10 cameras that weren’t announced at CP+ 2024

10 cameras that weren’t announced at CP+ 2024

Photo: Richard Butler

CP+ 2024 has come and gone, and in terms of camera announcements, it didn’t bring much. Yes, there was the Fujifilm X100VI (technically announced before CP+ actually began) and… not much else but a bunch of lenses. It’s easy to get your hopes up for that camera you’ve been waiting for, but historically, CP+ doesn’t have that strong a history of camera launches.

However, that got us thinking about what cameras could have been announced but weren’t. Here are some (relatively) educated guesses about some replacements and updates we feel are due soon. (To be clear, we don’t have any inside knowledge of, nor have we been briefed about, any of these hypothetical products.)

Canon

Canon had a grand total of zero camera body and lens announcements at this year’s CP+, so there’s a lot of nothing to choose from. Perhaps the most conspicuous absence, though, was the EOS R5 II.

The original EOS R5 is an excellent all-arounder with its 45-megapixel sensor, impressive in-body stabilization, great autofocus and ergonomics, though it can suffer from overheating concerns when shooting video at its highest resolution settings. Launched in 2020, it increasingly finds itself in competition with newer rivals like the Sony a7RV and, in particular, the Nikon Z8 (both new in 2023). Logic still suggests the EOS R5 II will break cover this year, but evidently not at CP+.

Canon also did not show up with the long-fabled EOS R1, though that was never going to be particularly likely. However, if Canon does have such a hypothetical product in the works with plans to roll it out in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, time is running short.

Nikon

Another manufacturer with some still presumably impending announcements is Nikon, and no news at CP+ meant no Z6 III.

The Z6II (2020) is one of the older cameras in Nikon’s lineup and was itself a relatively minor refresh of the original Z6, and rumors of a successor have been circulating for months in the runup to CP+ 2024. Obvious upgrades could include an update to the Expeed 7 processor found in the Z8 and Z9 and features cribbed from the Nikon Zf, which may essentially be the Z6 III, just launched in a different body. But it wasn’t in the cards for this February.

Sony

Sony’s primary CP+ 2024 announcement was its new compact FE 24-50mm F2.8 lens, but neither a new flagship a1 II nor a ZV-E10 II, updated to sport the 26MP sensor found in the a6700, made an appearance.

Sony’s flagship a1, released in early 2021, is coming up on its third birthday next month and is due for an update to keep it in fighting trim against competitors like Nikon’s Z9, and rumors have suggested it’s due out sometime in 2024. Evidently sometime later than February.

The ZV-E10 is fresher than the a1 by a few months, but a vlogger-targeted ZV-E10 II could get a straightforward sensor update, pulling from 2023’s a6700 and, for that matter, from the Cinema line’s FX30. The current ZV-E10 shares its sensor with 2016’s a6300, which is prone to significant rolling shutter and needs to crop to deliver 4K/30p, neither of which is a concern on the 26MP chip. This, along with Sony’s latest AF capabilities, would make a much more capable vlogging tool.

Panasonic

Panasonic used CP+ 2024 as a launchpad for its new Lumix S 28-200mm F4-7.1 macro travel zoom following its CES 2024 announcement of a compact 100mm F2.8 macro lens. But no new camera bodies are to be found as yet.

Panasonic’s five-year-old flagship S1 has been marked as discontinued at some stores in Japan, which would make its successor S1 II a shoo-in for 2024. So far, however, there has not been a whiff of a new model, nor any indication of an S1H II to replace 2020’s video-focused Lumix DC-S1H. The smaller, more affordable S5 series has received an update with phase detection AF, but this leaves room for a higher resolution chip for an S1 replacement (and, perhaps, a merging of the S1 and S1R lines), and a better video-optimized sensor, with less rolling shutter, for the S1H.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm’s X100VI, which landed just before CP+ 2024 kicked off, was arguably the belle of the ball, but there are a few other cameras that could have showed up, but didn’t.

The X100VI puts the sensor from the 2022 X-T5 into its TikTok-trendy fixed-lens body; there was no indication of an X-E5 that would presumably bring Fujifilm’s X-T5 sensor into a more diminutive body that still supports interchangeable lenses of Fujifilm’s X-mount variety.

Likewise, an X-T40 has yet to rear its head. Perhaps in the wings, or perhaps preempted by the X-S20, it did not show up at CP+ at least. And, of course, neither of these lines is necessarily guaranteed to continue. So even if the upgrade is logically due, it may never come.

OM System

OM System’s biggest release of 2024 so far, the OM-1 Mark II, hit a month before CP+ and had no new bombshells for the show proper. One can imagine a world, though, where we saw a PEN F II.

Since Olympus‘s camera division fully transformed into OM System in 2022, the company has revisited the OM-1 (twice), the OM-5, and the ‘Tough’ series with the OM Tough TG-7. What’s missing in a world where retro-styled cameras are increasingly the rage? A revisit to the PEN line, which hasn’t seen a global release since Olympus PEN F launched in 2016 (but there was the EP-7). Our forthcoming interview with OM System left us feeling this wasn’t the end of the line.