As Sony and Fujifilm continue to charge ahead deep into mirrorless territory, many are hoping Nikon and Canon will step up to the plate. When it comes to Canon, that likely won’t be for a while, but that could actually be a good thing.

The awesome people over at Canon Rumors are reporting that Canon is planning on announcing a “high-end mirrorless ILC” in Q4 of 2018. While that seems like just a shade under an eternity away, it could actually signal good news for those waiting on such a camera. While Canon has the EOS M5 right now, which is actually a fairly decent mirrorless camera, it uses the EF-M mount. On the other hand, the Canon Rumors report also mentions that there were no “high-end” lenses specifically for the mirrorless camera mentioned. This, along with the delay, could indicate that Canon is planning an EF-native mirrorless camera or at least one with a very fast adapter.

The main problem is the flange distance of the EF mount, which is 44 mm, as compared to a mirrorless option like the Sony E mount, which is 18 mm. That distance can’t be changed, and thus Canon would either have to design an entirely new mount or accept the physical size imposed by this distance (and perhaps use that space for some nifty feature). Of course, whereas Fujifilm and Sony are advancing by leaps and bounds, Canon’s (and Nikon’s) advantage are their extensive lens libraries, and thus, to compete, a “high-end” camera would likely either have to be a native mount for those libraries or have an adaptor that provided near-equal AF performance, which would be easier than say Sony-to-Canon, since it would be first-party equipment and AF algorithms. While this is all speculation at this point, hopefully, it’ll come to fruition.

[via Canon Rumors]