Canon Doesn’t See Smartphones As The Enemy

Smartphones are ubiquitous nowadays. Just about everyone has them. Heck, even kids these days are packing some pretty high-end smartphones themselves! That being said, it also means that everyone now has a camera on them compared to before where you’d actually have to buy a camera if you wanted to take photos.

So what does this mean for camera manufacturers? Nikon had previously stated that due to smartphones becoming more common, they’ve started to work on projects that would change the concept of cameras. But what about Canon? In a recent interview with DPreview, Canon’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Image Communication Products Operations, Masaya Maeda, doesn’t appear too fazed.

When asked if he thought that smartphones were a threat to Canon or an opportunity, Maeda replied by saying, “We don’t see the smartphone as an enemy. We like to see it as representing an infrastructure which we should be making use of.” In fact that is exactly what Sony has been doing with their Exmor RS sensors and G-lens technology which they have incorporated into their smartphones like the Xperia Z2, as well as to other companies such as Apple.

Ken-Ichi Shimbori, Canon’s Advisor, ICP Group 2, Image Communication Products Operations, weighs in by saying, “What is emerging as a result of the increasing use of smartphones is a change in photographic culture. You can use a smartphone as a tool for sharing your pictures with other people over the internet and that is one respect in which we want our DSLRs to ‘cohabit’ with smartphones.”

As it stands, this kind of “cohabitation” exists with DSLR cameras that feature WiFi connectivity. This allows photos to be transferred wirelessly to smartphones or tablets, after which we guess one could share them on social media. Then again this is hardly a elegant process and not all cameras pack WiFi either, but hopefully a solution will present itself soon.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Photo-Video
Tags: Canon