# Patent: Large LCD equipped mirrorless camera



## Canon Rumors Guy (Jan 9, 2020)

> Canon News has uncovered a patent showing a mirrorless camera with an LCD display that nearly covers the entire rear of the camera.
> This patent application shows how Canon could replace the rear wheel on the back of cameras. Ridges in the screen help with tactile feedback as you change settings on the rear of the camera.
> I don’t see this as something we’re going to see any time soon, but it’s cool to see Canon trying new things in ergonomics.



Continue reading...


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## Kit. (Jan 9, 2020)

People were asking what could be done to make a FF camera priced below EOS RP... this is an answer.


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## marathonman (Jan 9, 2020)

Perhaps a video centric model.... 16:9 screen configuration?


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## scyrene (Jan 9, 2020)

Kit. said:


> People were asking what could be done to make a FF camera priced below EOS RP... this is an answer.



Is a big screen cheaper than physical buttons?


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## BeenThere (Jan 9, 2020)

I think I prefer real buttons and wheels that work every time I push or turn them and have fewer accidental pushes. Think of using this with gloves or getting nose operated menus. But maybe it brings down costs for entry level?


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## GulliNL (Jan 9, 2020)

Infinite ways to rearrange your favorite buttons. No more complaints of 'this button has been removed and I always used it' or 'this button is out of reach of my thumb so it's useless'. 

When they get the tactile feedback working properly I am curious for this kind of innovation.


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## Proscribo (Jan 9, 2020)

scyrene said:


> Is a big screen cheaper than physical buttons?


Yes, a lot cheaper.


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## Go Wild (Jan 9, 2020)

Well, I would love that Canon could make something like Blackmagic....But no, if we look at the picture, we see that is a stills camera. Well...its a pity...I would definitely buy a "blackmagic type camera" from Canon specially with 1Dx III video specs  even if it was for "third - Body".


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## criscokkat (Jan 9, 2020)

scyrene said:


> Is a big screen cheaper than physical buttons?


Big screens at high resolutions are cheap. Example: look at every cheap android pay-as-you-go phone that is less than 50 bucks. And it has less physical manufacturing costs for the rest of the body because of the simplicity of not having lots of buttons and controls to engineer and assemble. Un-intuitively, this also means it would probably be more weather resistant.


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## scyrene (Jan 9, 2020)

Proscribo said:


> Yes, a lot cheaper.





criscokkat said:


> Big screens at high resolutions are cheap. Example: look at every cheap android pay-as-you-go phone that is less than 50 bucks. And it has less physical manufacturing costs for the rest of the body because of the simplicity of not having lots of buttons and controls to engineer and assemble. Un-intuitively, this also means it would probably be more weather resistant.



Thanks! I guess it's a function of my age, but I vaguely imagined they're more expensive.


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## Cat_Interceptor (Jan 9, 2020)

Ugh. No thanks.


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## Jethro (Jan 9, 2020)

It might seem unusual to all of us used to buttons, but for someone brought up on smart phones (and considering transitioning into a dedicated camera) it might seem very natural. I agree it might have waterproofing advantages too, although it's increasing the scratchable / shatterable area at the same time.


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## maves (Jan 10, 2020)

It's a amazing how many people are dismissing this. I hardly doubt they'll be targeting the 1Dx market... It's essentially like using your phone camera, and people seem to be using them pretty well without complaining about the lack of buttons or tactile feedback. 

A big display and hopefully app connectivity, this could be a real winner for editing and sharing on the fly. 

If anything I'm surprised it has a view finder.


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## sanj (Jan 10, 2020)

Superb!!!


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## jolyonralph (Jan 10, 2020)

This is excellent and has so much potential.

It should be dual OS with Android and, ideally, 4G/5G connectivity at least as an option because Canon still can't get their act together with wifi/bluetooth sharing that works seamlessly - for example currently every time you turn off to change lens you have to manually reconnect again - meaning I usually just risk changing lenses with the camera turned on rather than go through all the pain of reconnecting with the Canon app.

It's the 2020s, seamless connectivity from a camera should be working by now.

And imagine a camera with built-in and seamless integration with Dropbox and other streaming services, which as soon as it detects a known wifi network will automatically connect and start syncing your files in the background. 

Android is good for all these things, but NOT for basic shooting because it takes far too long to start up. You'd want the camera still to turn on and rapidly be able to take photos meaning the standard Canon OS would still be needed too.


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## LDS (Jan 10, 2020)

jolyonralph said:


> every time you turn off to change lens



Maybe Canon should spend some time and resources to patent a way to remove such an absurd requirement...


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## Deleted member 381342 (Jan 10, 2020)

Something for a new rebel body to make them more familiar and appealing to people that have only used a smartphone. I can see this succeeding with some of my friends that just wouldn’t know how to take a picture without their phone now.


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## jolyonralph (Jan 10, 2020)

LDS said:


> Maybe Canon should spend some time and resources to patent a way to remove such an absurd requirement...



