Canon is constantly criticized for playing it safe in their product development and marketing. As I noted when the See Impossible teaser was posted, it contained some very bold statements:
The message is uncharacteristically bold for Canon announcements. Sure, there is some puffery in the standard Canon press releases and Canon generally thinks its crap doesn’t stink, but this is a few steps above all that.
And then came the big reveal, which turned out to be a marketing message. The comments went downhill from there. So…
For those complaining about Canon’s latest marketing push with the Canon See Impossible slogan, you are going to get a major kick out of this parody posted by a Canon Watch reader.
If you are having trouble making out the font on the parody ad, the text is as follows:
THIS MESSAGE IS CREATED OUT OF FEAR, DOUBT, AND FALLING SALES.
You want a camera system which keeps up with the latest technology. You want us to innovate, take risks, add features that are standard for other manufacturers, and you tell us this is possible.
You want us to invest in advanced sensors which excel in low light, color reproduction and dynamic range, you want 4K video, an EVF and high frame rates in a reasonably priced camera.
You say, “It can be done.”
To all of you, we apologize.
Because we don’t see what you see. We see an expensive line of cinema cameras we must protect, and a road map of painfully slow iterations so there’s always a reason for you to spend more money. You love what Sony, Panasonic and even Samsung are doing, and you see opportunity, you see ingenuity, you see POSSIBLE.
AT CANON, WE SEE IMPOSSIBLE.
[via Canon Watch]
Canon can say absolutely anything but until they deliver it does not mean anything. Ridiculous… Nikon, Sony, & Fuji film are delivering a lot of stellar projects while Canon seems determined to hobble & nickel dime ppl for WiFi & even lens hoods. Oh & BTW my brand new Canon printer needs servicing.
Canon does innovate, they just do it slowly and never do minor product updates. The push the limits on product lines without updates until sales dip beyond what is reasonable. Look at the T5i which is the EXACT SAME as the T4i (but most don’t know that) and we don’t even have a potential replacement till next year. But I doubt Canon is loosing much on the sales so they just keep the products online till the last possible moment. The 7D took around 4 years to replace but was still selling 3 years into the product cycle. New cameras (when they do release new cameras) are good with solid improvements (7D2, 5D3, 1DX, and even the dual pixel 70D has some new stuff) but Canon definitely does not push the envelope very often (Canon 6D & Rebel) and they tend to still charge a high price. Meanwhile Nikon has an update cycle closer to Apple with Major and Minor updates so you see new products more often. The risk to Canon’s model is they look complacent
Example of my frustration is the 7DII not having built in WiFi because “body wouldn’t allow for it”. Such blatant bs. I have a t2i & 60D. I’ve been waiting on 7DII for years now to make my next upgrade. At this point I don’t think its about being innovative as much as its about include all the basic modern elements. Feels like Canon is falling into 3rd or even 4th place with what value they offer compared to other manufacturers… I’m a sad Canon enthusiast…
Ah BTW. Just bought an Eos M. At $300 dollars its a lovely little camera. Canon could be a contender in the mirror less world with it if (((if))) they 1) AF a bit better 2) add WiFi 3) better battery life.
That just brings it up to (kinda sorta) where the competition already sits but will they? I doubt it. Probably don’t want it cutting into rebel DSLR sales.