A new Canon patent application seems to suggest Canon might have a pocket-sized action camera in their release radar.

Canon patent 2024112386 (Japan, published 8/21/2024) discusses methods and technology for a small, pocketable action camera.

From the patent literature:

• An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device that can be made lighter and smaller while ensuring accurate gimbal control.
• Background Art
  Conventionally, as a device that enables control to reduce camera shake or intentionally change the imaging angle of view, there is a so-called gimbal device that can rotate the camera unit on three axes, as in the technology described in Patent Document 1. In such a gimbal device, the camera unit may be a zoom lens barrel that can be changed from wide angle to telephoto in order to adapt to various shooting scenes. In this case, if the center of gravity of the zoom lens barrel moves due to the focal length, the accuracy of the gimbal control is affected, so for example, the technology described in Patent Document 2 prevents such a situation from occurring. Specifically, the technology described in Patent Document 2 moves a balance member in the opposite direction to the movement direction of the center of gravity of the zoom lens barrel, thereby suppressing the change in the position of the center of gravity of the zoom lens barrel and preventing the occurrence of a situation that affects the accuracy of the gimbal control.
• However, the technology described in Patent Document 2 adds a balance member and its movement mechanism to the zoom lens barrel, which are not actually necessary for the camera’s functions. Therefore, the technology described in Patent Document 2 has the problem of being an obstacle to weight reduction and size reduction.
• The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has an object to provide an imaging device that can be made lighter and smaller while ensuring accurate gimbal control.

All Canon patents are listed here.

[via asobinet]

It seems the new Canon EOS R5 Mark II is now available at major resellers.

At a glance:

• 45MP Full-Frame Stacked BSI CMOS Sensor
• DIGIC Accelerator Processing
• Dual Pixel Intelligent AF, Eye Control
• 8K 60 Raw/4K 60 SRAW/4K 120 10-Bit Video
• Up to 30 fps, Pre-Continuous Shoot Mode
• 5.76m-Dot EVF with OVF Sim. View Assist
• 3.2″ Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
• In-Camera Upscaling to 179MP
• CFexpress & SD UHS-II Memory Card Slots
• Wi-Fi 6E / Wi-Fi 6 Support

Canon EOS R5 Mark II:

America: B&H Photo, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA
Europe & UK: Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Canon IT, WEX Photographic, Canon FR, Canon UK, Canon DE

Canon EOS R5 Mark II coverage is listed here.

One of the most serious gear reviewer posted a Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN RF Review.

Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN at a glance:

• RF-Mount Lens/APS-C Format
• 29-80mm (35mm Equivalent)
• Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22
• Minimum Focusing Distance: 4.8″
• Three Aspherical Elements
• Special Low Dispersion Element
• Rounded 7-Blade Diaphragm
• Dust- and Splash-Proof Design
• Includes LH582-02 Lens Hood

Dustin Abbott posted his exhaustive Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN review. From his conclusion:

[…] Autofocus was fantastic, image quality looks great, and the lens remains very impressive despite its small size.

This is a great little general purpose/travel lens, as it affords enough flexibility in the focal length to shoot many scenes, and the constant maximum aperture of F2.8 gives you more flexibility in different lighting situations.

It’s great to see Canon’s RF mount starting to open to these third party offerings, and very quickly we will see the amount of lenses available for RF-S (APS-C) tripled due to Canon’s move to open the protocols. This lens isn’t cheap, per se, at $599 USD, but I’d rather spend a few hundred extra bucks to buy this lens over the current Canon options any day of the week.

Pros:

• Fantastic job porting to Canon
• Extremely compact and lightweight
• Nicely made with a weather sealing gasket
• Useful focal range with constant F2.8 aperture
• Great autofocus performance
• Good video AF performance
• Minimal focus breathing
• Good sharpness across zoom range
• Nice bokeh in most situations
• Fairly good coma performance
• Nice build and handling than RF lenses

Cons:

• No optical stabilizer
• Fairly strong barrel distortion at 18mm
• Some ghosting in certain lighting conditions
• Flare for RF lens mount slightly interferes with MF ring

I strongly recommend you have a look to Dustin Abbott’s review, beyond what is featured here. The review is comprehensive and delivers all the information you night want to know. Moreover, the review comes with sample images, test charts, and more. So, if you are on the fence for the this little Sigma jewel, have a look at the review.

If you prefer to watch the review, we got you covered too. Just start the video below.

Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN:

America: B&H Photo, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA
Europe & UK: Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Canon IT, WEX Photographic, Canon FR, Canon UK, Canon DE