Is this a Canon EOS R1 prototype spotted at G7 summit?

The Canon EOS R1 has been hotly anticipated for a long time. In fact, ever since Canon confirmed a mirrorless replacement for the Canon EOS 1DX III (buy here) in 2020. That camera turned out to be the Canon EOS R3 (buy here), but an EOS R1 was still on the minds of many photographers.

Canon has been very tight-lipped about what the camera may contain, but they did confirm as recently as March 2023 that it was definitely coming… eventually. The common belief is that its announcement will be timed to coincide with the 2024 Olympics in Paris. But has an EOS R1 prototype been spotted in the wild? This short clip from the G7 summit suggests that it might.

The strange-looking Canon camera was spotted during a news broadcast from the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. It looks nothing like any existing mirrorless cameras. For a start we can discount just about everything except the EOS R3 as that’s the only other body with a built-in vertical grip. The EOS R3, however, looks very different on top compared to that seen in the broadcast.

Even if the vertical grip is a bolt-on, the top still appears very different to any of the other mirrorless cameras Canon currently makes. It was spotted and posted to Twitter by the user chellko, as a couple of stills.

これ…何の機種？？

長年Canon使ってるけども😅#Canon pic.twitter.com/z2Ny8CimkH

— chellko (@kyoichimura_) May 21, 2023

It was followed up a short time later by an actual segment of the news clip.

そう思いたいのですが…
ニュース映像からの抜き出しなのです😅 pic.twitter.com/Mpp5Ibmqyj

— chellko (@kyoichimura_) May 22, 2023

The Canon EOS R3 was announced in November 2021, so it’s unlikely that an EOS R3 Mark II is testing in the wild so soon. And given that this looks nothing like any existing Canon cameras and that it has a built-in vertical grip, there’s only one logical conclusion to which people can come.

Is this a Canon EOS R1 prototype?

It’s extremely unlikely that Canon will confirm or deny the existence of the EOS R1 based on this clip. In fact, I don’t think they’ll comment on it at all. But what else could it really be? Is Canon working on a different secret camera?

[via Mirrorless Rumors]