Occams Razor
Senior Member
In the last few years whenever Canon releases a new body, all of the pundits come out and talk about how antiquated the specifications and features are but in the same breath state that it will sell like hotcakes. This has always struck me as an odd perspective because do people not consider that Canon is a professional marketing company that may have a finger on their market’s pulse and their product releases addresses the sweep spot of the requirements of their target market. I admit there is some brand recognition and loyalty and lens investment involved but if Canon is truly releasing product after product that is not supporting the requirements of the customer, they would experience rapidly declining market share and have lost their dominant market position by now.
While there seems to be some outliers that defy common logic (at least to me) such as the lack of IBIS, it really is premature to judge Canon’s strategy and capabilities until additional bodies are released. I believe their approach is to only include those functions/features that are valued by the majority of their target market ala Toyota Production Systems which focus on minimizing waste across the value stream. After all Canon is a publicly traded company with a duty to maximize shareholder value so they need to keep an eye on profit margins and ultimately operating profit. One of the reasons Canon fabricates their own sensors is because of the cost benefits which will allow them to be more competitive in the long term. A couple of years ago I looked at the operating profit of Canon’s Imaging Division as a percent of sales and they easily outperformed that of Sony and almost doubled the Nikon numbers IIRC. Sony and to a certain extent Nikon must have an aggressive strategy because are chasing the market leader in a shrinking market. Everyone talks about how innovative Sony is but the reality is that they are in survival mode so they must throw as much performance and features as possible to try to grow their customer base but it is at the expense of profitability. Sony has the luxury of subsidizing their camera body and lens investments with external sensor sales so they have some runway to sustain this approach.
There’s a reason why Canon is the market leader and many people fail to understand that the company with the camera system that meets the majority of the market needs will come out on top. I believe there is a large number of forum members that are not representative of the main ILC market but a niche segment that focuses on hardware performance and features and many of these members need to have the body with the best numbers for bragging rights. I can’t help but laugh when I see a post describing how superior their 10 FPS body is and then they show a badly exposed image of a dog sleeping in their house. Ultimately, each brand has their own specific set of strengths and weaknesses and you should choose the one that satisfies most of your personal shooting requirements.
While there seems to be some outliers that defy common logic (at least to me) such as the lack of IBIS, it really is premature to judge Canon’s strategy and capabilities until additional bodies are released. I believe their approach is to only include those functions/features that are valued by the majority of their target market ala Toyota Production Systems which focus on minimizing waste across the value stream. After all Canon is a publicly traded company with a duty to maximize shareholder value so they need to keep an eye on profit margins and ultimately operating profit. One of the reasons Canon fabricates their own sensors is because of the cost benefits which will allow them to be more competitive in the long term. A couple of years ago I looked at the operating profit of Canon’s Imaging Division as a percent of sales and they easily outperformed that of Sony and almost doubled the Nikon numbers IIRC. Sony and to a certain extent Nikon must have an aggressive strategy because are chasing the market leader in a shrinking market. Everyone talks about how innovative Sony is but the reality is that they are in survival mode so they must throw as much performance and features as possible to try to grow their customer base but it is at the expense of profitability. Sony has the luxury of subsidizing their camera body and lens investments with external sensor sales so they have some runway to sustain this approach.
There’s a reason why Canon is the market leader and many people fail to understand that the company with the camera system that meets the majority of the market needs will come out on top. I believe there is a large number of forum members that are not representative of the main ILC market but a niche segment that focuses on hardware performance and features and many of these members need to have the body with the best numbers for bragging rights. I can’t help but laugh when I see a post describing how superior their 10 FPS body is and then they show a badly exposed image of a dog sleeping in their house. Ultimately, each brand has their own specific set of strengths and weaknesses and you should choose the one that satisfies most of your personal shooting requirements.
