Canon Interview: 'We don't see the smartphone as an enemy'

When Nikon release a full frame mirrorless camera that's when Canon will follow. Until then you've got the A7 and A7r with a few native lenses or big adapters which defeat the purpose of these cameras.

"..., but mirrorless is only a small part of the market in the USA..." (20% !!!!)
...
"DSLRs can capture the moment better than mirrorless, because you're viewing directly, not through an LCD."

WTF! I don't know if these statements were too hard to understand or he didn't know he was talking about.

Some of those questions make me cringe.

"You guys don't innovate, your affordable full-frame isnt affordable, and your company is boring. Can you explain this?"

If you asked me questions like that I too would only give you standard maketing responses.

A little bit of professionalism goes a long way.

Nothing on bridge cameras.

Old man laid back with tired eyes - that resembles Canon´s current marketing image.

I sold all of my Canon gear because of this we know all attitude by Canon. How dare you ask for a better sensor!

you are long gone! a la "we do not need PCs".

My Iphone delivers better and more dynamic colors, better contrast, better AWB. It is smaller, lighter, cheaper than that piece of 5D MK III crap that I bought. 5D III is simply stone age - and does not deliver!

Yes, you can not compare is to an I phone - because except for resolution it loses on almost any practical count.

Wake up and stop this DSLR superiority dream - it is gone already.

I just will not believe that there is 5 high ranking people in Canon that REQUIRE translation, are not the higher ranking ones usually quite knowledgeable of english, since its kind of useful to know especially in the marketing department.

"DSLRs can capture the moment better than mirrorless, because you're viewing directly, not through an LCD."

He should look into the 1D C viewfinder when shooting a 4K video and see why using an OVF on that camera was a big mistake. The Panasonic GH4 is going to kill the 1D C.

I think I find it more interesting and informative to read the comments than the interview.

The reason why mirrorless is only a small part of the market is CANON doesn't promote them, and they do not want to.

Interesting - but nothing you wouldn't expect from a top exc working for the Number 1 camera company in the World. Canon took a lot of stick with both their 6D and EOS-M. The 6D is simply excellent and out performs the 5D3 at high ISO. Also unlike the highly praised Nikon D600 no problems with muck on the sensor. The EOS-M focus was rubbish - Canon have improved it but its clear that they COULD if they WANTED to import the 70D AF into an EOS-M MK3. As a user of BOTH Nikon & Canon I think they should BOTH begin to fear mirror less and not far behind smart phones if they don't already. They are the future not huge boxes like the D4S & D1X no matter how amazing they are. Been to the Photography Shop NEC Birmingham England today - very good - (hello again Joe McNally) but all traditional DSLR cameras are all living on borrowed time….

I find it funny how Canon expected the SL1 and their other size reduced dslrs to be popular. Coming from 35mm film, the 300D was a good size, with the grip it was nearly perfect. When the 20D came out, I was joyous of the better fit. When the 5D2 came out I was even more happy, now comparable to a 1 series. I have small hands too, tendonitis, and a bit of reduced grip strength, so anything larger than the 5D2 hurts pretty bad at the end of a wedding. Point being, DSLRs should generally be larger in size, and absolutely not too small.

Smaller DSLRs are only useful for cheap parents looking to buy their high school kids their first camera based solely on price, not usability, capability, or what the kids want and would like to use.

As for snubbing the mirrorless market, the EOS M represents the biggest innovation to cinematography since the 5D2 because if its size. I can rig my EOS M in a lot more places than my 5Ds or 7Ds.

From their statements, Canon's execs are obviously clueless.

Either Canon is going to release their own smartphone (so the smartphone is not an enemy) or they are in total denial (more likely)

Whats this about Americans not liking small cameras?

It is bizarre. Do Americans think that large = better?

Makes no sense. No sense at all.

This week I went to a concert wih my camera, there I saw a 2 or 3 more people with cams. All the others were shooting with phones and tablets.

Shame on Canon, for not aggressively rushing into the money-losing mirrorless sector. :-)

He kept insisting the Dual Pixel tech that they have but weren't aggressive enough on their product lineup. EOS-M with that technology will put some serious competition. Even if they announce such a product this year, it would still end up too late.

From the Outlook section of Canon's recent financial documents: "Within the digital compact camera market, projections point to market contraction, mainly among low-end models, due to the popularity of smartphones."

