The Canon Powershot Zoom is a new camera best described as a spotting scope or monocular which shoots stills and video. Canon recently launched the PowerShot Zoom exclusively in Japan through a crowdfunding campaign on Makuake, a Japanese crowdfunding site.
Since the camera was immediately available to crowdfunding participants after the campaign closed ($280,000 in less than 24 hours), the launch was obviously more about marketing than about funding the device. Our guess you can expect to see the cameras rollout in other markets soon.
The Canon PowerShot Zoom is waterproof, dustproof and drop-proof offering a 12.1-megapixel 1/3-inch CMOS sensor and DIGIC 8 image processor. The camera features an ISO scale of 100-3200, 800mm digital zoom, face recognition AF system, optical image stabilization and more. The images acquired using the camera can be transferred by pairing it to a smartphone through a dedicated app.
The Canon PowerShot Zoom offers 1080P/30FPS video recording. The camera also comes with 10fps continuous shooting speed. The PowerShot Zoom weighs around 5 ounces (144 grams) and includes a microSDXC card slot and a USB-C port.
The camera has Zoom, Power, and Menu buttons near the front along with a 100-400mm F5.6-6.3 optical lens. At the back, users get a Photo and Video shutter button. The fastest continuous shooting performance is clocked at 10 frames per second.
Marketed for on-the-go use at sporting events and for nature imaging, it will be interesting to see how the camera functions as a quick, on-the-go accessory for astronomical viewing of the moon and other objects.
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