Interview with Chuck Westfall
CNET sat down with Chuck Westfall to discuss the future at Canon. Nothing overly exciting, but worth a read if you haven't' already.
My favourite question and response.
Nikon has been making market share gains in the last year. How does that change things for Canon in terms of pricing, marketing strategy, or product development?
Westfall: I'll say this: It's been very good for Canon as well as the rest of the industry and customers especially to have a very vigorous competition between the two companies. It works out to better products and very competitive pricing. We're in this business to stay. We don't back down from challenges. Our situation is pretty good. We are very well positioned in terms of our investment in R&D to be able to continue developing new products and technology to keep us at our No. 1 level. Based on the market research we've seen, although it is true that Nikon made some gains on us last year, we still ended up in the No. 1 position in units and dollars for both the SLR and compact camera categories.
Read More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10213645-39.html
cr
26 Comments
I’m on my soap box again, but your observation BigT about xxD cameras and super telephoto lenses is accurate b/c of the 1.6x fov crop. Who can ever get enough reach? (Rhetorical question because it’s true). So, yes. Better autofocus, full weather sealing, 100% viewfinder, better white balance, low-noise, high iso, fast shutter, etc are all needed in a 1.6 or 1.3x camera. And yes, this should be able to be done for under 3K. Just like Omg said: copy everything Nikon is doing and take it further. Why the hell not? When your technology is on par with the other guys, people can focus on what is important–lenses!!! Now about those lenses Canon… http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/5DIIreview.shtml … B+ isn’t good enough gents.
I find the comment from Westfall about megapixels interesting and disappointing. It doesn’t look like Canon is going to stop trying to jam more sensor sites onto their sensors. They should realise that this is not what users necessarily want. The last thing I need in the future is a DSLR that produces images so large I can’t process them or which has sensor sites the size of point and shoot cameras.
yes, actually, the fake juck westfall makes more sense than the real one :(
He’s saying he *looks* like a square, not that he is one. But if he looked like a model he wouldn’t have time to sit around informing us :)
What Canon needs to do is get there AF in check. That’s the biggest issue. It’s not just the 1dmIII it all of the body’s. I just keep reading how everyone is switching to Nikon(d700,d3,etc) and the reason for Switching is AF. The forum I’m referring to is at http://www.digitalweddingforum.com.