You know its coming....Canon's copycat RX100

Let's face it: Canon do what they please, whenever they feel they have to do it.

Sony's RX100 was a ripoff of Canon's all-but -supernatural PowerShot s100. There's no mystery about it. Sony actually took to the Canon design and ran away with it. It's not like they pretended to come up with the design by themselves... and a LOT of websites pointed this out so don't blame me for biatching about Sony. Canon's s100 was already a super-camera in its own right. It is great in lowlight and has a good zoom range and focal length plus it's a little black camera that fits in your pocket and has a command dial plus a function ring around the lens base. All in all, Sony should really be ashamed at themselves. It's like copying someone else's homework and claiming it as your own. That said, the Canon image processor is still superior, as is the ergonomics of the menu. And the Sony image processor does a fine job of smearing all the fine details when the scene becomes too confusing for the sensor.

Sadly, Canon aren't lazy but they are both complacent and a little snobby. They will respond only to cameras that they see as legitimate threats. Even then, they'll only respond at their own pace and they NEVER try and cut another competitor off at the knees... even though I would... so don't expect something new to come crashing through the door next March. Their G1X is slightly larger but much better photographically than the RX100 and it produces far superior images.

The only camera that Canon should respond to is Sony's interesting (but limited) new camera called the RX1. This is a Full Frame sensor with a fixed 35mm lens. At $3000, this thing won't dent anyone's market but the yuppies and hipsters that want an expensive camera will buy one... though they won't appreciate the features (or lack of) on the camera. 35mm pictures can get boring if your albums are full of this particular focal length and nothing else.

Sony, as you note, is aggressive and is considered by some to be without morals when it comes to colluding with other companies and then running away with the patents and hard work of the staff from those companies. That's how the Sony PlayStation came about (after signing on to Nintendo to create a DVD drive for a gaming platform) and it's how Sony came into the Camera market (after buying up Konica/Minolta to obtain their patents). I say let em burn because all those new releases and short-term innovations are extremely costly and Sony are suffering financially by constantly paying big bucks to stay in the race.

Canon, unlike other companies, does not run to the party. They turn up late because it's fashionable and because it gives them a chance to move in after the ground work and market penetration has been established by their competitors. And it gives them a chance to strip off any features that might into other product sales of distract certain market demographics.

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Regards,
Marco Nero.
www.pbase.com/nero_design