Canon CEO expects shrinking market

[John_SD]

Just read an interesting article in Digital Camera World. Canon's CEO says that smartphones will continue to decimate the camera market and offers a bleak assessment of the future. Personally, I think he is overly optimistic.

"The digital camera market will continue to fall for the next two years before it hits rock bottom, at which time it could have shrunk by almost half. That's the bleak forecast from Canon CEO, Fujio Mitarai."

[ebiggs1]

I agree that the prosumer and professional markets will still exist ..."

One caveat.  The same teenagers will become the future professionals.  Are you paying attention Canon?  You didn't with the P&S market. Perhaps you have learned your lesson! Perhaps not! We'll see.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

I agree that the prosumer and professional markets will still exist ..."

One caveat.  The same teenagers will become the future professionals.  Are you paying attention Canon?  You didn't with the P&S market. Perhaps you have learned your lesson! Perhaps not! We'll see.

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What should Canon have done differently in the P&S market? I'm not trying to be argumentative. I haven't paid much attention to the P&S market since my wife and I switched to DSLRs twelve years ago, so I'm pretty much ignorant of how it's developed. (Except, of course, the fact that it has been invaded by increasingly capable cell phones.)

But my daughter, who turned out to have a talent for child photography while her kids were growing up, has used a succession of Canon P&Ses with which she has been very happy. OTOH, there's this: She works in her sister-in-law's florist shop in Philadelphia. A few months ago they were looking for a better camera to do some marketing photography, so I gave her one of my old 7D's. I'm not sure she's even tried it, but it's reported that others in the shop (none of them serious photographers, AFAIK) who have used it were impressed with its capability, compared to what they were used to.

[ebiggs1]

Simple, it needs to work like an iphone.  It needs to have wi-fi that actually works. You have kids that are growing up and they don't know a world without iphones.  Then Canon puts this thing that is totally different in operation to what they like to use and you expect it to be a hit. Nada, not gonna happen and it hasn't.

[Waddizzle]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Simple, it needs to work like an iphone.  It needs to have wi-fi that actually works. You have kids that are growing up and they don't know a world without iphones.  Then Canon puts this thing that is totally different in operation to what they like to use and you expect it to be a hit. Nada, not gonna happen and it hasn't.

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The Bluetooth enabled bodies seem to have cured the Wi-Fi setup problems.  Bluetooth is used to automatically configure Wi-Fi with a capable smart device.

[altco]

To me it seems that the phone manufacturers are more willing to squeeze the last piece of performance from the smaller sensors, while the camera manufacturers are more willing to cripple the entry level bodies in order to avoid jeopardizing the market for the more expensive cameras and lenses.
In a lot of situations, a beginner with a $400 entry level kit shooting at ISO6400 and f/4.4 does not have much advantage over a $200 phone at ISO1600 and f/2.2.

[ebiggs1]

"...entry level kit shooting at ISO6400 and f/4.4 does not have much advantage..."

A DSLR always has the advantage over a smartphone.  The difference is in how you intend to use the result.  Showing friends your shots by letting them look at your phone or at your FB page doesn't take much of a camera. That is how the majority of people especially young folks want to do. Canon and the others really ignored this market segment. They are now paying the price for that mistake.

The very same technology except for making a phone call can be and should have been integrated in the P&S camera models. Even in the low and mid-level DSLR's.

I might add that me and many others I know warned Canon about this trend, 10 years ago, and it like most of the other 'suggestions' made, fell on deaf ears.

[John_SD]

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@altco wrote:

In a lot of situations, a beginner with a $400 entry level kit shooting at ISO6400 and f/4.4 does not have much advantage over a $200 phone at ISO1600 and f/2.2.

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Unless, of course, that beginner is interested in learning DSLR photography. 

[altco]

don't get me wrong, i'm happy to be into the mirrorless boat and Canon had the better deal, but at times i would trade some of the sensor area for a shorter and faster lens.

I guess that the kit lens does not allow me to make this compromise, not due to what i might need as a beginner, but because (1) new lenses are to be bought, (2) reviewers are obsessed with sharpness at the corners, and (3) no other camera manufacturer is doing it

[ebiggs1]

"Unless, of course, that beginner is interested in learning DSLR photography."

Has nothing to do with that. Nada!  They all still have full manual control, P, Tv, Av, etc. if that is what floats your boat. It is the architecture structure and GUI that Canon and the manufacturers screwed up on.