New Android-Powered Mirrorless Camera Uses Canon Lenses

You’ll find Android running on phones, tablets, cars, and even appliances. Strangely, it’s rare to find Google’s ubiquitous operating system on cameras. There have been a handful of cameras with Android, but they were expensive and not as good at taking pictures as similarly priced equipment. Now, Chinese camera manufacturer Yongnuo is reviving the idea of an Android-powered camera. The Yongnuo YN450 runs Nougat and supports Canon EF lenses.

The last real Android camera was Samsung’s Galaxy Camera, which was a point-and-shoot that launched in 2012. It ran a full version of Android Jelly Bean, allowing you to edit and upload the 16MP photos instantly from your camera. However, Samsung wanted $500 for the Galaxy Camera, which was almost enough to buy an entry-level DSLR. Nikon also had Android plans, but those fizzled.

There are plenty of details missing from the Yongnuo announcement, but the camera hardware looks capable. The device sports a 16MP four-thirds sensor and a mount for Canon’s EF lenses. That gives the Yongnuo camera instant access to a huge number of lenses produced by Canon over the years. The device has 3GB of ram and 32GB of storage, and there’s an unnamed eight-core Snapdragon SoC inside.

The back of the camera looks like a typical smartphone with a 5-inch LCD touchscreen. It’s 1080p and has a bank of navigation buttons along the left. It also has a GPS for tagging locations on your photos, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 4,000 mAh battery, and an LED flash. There’s a secondary selfie camera next to the screen, but this one has a smaller phone-style 8MP sensor.

The YN450, which Yongnuo is asking fans to help rename, has Wi-Fi and LTE data. The Version of Android 7.1 will come with basic photo editing and upload tools, but it’s unclear if there will be Play Store access. If not, you’ll have to sideload applications on the camera. It’s unclear if Google would certify a camera running Android now, but it’s not impossible. A camera without Google apps would be par for a device that only launches in China, but Yongnuo does have international operations.

Yongnuo has not provided a price, nor has it said when and where you’ll be able to purchase the camera. First up: come up with a better name. After that, we can cross our fingers the renamed YN450 launches internationally.

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