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MegaPixel.co.il Interviews with Canon and Nikon at Photokina
While not exactly recent, the two interviews below were published in English only a few days ago. During photokina, Megapixel.co.il interviewed both Canon and Nikon about new products, product differentiation, and product development.
Richard Shepherd explained in a few words in the interview about project 1709 (the name is actually the date of the beta announcement). The project is invitation only at this stage.
The events in Japan in 2011 had a lot of influence on the actual launch of the 1D-X – Canon used the time to tweak and improve the finished product.
Regarding the delays in launching some of the long telephoto lenses – Canon states that it was important to reach full production capability as to not cause delays later on.
For Canon – the 6D is the idea travel camera. Although there might be other target audiences for the 6D – people who travel and like a quality camera they can carry are very high on the list.
The 6D will not be the only DSLR wit GPS and WIFI but don't expect every model from now on to come with these features.
Although we asked – we didn't get a direct answer whether or not the EOS-M can be fitted with and external digital viewfinder and if it can – does Canon has any plans to do so.
According to Canon, Pro photographers do not trust digital viewfinders and so for pro cameras, optical viewfinders are here to stay.
Adding a focus limiter in the camera is possible technically, however Mike Owen explained that so far Canon did not receive substantial enough request for this feature from its costumers.
The APS-H format is not necessarily dead – this actually depends on the market and the consumer needs.
The eye-control-focus technology (used for example in the Canon EOS-3) is gone, but it might return again in the future. In the past some photographers liked it but some didn't so its an open issue.
Don't expect a road map from Canon for its EOS-M lenses (unlike Sony, Samsung, Fuji, Panasonic etc.). Canon is going to focus on what it feels are the right lenses for this format (i.e. mostly compact lenses).