I’m confident Canon is working on more budget mirrorless cameras. But is one of them the retro camera Canon fans have long been asking for?

The nostalgic tech trend has led to a number of retro cameras across several brands. Canon is one notable exception, as one of the few major brands that doesn’t offer any sort of digital camera body inspired by the past. But, the retro Canon rumors that have been swirling for at least two years have resurfaced again, begging the question: Will 2026 be the year Canon finally goes retro?

As a camera expert, I’m fairly confident that Canon will be launching more budget-friendly APS-C mirrorless bodies this year. I’m less confident, but still hopeful, about the speculation on a retro Canon mirrorless.

Canon all but confirmed that more budget mirrorless cameras would be coming during an investor report earlier this year when the company said “...we will maintain the growth of our entry-level models, such as the EOS R50 and EOS R100, as well as the EOS R50 V, which is designed with a strong focus on shooting video.”

That’s a pretty significant hint. Coupled with the age of APS-C cameras like the R100 (2023), R50 (2023), and R7 (2022), I wouldn’t be surprised to see Canon refresh its APS-C lineup this year. The brand’s full-frame budget option, the EOS R8, is also beginning to show its age as a 2023 launch.

But, longtime leak spotter Canon Rumors thinks that the long-rumored retro design may be coming to the successor to that full-frame R8, pointing out two recent product registrations.

At this point, it’s unclear if the rumors around a retro Canon are true – after all, the retro topic has been strong among the Canon rumors for at least two years, and nothing has been announced yet.

But, I think interviews with Canon executives hint at what a retro Canon body may look like. In 2025, French publication Phototrend asked Canon about the possibility of a digital camera inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Canon AE-1. And, while the publication’s 2026 interview squashed those hopes, what Canon said about retro camera design still feels relevant.

“...we are really focused on grip operability, the positioning of dials, buttons, and other things,” Canon’s Head of the Imaging Division, Manabu Kato, said back in 2025 (translated by Google). “So if we were to do this with the AE-1 design, would it truly achieve the kind of operability and usability we need in a Canon camera? That’s what it boils down to.”

If there’s one thing that I’ve come to expect from Canon, it’s a fantastic grip. I think Canon’s mirrorless cameras are the closest to DSLRs in the grip ergonomics, which leads to sometimes bulkier cameras but much more comfortable cameras, particularly when working with heavy lenses.

The one thing that I don’t love about the retro camera trend is that the SLRs from the 1970s that seem to be the most mimicked style had little to no grip. This makes for a much smaller camera, but slap on a telephoto lens, and I really start to miss the old grip style of DSLRs.

I predict that if Canon does create a retro mirrorless camera, it’s still going to have some sort of grip. That may make it look less 1970s, but it makes for a more ergonomically functional camera.

The Canon retro camera rumor has been swirling now for more than two years without an actual launch (Though Canon did release a prototype of a waist-level finder camera at CP+ earlier this year). Only time will tell if Canon will finally launch that long-rumored style.

I’m doubtful, but then again, I was also dubious about the rumors of a mirrorless GoPro and a Fujifilm camera with a “time travel dial” – both cameras that have now been announced in 2026. Perhaps 2026 will be the year of the unexpected camera launches.

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