Dave Etchells, Imaging Resource:
What's Casio's strategy for differentiating and building market share? What sorts of focus will we see from Casio this year?

Mike Rubin, Director of Product Marketing, Digital Imaging Division, Casio:
Here at CES, we've put our emphasis on HDR (High Dynamic Range) and HDR-Art imaging. We think HDR imaging is the future. The beauty of it is, it actually captures images the way your eyes see them. So you get the full range of color and shadow. And with HDR-Art, you get to express yourself in a different way than you ever have before. Unlike the other solutions that have been out there, which required a lot of images and taking the time afterwards to do the post-processing, it all happens very quickly in the camera because of our high-speed processing. So we're definitely going to be pushing with our high-speed processing. We have it in three of our new cameras: the ZR10, the ZR100, and now the TRYX. We definitely want to push the HDR-Art. We want to push design. We've always been about design, from our EXILIM back in 2002 to today with the TRYX camera. We're trying to push design further, but we're also trying to keep our cameras as slim as possible. So you'll see with the ZR100 a 12.5x zoom is a very, very slim camera. You'll see with the TRYX a camera that's just slightly larger than 1/2-inch thick and can be posed in any number of ways.

IR:
You mentioned HDR as being key, and you have both "normal" HDR and then HDR-Art. HDR has become almost a design cliché among print designers, but you've got both the creative aspect and also being able to just reproduce more what people remember seeing at the scene.

Mike:
Absolutely. I think that's what's different right now. We've been shooting film for so many years and we're so used to what a film image looks like. Even a negative which has such a wide dynamic range has to be narrowed because of the color changes. With digital now, and high dynamic range imaging, and the fact that we can take so many images so quickly, and that the sensors are so clean, we now can really capture things the way we actually see them. With HDR-Art, we don't have to be so clichéd, as we can control some of the levels and some of the output filtering. So, it now adds creativity that quite frankly may have been stunted in the past. I know for me, I was always terrible when I was an artist trying to do anything with paint or a pencil. Yet when I got to a computer, I could suddenly make these drawings and things that I never could have done by hand. I think it's the same thing with HDR and HDR-Art. Somebody who maybe could take a good snapshot but really couldn't make a good photograph can now take it to a whole different level and create some new art.

IR:
Casio has had a long history of innovation. For instance, Casio was the company to put an LCD on the back of a camera. It seems, though, that you've had difficulty capturing mindshare a lot of times with digcam consumers. How do you go about communicating Casio's unique benefits to the market? How do you explain to people the unique benefits and features?

Mike:
That's actually a great question. I think the most important thing we can do is make sure that our message is out there from a public relations standpoint; from our website, saying the messages we're saying right now. The same things we're talking about here, they're on our website today. Also, trying to educate people. Another aspect of this is through the web and internet. We have a site called Imaging Square. It's a new service that Casio is launching this February, which will allow anybody to convert their images, whether from a camera phone, a Casio or an SLR, into an artistic HDR-looking image. That's through Casio algorithms online. They'll be able to store, and eventually, they'll be able to output. It's really in the early phases, but we will make people more educated about HDR just through that. If people start to see the results, that's certainly going to help. Of course, at the retail space where we can actually talk to our customers through our point-of-purchase materials, and by training the sales representatives at the counter, I think that's certainly going to help, too. Adding to that, we're looking at some new advertising opportunities. Here at CES, we had a huge out-of-home presence with the monorail station here at the convention center wrapped with all Casio TRYX advertising, and we've had some great advertising out at the front of the convention center near the bus station. So, we're looking at all different opportunities and we're really going to try to get the consumer presence. Most importantly, we just have the educate the consumer so they understand the benefits.

IR:
Among the different market segments, who would you say Casio's key customer groups are, and how would that drive the camera designs? Who's the Casio customer, and how do you address that?

Mike:
I don't think there is one [type of] Casio customer. Now that we have TRYX on the market, I think that's for a youthful audience. It's not your traditional photography market. This is a customer who probably is younger, they've grown up on the internet, they've grown up on the computer, they love taking pictures of themselves and their friends and sharing them. They love the aspect of the "social" in the social media. So the pictures they show revolve around their friendships and relationships, and they want to share it whether it's in stills or video. On the higher-end, we hit the photo enthusiast. People don't always think of photography and Casio, but as you said, in '95 we came out with the first LCD on the back of a camera. In 2002, the first slim camera. So it's always about style, it's about design, and it's about function. I think there's also a technical customer who understands things like putting a dual-core processor in a camera like the ZR100, the ZR10 or TRYX that can actually reconfigure itself. There are going to be people attracted by technology. So really, we do run the gamut. Everyone wants to say they market to everyone, but I think the technically savvy customer is going to find a camera for themselves. The photo enthusiast is going to find a camera for themselves. And I think the younger population (which I used to be part of but regret now I'm not) <grins> will find some use with our cameras.

