PicGuy wrote:
Either innovate and give your users what they want or go out of business. The dedicated camera makers have been behaving like the Titanic heading toward an iceberg. They have decided to keep on the course that leads to a crash instead altering course and avoiding it. IMO, a lot of this attitude is born from arrogance in that they think they know what their user base wants and shouldn't be questioned.
They all should be marrying smartphone tech to dedicated camera tech and offering small, inexpensive cameras that use SIMM cards, the Android OS, computational photography etc. along with the strengths that come from larger sensors and telephoto lenses. Instead we keep getting the same old thing with incremental tweaks while smartphone cameras are advancing at a ferocious pace and gobbling their market from the bottom up. At this pace there won't be much of their user base left in 5-10 years because they will get what they want from a smartphone with no other options available.
In Canon's case it was more an accumulation of strategic mistakes IMO. Canon decided around 2012 to focus on the video market after the first DSLR with video capabilities - the 5D MkII - was very successful especially for videographers. Doing so, Canon moved resources from camera and sensor development towards video. Problem was that others started vesting into new camera sensor manufacturing lines which provided better performing future sensors which is still the case. Second main error - and here Canon was not alone - was to underestimate the rise of the (FF) MLC market. When Canon started to turn around, others like Fuji and Sony already covered the main market shares for MLC and are years ahead in this technology. At this point it is a steep uphill battle for Canon to get even to an equal level to others in the market which won't be easy. Canon simply did what they are good in: DSLR body technology and lenses. But they overlooked for long that the sensor resolution/DR race is continuing after 24 MP and that a new technology arrived which now is in the beginning to fully replace DSLRs.
Jul 18, 2019 at 12:00 PM
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