But maybe not with the examples you did use to validate your meaning. The MLU and the Print button are two typical and irrational mistakes from a brand as skilled and brillant as Canon but they are just "the trees that hide the forest"
I think that the problem is on the very head of Canon : they miss a real strategist or an offensive strategy at least.
Up until a couple of years ago, Canon was the leader, no doubt about that. Excellent and solid rock bodies, superb lens collection and very good marketing actions to promote the "high end red striped combo"
No problem with the P&S line, nor with the entry level DSLR.
What happened next was simply called competition with Sony, Fuji and other brands charging from the P&S side and Nikon among some others attacking from the DSLR side. Little if any competition on the pro side, at least on the PJ and sport photographers (in France).
Since then, Canon reacted weirdly, at least in my opinion, without taking care of any real challenger and poorly answering at the real need of any photographer as repeated to death here on DPR and certainly by Canon's sample groups as well.
I can't understand the strategy behind that company. CMOS sensor is not Canon's trademark anymore, high ISO low noise seems now common, and the lack of a real ergonomy like Nikon's is striking when you check the D300. Imagine how I can be happy with my 5D's image quality and puzzled by his body and features..
Why Canon waited years to implement an antid-dust, Auto Iso, live view, 14 bit, lens micro adjustment and so on...Where's Canon's innovation !!
Not to mention the AF fiasco and the triple fiasco in the management of that issue. In France we call such management a lead burden, une chape de plomb. A couple of stolen excuses from country to country but not a single official word from Japan.
Canon have to face competition now, and a real one. It's now time to switch the 1D toward the 2D and hopefully a
real 2.0 and not an unsteady 1.956b, and do the same with the very profitable P&S line adding quickly little CMOS to replace the noisy little CCD's used so far as noise seems to be the next battle to win even for 200$ cams.
Same with the entry level DSLR, more innovation is needed and I'm curious to see what will be the forthcoming 450D.
Not to mention the lenses. A couple of new lenses every 2 years is not enough and because Canon choosed IS inside the glass and not inside the body, the have to add it, why not, to the 24-70L among others.
Innovation, that seems the key. Canon try to capitalize on tradition, convenience of the EF lens mount, reliability, excellent image quality. OK, but now is time to real change minds in Japan, stop the mk "x" increments and go for something real new. Will the old 24*36 format be blasted ?? Don't know but I guess what Nikon did and Sony is doing, Canon will have to do it too, and relatively quickly.
If not, Canon could suffer losses, big losses and, excuse the so-so parallel, end up like French's computer industry, or american car's industry. Too expensive, out of fashion, technically outdated and not so reliable.
I wish I could speak English a little better...
Ludo from Paris
Tankers of tools, thimbels of talent
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