Canon releases financials and lays out advanced EOS R plans

Nov 2, 2016
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The sky isn't falling. Instead, the the market is returning to historical levels. The major difference is that instead of Instamatics, people are using their cell phones. Camera sales are down from the past decade when the rapid adoption of digital sent the market through the roof, but I strongly suspect Canon and Nikon with about a century of experience in the market fully understood that the boom was temporary.

Like bank robbers, they are now going where the money is, which is upper income, generally older, users. They are also aiming at new markets in Asia with rising disposable income. It's true they haven't unlocked the secret to younger consumers and that will become a problem over time as people like me are only one or two camera generations away from exiting the market.

Canon's emphasis on video may be one path to younger buyers. While iPhones can substitute for point and shoot cameras, they really don't do video as well as Apple would like you to believe. For folks like me, who aren't big users of the video features, these new R models may not be as appealing as they are to others, but the video-centric features are apparently essential to expanding the market.

So, I wouldn't say it's all doom and gloom. Things are changing and Canon and Nikon are working to adapt to those changes.
What historical level? I remember back in the late 1960’s, when I was in my late teens, I went to the Photo show here in NYC, and asked Canon how many FTs they sold in a year. The told me about 100,000. Is that the historic level you mean? Because if it is, then they’re finished.
 
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That's what this site is about! Rumors... until they eventually becomes a fact or they are found untrue or the release date is much later than expected! Therefore, you're disappointed because you don't get your high-res sensor/camera body now, but it doesn't mean that's it's not in the pipeline. Canon makes choices because they need to sell camera bodies and catch up with the mirrorless competition. I understand and respect the needs that certain photographers have for 75+ mp sensors. However, the reality is that the vast majority of photographers will prefer a 45 mp camera with a higher frame rate than a high mp camera with lower frame rate and a buffer that fills up quickly because of the huge size of the raw files. I don't know where to find the numbers, but I'm sure Canon has sold much more 5D Mark III and mark IV than 5DS and 5DSR.
Completely agree and understand the business decision from Canon re sales number. Still doesn’t diminish the high res wanters disappointment.

I just get the feeling the RS has become the R5 for the video features (business decisions again) and the RS will possibly never see the light of day. We’ll probably see a sports camera next now.
 
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unfocused

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What historical level? I remember back in the late 1960’s, when I was in my late teens, I went to the Photo show here in NYC, and asked Canon how many FTs they sold in a year. The told me about 100,000. Is that the historic level you mean? Because if it is, then they’re finished.
What's your point? I'm talking general trends and the ability of Canon and Nikon to weather the ups and downs of the market and plan accordingly. An anecdote about what some random Canon rep told some random nosy teenager in the 60s is hardly relevant.
 
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Im just tired of entitled people coming here telling the rest of us what canon should do for them, I"ve said it before, dont like it, there is plenty of other systems out there. I'm done responding, thank you
Good, we don't need you telling us to jump ship to a different camera brand every time a different camera company comes out with new innovative features X, y or z. How is a manufacturing company suppose to keep up with supply and demand if we don't tell them what we need/want. You're telling me to leave Canon for company A, then a year from now company B comes out with an innovative feature that I could benefit from and I wait 2 years and still company A doesn't come out with the feature. So you tell me to jump to company B and buy all their lenses and sell all the company A lenses I already own. This could happen every 2 years. Now you get it????
 
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Like we said on our article, this is pretty much Canon screaming from the rooftops.

They simply do NOT tell future plans in their financials like this, they also don't make a statement that they want to be #1 in mirrorless.

It means we're in for some exciting times. For Canon to make bold statements like this.. is pretty surprising and should worry the other vendors .. aka Sony.

I know the sony, et all fanboy narrative is that Sony woke up Canon, but everything really is a natural progression.

Liveview - > DPAF - > Mirrorless.

this progression happened logically for full frame. Canon had to change their fabs to produce full frame sensors, they weren't going to release full frame mirrorless until that was done.
 
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SereneSpeed

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unfortunitly the majority are never happy with any number of MP, yesterday they wanted 40, today they want 80, tomorrow they will be up in arms if its not alteast 100. There are many disadvanteages to cramming more and more photsites in the SAME AREA (35mm). Most dont care. More MP means faster shutter needed to freeze images, more noise, gigantic files, etc.

I personally am fine with 30mp, just want faster FPS, I am printing 40x30 300dpi prints that you can stick your nose against and see enormous detail. Like you mentioned, how big do these people want to print. An honeslty I bet you majority of them dont even print!!!
Most wont be able to tell you that 20MP can be printed at 40inches with extraordinary detail from a full frame sensor. I have seen huge prints from the 1dxii.

Sadly you have a generation that wants always more "k" video and always more megapixels stills. Who cares about 8k? 99% of the content on youtube is 1080p, why? cause working with 4k is a disaster of a process and space, workflow.

There is a generation that hasn't even mastered the camera they have and they think they need more to do what they dont need.

Some of us use the extra resolution for ease of post processing. I get paid good money to manipulate files at the pixel level. Having extra detail beyond what the end result will be seen at is worth a lot to me. If I can work at 100% and only have to deliver at 25% resolution, I can work easier, faster, and smarter. I know that’s a fringe case scenario. But, it’s legitimate.

And, for 4/8k video. You might be shocked to learn that a lot of what you think is panning in the video you watch, isn’t. It’s a moving crop, from one side of an 8/6/5./4/2k capture, to the other side.

