Is Canon feeling the heat? For the first time, Sony sells more system cameras in South Korea
posted Monday, April 14, 2014 at 1:57 PM EST
Sony has been working hard to establish itself as a major camera manufacturer, and now it seems the work is finally paying off. For the first time in the company's relatively young history as a camera maker it has sold more interchangeable lens cameras in South Korea than its rival, the photography behemoth Canon. Though only by a very slight margin – 0.1% as Sony Alpha Rumors reports – and only in one country it seems that Sony has finally managed to edge out Canon.
Quite honestly though, this does not come as much of a surprise. Sony has been hard at work improving the mirrorless formula and making ever better cameras with clever new tweaks, whereas Canon's primary focus remains the DSLR. While this strategy might have worked for the more conservative western markets, it apparently hasn't been as effective in South Korea.
So, is Canon feeling the heat yet? Should they be afraid that this might be the leading edge of a wave that is eventually going to spread to Europe and America? It probably won't turn out to be that dramatic, but there may come a time when the company is forced to bring dramatically more resources to bear on its mirrorless system.
Despite mixed reception to its first entry into the mirrorless system market, Canon still appears dedicated to its EF-M system, as a newly unearthed patent shows. Egami has spotted the patented concept of a 22-46mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-M lens. Judging by its 2.1x zoom factor, this could well be a tiny pancake zoom lens, maybe even with a motorized zoom. This would fit perfectly on an even slimmer EOS M-type body and make for a truly pocketable package.
We did find another datapoint salient: the pedestrian f/3.5-5.6 aperture range, which is unlikely to win over enthusiast hearts. We can't make sweeping conclusions about all of Canon's intentions for the EOS, but taken together with patents that surfaced earlier this year, all of which variable aperture zooms (as opposed to pricier constant-aperture glass), this does indicate that the step-up consumer remains a primary target for the EF-M.
(via Canon Watch)