Canon Tempting Fate Being "Mirrored"?

[gene_can_sing]

I think Canon is tempting fate by not releasing anything AT ALL for a long time. Then again, they only have 1 competitor.

 

[moreorless]

The end result is that Canon will lose sales by not being in the mirrorless market. But will this impact on their overall profitability given that they will retain the higher end of the market? Only a Canon exec would know the answer.

One thing that does stand out for me looking at somewhere like amazon's sales is that while NEX and micro 4/3rds bodies are selling well their lens sales are pretty pathetic compaired to Canon/Nikon.

I'v no idea how profit margins stand in those two areas but my feeling is that there probabley higher for lenses so perhaps this new market of "upgrading compact users" really isnt as rich as its made out to be?

I wouldnt be supprized if Nikon's shift down to a 2.6 crop is to try and bring down lens prices to a level where it creates more repeat buyer business. The common preception amoung new users does remain afterall that the body is the real investment but if you can get a user to buy say a cheaper tele zoom aswell as the kit he's more likely to buy an UWA, a macro etc.

 

[riogrande100]

I am an owner of Canon DSLR and a G3 m43 camera. The best thing about the G3 is its size and weight and also has some nice features such as crop sensor for extra reach.

However when it comes to lenses theer really isn't much great lenses, and the few that are coming out like the Leica 25mm f/1.4 and the Olympus 12mm f/2 are really expensive lenses for their sizes.

The Leica 25mm is more expensive then all of Canon and third party 50 1.4 but yet it is far smaller. Also the 12mm Olympus again is expensive. I was always under the impression that the most expensive component of the lens is the glass, so find it hard how lenses these small cost so much!

Now as for Sony although they have realeased some amazing spec bodies their lenses are shamful. The Nex5N maybe a great camera but its size to lens ratio is rubbish. and there arn't that many lenses.

Panasonic have created some nice pancake lenses but for some night street photography s far nothing beats the 5D and a fast lens as need to shoot wide open and also at times iso 3200 and so far no mirrorless camera can match that lens and iso combo!

 

[elflord]

I am an owner of Canon DSLR and a G3 m43 camera. The best thing about the G3 is its size and weight and also has some nice features such as crop sensor for extra reach.

However when it comes to lenses theer really isn't much great lenses, and the few that are coming out like the Leica 25mm f/1.4 and the Olympus 12mm f/2 are really expensive lenses for their sizes.

The Leica 25mm is more expensive then all of Canon and third party 50 1.4 but yet it is far smaller. Also the 12mm Olympus again is expensive. I was always under the impression that the most expensive component of the lens is the glass, so find it hard how lenses these small cost so much!

It's not just the amount of glass. For example, cheap wide angle lenses are fairly pricy. To put it another way, if you had to make a lens with the same performance and make it smaller, would it cost more or less to manufacture ? Some of the lenses are small but still optically quite complex -- small size is a design constraint.

The Canon 50mm f/1.4 is cheap partly because it's an old lens (almost 20 years old) and partly because of the economy of scale (they sell a lot of them).

The olympus 12mm isn't cheap but neither are Canon's higher quality wide angle primes.

It looks like the m43 lenses have been slowly dropping in price. For example, the 20mm f/1.7 sells for low 300s now (400 when it was released)

So the summary is that you pay a premium for good performance in a small package, and also for being an early adopter of the technology.

 

[Mike Ca]

Just got an email from Canon USA inviting me to take a consumer survey. First part of survey was about what kind of cameras I owned, how frequently I used them for still and video and what kind of subjects. Then the rest of the survey was about my interest in mirror-less interchangeable lens cameras.

Apparently Canon is starting to look at this market.