Canon 2026 crop sensor speculations

 

Manly Beach NSW November 2025  Canon EOS R7 with RF 100-400mm f5.6-8

It is mid December 2025. Two weeks after a knee replacement, I find myself temporarily unable to get out and make photos. In the meantime my thoughts have turned to speculation about Canon’s plans for the year ahead.

Most rumor sites are saying that 2026 will bring several  APSC gear announcements, the star of the show being the much anticipated EOS R7 Mark 2. This, we are told will move the R7 upmarket, upsize and up capability to be something like an APSC version of the recently released full frame R6.3. The R7.2 might even use the R6.3 body, which I think would be a smart move by Canon.

Canon has always been a camera maker which likes to have an offering in every possible market segment.

In the full frame space they now have a very well stocked catalogue with seven or eight bodies, depending on availability and around 45 lenses, seven of which could qualify as standard zooms as they cover all or some part of the 24-105mm focal length range.

By comparison offerings in the crop sensor space are a bit lean. This is interesting and perhaps a bit puzzling as crop sensor models have been Canon’s best sellers since the beginning of the digital era.

We have four stills/video hybrid models, the R7, R10, R50 and R100. There is also the specifically video/vlogging oriented R50V model. In this post I will concentrate on the stills/video hybrid models.

There are five RF-S consumer zooms, no enthusiast zooms and no primes. Sigma has come to the rescue of Canon’s  APSC lens lineup with three excellent zooms and four primes.

When I started writing this post I had thought to offer some thoughts about what an EOS R10 Mark 2 might bring. But here is the thing----The R10 is one of the best little consumer level interchangeable lens models ever offered. There is really very little about it that I would want to change.  Maybe a larger buffer, maybe an updated AF capability although it is already pretty good,  

I realised that how to update the R10 is the wrong question. The more pertinent issue is how Canon might manage APSC market level/price segments.

In the little table below I have summarised the model/price hierarchy in place today together with one option for the way it could be structured from 2026.

Market level	Approximate price body only in Australia AUD	2025 models	Potential 2026 models
High Performance	$3300	N/A	R7.2
Enthusiast	$2200	R7.1	R10.2
Consumer	$1350	R10.1	R50.2
Entry	$1150	R50.1	R100.2
Cheapo sub entry	$750	R100.1	N/A

 

 

When the R7.2 comes on line, there will be two factors driving a need to change to the APSC line-up:

1) the R7.2 will be substantially more expensive than the existing R7.1. Rumors put the price at maybe USD2000. To get a rough estimate of a potential price in Australia, multiply by 1.5 for the exchange rate then add 10% for GST. This gets us to about AUD3,300. The R7.1 is currently (December 2025) selling for about AUD 2200 new, retail. This leaves a big gap in the model/price line-up.

They could fill this gap by leaving the existing R7.1 in production, however I notice that Canon tends not to keep superseded models in their catalogue after current stocks have been sold.

2) The current R100 is a cut-price, low spec model cobbled together from obsolete components languishing at the back of Canon’s parts bin and recommended by nobody.  I think they really need to offer a more appealing  set of specifications on the bottom entry level mirrorless interchangeable lens model.

 My thinking is that they could manage the model/price lineup without changing much at all, other than introducing the R7.2 and making a minor change to the external controls on the current R7.1 body.   

The concept is simple enough:

Move the R10.2 label into a modified R7.1 body, changing only the location of the top/rear control dial from where it is now around the joystick to the location used on every other Canon camera which is top right on the top plate.

And……memo to Canon: please stop introducing random ergonomic features requested by nobody like the stroky, slidy Fn bar thingy on the EOS R and the badly placed rear control dial on the R7.1.  You have already gotten the external user interface on the R6 series, R5 series and R10 just about as good as they can be. Please stop messing about with them.  

Move the R50.2 label into the existing R10 body with no need for any substantial upgrade.

Move the R100.2 label into the existing R50 body.

Delete the ultra low-spec MILC model altogether.

This gives up a line-up with one high performance model, one expert/enthusiast level model, each with the big battery and separate card slots, sitting above  one upper entry model and one bottom entry model, each with the small battery and co-located card slots.

What about lenses

Thanks to Sigma for stepping into the vacant space in Canon’s RF-S lens line-up.

I have the Sigma 10-18mm f2.8 and the 18-50mm f2.8, both unstabilised. These are excellent, compact, sharp lenses.

Sigma also now offers the unstabilised 17-40mm constant f1.8 zoom for APSC which has received several very positive reviews.

I think Canon would make a lot of their APSC users very happy if they introduced an upper entry level stabilised RF-S 15-50mm f4-5.6 kit lens and a stabilised RF-S 15-50mm constant f2.8 or 15-60 f2.8-f4 enthusiast model.

Any RF-S 15-45 or 15-50mm kit lens would need to be much better than the unimpressive EF-M 15-45mm f3.5-6.3 of 2015.

The last constant f2.8 Canon zoom for crop sensor models was the EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM  of 2006.

Well, that is my Christmas present to Canon. They are lucky to have me on the case to sort out some of their product marketing issues.

If they are aware of my existence. Which I doubt.

Not to worry, I had a bit of fun with the exercise.

Update 18 December 2025

Today Canon Rumors posted that the R7.2 might have a 40Mp sensor. That would have a pixel pitch equivalent to 102.4 Mp on a full frame sensor (40 x 1.6 x 1.6). If that comes to pass then some new ultra high resolution lenses will be essential. When Fujifilm introduced their 40Mp sensor, they acknowleged that many of their existing lenses lacked the resolution to reveal the potential of the new sensor.

To put some rough numbers on this, consider that in the 35mm film era, a top quality lens could resolve about 80 line pairs per millimeter. At this rate and assuming for the exercise that we need at least one lp/mm per pixel then such a lens could resolve 1776 line pairs  on the long side of a Canon APSC sensor which measures 22.2mm. But there are 6969 pixels on this dimension so we need a lens which can rsolve about 320 lp/mm. That is microscope level resolution which must be delivered over the full area of the sensor. Can lens makers deliver consumer lenses at consumer prices with this level of resolution ?

We shall see...............

Seasons greetings to all Camera Ergonomics readers and thank you for your support, comments and feedback.