Well, that’s quite some news right? Yongnuo is not kidding lately! Here is a preview of the YN450 latest announcement before future tests and post updates. Stay in touch!

EDIT 4/1/21: You can find the newer/updated YN450M here.

EDIT 7/6/19: Unfortunately, (I knew the product was not viable as is), the Yongnuo YN450 has some issues and will not be released in the US market yet. Yongnuo did not get the Network Access License (NAL) and thus cannot sell the product outside China. There are also other issues with the technical specifications of the product, and Yongnuo engineers employees are trying to improve the YN450 and maybe will be able to deliver an updated camera in some months.

EDIT January 2019: The YN450 will be officially released on June 2019. The price remain unknown though.

Yongnuo seems to enjoy R&D lately as they just announced a brand new product called Yongnuo YN450. This is a mirrorless micro 4/3 camera that runs Android on a 5″ LCD display.

You can attached an EF lens to the YN-450, like the YN14mm f/2.8 pictured in this article. Compatible Full-Frame EF lenses, but not APS-C EF-S lenses apparently.

Yongnuo asked people to choose a second name, proposing either 4G Camera or Smart Camera for the YN450 mirrorless camera. Not sure about the finality, but at least a lot of people got excited, and quite a lot of media covered the news:

• Petapixel: Yongnuo’s YN450 Mirrorless Camera: 4/3 Sensor
• Dpreview: Yongnuo teases YN450 mirrorless camera with Android, 4G
• AndroidPolice: This new mirrorless camera runs Android and supports Canon lenses
• Androidcommunity: Yongnuo YN450 mirrorless camera to support 4G, run on Android
• Reddit: Yongnuo’s YN450 Mirrorless Camera: 4/3 Sensor, Android OS, EF
• And many others…

I, personally got a little less excited. I love Yongnuo, but they have a lot to prove on the hardware side. There is a huge gap between building lenses and designing camera running on Android.

This is not Yongnuo’s first attempt to design and manufacture a hybrid device:  they announced the YN43 Camera a couple months ago, but this latter is still waiting for us. The YN450 is a sort of YN43 with a built-in screen / Android device.

I don’t know what stage of development they’re at, but I’ll try to find out and keep you guys posted.

Pictures of the YN450

Here are the first representation of the product provided by Yongnuo:

On the front side, we can see a built-in flash. It does look small, and really close the the lens. With such a long lens as the YN14mm f/2.8 I’m pretty sure you will see the shadow of the lens hood in your photos.

On the back side, we can admire the 1080p 5″ display running an Android 7.1 ROM. Will Yongnuo provide its own Android custom ROM? I doubt it.

Specifications of the YN450

Yongnuo gave some information lately, here is a sneak peak of what to expect (do not expect a release date or a price here):

• Product name: YN450 / 4G Camera / Smart Camera
• Display: 5 inches incell 1080p multi-touch
• Operating System: Android 7.1
• Sensor: Panasonic 16MP M4/3 CSMOS
  
• Processor: Qualcomm 8-core processor
• Wireless: Netcom 3G/4G data and Wi-Fi
• Front camera: 8MP
• Storage: 32GB internal + 32GB max expendable storage
• GPS: built in
• Battery: 4000mAh (Seems high)
  
• Support RAW shooting
• Support 4K video @30fps
• Support EF DSLR lenses

Android 7.1 seems a bit old. We don’t expect the YN450 camera to hit the market before 2019, which should be the year of Android 10. hopefully the YN450 can be updated to at least android Pie 9.0, but this is too early to discuss this.

The 16MP Panasonic sensor seems to be the same in the YN43 camera.

Conclusion

While waiting for a release date and a test, I will give my first thoughts below:

I can’t imagine this new mirrorless camera device from Yongnuo becoming a best seller. It will first have to:

1. get released and hit US/Europe market
2. be properly built, hardware wise
   
3. seamlessly integrate Android without software issue
4. bring decent quality pictures

The path is full of trouble and hardware manufacturer is not whoever wants. I wish this will become a game changer, but I won’t bet my savings on that.

What could be the price of the YN450?  Such a hybrid device require a know-how that Yongnuo clearly does not have. I would see something between $400 and $800.

What do YOU think? let us know in the comment below.