Clicking with the consumer
Digital Canon Camera
20 years on from its first true introduction to the consumer, digital photography is now widely accepted as the victor over its more traditional film-based kin. With the battle won camera manufacturers no longer need to convince consumers of digital photography’s merits, thus the focus is now on taking full advantage of what a digitised photography device can do.
For the average consumer the core selling point of digital photography has been the potential to view the picture instantly, which put an end to expensive wasted exposures. However with this and other basic benefits being common in even the cheapest of today’s digital cameras, people are now looking to see what else their camera will let them do.
“In our situation we have to convince the customer that the camera we sell is worth the extra money,” said Philip Brady, Country Manager, Canon Consumer Imaging. “We’re renowned for our quality and it’s important that it stays that way.”
One of the most common features touted in digital cameras over the past two years has been the pixel count, which rose steadily as prices fell. In the early days of digital the count was usually below 500,000 pixels (or 0.5 megapixels) per picture however this has risen slowly but surely to above 10 megapixels, even in some otherwise low-end devices.
“There’s no need for people to go beyond 10 megapixels for the average photograph – a picture at that quality would still look great blown up and few people are going to print more than one A4 picture in their lives,” said David McCormack, Account Manager, Canon Consumer Imaging. “I thought things would peak at 6 megapixels but it seems to have continued on – I think it’s coming to a head now, though.”
While some consumer-focused 12 megapixel cameras have already begun to rear their heads, including some on Canon’s own IXUS range, the importance of pixels does seem to be shrinking as consumers now see little real improvement in going from one high number to another. So what is going to be the next big selling point?
“There are three important things when it comes to cameras – firstly the lens, then the image processor which decodes what the lens sends it and finally the pixel count,” said Kid A. “That always comes third out of three in importance.”
However much of the advancements on the horizon are far more marketable than lens quality, even if they are arguably less practical.
One of the more intriguing examples is the WiFi-ready camera, which uses medium-range signals to communicate with various devices. This may allow the user to transfer their pictures to their computer without having to tether the two with a USB cable, or even have them sent directly for print to a WiFi enabled photo-printer.
The final application for a WiFi camera is the one that will have compulsive social networkers salivating, however. Assuming the user is in a wireless hotspot at the time, the right software will allow the person to upload their pictures online immediately, be it to a private folder or their public Flickr account. Nikon’s Coolpix S52c has such functionality and even allows users to e-mail photos directly from the camera.
Another antenna that is also finding itself into some very niche digital cameras is for GPS, added to allow ‘geo-tagging’ to take place.
The concept of geo-tagging is straight forward – a user tags a picture with a geographical location and uploads it to a photo sharing site, which in turn allows people to view albums of photos taken from a particular area. With enough photographs the user can theoretically see a specific location from any angle and could even piece these disconnected pictures together to create a far broader view than each individual photograph allows for.
Multinational GE has already released a camera – the E1050 – with GPS built-in and many high end smartphones also house the same feature, along with some relatively respectable quality cameras.
For companies like Canon this gradual improvement of camera phones would logically be a threat to them, however the reaction is quite the opposite.
“Camera phones have been great for us – they’ve gotten people taking pictures again,” said Mr. Brady. “Before people would only take their camera out of their drawers for special occasions but now people take pictures of everything.
“What’s great about that is that they take a picture with their phone and quickly decide they would get even better results if they got a dedicated compact camera instead.”
A lot of Canon’s business also comes from those customers who upgrade to the more professional cameras having grown an appetite for something with more depth than your straight-forward ‘point-and-shoot’ device.
There seems to be no doubt that digital has given new life to the camera industry and opened a huge array of new doors in terms of the features now possible as a result. With some intriguing new features on the way there is no doubt that consumers will have plenty of choice, but exactly what will be the next killer selling point for consumers weary of the pixel arms race remains to be seen.
An edited version of this feature appeared in Business & Finance magazine in September 2008.
