In the earlier article that I wrote and shared on my visit to Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai, my photography walkabout journey inside Shanghai International Convention Centre, understanding and experiencing Canon’s history, culture, getting closer to Canon’s diverse range of products and business interests. This was also a time to have a better understanding of their slogan “Delighting You Always”, how Canon’s products and services connect and communicate from the organisation to their customers.
During the visit to Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai, this was also a maiden life experience for me, to attend two of Canon’s high level media interview/interaction sessions with Canon key senior management. An absolute golden opportunity personally to listen, have an idea on the new wave, the next wave and trends from Canon for the next 5 years and beyond.
For this article, I would not touch on financial reports because I am not writing this article as an analyst or an economist, nor business expansion plans in Asia Pacific. This is purely from me, first and foremost, as a photographer, followed by being a technology gadget enthusiast. I would be sharing my notes that I took and wrote down from the media interaction sessions with Canon key senior management during Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai.
Inside my article, I shared about Canon’s zone on the first floor of the Shanghai International Convention Centre titled “Beyond High Image Quality”. This is the zone where I was able to have a first hands on view of products and services, the next wave and trends from Canon. For my regular readers and supporters, you would probably have guessed which particular products that I am most interested in!
There were two media interactions with Canon’s key management over two different days –
- 19th May 2016 Media Interaction with Mr Fujio Mitarai, Chairman and CEO of Canon Inc
- 20th May 2016 Media Interaction with Canon Imaging Products Group – High level intereview session with
- Mr Kazuto Ogawa, Managing Executive Officer of Canon Inc, Chief Operation Officer of Canon Asia Marketing Group, Executive Vice President of Canon (China) Co. Ltd
- Mr Go Tokura, Executive Officer of Canon Inc, Chief Executive of Imaging Communications Products Group
- Mr Ishii Toshiyuki,Vice President of Canon (China) Co. Ltd
- 120MP EOS Camera
This is the one and only prototype Canon DSLR in the world and it definitely attracted a lot of international media attention. Canon’s senior management highlighted that there is no timeline fixed on when the 120MP sensor would be out in the market.
With the development of the 120MP Canon EOS DSLR for the future, higher level quality lenses are being looked into for the future, to complement the 120MP EOS camera.
Personal views: At this juncture in time, Canon has 2 DSLRs, the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R in the market equipped with a 50.4MP sensor. I am making a guess that a 80MP sensor is already in the works and might be ready in 2 years time before the 120MP sensor arrives in 2020?
- 8K Technology
The 4K technology is now getting more popular and widely accepted around the world today. The infrastructure and technology for 4K are now a part of our everyday life. Therefore, the next level up is the 8K technology, it is gentle to the eyes, sharp, clear and precise, watching 3D without goggles.
8K technology will take some time to be an integral part of our life, like the 4K technology of today’s society. Canon is targeting Tokyo Olympics Games 2020 as a good starting point for 8K broadcasting. For the further development of 8K cameras and videos, they would start after 2020.
- Mirrorless System
A topic on photographers minds, including myself. The mirrorless camera market has made headway over the past few years from competitors such as Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus. While for Canon, their mirrorless line up, the Canon EOS M is not as fast compared to their competitors.
From the media interaction sessions, Canon remains committed to the EOS M mirrorless line up. We should be able to see more of EF-M lenses, EOS M accessories and maybe a new EOS M mirrorless camera body in the near future.
This statement that I heard from the media interaction sessions, that I quickly wrote down, sealed my thoughts and thinking
“We may look conservative but we know the trends”
Would Canon produce a full frame EOS M mirrorless camera body? I certainly hope so and I certainly think so!
- High resolution printing
When I started learning photography with film SLR cameras in the late 80s and 90s, our photographs were printed at least on 4R photo paper, placed inside photo albums. With the revolution of technology, digital photography and storage solutions, printing photographs are not like before even there are more people taking photographs (professionally or leisure basis).
I re-discovered the art and love of photography printing again, moving beyond 4R prints into A3 photo prints and large format prints. Personally, I owned the PIXMA Pro-10 photo printer and it’s a good investment for me!
The famous and iconic Red Line in Canon’s photography family can also be seen in their printers, bringing professional quality photography printing up to A2 size that photography owners can have it in their homes with the ImagePROGRAF Pro 500. For commercial and large format photo printing solutions, Canon also has a wide range of printing solutions. At Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai, I personally experienced Canon’s high image quality printing and printing technology innovation, learning from their strong B2C base, bringing it into the B2B markets.
