Why so many different camera bodies?

[koolkurkle]

Is this too many?

[Mt Spokane Photography]

It cost too much to bring old junk cameras back to earth, and they are not allowed to litter the spaceways.

[sovietdoc]

"Kiss" is the worst name I've ever heard of for a camera. 

"Kiss my.." wait? What?!

Rebel is a "meh" name but maybe Canon should invent names for their whole line up since Nikon doesn't have any?

So starting at the bottom:

PowerShot - PoS - Person with a sword - this camera thinks it can take good quality photos, but if you look closer at the photos it takes, you'll see that it brought a sword into a gunfight.

G** - Guerrilla - this camera thinks it can take photos like a pro DSLR, kinda like a Guerrilla fighter thinks he can shoot as well as guys in the special forces. Too bad he only has a BB gun.

****D - Rebel Kid - thinks he is as bad-ass as the real deal, except still wearing his pampers with no functionality.

***D - Rebel - got more brains than a Guerrilla fighter, has interchangeable guns in his arsenal.  Tries to go shoot pro events like weddings and concerts, and gets kicked out because he hasn't even had boot camp training yet.

**D - Court-marshaled Sarge - used to be so good that command took his stripes away and kicked him out of the "semi-pro" crowd.  Patiently awaits to be brought back for duty with a reinstatement. Keeps glaring at his top screen LCD trying to remember the good old days.

7D - Assault Marine - Fires fast and accurate (for the most part).  Feels like a true pro with this low-cal machine gun and some heavy armor.  Thinks all previous cameras are child's play. 

5D - BFS - Big F*** Sensor - this is like an artillery mounted on a guy's shoulder.  Fires slowly and inaccurately, but when it hits, it hurts.  Thinks that guns only start at 35mm, everything lower is a toy.  For $1500 more can upgrade his targeting system from WWII to modern up to date.

1D - Special Forces - Cream of the crop, the elite.  Doesn't have the biggest gun but uses the one it has with maximum potential.  A true specialist.  Thinks that having one shutter button isn't enough because one has two hands.  Wishes it had 2 different lenses mounted at the same time.  Weather sealed, explosion proof. Only sees people with the same body factor around.  Everything less isn't a true "pro".

[Halfrack]

The other thing to keep in mind is that Canon can 'try' technologies at different levels, without pissing off the people who pay big bucks for their gear expecting something flawless.  AF for Video is a good example.  The T4i is at a price point where they can get it out there and test it, but having it in the 5dmk3 would have been risky.

[kdsand]

What I find irritating is all the new bodies that have very little added value added to core features over the last year.
Examples of impressive features & decent value on release :
7D
T2i (550)

Perhaps the T4i will be a stand out though I still don't know if the sensor & af willbe worth the price increase.

[paul13walnut5]

It's the sign of a maturing market / product. 

Was the 550D a massive jump up from the 500D?  For me, yes, specifically from a video point of view, very practical upgrades.  Do most rebel users care about video fps? Video manual controls etc?  But evolutionary in a wider scale I think the 500D was actually a bigger step forward than the 550D, although I never ever considered buying a 500D (I actually bought the first EOS to do 25fps PAL video - the 7D)

D30 to D60, big changes.   D60 to 10D, big changes.  Incremental since.

5D to 5D2, big changes.  5D2 to 5D3, big changes.  Frustrating to say, the 5D4 or 5Dx may be incremental.

1Ds to 1Ds2 big changes.  1D2 to 1Ds3, incremental.  The 1DX maybe the exception that proves the rule.

1D to 1D2, big changes.  1D2 to 1D2n, incremental. 1D3 - lets not go there.  1D4 - incremental. 1DX maybe the exception that proves the rule.

[picturesbyme]

We were talking with a friend a couple days ago why so many diff chocolate bars when (she thinks) it's clear that Milka is the best.. I said Toblerone so at the end (since we couldn't find either) we bough Hershey's

[paul13walnut5]

You can't truely enjoy chocolate unless you consume Green & Blacks.  I look at the likes of Ferrero Rocher and think it's all branding and marketing.  Conspicuous consumption and all that.

All I would say is that you can get tobelrone in the poundstore....

[picturesbyme]

True... however..
Sometimes it's not the price... I still like things I had first when I was a kid..

Ok. I never tried Green & Blacks so I did a quick search... seems like there are too many diff. ones.. so which one is the best?

[paul13walnut5]

'Yes' Bars.  German I think.  Not seen in years.  The Praktica LLC of the chocolate world.

[picturesbyme]

If it has a good bokeh I'll try it

[Zlatko]

I'm guessing its purely a marketing thing i.e. keeping sales going by always having something new and 'better' to offer. I also understand having similar bodies, some with crippled features at lower price points to maximise market share. Are these the sole reasons for the bewildering array of Canon camera bodies on the market at any one time or have I missed something?

I find this view very cynical.  There are so many photographers in the world, with such differing needs and budgets.  Why not try to serve as many as possible?  There are numerous threads in which photographers are asking for some feature that serves their purposes ... a flip-out LCD, a weather-sealed body, a smaller body, more mexapixels, better high ISO, etc.  There is no way to serve many contradictory wishes and wide-ranging budgets with just a few cameras. 

If Canon made just a few cameras, they would be blasted on forums like this for leaving big gaps and underserving photographers.  If they may too many, they get blasted for "maximizing market share", as if that's bad.  Even with the wide assortment of cameras that they do make, people still complain that Canon doesn't make the camera that they personally want at a price that they personally can afford.

It is a bit like asking why does a photo lab offer dozens of print sizes, many of them very close to each other?  I think it's great to have more options.

[marekjoz]

In my opinion it's just a shelf differentiation. Actual sales numbers show them the direction and help them find the demand curve. If there are many people who did'nt buy 5d3 because of the price but who'd buy 5d3 for 500$ lower the price but 2 fps less and no grip connectivity, they could make it an entry level FF camera. Same with 1dx - make it 4500$, lower fps, remove one digic and call it 2dx.

[elflord]

A wide range of lenses has to be a good thing and is often stated as the reason for sticking with Canon when other manufacturers come up with a cutting edge camera body. However, it's not so obvious to me why Canon needs such a wide range of camera bodies. I'm guessing its purely a marketing thing i.e. keeping sales going by always having something new and 'better' to offer. I also understand having similar bodies, some with crippled features at lower price points to maximise market share. Are these the sole reasons for the bewildering array of Canon camera bodies on the market at any one time or have I missed something?

At least in the DSLR market, I find it pretty simple.

There's "enthusiast", both a fast camera (7D) and a full frame (5D series), "premium" (1 series, recently consolidated but used to have a "fast camera" and a large sensor camera), then there's a midrange line (xxD) and entry level.

The 7D is a bit of an odd duck in this lineup, otherwise it's pretty straightforward.

In contrast, I do find P&S product lines quite bewildering.

[paul13walnut5]

In contrast, I do find P&S product lines quite bewildering.

I agree.  I'm looking for a cheapish pocket compact, and am bewildered by the sheer range of similarly specified canon compacts out there. 

I might just have to settle for a shorty forty instead.