Canon, the world's largest maker of digital cameras, is looking into the possibility of launching a mirrorless model which features many of the capabilities of an upmarket single-lens reflex camera in a more compact body, a senior executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

Rivals including Sony Corp already have such cameras in their lineups.

Separately, Masaya Maeda, head of the company's camera division said an increase in capacity in Taiwan would bring the firm's production capacity for single-lens reflex cameras to 10 million units per year.

Canon's production of cameras finally returned to pre-quake levels at the end of June, Maeda told Reuters in an interview, after parts shortages following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami forced it to halt manufacturing for about 10 days and hampered production for months.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Joseph Radford)

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