IR:
You mentioned social networking and the younger market. A lot of older people are on Facebook too. How to you see digicams participating in that ecosystem, and what does the TRYX uniquely do that helps people share their images?

Mike:
That's another great question. When you plug it in the first time, the TRYX camera actually installs software. (You have the option of course not to install it, like any good program.) When you install it, it will actually set up a gateway, so the next time you connect the camera the images you've chosen to share (or you can select all on the camera), will automatically go up to the social media site(s) of your choice. You can gate-keep them, so they get to be reviewed before they go, or they can go automatically and publish. If you use an Eye-Fi card, you can do some of the same things [wirelessly] as well with the camera, so it's going to interface beautifully. One of the nice things too, when you use Eye-Fi with any of our cameras, we're very power optimized when using it. So you can use the Wi-Fi option with our cameras to go directly, or just put it in your iPad. All our video functions are ready for the iPad or iPhone. So everything we do, we're really thinking about the end result.

IR:
So the idea is once you get it set up and configure the software initially, after that you just plug the camera in when you come back to your computer, and it uploads everything you've tagged to be uploaded?

Mike:
Yes, and if you have an Eye-Fi card, it does it on-the-fly.

IR:
Apart from long-zooms, how can digicams hold-off mirrorless cameras on the one hand, that offer better image quality, and cellphone cameras on the other side that are "good enough," but have better connectivity?

Mike:
I think that's a challenge that every camera manufacturer is facing at different levels, whether they are making digital SLRs or compact cameras. I think like anything, it's about innovation, it's about differentiation, and it's about taking new chances with designs. Certainly long-zoom is part of it. Touch-screens are part of it. But there are times I'm going to be on my phone and I'm going to see an image. I can't tell someone "can you hold-on one second, I know this is an important business call but I have to take a picture because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." It's just not going to happen. And there are other limitations, too. If you're going on vacation, and you're in the middle of Europe, and your cell coverage is costing you a few dollars per minute to upload, I don't think you want all those images going up so quickly. You might want to wait until you get to a computer at night. But also, I think there is still a difference in how you express yourself, and how people react to a camera versus a phone. That's not to say some of the cellphone cameras aren't very useful -- they are. People are using them every day to take great pictures. But by the same token, you can't do some of the things without high-speed image processing, which you need to do 1000 fps like in our ZR100. You're not going to get the quality. You're still limited by the optics to a certain degree.

IR:
What are you seeing in picture-usage trends, and how is this influencing your camera designs? Are you seeing broad shifts in what people are doing with their pictures and the types of pictures they're taking, and how is that influencing designs?

Mike:
People are obviously doing less printing; we know that from statistics. What's interesting is that people are doing a lot more printing of their snapshots at their local retailer, their drug store, or their membership club. I think they are going to their camera store again. And the good camera stores are telling people "come in and print, we'll show you how, we'll help you along the way and we'll hold your hand."

By the same token, we were talking about social media. Of course, so many images never get printed. They end up on social media. But I don't care who you are, if you have a grandparent or you know a grandparent, they're going to want to print those images at some point along the line, and there's going to be a certain amount of printing. With the TRYX camera aimed towards youth, we're definitely about the interconnectivity and getting it out and shared quickly. With some of the higher-end cameras, we're really focused on making those once-in-a-lifetime shots, and then printing them. With think print is still going to be a great market.

IR:
So you see the print not going away; rather that it's going to continue to be a viable way that people share pictures.

Mike:
Absolutely. Certainly, when we look at the iPad, the Kindle and the Nook, we see how books are starting to disappear to a certain degree. That's understandable. Think about the cost of publishing and printing, and also the portability. War and Peace can fit on your iPad at the same weight that a pamphlet can, so obviously there's that factor. And certainly, you can show your pictures on that iPad. But I can't give you my iPad (well, I won't give you my iPad), just so you can look at pictures later on. So, how do I give them to you? I can either share them with you or I can print them for you. And in many cases, printing is going to be quick and easy. Also, people still want to display images in their homes and at work. I'm not going to have my iPad sitting in my office, changing pictures over and over. I want to see pictures of my wife, my son, my family and that great vacation that we took. I'll print them on some of the metallic paper if I do it in HDR. It just looks amazing.

IR:
What's the status of high-speed cameras and how they fit into your line? They were a major focus of Casio's product line this time last year, and for the last couple of years. You still have high-speed capability, but how has that shifted and how has the market responded to high-speed?

