Canons Website is so so so bad
 

Is it just me or is www.canon.com one of the worst camera manufacturor sites on the web?

Its ugly, ithe colors dont match at all, it looks like it was designed with Frontpage, and worst of all, its hard to navigate.

You would think with all the money they have they could sport a better/more functional design like Sony's site.

Anyone else agree?

Well, canon.com is an international gateway. It *has* to be simplistic; it's a worldwide portal. I really don't think the Sony portal at http://www.sel.sony.com/ is that much better. Try www.canondv.com for something a bit more modern (looks like it was just changed, too -- I kinda liked the older one better). Check out http://www.usa.canon.com and http://www.powershot.com while you're at it -- nothing spectacular though.

I need to get rid of the frames on my own site.

Brad,
The CanonDV site has been a tiny pet peeve of mine for several years. The reward for waiting for all of their roll-over junk to load has always been meager. They could do quite a bit better on their Web representation. On the positive side, however, during the past year or so they have added some meaningful content such as their camera's users manuals, although navigating to find them is comparable to an Easter egg hunt.

But not to be underdone, Sony's site looks like an experiment in virtual unreality. Sony's broadcast products site looks as though it hasn't been touched in 2 years and can't even be viewed with Mac IE; they turn you away!

Harumph.

Yea I agree guys.

I was actually looking at Sony's professional site earlier today as well and should have mentioned it. http://bpgprod.sel.sony.com/

Its just as bad as the canon site! If you click on products, then click on a camcorder and try to check out the specs or features, it uses layers that overlap existing content so its totally unreadable!! Its unbelievable that a professional company could portray this image to the public. Then again, not too many people shopping for $30,000+ cameras are going to be buying them online. More than likely they will go to B&H and get the info they need there- or they will already know the info. Its not really necessary to advertise HD cameras I guess. Kind of like why you dont see commercials for Ferraris and Lamborghinis. People just know they are good.

But it just strikes me as odd. Canon's website is a portal yes, but none of it is uniform at all. You click on English, it takes to to another section which is totally different, then you click on products, then you have to click on USA, then finally you get to the cameras. All of these sections have different layouts and different designs. Its just not professional. If I were the president of these companies, I would rather not have a site at all then what they have up there for public viewing.

Sad to say, this was a small factor in why I chose the VX2000 over the Canon XL1. It sounds stupid, but I became so frustrated browsing through the Canon site that I spent more time on Sony's consumer site and its related sites. It left a bad taste.

Exactomunde, Brad. Now Canon's lost one sale to a rival. In itself it's certainly not a big deal. But in a year or two who are you going to be inclined to buy the next cam from? Relatively small details such as a poor brochure site can either start a cascade of sales or an avalanche of missed opportunities for a company.

None, not even the sales outlets are very good.
 

Really, Canon and others should use sites such as the Watchdog...or least copy their form.

When I started cruising for a cam, the corporate websites were all so poor you really could never figure out how well a cam would perform. Worse still it was even harder to detrmine what accessories we great items to get with your cam.

Still even the sales sites are guilty too. It is hard to find what accessories or options are available. Too bad they do not do what Amazon.com does with their books...by showing what books other purchasers are buying when they purchase the current selection.

Nathan Gifford