zoom magnification, focus peaking (most of these only available with the MagicLantern hack - which means Canon aren't putting them in their main cameras as live view options). Even a high resolution EVF that is not a battery sucker is not as easy as it sounds. And the best EVF Canon makes is on their SX60 HS which is pretty awful. If they were in an advanced stage of creating a serious mirrorless, you'd think some of the tech would have made its way into the G7X. So I really doubt Canon are going to jump straight into high end mirrorless in the next year. They need to "road test" this tech in a mid-level camera first because the risk of failure in a niche FF market would be disastrous. Then there's the little matter of coming up with new lens designs to maximize the benefits of MILCs. And the minor matter of abandoning their corporate philosophy of crippling anything that might remotely pose a threat to their core business of DSLRs. So I'm giving this rumor a 3/10 chance of happening, even though it would be great to see Sony get some competition in this area (a little price war never hurt right ) A high res DSLR is another matter... that could easily happen whenever such a sensor becomes possible.
I would bet they still want this to be an add-on product no matter what they say. Unlike Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic, CaNikon has a huge vested interest in their SLR eco-system. From a Corporate standpoint nothing good can come of a SLR to mirror-less exodus; even if they are involved. They know many people are stuck simply because the price is too great to move. Acknowledging mirror-less as anything other supplemental or specialty gear levels the playing field to where the best man wins. Those companies are not known for innovation; particularly Canon. Unless their hands are forced, it's far more important to ensure the perception of SLR superiority remains intact.
Yes, TBH if size didn't matter, I'd be still shooting Canon, so perhaps they can milk that cow for a few more years... their colors (for portraits) and especially their lenses are excellent.
As a counter point, Canon and Nikon have been on the forefront of digital photography since its conception and have made many innovations over their long histories. I mean these companies have been making cameras and lenses way before digital sensors were even a daydream. But they have also become the fat cats of the industry. Relying on the tech they have had for the last 10 years or so. It makes sense for them dollar wise as it's more profitable to reuse Tech with slight improvements then to make a run at total innovation. For Sony, Olympus and some others, they really had no choice but to innovate if they wanted to break in to the market. But they did it so quickly and successfully they actually are making canikon look like old hats, which I'm sure they can't be happy about. So maybe we will see some interesting things from these two giants in the future. And that would be exciting.
IMO we are going to see a high-resolution FF Canon DSLR before they get serious about the mirror less market.
Well from all I read mirrorless marketshare is small anyway. Most people who want to get into more serious photography from a,phone or p&s seem to be getting a CaNikon DSLR.
Yea, camera sales. Scary stuff these days. This study would kind of explain canikon's unwillingness to jump into mirror-less. http://lensvid.com/gear/lensvid-exclusive-what-happened-to-the-photography-industry-in-2013/
I think someone in the comments hit the nail on the head - among other factors like recession, phones etc, the camera market simply got saturated - nearly everyone who wants a digital camera has one now and they are good enough that they don't have to be replaced every couple of years. So the sales were bound to slow down.
