ulrikft wrote:
More and more indications on weather sealing (buttons, bump). I'm a happy camper. I'm even planning to go early to bed, so I can rise early to check out the eventual news (I'm a scandinavian myself, so I live in the right time zone :P )
I don't know much about buttons, but the prism "bump" looks very 1D like. I think we're in for a delightful surprise. It certainly won't please everyone here (like anyone could), but it'll be as close to the mythical 3D as we'll see for a year or two.
Ralph Conway wrote:
Hello rebel300
How much is that in %?
Canon Inc.
Chairman & CEO: Fujio Mitarai
Securities code: 7751
[Tokyo (First section) and other Stock Exchanges]
Inquiries:
Masahiro Osawa
Managing Director, Group Executive,
Finance & Accounting Headquarters
+81-3-3758-2111
Canon Inc. to Acquire Own Shares
(Under the provisions of its Articles of Incorporation
pursuant to paragraph 2, Article 165 of the Corporation Law of Japan)
At the Board of Directors meeting held on September 16, 2008, Canon Inc. (the Company) resolved to acquire its own shares under Article 156, as applied pursuant to paragraph 3, Article 165, of the Corporation Law, as follows.
1. Reason for acquisition of own shares
The Company decided to acquire its own shares with the aim of improving capital efficiency and ensuring a flexible capital strategy that provides for such future transactions as share exchanges.
2. Details of acquisition
1. Type of shares to be acquired: Shares of common stock
2. Total number of shares to be acquired: Up to 14.5 million shares
(Equivalent to 1.1% of outstanding shares)
3. Total cost of acquisition: Up to 50 billion yen
4. Period of acquisition: From September 17, 2008 to October 20, 2008
(Reference) Possession of treasury stock as of September 11, 2008
Number of outstanding shares (Excluding treasury stock) 1,261,111,792 shares
Number of treasury stock 72,599,568 shares
Zoeysmom wrote:
Ok..since I haven't scrolled through the 100+ pages of this thread- did anyone notice that on the canon USA site- it now has the "destined evolution" ad rotating at the top? It's not just on the foreign sites anymore..
What do you mean with foreign? Canon is Japanese. If it would be American then I would understand ”foreign”. Or maybe I’ve misunderstood something.
At least, I see no ”Destined Evolution” on the site of Canon USA.
rebel300 wrote:
I missed the number of shares by quite a bit in my haste...sorry..
You are welcome. I do not know anythimg about this stuff. But I guess, when they buy their own stocks before introducing a new product, they may trust in it very well.
They wouldn't release their lowest cost FF camera first. They wouldn't want to take sales from a higher cost model. Canon has stated that they see FF going to low price points. And it will. The question is do they start another price war with a deep pocket competitor. That may just mean less money for everyone.
It's been a long time since we've seens Canon do anything innovating and surprising at the mid and high end. The trouble with them getting slow is that it becomes hard to do more than just meet expectations. A 21mp 4.5 fps 5DII would be a great camera. But the features it's missing compared to the D700 will be immediately pointed out.
We'll only know in hindsight if Canon is entering a phase of stupid camera business choices.
philber wrote:
Brainiac, your concept of a low-cost FF camera has merit IMHO, but I don't think that it is what Canon are about to release. It would be a somewhat specialised product, either as a second body for pros, or for amateurs not wanting to spend more, whereas the amount of teasing, as well as the tagline "destined eveolution" suggest some form of step improvement across the board, just as 5D was in its time. A "no-frills FF" would be clever packaging, and a great play for competitiveness, but not exactly an evolution, or an improvement...
Ralph Conway wrote:
50D needs no FF and ill not get one. Its the crop-segment. And D300 is beaten already beaten by 50D. It does not need any FF. 50D is already € 300 less than D300 after 1 year at trustfull dealers, befor it hits the shelves. At enhanced resolution and compareable IQ (if not better, what is my feeling after comparing high Iso samples. In lower Iso even 40D was imo still better.
It does not matter if 1, 2 or three 5D succesor will come. All of them will have higher resolution and better IQ than all Canons and existing competitors at lower or comparable prices. The question is, if Canon follows Nikon with putting features like weather sealing to their midrange and semipro stuff. If they do so ... fine
I'm with you on a 3 prong FF offering here (possibly 4 if they abandon APS-H. But I would differ in terms of the pricing and target market I suppose. And somewhat closer to what Brainiac is suggesting for the entry level.
US$1400 - Entry level FF with a tweaked 12mp (original 5d) or 16mp(1DsMk2) sensor with the build quality and feature set of the 450D.
US$2500 - Mid-range semi-pro FF, the 5D replacement
US$4500-5000 - possible 1DMk4, (possibly) same sensor as 5D but with all the bells and whistles of the Pro series. 10-12fps rate. Twin image processors.
US$6-8000 - Professional Industry leading FF camera, the 1Ds. Class leading pixel count (30+ Mp) and image quality: 5-6fps, 16bit DR, ISO 50-25,600 etc, etc
I fully expect to seem i), iii) and iv) probably released by February next year if they still aren't this time round.
philber wrote:
Brainiac, your concept of a low-cost FF camera has merit IMHO, but I don't think that it is what Canon are about to release.
Neither do I. I didn't make that clear enough. I was making a suggestion that I thought would be aggressive and would please me. I agree with you though, I doubt very much that Canon will split the 5D line in to a budget and pro-semi-pro model.
dcmiller wrote:
I guess Ralphs date didn't go that well........
It did. But like most of us, we had to stand up at eight a clock in the morning, What is 8,5 hours ago. So Now after I developed a customers pics I am back again. Till she is back again. I think it will be early bedtime for me today, too. My clock rings at 10 minutes to 6 in the morning. I was not allowed to watch Neil when he did his small step (I was aged 8). But I want to be part of it, when Canon announces that giant leap for photographers.
05xrunner wrote:
yes it is...take a better look at it
Oh Yes! Sorry. You are both right. So no puppy flash (I do not want one). Its not necessary at formidable (?) ISO 6400 without noise anyway. Somebody wants to buy my EX 430?
From investor's point of view, a company has lots of reasons when it repurchases its own stocks:
1. It believes that its share outstanding is highly underpriced;
2. It has more than enough cash in hand, but is unwilling to spread like dividends, because the latter is like a commitment to investors that it is increasing dividends. To increase dividends and then decrease is a disaster to a public company.
3. It is trying to convince investors that the company is in great shape.
4. To avoid possible buyout, etc...
I would hardly believe that Canon repurchase stocks because the 5D II. It is a HUGE company that has a very broad line of business. I would look at their printers, P&S cameras etc to determine the fundamentals, not the 5D II, which appeals a much smaller market.
Also, the COMPANY repurchasing stocks doesn't mean its EXECUTIVES do so. The stocks the company buys will be normally burnt. And if the executives do know something big and they buy, it is very illegal.
(I'm a scandinavian myself, so I live in the right time zone :P )
