Canon Led the Race in 2010 with A Pair Of Winners
It was just a few short years before SLR film cameras were overtaken by Digital SLR’s in market share. The days when film and develpment ate away at photography budgets are long gone.
It was reminiscent of the CD revolution. Some diehards remained loyal to analogue (film) technology in the belief that Digital still had a long way to go.They were soon proved wrong Digital camera technology came up to scratch very quickly, with 2,6,10 and even 20MP’s It happened way earlier.
Digital technology has sparked a massive increase in casual photography and 4 to 16 MP’s are common even in point and shoots.
So the SLR players like Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Minolta and all the rest had to come up with more than MP’s. MP’s are no longer a distinguishing factor. The race among SLR (Now DSLR) makers is all about:
Very fast and powerful micro processors and extensive software to boot. Exchangeable lenses with their own array of modern features like autofucus and image stabilisation or vibrations reduction The architecture behind the lenses, including the lens electronics vs the camera electronics and where to house the function such as image stailisation. Sensor sizes. Architecture – Lenses, sensors, processor, storage. In-camera artificial intelligence, like light recognition, scene detection, face detect, blink detect, light and colour analysis.
Few other industries have embraced electronics, micro mechanics, software developments and other leading edge technologies to the extent that Digital cameras have. And DSLR’s have done so at a mega scale.
Canon and Nikon have the lions share of the market, fighting head to head for 80% of the comsumer spend on DSLR’s. In a vast market, Sony, Minolta, Pentax and others make their fortunes off the remaining 20%.
What then makes for a winner if everyone has access to or has developed leading edge technology?
There is no doubt that once you have the technology, marketing is the next big gun. Brand recognition will carry a product over some rough patches, but if everybody excells you need to be innovative, imaginative and hit the market’s soft spots or get into their hearts, whatever the case may be.
In the race between Canon and Nikon, Canon has led with higher MP’s. Nikon has an edge with a slightly larger sensor and lower end pentaprism usage. Ergonomics… in other words ‘user friendliness’ is a strong claim by both contenders.
My own view is that Canon won the 2010 consumer DSLR round with the Canon T2i and Canon 60d See the reviews here: canon Rebel t2i and the Canon EOS 60d review.
Canon clearly understood the need and took a lead in focusing beyond the MP factors. A very noticable trend in DSLR’s since 2008 has been the DSLR’s serious entry into Movie/Video technology. DSLRs bcame infested with video features, at first modest, but rising rapidly in sophistication. One DSLR after another came out with new innovative features:
Video and sound, HD video, Frames per second, True HD, live view, autofocus, live focus, in camera editing, better and better LCD technology and external sound. Not least was the spate of increases in pixel options from 640 to 1080, etc.
In this frantic race cluttered with constantly improving features, with each manufacturer trying to find just the right mix at the right price to capture more consumer spend, Canon’s EOS Rebel T2i and EOS 60D found two sweet spots, at the higher end of the Rebel range and in the middle of the very narrow Prosumer range.
Both Cameras were announced with an array of leading edge features that seemed to be right on the consumer Dollar target. The main features that made people take note and spend their well earned dollars were:
- Full HD movie functionality, with an array of recording options.
- 18MP APS-C sensor.
- Live view… DSLR’s were behind compacts in this department…)
- Yet more in-camera sophistication
- HD Autofocus
With these two cameras, Canon hit the sweet spot in the DSLR market in 2010. Can they follow this up in 2011? Canon’s Rebel T3i release early in 2011 seemed good on paper, but we still have to see if the market responds. Was there enough of a gap in the market between the T2i and the 60d?
Perhaps Nikon or Sony will give Canon a race this year. We can expect an exciting come back from both of them. Nikon certainly roared back into life with the release of the D5100. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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