Use cases for extra resolution do exist beyond what most people consider. And those use cases will become everyday uses, soon enough.
 
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What % of FF camera body buyers care about video? 5%? Canon should put out a super PHOTOGRAPHY camera. Parents chasing kids and cats can do with whatever for video.
The % of people who buy FF cameras IS the problem - not enough of them. :)

The next generation of photographers will 100% demand good video features and I imagine Canon is aiming for them more than the old dinosaurs in here. ;)
 
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Good point. There was a discussion a while back with another contributor who wanted high resolution. People ripped into him/her but he had a specific project and vision in mind that required more resolution. Your comment is a good reminder that we need to step outside our own box and not assume that people who want something different from what we want are stupid.

I don't want any of the video features that people are salivating over, but that doesn't mean they can't have them.

Good points!
Regarding resolution, it´s all about what you need, not about what others need! It´s wrong to criticize someone because they want something in a camera. We all want different things. If I need higher resolutions then of course I´m going to ask for more MP. If I don´t need it of course I will say that 20mp will be enough.
Being a 42mp user for 3 years now, I would say that for most of the photography purposes, this is more than enough. For Weddings, landscape, wildlife, streetphoto, etc...So this is a sweet spot for sensor resolution. Of course, if you make gigantic prints, or if you are in the comercial business/publicity you may want a bit more.

Having more MP means that you have to have extra carefull in shutterspeeds otherwise every tiny movement is noticeable. In disk space of course files are also bigger and consume more space, but not too much more.

In my point of view, the 60mp of the Sony A7 RIV is too much. But if you have it you can use it in your favour. In wildlife in can mean a bigger crop without compromising quality. It means a bit more resolution in sharpness but not too much.

For me, 45MP of the new Canon is a great sweet spot! 45MP can make almost everyone happy, i can understand some guys that will going to be angry, cause they want those 75MP, but 75MP is such a large number and those who need that are quite few...So i understand totally Canon on this one. It doesn´t mean that a 75MP camera is not going to happen!

Yes...the video thing is also about that. Who doesn´t need it also don´t need to shout in a negative way. It´s not the video features that make a camera much more expensive, so why not having both worlds? Me....as a hybrid shooter, i shoot photo and video, this is heaven! This means i can use cameras for both works!

So...it´s great to have it! Leave it on! :) Even if you don´t use it!

I am so happy that Canon is finally not only up to the game, but it will make a big splash!

If these new cameras don´t fit your needs, well, just wait for the right one for you and don´t criticize...Those new cameras that are coming, are huge!! :)
 
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What % of FF camera body buyers care about video? 5%? Canon should put out a super PHOTOGRAPHY camera. Parents chasing kids and cats can do with whatever for video.
Sharing your opinion on what you'd like in a camera is fine, but where do you get these random figures from other than your own bias? Plenty shoot video on FF.
 
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Joules

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Canon should put out a super PHOTOGRAPHY camera.
There is nothing you're giving up on the stills side to get video. LiveView, and now the EVF, require fast and continuous sensor readout and an imaging pipeline that is up to that anyway. Compressing the files and writing them to the card requires additional hardware, yes. But if the cost added by that would be so significant that it wouldn't be offset by the additional demand caused by the video feature, why do you think literally every mainstream camera has a video feature? Even the very entry level ones, where price is a major factor in purchasing decisions?
 
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Some of us use the extra resolution for ease of post processing. I get paid good money to manipulate files at the pixel level. Having extra detail beyond what the end result will be seen at is worth a lot to me. If I can work at 100% and only have to deliver at 25% resolution, I can work easier, faster, and smarter. I know that’s a fringe case scenario. But, it’s legitimate.

And, for 4/8k video. You might be shocked to learn that a lot of what you think is panning in the video you watch, isn’t. It’s a moving crop, from one side of an 8/6/5./4/2k capture, to the other side.

Use cases for extra resolution do exist beyond what most people consider. And those use cases will become everyday uses, soon enough.

I do agree with you of course but you also understand cramming more and more is not a endless excersize of benefits, at some point there is diminishing returns on resolution, you cant just say this resolution is bigger on this sensor so it must be better, lets have as many photosites as possible. It does also have drawbacks on action photography and iso.
Yes I get tech keeps improving, but that can only go so far. This seems a more all around camera and I'd intend to use it for BIF and Landscape, a tighter pixel count also means faster shutter needed. This was already evident with the 1dxii and the 5div, I needed higher shutter to stop very fast action. Imagine what I'll need for 45mp. Cropping for me does nothing if the shot is motion blurred. But I get what you're saying as well.
 
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SecureGSM

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I do agree with you of course but you also understand cramming more and more is not a endless excersize of benefits, at some point there is diminishing returns on resolution, you cant just say this resolution is bigger on this sensor so it must be better, lets have as many photosites as possible. It does also have drawbacks on action photography and iso.
Yes I get tech keeps improving, but that can only go so far. This seems a more all around camera and I'd intend to use it for BIF and Landscape, a tighter pixel count also means faster shutter needed. This was already evident with the 1dxii and the 5div, I needed higher shutter to stop very fast action. Imagine what I'll need for 45mp. Cropping for me does nothing if the shot is motion blurred. But I get what you're saying as well.
Help me understand how 45mp sensor requires a faster shutter speed to stop a a very fast action?

I realise that one need a faster shutter speed to compensate for a camera shake when you shoot a stationary subject. But fast motion..... if your shutter speed is already 1/2000 or higher, why do you need faster with 45Mp sensor? Call me dumb....
 
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