A New Retro Style Canon Camera?

credits: Ethan Hoover

The Canon AE-1 turns 50 in April 2026, and for a while now people have been expecting Canon to celebrate with a digital reboot inspired by the original film camera. The rumoured successor, the Canon EOS RE-1, pops up every few months, usually with nothing new, but this time there is finally something fresh, according to Canonrumors, multiple sources claim the RE-1 will use the 32.5-megapixel sensor from the EOS R6 Mark III. Earlier talk pointed to a 24-megapixel sensor, but that now seems like one of those early prototype guesses that didn’t hold up.

Canon already uses that 32.5-MP chip for the R6 Mark III and the EOS C50, so dropping it into another camera would make both financial and logistical sense. What is getting most of the attention, though, is the rumoured price positioning. The RE-1 is expected to land well below the R6 Mark III’s $3400 launch price. That is supposedly because Canon plans to trim some video features and use a less powerful DIGIC X processor, focusing more on the still-photo experience and the retro appeal rather than trying to make it a full hybrid workhorse. Canonrumors thinks Canon is aiming for something around $1,999, which would put it right in the same ballpark as the Nikon Zf.

As for when the RE-1 will actually show up, nothing solid has leaked. The obvious date would be the AE-1’s 50th anniversary in April 2026, and earlier rumours did point to a possible announcement sometime in the first quarter of that year. Canon is also expected to roll out a pair of retro-styled RF lenses alongside the body, which lines up nicely with everything else we have heard so far.