You'd think... Still, in all the countless times I've changed lenses without turning off first I've never once had a problem beyond the very occasional error which needs me to disconnect/reconnect the lens.


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## Kit. (Jan 10, 2020)

Codebunny said:


> Something for a new rebel body to make them more familiar and appealing to people that have only used a smartphone. I can see this succeeding with some of my friends that just wouldn’t know how to take a picture without their phone now.


Canon needs to add a vertical grip to it for vertical video shooters.


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## criscokkat (Jan 10, 2020)

scyrene said:


> Thanks! I guess it's a function of my age, but I vaguely imagined they're more expensive.


LCD panels are ridiculously cheap these days. Heck, you can get a decent 4k 50 inch tv for less than 300 bucks. OLEDs and very high speed displays are more expensive, which is why the viewfinder on the M series is sort of choppy, even on the newest M6 which has the speed on sensor to keep up with a higher speed viewfinder. I expect the viewfinder on the new R cameras to be one of the more expensive components of it. Once they start making them in quantity though it'll be just another part and will most likely trickle down to other cheaper cameras. Larger versions of those same viewfinders will be driving the viewfinders in VR gaming systems, and we are just seeing those become more mainstream. (they will be much more mainstream when the next generation of playstation/xbox come out which will be able to drive them natively)


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## FramerMCB (Jan 10, 2020)

Jethro said:


> It might seem unusual to all of us used to buttons, but for someone brought up on smart phones (and considering transitioning into a dedicated camera) it might seem very natural. I agree it might have waterproofing advantages too, although it's increasing the scratchable / shatterable area at the same time.


That was my first thought was this looks like a Camera that functions like a smartphone. Maybe with built-in WiFi one could Stream to it as well...


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## Sean C (Jan 10, 2020)

That mockup still shows the viewfinder in the location for an SLR. Why aren't they moving that to the left side so our noses have room? That should be one of the benefits of a mirrorless system...
I'm glad to see them work on an interface like that, with a good UI design it could be a good compromise for the Rebels. I don't want it to give up the rear thumbwheel or thumb grip on the higher end camera, though maybe the left side buttons could go with a really good UI. Not the buttons used when your eye is on the viewfinder though.


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## magarity (Jan 10, 2020)

jolyonralph said:


> This is excellent and has so much potential.
> It should be dual OS with Android and, ideally, 4G/5G connectivity at least as an option because Canon still can't get their act together with wifi/bluetooth sharing


OK I get your point about pairing wanting improvement but no, putting Android into a camera is a truly horrific idea. Android is only slightly less worse than iOS in terms of user control over the device. Ever try to install your own new version of Android on a smart phone after the manufacturer moved on to new models and no longer provides updates? Talk about an exercise in nightmares. And then there's the bloatware; the last thing we need is a camera that has built in (uninstallable) facebook/twitter/instagram/wechat/snapchat/tumblr/weibo clients.


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## gmon750 (Jan 11, 2020)

Sorry. Not for me. Cost or not, I prefer the tactile, physical buttons and have zero desire to take my eye off the scene to look at the back of a camera to find a function.

This reminds me of an article not too long about about an order to remove all the touch-screen interfaces on the U.S. military ships because the touch-interface and its clumsy design was partially responsible for the ship colliding with another ship. So it's back to analog butts, handles, etc...

Sure, some folks will not like this, but I hate software interfaces on cameras. I love my iPhone's interface, but I don't want it on my camera.


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## jolyonralph (Jan 11, 2020)

magarity said:


> OK I get your point about pairing wanting improvement but no, putting Android into a camera is a truly horrific idea. Android is only slightly less worse than iOS in terms of user control over the device. Ever try to install your own new version of Android on a smart phone after the manufacturer moved on to new models and no longer provides updates? Talk about an exercise in nightmares. And then there's the bloatware; the last thing we need is a camera that has built in (uninstallable) facebook/twitter/instagram/wechat/snapchat/tumblr/weibo clients.



I don't think any of these are serious concerns.

Firstly, as I said Android would have to be a dual OS that you'd choose to boot into as and when you need it. If it comes to a point in five years or more time when this specific version of Android is no longer supported by Google for security updates and Canon has also stopped providing updates you could simply chose not to start Android on it and keep it running within the standard Canon OS.

I don't think installing a custom version of Android on a phone is any harder than installing a custom firmware (eg magic lantern) on a camera. And for the same reasons that's something only 1% of people would do.

I don't know any phone (at least not from a reputable source) that has unstallable facebook/twitter/instagram/wechat etc clients. I know that if Canon are expecting this new format to take off they'd be very aware of how such things would look to reviewers so I'd be pretty certain that the only uninstallable stuff on there would be the stuff that is directly required to integrate with the camera.

And maybe the camera only needs one card slot if it can sync photos with your Amazon Photos/Google Photos/Dropbox etc on the fly in the background 


My one concern about this idea, and something that could kill the android idea dead, is the ergonomics of using an on-screen keyboard with it - especially if a heavy lens is attached!


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