Interesting interview with senior Canon people

StewartR

StewartR

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Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on TP - I've searched and haven't found it, so here goes...

A couple of weeks ago the French website Focus Numerique published an interview with some of he head honchos at Canon's Utsonomiya lens factory. It's in French, but I found that google Translate (right-click in a Chrome browser) did a pretty good job on it for me:

https://www.focus-numerique.com/news/entretien-avec-mm-okada-hayakawa-et-izuki-de-canon-19731.html

A couple of interesting snippets:

"When we compare the cost of a lens with its performance, we realise that the relationship is not proportional. From a certain point of view, increasing the performance of a lens by an extra step is extremely expensive. Our responsibility is to offer the best products."

"Without being able to tell you more, we are developing a new technology that will bring real added value and will allow the taking of a new type of photo."
 
Interesting. They've recently added those macro lenses with built in lights
 
Byker28i said:
Interesting. They've recently added those macro lenses with built in lights
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That's not really a new technology though, is it. I doubt very much that was what they were referring to.
 
StewartR said:
"When we compare the cost of a lens with its performance, we realise that the relationship is not proportional. From a certain point of view, increasing the performance of a lens by an extra step is extremely expensive. Our responsibility is to offer the best products."
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That's normal for any given product and any given measure of performance. Incremental improvements in performance become smaller, more expensive and take longer to achieve the closer you get to "perfection".
 
Alastair said:
That's normal for any given product and any given measure of performance. Incremental improvements in performance become smaller, more expensive and take longer to achieve the closer you get to "perfection".
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Oh, sure. The bit I thought was interesting was that Canon seem not to be interested in trying to find the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. That would explain why some of their recent lenses are so eye-wateringly expensive!
 
Well the Sony A9 has been unveiled.... now would be a good time for Canon to step up. (Nikon too).
 
StewartR said:
Oh, sure. The bit I thought was interesting was that Canon seem not to be interested in trying to find the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. That would explain why some of their recent lenses are so eye-wateringly expensive!
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I'd imagine that will change though with the Sigma Art lenses attracting a lot of owners, especially as the range increases?
 
StewartR said:
Oh, sure. The bit I thought was interesting was that Canon seem not to be interested in trying to find the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. That would explain why some of their recent lenses are so eye-wateringly expensive!
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They will be still stopping development at a sweet spot, they've maybe just pushed it a bit further up the price axis.
 
StewartR said:
Oh, sure. The bit I thought was interesting was that Canon seem not to be interested in trying to find the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. That would explain why some of their recent lenses are so eye-wateringly expensive!
Click to expand...

would it explain why the Mk 2 version of the 24-105 f4L is no better optically than the Mk1 (but still eye-wateringly expensive.....)
 
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