Latest Canon camera range takes on smartphones

"Our challenge is to convince people to enjoy photo-taking with the use of a camera rather than a smartphone," Warin Tantipongpanich, senior director and general manager of Canon Marketing (Thailand), said yesterday.

The company’s camera business targets flat sales of Bt4 billion this year, he said.

Due to the shrinking of the compact camera market and the global economic downturn, the company would focus on the mid-to-high product range, with prices starting at Bt7,000 across product types. This range is about 70-80 per cent of the camera business.

However, the company sees potential in the new smartphone segment, which is the mass market in Southeast Asia.

"Thanks to smartphones that are introducing millions of consumers to the world of photography, once they start appreciating photography, they demand better equipment," he said.

According to the company’s research, about half of smartphone users are interested in buying a camera.

To maintain its 60-per-cent share of the camera market excluding mirror-less models, Canon plans to spend 40 per cent of its marketing budget for this year on educating and encouraging more consumers to own a Canon camera.

"We target to attract smartphone users to use a camera for photo-taking. This group is new but large and can be turned to becoming our customers," he said.

Canon Marketing (Thailand) has four business units – cameras with over 40 per cent of sales, printers with over 30 per cent and copy machines and large-format printers together with about 20 per cent .

Yesterday, the company launched the EOS 5Ds for Bt125,000 and EOS 5DsR for Bt132,500, both full-frame DSLRs, and EOS 750D and EOS 760D, both entry level DSLRs with built-in WiFi and near field communication that run from Bt28,900-Bt39,900 depending on lens kits.

It also introduced the CINEMA EOS XC10, a 4K cinema camera, the mirror-less EOS M3 for Bt22,900-Bt30,900 depending on lens kit and Connected Station CS100 as connected media to share and exchange photos from cameras and other devices wirelessly via WiFi and NFC.