Major Canon announcements coming in June & July [CR3]

[Michael Clark]

Why do you think Canon has postponed its R5 announcement? Statet it in the time of Photokina before the shutdown.
Do you think they wait for Sony to get their 2 new models announced?

Maybe partly due to that, but also due to supply chain issues caused by COVID-19.

Just curious, what purpose would that serve, to wait until another company released their own cameras? The R5 isn't going to change at all based on a competitors new release. Whatever Sony and/or Nikon release next, the R5 is still going to be whatever the R5 was designed to be from the beginning.

Be patient, it's not like Canon has set a date for an announcement and postponed it - it just hasn't happened when many of us expected (myself included - I expected an announcement last week when Photokina would have been).

Canon has typically chosen to wait until a competitor's announcement has been made before releasing their own when both are known to be forthcoming near the same time. There's something to be said for being the last impression on a consumer's mind before making a decision. It's why the top-seeded competitors in subjectivley judged competitions, like figure skating, gymnastics, and diving get to perform last while the lowest-seeded competitors must perform earliest.

The other issue is that no one wants to reveal everything until they know when the product will be available for sale. If they had announced everything back in January and the camera isn't available due to global supply and transportation issues until October or even later, too many potential impulse buyers would not even care about it by then. Impulse buyers go after the newest, shiniest thing on the shelf (or on the website).

With current global supply chain issues, even if Canon has a pile of R5 cameras sitting in Japan ready to go there's no way to predict when they will be able to have those cameras sitting at retailers' facilities around the world. Getting containers moved from one country to another, often via ports in a third country or crossing the borders of other countries via overland shipments, is highly unpredictable right now. Even if the country of origin and the destination country are "open for business", if the port or border crossing needed to get a shipment to a land locked country is "closed due to COVID-19", you can't move the freight.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I don't think cargo shipments are much affected now. Slower, but still coming thru. I had a shipment from china finally show up 4 weeks ago after being delayed in manufacturing by the factory shutdown, then in shipping for a few weeks.

Japan never really shut down, so parts and components made there were not likely affected, Canon did announce a plan after the earthquake a few years back to have alternate sources in the event of another disaster, and haver brought production of components for their high end products back to Japan, or so they said. I'm sure things like batteries are assembled in China, but they could be done in Japan if necessary. Many of the small electronic components likely come from offshore manufacturers, I suspect that they stocked up on those. Sony was hit by shortages of some very fast memory needed for their new models and backed off the specs so they could use alternate components. Since Canon is doing 8K, I wonder if they cornered the supply and left Sony without.

 

[Michael Clark]

I don't think cargo shipments are much affected now. Slower, but still coming thru. I had a shipment from china finally show up 4 weeks ago after being delayed in manufacturing by the factory shutdown, then in shipping for a few weeks.

"Slower, but still coming through" is definitely affected.

Delayed in manufacturing by the factory shutdown, then in shipping is affected.

If Canon has set early July for the announcement date, as a recent new rumor suggests, then they're fairly confident that all of their regionals can be supplied with at least some bodies by late July. But that doesn't mean they'll be there in the numbers they initially planned by the dates they initially planned. If they had made the R5 announcement in late May as originally planned, it would have meant all of the regionals already had some bodies on hand in late May. The fact that they did not make the announcement then is a pretty good indicator they did not have bodies in place at all of the regionals nor were they confident of when shipments would arrive at all of them.

Japan never really shut down, so parts and components made there were not likely affected, Canon did announce a plan after the earthquake a few years back to have alternate sources in the event of another disaster, and haver brought production of components for their high end products back to Japan, or so they said. I'm sure things like batteries are assembled in China, but they could be done in Japan if necessary. Many of the small electronic components likely come from offshore manufacturers, I suspect that they stocked up on those. Sony was hit by shortages of some very fast memory needed for their new models and backed off the specs so they could use alternate components. Since Canon is doing 8K, I wonder if they cornered the supply and left Sony without.

Canon publicly announced closures of some lens factories in Japan, mostly those making consumer grade lenses, due to lack of foreign sourced parts back in March. I haven't seen if they've opened back up, but they probably have by now. Those production gaps still remain in the supply chain, however. Reduced demand due to global economic conditions may not reveal a strain on any existing product lines, though.

I'd be very surprised if camera body production wasn't similarly affected. As far as batteries, other accessories, printed materials, and even retail boxes go: they're not shipped to the body and lens factories in Japan. They're shipped directly to the regionals (Canon USA, Canon Australia, Canon Europe, etc.) from wherever they are sourced and are added at the regionals when everything is packaged together for retail. Bodies and lenses shipped from the factories to the regionals are not in retail packaging.

 

[GoldWing]

The 1DXMKIII was a big announcement and the camera is a flop. More 20MP cameras in 2020?? Would be suicide. I don't know what Canon is doing but we've returned all our 1DXMKIII's. For a new camera to need 3 repairs.... we just can't take chances. The MKII's don't freeze, they focus and the OVF is flawless.

Can't Canon make a camera for photographers? Very worried about the lackluster products.

It was Canon's game to lose.

 

[SecureGSM]

The 1DXMKIII was a big announcement and the camera is a flop. More 20MP cameras in 2020?? Would be suicide. I don't know what Canon is doing but we've returned all our 1DXMKIII's. For a new camera to need 3 repairs.... we just can't take chances. The MKII's don't freeze, they focus and the OVF is flawless.

Can't Canon make a camera for photographers? Very worried about the lackluster products.

It was Canon's game to lose.

Here we go again...

 

[SteveC]

Here we go again...

Hey you were supposed to fall on your face on account of this guy's greatness. He's a big name professional who can't tell us who he is, after all.

 

[GoldWing]

You guys just won't admit that the 1DXMKIII is "Nothing Burger". Same for the D6. But Canon opting to go for Video, they even admit it, was a poor decision. No Pro Sports Videographer or Broadcaster is or will be running out to get an MKIII.

Canon should have kept the fps the same and increased resolution. And kept just the RAW/CR2/JPEG Does anyone think of workflow.

I thought I would never say it... But if a better solution by Canon is not announced out by Jan 2021 we will no longer be restocking our Canon inventory for Cameras or Lenses. We were willing to pay up $9,000 just for bodies with the first order being 5 and another 5 or 6 slated for Tokyo.

The fact that Canon or Nikon can't produce a sports camera with 2020 level resolution under $10,000 is just shameful.

 

[brad-man]

You guys just won't admit that the 1DXMKIII is "Nothing Burger". Same for the D6. But Canon opting to go for Video, they even admit it, was a poor decision. No Pro Sports Videographer or Broadcaster is or will be running out to get an MKIII.

Canon should have kept the fps the same and increased resolution. And kept just the RAW/CR2/JPEG Does anyone think of workflow.

I thought I would never say it... But if a better solution by Canon is not announced out by Jan 2021 we will no longer be restocking our Canon inventory for Cameras or Lenses. We were willing to pay up $9,000 just for bodies with the first order being 5 and another 5 or 6 slated for Tokyo.

The fact that Canon or Nikon can't produce a sports camera with 2020 level resolution under $10,000 is just shameful.

Don't sweat it. Around here we all know that Canon is doomed. It's no secret.

 

[SteveC]

You guys just won't admit that the 1DXMKIII is "Nothing Burger". Same for the D6. But Canon opting to go for Video, they even admit it, was a poor decision. No Pro Sports Videographer or Broadcaster is or will be running out to get an MKIII.

I admit I think you're a troll. How's that?