Archive for the ‘Business of Photography’ Category
Sony, Panasonic & Olympus knocking at the door
Bloomberg has written an interesting article the higher ups at Canon have certainly taken notice of. That being their dropping marketshare in Japan along with Nikon to the mirrorless segment.
I haven’t had a problem with Canon being last to the game. I don’t personally like any of the true mirrorless options (you don’t count M9), none of them feel like cameras to me. Lots of people do though, and that’s cool. I was eager to see what Nikon came up with, though it doesn’t look too exciting to me.
I’ve always thought if Canon was going to get into it, they’d go all in. We’d see 3 mirrorless camera bodies, one high end mirrorless, a Canon M9 if you will (not a rangefinder). A prosumer middle camera body for the 5D user who wants IQ and portability, and then an entry level variant for the people that want more than a “G”.
I could be dreaming, or wishing. I’d just like to think Canon would be the company that did it right.
From Bloomberg
Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp. the world’s two biggest makers of high-end cameras, may be missing out on the industry’s biggest technology shift since film rolls became obsolete.
The two Tokyo-based companies use mirrors in all cameras with interchangeable lenses, a technique Sony Corp. (6758) is shifting away from. As a result, Canon and Nikon’s combined share of the Japanese market has fallen by 35 percent, while Sony’s share has doubled, according to estimates at research firm BCN Inc.
Read More
cr
Holga for Canon EF
The folks at HolgaDirect sent me a sample of the Holga for EF lens.
If you’re looking for a fun an inexpensive fun tool for your Canon camera, this could fit the bill. It’s optically terrible, but that’s the point. It’ll give your images and video a very unique look.
The focal length is 60mm, 120 medium format. It vignettes on full frame, however you’re supposed to crop a square photo anyway.
Shop Holga Direct
5D Mark III Rumor Roundup
There have been a lot of rumours about the 5D Mark III over the last few months. None of them I’d call a slam dunk, but there will be some truths build in there.
Mitch at Planet5D posted a roundup of all the rumor goodness.
Read the roundup
LensRentals.com Sales
Looking for a warrantied, but used Canon 7D or 1D Mark III? LensRentals.com has a few available.
You can absolutely trust the grading given for the products.
LensRentals.com
cr
LensRentals.com Sale!
The folks in Memphis (Cordova) have listed some used Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS lenses for sale. As well as a host of other video centric accessories.
You can buy from LensRentals.com with the utmost confidence, their grading scale is over the top thorough.
cr makes no commissions on any sale from LR.com, I just know some people prefer to buy used stuff from someone reputable.
Shop Here
cr
Official Press Release
HOYA Corporation (“HOYA”) and Ricoh Company, Ltd. (“Ricoh”) hereby announce that pursuant to decisions by the President and CEO of HOYA and Representative Director of Ricoh, respectively, HOYA and Ricoh have executed an agreement as of today to transfer HOYA’s PENTAX Imaging Systems Business (the business of developing, manufacturing and selling optical instruments such as digital cameras and replacement lenses, digital camera accessories, security camera-related products, and binoculars) (the “PENTAX Imaging Systems Business”) to Ricoh. HOYA will effectuate this transfer by incorporating a new corporation (“NewCo”), cause NewCo to succeed the PENTAX Imaging Systems Business by way of a corporate split (kyushu bunkatsu) (the “Corporate Split”), and transfer all shares of NewCo to Ricoh (such split and transfer shall be referred to as the “Split/Transfer”) as of October 1, 2011 (Estimated).
Prior to the Split/Transfer, HOYA intends to transfer its interests in PENTAX VN CO., Ltd., an overseas subsidiary of HOYA in relation to the PENTAX Imaging Systems Business, to NewCo.
Please note, that since the Corporate Split is a simplified corporate split (kan-i kyushu bunkatsu), disclosure items/content have been partially abbreviated.
Further, HOYA will continue to develop its businesses assigned from PENTAX Corporation which was merged (kyushu gappei) into HOYA on March 31, 2008 other than the PENTAX Imaging Systems Business, such as its businesses regarding digital camera modules, DVD pickup lenses, endoscopes, artificial bones, and voice synthesis.
