Canon PowerShot is making an unlikely comeback. First, after years of inactivity, Canon stunned us in Could (2023) with a brand new vlogging compact digicam – the Powershot V10. Now it appears to be like just like the digicam big was simply getting began, and is already exhibiting off an enchanting PowerShot V idea. 

The digicam in query was on present at Picture Subsequent Present 2023 final week in Japan, pictured in a number of angles by present attendees and shared through Twitter accounts @wistaria_ and Ichiro Uematsu. 

It is exterior is much like the PowerShot V10, however this time with twin back-to-back lenses, with the rear lens in a position to fold out to the entrance due to a hinged design. We’ve seen a design like this earlier than within the Insta360 Evo – an all-in-one 180-degree 3D VR and 360-degree digicam and the most effective 360-degree cameras obtainable. 

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Canon and the VR house

We don’t have any technical knowledge for the brand new PowerShot idea, however primarily based on the photographs it appears to be like just like the digicam packs twin entrance and rear-facing fisheye lenses that every have a 180-degree (roughly) area of view; and {that a} hinge can swivel the rear lens out to the entrance.

In a single configuration, the entrance and rear-facing fisheye lenses cowl 360 levels, whereas in a second setup, the rear digicam sits alongside the entrance digicam to type a stereoscopic digicam that may file 180-degree 3D VR pictures, à la Insta360 Evo.

Canon is courting the VR house. Final yr it launched a twin fisheye lens for 180-degree 3D VR that was primarily partnered with its full-frame mirrorless digicam the EOS R5. The 2 lenses file to the left and proper half of the EOS R5’s sensor, making two 4K pictures one for every eye of a VR headset, taken from the digicam’s 8K video decision.

If the idea digicam prices across the similar because the V10, we’d be stunned if it has a high-resolution sensor and 8K video recording. It’ll in all probability be the identical 1-in sensor with 4K video because the V10, delivering a Full HD output for every eye. It may function twin 4K-enabled sensors, however that appears unlikely given the design. 

It will be nice if every eye may take pleasure in 4K video both by way of a single 8K sensor or twin 4K sensors, however a 3D VR picture in Full HD is more than likely. Let’s wait and see. 

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A brand new route for Canon?

Canon’s obvious compact digicam technique makes plenty of sense: do cameras in another way. The V10 takes on the Sony ZV-1 as the most effective vlogging cameras with an all-out vlogging design that strikes the best be aware, even when the know-how inside is just a little dated. 

And there’s no approach that common point-and-shoot PowerShot compact cameras can compete with immediately’s smartphones, however a twin fisheye lens digicam for combined actuality images and movies you don’t should strap to your face just like the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional? That’s a extra viable various to what smartphones can provide in 2023. 

There have additionally been rumors through Gizmochina about Canon collaborating with a smartphone producer, too. In Could 2022 Xiaomi and Leica introduced their long-term partnership for cellular imaging and we’ve seen some mighty spectacular Xiaomi cameras ever since, like within the Xiaomi 12S Extremely. 

We don’t know which smartphone big is cuddling up with Canon, or how that partnership will develop however it might mark a forward-thinking collaborative step for the historically closed-off digicam big.