Interview from [PCP]
English translation from [NL]
* A rough estimation via the press centre for the Beijing olympics showed that about 70% of news photographers are Canon users [Quite the same as the number reported by Canon Professional Network for Euro 08]
* Canon has no plans to join the Micro 4/3 industry at the moment. Canon has different sized sensors already, and users have different systems. Most of them don't want to invest for another new system.
* Canon thinks different sensors have their own characteristics, whether or not APS-C will be replaced completely depends on market demand, but Canon takes the upcoming decrease of Full Frame camera cost due to sensor cost dropping as a good sign, which makes FF more affordable.
* The 50 Megapixel sensor is not ready to be used in cameras because other components are to be improved to fit it, for instance, larger sensor demands a larger body. The reason why Canon annouced this news is to prove her technological leadership is 10 years ahead of others. [that's an APS-H sensor in the original announcement BTW]
* On the 1D merging issue, with today's CMOS technology, it is not easy to get “Good quality, high speed” at the same time. Yet Canon tech has been developing rapidly, once the cost is reasonable, we can solve this problem.
* No words on 5D successor, saying that no such information available. But they have received feedback from Chinese dealers saying that people are waiting for a new 5D and 12MP will be enough already.
* About Canon's lack of passion about things like HDMI…. These technologies are not Canon's core ones but developed by others instead, we will buy them and put them in our camera if we found it necessary. We often need to make decisions between different features, for example, there is a company which uses vari-angle LCD on its monitor, this sacrifices the size of the monitor, some may thing it is good, visa-versa, and Canon has to pick the choice which most will appreciate, but not everyone will be satisfied.[this echoes what Chuck Westfall said during CES, with OLED, the display of SLRs will be a part of Canon's core technology, then we will see better monitors on them] Eye-controlled focus, we are not using it because of feedback from the market, but we haven't stop developing it,.
* Canon has noticed market demand of a product with small body but large sensor size, but no development has been carried out yet, Canon focuses on how to combine convenience and quality.[With that said, it may imply that “a product with small body but large sensor size” can not provide a versatile enough focal length range]
No leaks, just some decent info about Canon's direction.