What Canon will watch the most is the fixed lens scarlet, as that overlaps into their traditional videocam business.

Chris in his article said "Meanwhile, it’s been incorrectly surmised elsewhere on the Web that Canon’s “video and photo divisions compete against each other,” or something to that effect. That’s a false statement unaware of how Canon USA is actually organized."

I'm not sure what Canon USA has to do with Canon's future plans. The people who actually design and build the equipment at Canon Japan will need to figure out who gets what as far as large sensor cameras.

Above the 5D price point Canon will ask professional users what they want. Large groups with similar needs will decide what future form factors look like.

The best way to describe the relationship between Canon USA and Canon Inc. (Japan)
is to say that Canon USA is Canon Inc.'s biggest customer. They have a lot of input.

It matters - but my version of the discussion goes a bit different ;)

CAMERA SHOPPER

"Should I buy the Nikon or the Canon? What do you think?"

DVINFO MEMBER (me)

"I'd go with whichever brand you have lenses for"

CAMERA SHOPPER

"I don't have any lenses"

DVINFO MEMBER (me)

"Doesn't matter then, both make great cameras. Play around with them in a store and see which fits your hands better"

CAMERA SHOPPER

"What if I want to shoot some video too?"

DVINFO MEMBER (me)

"Buy a Flip"


The larger market for these cameras is not clamoring for decreased aliasing, full HD out, greater color depth, RAW, etc - that's just us crazy people around here. I know several casual users who are just blown away by the amazing quality(!) of their D90 video - but annoyed that it's out of focus all the time. It's hard enough to get consistently good video results out of these cameras when you really know what you're doing. For a casual user it ends up being a matter of luck, so I generally steer them away from it.

HDSLR is a game changer...
Hurlbut Visuals

It's always good to lift up these blogs :)

Great Blog! Thanks for the heads up.

Two months later...

CAMERA SHOPPER

"Hey Evan, why is it that your videos look so great and mine stinks???"

DVINFO MEMBER (me)

"Evan, you told him to buy a Flip??? Shoulda got the Canon..." ;)

Two months later...

CAMERA SHOPPER

"Hey Jon, why is it that your videos look so great and mine are all out of focus and wobbly and contrasty and there's this weird clicking in the sound all the time???"

DVINFO MEMBER (me)

"Jon, you told him to buy a DSLR for video???? Shoulda got the Flip..."

You forgot the aliasing. ;)

Yeah, it really depends on the buyer, doesn't it? I work mostly with engineers and people who understand imaging. I can describe the tradeoffs and let them decide. But for Aunt Nellie, for sure, get the Flip.

Coming back to Canon's marketing, when people are trying to decide whether to get a Nikon or Canon still camera, it's a tough decision - especially with the 7D improving on auto focus. It's a game of inches. But for now, Canon is miles ahead of Nikon in video. That might just sell a camera for photos. The buyer might not be happy with the video that they shoot with a 7D or T2i, but they'd be no happier with video from a D90.

Anyway, I'd bet that the buzz about video on these cameras has helped sell Canons to a lot of people who just shoot photos (and who might own Flips!)