HOYA merged (kyushu gappei) with PENTAX Corporation on March 31, 2008, and has developed the PENTAX Imaging Systems Business assigned from PENTAX Corporation until now. As part of selecting and focusing its management resources, HOYA has decided to cause NewCo to succeed the PENTAX Imaging Systems Business via the Corporate Split, transfer the business and shares, etc. of HOYA’s Imaging Systems business subsidiary to NewCo via a business transfer and share/interests transfer, and thereafter, transfer all shares of NewCo to Ricoh.
Ricoh’s core business is office solutions focusing on MFPs, Ricoh has also introduced many cameras to the market since its inception in 1936. Ricoh was one of the first manufacturers to launch digital cameras in 1995 and Ricoh’s current high-end compact digital cameras are well regarded in the industry.
Now Ricoh aims to establish a consumer business. As a first step to achieve this goal, Ricoh strengthens its camera businesses. Ricoh takes it as an indispensable initiative to obtain the small and lightweight interchangeable lens camera technology, lens technology and sales channels held by the Pentax Imaging Systems Division to pave the way for further advancement and innovations in the digital camera market.
Through this acquisition, Ricoh plans to 1) enhance its digital camera businesses (especially the interchangeable lens camera market which is expected to grow), 2) create value-added businesses for taken photographs (creation and development of value-added services that encourage seeing, storing and refinishing photographs and utilize photographs as communication tools), and 3) expand to other fields (study of entry into the image archiving business using medium-format digital cameras and enhancement of security-related products)
Source [PR]
cr
Need some help or a refresher?
B&H Photo has launched a wedding photography guide. It is part of their B&H InDepth series.
The guide is a pretty indepth look at preparation, execution and post wedding work. You’ll find all sorts of gear suggestions that will fit your shooting style as well.
It’s a worthwhile read for anyone getting into wedding photography, or just likes to consume all the information that they can about the subject.
You’ll find articles as well as a few videos.
Click for the article
cr
Canon Seen to Have Auspicious Start in January-March
Canon Inc.’s group operating profit for the January-March quarter is seen to have nearly qua- drupled year-on-year to about 75 billion yen (US$833 million), spurred by robust sales of DSLR cameras. Also, its operating profit margin is seen to exceed 10% for the first time in six quarters, partly due to recovering demand for laser printers.
Sales are seen to have increased 5% to around 720 billion yen (US$8 billion) for the first quarter. With inventory adjustments having completed, laser printer shipments are expected to be rising sharply. The group operating profit is seen to have shrunk 20% from the October-December quarter, a period that benefits from year-end sales campaigns, but it would far exceed the 20 billion (US$222 million) operating profit logged in the same period a year earlier.
Canon has not disclosed an earnings forecast for the January-March quarter. But the company is seen to have an operating profit target set at just below 40 billion yen (US$444 million) for the quarter so it is seen to report an operating profit roughly double the target figure for the quarter. Canon closes its books December 31. Should favorable sales continue into and after April, the company may raise its full-year earnings forecast, which calls for sales to grow 8% to 3.45 trillion yen (US$38.3 billion) and operating profit to soar 52% to 330 billion yen (US$3.67 billion).
Sales of digital SLR cameras are rising, particularly in Asia, with middle to high-end models selling well in China. Prices of compact cameras were kept steady despite harsh competition, contributing to improved earnings. The company also continued to cut fixed costs, including travel expenses.
Canon Celebrates Startup Operation of Nagasaki Canon
On March 17, Canon In. held a ceremony to celebrate the first lot of shipping of PowerShot G11 assembled at Nagasaki Canon, a digital camera manufacturing subsidiary that went into operation on March 1 in Hazami, Nagasaki Prefecture. Canon plans to produce two million digital cameras including DSLRs there in 2010 and aims at 4 million cameras next year.
