We’ve already looked at the third wheel, Sony, and the areas they need to focus on in improving. Now lets take a look at the current market leader, Canon. I’ve mentioned before that 2009 has been a busy year for Japanese firm, Canon. They’ve released several bombshells on the market starting with their Canon 5D MK II in late 2008 and then followed by the Canon 1Ti which arguably is the better competitor than the popular Nikon D90. On the heels of the Canon 1Ti, they unveiled the aggressively designed Canon 7D which appears (at least on paper) to be head and shoulders above the Nikon D300 or D300s.
As of the time of this writing, perhaps the only “big” camera Canon hasn’t unveiled yet is their successor to the 1D/1Ds MK III professional camera. With still 3 months left in 2009 I think it wouldn’t be unrealistic for Canon to unveil the next generation of their flagship camera although I think its also possible they could wait until early 2010 as well. I fully expect 2010 to be a relatively quiet year for Canon considering all the announcements they’ve made in 2009. They’ll need to reload and come back with a fury in 2011 just like they’ve done in 2009. Regarding the 1ds MK III though, Canon has been taking all the typical steps prior to introducing a replacement camera. The main signal has been the substantial decrease in price on the 1Ds MKIII. Smells like something coming down the pipeline.
So, at the end of 2009 Canon will once again be comfortably in the lead of the dslr market having staved off their old nemesis, Nikon once again. Their thoughts will be to the future and what the next generation of products should offer.
Canon provides perhaps the most balanced blend of features, price and resolution of all the major players. Nikon products currently feature low resolution (comparatively) with excellent high ISO performance. Sony features league leading resolution with poor ISO performance. Canon straddles the fence and offers the best blend of both. This is exactly what the consumers want. Canon needs to continue to build the best products they can possibly offer. While Nikon, for the most part, is content to “tie” or just barely exceed most of the specs of their competitors. Canon usually trumps virtually all of the competitors specs and tries to go as far beyond them as possible. Here’s my advise.
Autofocus System
The universal criticism of Canon right now centers around their AF systems. Compared to the excellent 51 point systems found in the D700 and D300s the Canon 15 point AF system sounds a little pokey. The Canon AF system is good, people greatly exaggerate its weakness but there’s no doubt that the Nikon system is measurably better. Canon needs to address this because in the consumer market there is no difference between an actual weakness and a perceived weakness. They’ve already trumped most of the other significant areas of camera design, its time to work on the AF system as well. We’ve seen some of this improvement already in the 7D, it will be interesting to see how it performs against the excellent D300 system.
HD Video Recording
Like it or not, HD video is the biggest thing in DSLRs since liveview. Canon has done very well an integrating and implementing HD video across their product line. They need to continue to refine and improve this. With each new product they have been making strides, the 7D gets them even closer to what all the videophiles are lusting after. Still in the future they should breach the gap to offer 1080p @ 60 fps plus all the options in between (SD, 720P, 1080i, 25fps, 30fps). What would be a neat parlor trick that Canon could quite probably perform is high speed standard definition video capture. The Casio EX camera already does this with captures of up to 1000fps at a greatly decreased resolution. If Canon could implement a high speed video capture as standard definition it would a neat option to tout over their rivals. (this feature would be best implemented in their lower end DSLR models for the consumers who would be most impressed by it).
Beyond those two main areas of focus Canon simply needs to continue to do what it always does, that is to release great cameras with strong feature sets at affordable prices. If they addressed the AF system, continue to commit to the rising trend of HD video they should remain set to stay on top of the hill for the forseeable future. They need to continue to push the megapixel barrier as well as their ISO performance.
