Is Canon launching a new compact camera… with a Micro Four Thirds-sized sensor?

It's being reported that Canon is launching a new PowerShot compact camera this year – and it could have a sensor that's very similar to the Micro Four Thirds standard.

We all know that compact cameras have been selling like hotcakes over the past couple of years – yet Canon, which used to make dozens of compacts, hasn't released a new one since the G7 X Mark III in 2019.

But that's about to change, according to a report by Canon Rumors, as the company is set to launch a brand new compact this year: the Canon PowerShot V1.

The nomenclature moves away from the previous G series of compacts and falls in line with the V series, established by the recent PowerShot V10. However, the V1 will apparently be a conventional compact with zoom rather than a vlogging camera like the V10.

"Canon will re-enter the compact camera segment in 2025 with the PowerShot V1," says the report. "It will be a real compact camera and nothing like the PowerShot V10 that we initially assumed it would be.

"For the moment, the announcement for the PowerShot V1 is expected in late Q1/early Q2. As always, announcement dates are fluid."

What's interesting is that, in its previous report, Canon Rumors wrote that the V1 would feature 24MP resolution with a "sensor size close to Micro Four Thirds".

Flashing back to 2019, Canon filed a series of patents for lenses relating to a sensor closely matched the Micro Four Thirds standard. I posited that Canon might be designing a new kind of sensor (which would be the sixth standard in its lineup) – six years later, perhaps this plan is coming to fruition.

Or perhaps it's just another errant camera rumor and the PowerShot V1 will have a 1-inch or APS-C sensor like the most recent models. Either way, with Japan's CP+ event taking place at the end of February, we may be seeing more on this camera very soon indeed.

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