- Security Surveillance Systems
The need for security surveillance systems today have grown a lot, it is getting more important and crucial for business, organisations and governments around the world. The major cities around the world are expanding bigger thus leading to an increased demand for security surveillance systems.
Although security surveillance systems are predominantly a B2B market, there is potential growth for B2C market too.
- Smartphones and their impacts on the compact digital cameras
Smartphones, they have enormous impacts on how we live today, in both good and bad ways. The impacts of smartphones on photography are inevitable, the outcomes are in both good and bad ways too. The media contingent at the media interaction sessions were keen to know more about the impacts of smartphones on cameras.
Mr Fujio Mitarai spoke about this topic –
“Digital camera compete against smartphones. Use-ability, smartphone is better than digital camera. Digital cameras – better image quality and resolution.”
“Co-existing and collaborating with smartphones”
“Smartphones are part of daily life. Idea for the future, co-exist together with digital cameras”
In the other media interaction session, the key Canon management executives also spoke about this topic too –
“Smartphones affected the share of digital cameras, especially compact digital cameras”
Smartphones had eaten a lot into the compact digital camera market share worldwide and it doesn’t just affect Canon, it affect all the other camera brands that have compact digital camera models in their line-up.
“High end (high performance, high quality) compact digital cameras, complement smartphones”
This line that I wrote down during the media interaction, showcased Canon’s professionalism, business acumen and commitment in the areas of technology trends, market analysis, innovation and progression
“We are not complacent”
Mr Kazuto Ogawa gave a technology perspective insight on how smartphone helps photography growth
“More smartphone wars, more people interested in photography, attract more people”
“Smartphone complement photography”
From the words of the key Canon management executives over the two media interaction sessions, Canon understand and analyse the impacts of the smartphone on digital cameras, formulating and designing high quality high performance compact digital cameras to complement the smartphone.
There is a surge in people owning digital cameras and taking photographs nowadays, especially in the past 5-10 years. The impact of the smartphones, mobile phone photography helps to grow the consumer markets.
Looking at Canon’s compact digital cameras line-up (at this juncture in time), the Canon PowerShot G3 X leads their line up, followed by Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II and PowerShot G5 X are the high end compact digital cameras that are suitable photography solutions to consumers in complementing their smartphone usage and lifestyle. I have reviewed the Canon PowerShot G5 X before and I liked this compact digital camera!
There was also a question asked by a member of the media contingent on whether Canon would be following a similar move embarked by Leica, whom Leica partner with Huawei in a smartphone collaboration known as the Huawei P9 smartphone. The Canon senior management replied that they would not be considering this option at this point in time.
- Internet of Things and Canon Eco-System
During Mr Fujio Mitarai during his keynote speech, he mentioned about the Internet of Things (IoT) as an area that they are looking into, to integrate the various Canon’s range of products and services together, forming the Canon Eco-System that seeks to live up to their corporate slogan “Delighting You Always”. After returning from Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai, I wrote a short article on Internet of Things, drawing my experiences, thoughts and feelings from what I saw, felt and learned during Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai.
The Internet of Things is opening up new worlds and Canon Group recognises the importance and significance for the future growth and expansion of their businesses. It’s about Experiencing, Communicating, Educating, Engaging, Exciting, Entertaining, Participating, Getting closer to each other between people & people, people & things, things & things. The relationship and ecosystem between Canon, their products and their customers, get closer and inter-connected right now, even more so in the future with the power of technology and the Internet of Things.
Many organisations around the world are talking about the Internet of Things as the next growth area, revolutionising business and their outreach towards their customers with technology, connectivity and gadgets. This growth area is estimated to be worth a potential of $14.4 trillion for companies worldwide (Source: Salesforce)
Internet of Things, connecting people, connecting technology, connecting eco-systems between people, devices and technology. Is the Internet of Things a whole new world out there or is it a world growing more connected?
Canon has the products, services and outreach. In my personal opinion, it’s about connecting everything together in their Canon Eco-System to make it a more holistic and enjoyable experience from the input (camera/video) to the output (printing/sharing), living up to their slogan “Delighting You Always”.
At the end of the Canon EXPO 2016 Shanghai trip, I learned a lot more about Canon, their other products and services beyond the Canon photography that I know. The next amazing thing is to have a view of the the current wave, the new wave and trends of Canon’s products and services that might be arriving in the next 5 years or the near future.
Looking forward to the next 5 years ahead and eagerly awaiting for some of Canon’s products to be launched in the market! Which Canon products do you think that I am eagerly looking forward to?
Mirrorless Canon!