Canon rumors...

A Canon rumor site claims that a new "high-end" EF-M camera is going to be announced.

I mean, if Canon really is planning to stick with the M as its crop-sensor mirrorless platform going forward this would make sense.

I think a four- or five-tier M-lineup is probably overly dense, given the parlous state of even the pre-Covid market. A return to an equivalent of the early three-tier digital days of the "1D/10D/300D" might be more prudent. So are they going to release a mirrorless equivalent of the 7D? We'll know by what lenses get announced; the current EF-M lineup is heavily biased toward sluggish-but-reasonably-priced zooms with only a couple decent primes, and no nicer zooms to act as the EF-M equivalent of the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8.

Related: I think the days of the extreme entry-level interchangeable lens camera market are only slightly less numbered than those of the fixed lens market.

Fixed-lens cameras, sometimes called "compacts" or "point-and-shoots", have mostly been reduced to specialty items like superzooms and ruggedized waterproof models, or boutique large-sensor/fast lens cameras that appeal to people who actually consider photography as a hobby. Most anybody who was going to balk at paying >$400 for a camera is probably going to be content with their phone.

I'm getting the feeling that the extreme budget end of the ILC market is fixing to go the same way; the Rebel SL and Nikon D3xxx sets you'd see at Target and Walmart may just go away.

People are rarely buying cameras...especially interchangeable lens ones...just to document family moments anymore. If they're setting out to buy a specialized ILC, it's because they want to take up photography as a hobby, avocation, or profession. When people do that, they start nosing around on the internet, where they'll see nothing but camera forum posters and photography blog contributors bagging on entry-level cameras and kit zooms as unworthy garbage for unserious people.

It's not necessarily true, but that's the perception.
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