Initially, Canon had planned to start construction of the new factory in the 4th quarter of 2008, but it was obliged to postpone the construction work for a while due to the world economy recession and started working in July last year. Eventually, it could finish the construction work one month earlier than planned and started operations on March 1. The factory created 850 jobs which will be 1,000 next year.
cr
PORTLAND, Ore. — Just as photographic film was mostly replaced by silicon image chips, now quantum film threats to replace the conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras. Made from materials similar to conventional film—a polymer with embedded particles—instead of silver grains like photographic film the embedded particles are quantum dots. Quantum films can image scenes with more pixel resolution, according to their inventors, InVisage Inc., offering four-times better sensitivity for ultra-high resolution sensors that are cheaper to manufacture.
Read More: EETimes
Thanks David
cr
Correction
Canon not selling to Ritz isn’t part of the bankruptcy proceedings. The issue is Ritz got to write-off a ton of debt to Canon.
Canon & Ritz couldn’t work out a new deal before the Christmas season.
Thanks for the clarification Eric
Not until 2010 at the earliest
Canon will not be selling them any new stock for the Christmas season to Ritz Camera. Canon will sell to the retail chain during Q1 2010 at the earliest.
Ritz will be sending existing Canon stock to the “Ultra Store” locations. Apparently they’re for the higher end gear.
cr
TOKYO, June 5 (Reuters) – Japan’s Canon Inc said on Friday it has decided to revive a shelved plan to build a $180 million digital camera factory in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on solid demand for digital single-lens reflex cameras.
Details on the timing of the plant’s start-up and any changes in the investment will be announced later in the day, a Canon spokesman said.
The plant, to make both digital compacts and digital single-lens reflex cameras, was originally to have an annual production capacity of 4 million cameras.
(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi)
cr
TOKYO - Japan’s Canon Inc reported an 88 per cent fall in quarterly profit, hit by slumping demand for copiers and printers, but it raised its annual outlook on cost cuts and a weakening yen.
Demand for office machines and their supplies such as toner cartridges remained weak as the global financial crisis made the replacement cycle of copiers and printers longer and prompted corporate clients not to use them as heavily as before.
Fujifilm Holdings, a rival in digital cameras and office equipment which has been hit much harder by the economic downturn, forecast a ¥90 billion ($A1.30 billion) annual operating loss as it scraps equipment and cuts 5,000 jobs.
Canon, whose other competitors include Xerox Corp and Ricoh Co Ltd, earlier this month delayed the construction of a toner cartridge components plant in western Japan for a second time, underscoring weak demand.
But Canon’s overseas sales have been boosted by softer-than-expected yen. The company also said it would aim to cut Â¥172 billion in costs this year, Â¥60 billion more than originally planned.
Canon raised its 2009 operating profit forecast by 12.5 per cent to ¥180 billion, in line with an estimate in the Nikkei newspaper last week. But it lowered its sales forecast by five per cent to ¥3.33 trillion.
Mizuho Securities analyst Ryosuke Katsura said the operating profit forecast change was effectively a downward revision after stripping out currency effects but that the results show Canon is holding up relatively well.
“Some had expected losses for Canon’s first quarter, so I think it’s positive that the firm managed to post profits,” he said. “Its cost-cutting efforts should be given some credit, but I have yet to see how the company achieves growth.”
Rival Xerox last week forecast a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its annual outlook nearly in half, while Ricoh predicted a 13 per cent fall in operating profit for the year to March 2010.
Ricoh last October bought major US office equipment distributor Ikon Office Solutions for $US1.6 billion ($A2.2 billion), delivering a heavy blow to Canon, whose machines had represented 60 per cent of the products Ikon handled before the October acquisition but have rapidly been replaced with Ricoh equipment since then.
Operating profit at Canon, the world’s largest digital camera maker ahead of Sony Corp and Nikon Corp, came in at Â¥20.03 billion in January-March, compared with a Â¥170.83 billion profit a year earlier.
Sales fell 32 per cent to ¥687 billion.
Sony is set to announce results for the previous financial year through March on May 14, and Nikon plans to report on May 13.
Canon shares closed up 6.1 per cent at Â¥2,950 before its earnings announcement, outperforming the Tokyo stock market’s electrical machinery index, which rose 4.4 per cent.
The shares have recovered nearly 40 per cent since hitting their lowest level in more than seven years in early March. The electrical machinery sub-index has risen about 36 per cent from a low hit in late February.