From the Results section of Canon's recent financial documents: "As for digital compact cameras, although total sales volume declined due to the market slowdown and the increasing popularity of smartphones, sales volume increased from the previous year for high-added-value models incorporating features that differentiate them from smartphones, such as large-size image sensors and models like the PowerShot SX50 HS and SX510 HS, which feature high-magnification zoom lenses."

Talking about mirrorless, I am just glad that Canon did not do what some of their competitors did - abandoning their DSLR customers overnight and switching to SLT/MILC.

In fact, I see Canon's strategy to develop a unified strategy for CDAF capable dual pixel sensor that can be used in both DSLR and mirrorless to be brilliant. This way, they can keep their DLSR customers happy while position themselves to compete in the mirrorless market. Provided they decide to put the dual-pixel sensor in their mirrorless, that is.

Canon is Canon's worst enemy. They are so terrified that their firmwares are going to get hacked they have resorted to putting 6 year old DIGIC processors onto their newest cameras. They should be doing what their cutthroat competition is doing...squeeze the most amount of features out of the camera for the price of production. Don't spend money to engineer lesser capable components, or worse use old parts unnecessarily.

It's ok if your budget DSLR 6 months later performs slightly better at something than the latest flagship. People will still buy the flagship for the many other advantages. And it communicates that Canon technology is always the cutting edge at the time of purchase.

Don't cripple the camera with the firmware as a way to limit it's performance for the price you want to charge. People are too aware these days and it destroys the brand trust. Maybe Canon has always played this game, but they no longer have the competitive edge to play this game.

"Maybe if someone invents a potion for eternal life, that will be the day that people will stop wanting to record events. But as long as our lives are limited, I believe that people will continue to want to capture memories."

The last thing said was so true and profound.

I like what was said about the camera outperforming the human eye.
That's my dream, to get the same resulting photo I see on my viewfinder.
It's ALL about dynamic range, the rest is optional to me.
A $600 rebel has similar límited DR to My 1Dx. There should be a Huge difference but even raw files don't have enough DR.
Dual pixel AF is great and all but I would like a dual sensor for highlights and shadows working in real time to see what my human eye sees.
Even at a lower MP count or slower frame rate.
I don't think it's impossible.
The great people at Magic Lantern are already doing something like it with their dual ISO technology. U can't tell me canon doesn't have the power to revolutionize the market.
Whoever does it first, will rule the future.

Canon and Nikon will wait until they see Reporters use smart phone or mirror less to shoot Olympic or world cup then yes the enemies are here. For now, Smart phone only kill PnS, will come to mirror less before DSLR, so why invest in mirror less? Anyone can shoot F1 with smart phone or mirror less? LOL!

It's a rather lame interview, the most important question, how Canon is doing in the sensor department, has not been even brought up. The Canon execs are just giving vague and sometimes conflicting replies, yes, still is important, see, we have the latest innovation for video; mirrorless is important, DSLR is also important too.

It's all corporate double-talk with not much substance in this entire interview.

Nothing there to suggest that my decision to drop kick Canon for a Sony A7r was the wrong choice.

This Masaya Maeda comes off as incredibly smug, even in the picture.

"Up to now, we've been known by consumers as leaders in still photography,"

By ignorant consumers maybe.

Considering that smartphones have already killed Canon's pocket camera sales, they should perhaps view their business differently.

I can't understand how slow and tired Canon has become.

It's DSLR line is pretty much only alive because of inertia, old legacy lens selection and 5DmkIII. Everything else they ship is old, tired, worse than competition in features and performance.

Inertia. Old Canon users.

They will grow less and less every year.

Unless Canon really does something new, innovative and something that makes them competitive again.

If canon are sensible they will not make a mirorless camera until the electronic viewfinder resolution is better - say 4,000,000. The current ones are far inferior to mirrors for focussing and following action.

Canon CEO photographed by a Fuji X100s :D

Here are my crystal ball predictions, (for 2014 thru 2016), that I've come up with for my fellow Gear Heads to attack:

1. Camera sales will continue to shrink in the U.S. and Europe due to weak economies and even more widespread adoption of cellphone camera usage by the traditional P&S user.

2. Mirrorless interchangeable lens compact cameras (sensors sized APS-C or smaller) will continue to make up less than 15% of camera sales.

3. Fujifilm's X series will become the dominate MILC camera brand.

4. Canon and Nikon will continue to adapt to these new market conditions and will collectively own better than 80% of all camera sales regardless of type.

5. One or more of the current camera makers will quit the business or will be bought by another company.

Yeah, I said it!

If you do not see smartphone as the enemy then you are clueless. Unless you are admitting that you are glad to be out of the no margin market.