Like it did with its carabiner-packing Ivy Rec outdoor camera, Canon has launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund production of a quirky handheld point-and-shoot camera called the PowerShot Zoom, though this time it's limited to Japan only.
It's shaped like a small monocular, with thumb-friendly controls above and below the eyepiece. Inside there's a 12.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and Digic 8 image processor combination for up to 10 frames per second continuous shooting. But light sensitivity of just ISO100-3,200 means that this is probably not a night owl.
There's a zoom lens in the body that can be switched between 100-mm and 400-mm (35-mm equiv) focal lengths, though the top end can be doubled with some digital assistance. Integrated image stabilization should help smooth out footage, and the 33.4 x 50.8 x 103.2-mm (1.3 x 2 x 4-in), 145-g (5-oz) camera is reported capable of 1080p video at up to 29.97 frames per second.
It features a microSD card slot for storage, though stills and video can be sent wirelessly to a smartphone running a companion app over Bluetooth 4.2. 802.11n Wi-Fi is also onboard, and there a USB-C port for data transfer and charging.
Canon imagines the handheld camera being useful when wanting to capture memories of sporting events, or going out bird watching, and so on. And the company has chosen Majuake for its crowdfunding effort, where it's already secured its limited target of 500 backers. Shipping is estimated to start in November.
At this stage, there's no indication that a commercial product will be released further down the line, or if such a device would make it out of Japan, but the Ivy Rec was originally listed on this platform so we may well see the same thing happen with the PowerShot Zoom.
Source: Majuake