Mike:
The market has loved high-speed, especially in sports and action. They love the idea of being able to capture a golf swing or a tennis stroke, or different motions. They are able to do it quickly and easily. Further, we've now incorporated the high-speed functionality into many of our cameras. Our TRYX camera for example uses something called High-Speed SR Zoom, where it takes four quick shots and stitches them together, and actually lets you zoom-in by 2x, giving you a 10-megapixel image that's the equivalent to one taken with a 42mm lens. So it actually zooms-in twice. Again, you can also take 240 fps at a little bit lower resolution, and it also helps with our video function. We actually have 1080p capture in three of our cameras. There are very few compact cameras that can do that, and ours are the ZR100, ZR10 and TRYX. With the ZR10, we can do 480 fps and with the ZR100, we can do 1,000 fps. So it's become a major part of our line. In addition, it allows us to do things like HDR and HDR-Art, because we can fire off so many shots so quickly. It also lets us do things like the pre-record, where I half-press the shutter on the ZR100 and it starts to record five images. By the time I [fully] press the shutter, five images have been captured, so I'm sure to get that moment that I otherwise would have missed. We pioneered that, and that's again all back to high-speed. So we're looking for news ways and opportunities to take advantage of it, extend it, and maybe make it a little more mainstream as part of our lineup.

IR:
So rather than being a special feature, it's just something the camera does that enables other things.

Mike:
Absolutely. It extends the functionality of the camera.

IR:
Have you done any research on what size on average people are printing their pictures at? How big are people printing? Are they cropping a lot? Are they printing 8x10's? Are they printing 4x6's?

Mike:
This is just general speculation based on some of the reports I've read, and some dealer feedback, but people are still printing the 4x6 because it's the most convenient size. When it's the image that matters, they are going to the 8x10 or larger print. I think that's where they're going to the great photo processors out there, to make the larger prints for the wall.

IR:
So the 4x6 dominates because it's convenient for albums and things like that.

Mike:
Absolutely.

IR:
Now, the question we're asking everyone: 2009 was a tough year. 2010 seems to have sprung back a lot, particularly in the holiday season. What does Casio see for 2011? Will we be up, down, sideways?

Mike:
It's interesting. I've looked at this a number of different ways, from key market indications, from key economic indicators, as well as some of the reporting and quite frankly how we did in the last quarter. We did pretty well in the last quarter. We certainly are seeing an up-tick in all of our business. I think in general, we're hearing an up-tick in all business out there. I think there was a better sense and a better mood this holiday season. Everything I've read and seen indicates a much, much stronger economy, and that's despite severely cold weather [during the holiday shopping season], which usually puts a damper on all markets. Things are doing very, very well, surprisingly. The mood I'm getting is that things are returning to a newer normal. That's not to say unemployment isn't still a problem; it's still a factor, and the housing market has not stabilized. But overall, if you go to the Mike Rubin school of economics I think that what you are going to find is that things are getting a little bit better. Slowly but surely. We're definitely in an up-tick in the overall economy. I think we're in an up-tick in the camera market overall as well, and I think people are still taking pictures. It's one of those things because no matter whether the market is good or bad, people still graduate, people are still born, people still have those great moments: Mother's day, a child's first walk, etc. I think people are still capturing the moments of their lives.

IR:
So good economy or bad economy, life still happens, people still take pictures.

Mike:
Absolutely.

IR:
What's the unexpected extra from Casio in 2011?

Mike:
The unexpected extra I think was the TRYX camera, quite frankly. I don't think people saw this coming. Having been involved with cameras that swivel in my past history (and Dave knows them all very well, as does Shawn), this was such a radically different design. Yet it's amazing that no one thought of it before. Everyone who's seen this camera has said "my goodness, what a great idea." Also, I now can put the camera down, wave at the camera, and it knows to take a picture. I don't have to deal with pressing a button or doing a setting. It's set it, point at it, and shoot. It's changing the way people will take pictures. I know people will be copying this, of course. I think HDR and HDR-Art are just one more way we extend it; our high-speed shooting, our 1080p video -- I think we have a lot of extras this year.

IR:
That's great. So the TRYX watches you and then takes the picture. You communicate to it by waving at it.

Mike:
There's a little box [on the LCD], where once you put your hand in motion in that little box in the corner, it recognizes that you're ready to shoot, sets the timer to about a 3-count, and off it goes.

IR:
That's great. That's an unexpected extra. Well Mike, thanks a lot. Have a great 2011.

Mike:
Thank you. You too, Dave and Shawn.