#TECH: Canon bullish about “real” camera market

DESPITE the popularity of smartphones as photo-taking devices, traditional camera players like Canon are still upbeat about the camera market.

Its head of imaging, Communications Products Division, Albert Mah, said full frame mirrorless cameras are always on demand.

He said with the introduction of the EOS R5 and R5 mirrorless system, the company is in a better position to offer photography enthusiasts the best device for their hobby as well as professional work.

“The camera is able to offer improved low luminance performance, higher ISO performance, more control over depth of field, improved dynamic range due to the shorter flange and wide mount of the cameras. Canon cameras offer amazing natural skin tone colour presets that minimises the need for post editing,” he said.

“For the past few years, we’ve seen many photographers — professional, amateur or casual, take interest in mirrorless cameras because of the seamless experiences they offer. With the EOS R5 and R6, we aim to provide more photographers with unparalleled imaging experiences,” he added.

The EOS R5

The EOS R5 camera is targeted at professional photographers and videographers who need a hybrid camera that can shoot both photography and videography especially with the 45 MP and 8K video quality that supports 4:2:2 10bit Canon Log or 4:2:2 10bit HDR PQ for post video editing.

It features a dual card slot; CF-express and SD memory card while the EOS R6 accommodates both SD memory cards.

Meanwhile, the EOS R6 provides photographers with 20-megapixel full-frame sensor, low luminance Auto Focus sensitivity of up to EV-6.5 and ISO of up to 102,400 expandable to 204,800.

“This helps photographers to capture clear and vivid images even in ultra-low light situations that the human eye would find difficult to see,” said Mah.

Besides that, both cameras come with the improved Dual Pixel CMOS AF II to provide smooth, high-performance tracking with blazingly fast processing speed of the new DIGIC X imaging processor that is able to capture not just the body, but head and eyes of the subjects in demanding fields such as sports and bird photography.

Other features of the cameras include a 5-axis camera-shake blur correction In-Body Image Stabiliser function and when used with an optical Image Stabilizer lens, the camera-shake blur reduction up to 8-stops.

With the improved Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, auto focus performance of the camera allows the user to detect the body, face or eyes of a subject and maintain high-precision focus and tracking, regardless of the subject’s size, posture, or the orientation / direction of the face.

ADVANTAGES OVER PHONES

Mah said that real cameras like the R5 and R6 have many advantages over smartphone cameras.

“Mobile phone cameras seem to be getting better in terms of megapixels but they lack image quality and zoom capabilities as the sensor on the mobile phone camera is still relatively small compared to a real camera,” he said.

“Real cameras have the versatility to meet each photographer’s creative needs through interchangeable lenses, varying focal lengths, mirrorless and full-frame options. For example, the incredible processing power of DIGIC X, coupled with the ultra-fast CFexpress media, enables the Canon EOS R5 to record 8K movies at a smooth 30fps with full sensor readout (no crop),” he added.

Besides that, he said cameras like the EOS R6 can perform much better in ultra-low light compared to phones due to its ISO capability of up to 102,400 (expandable to 204,800) with clear, low-noise pictures.

Source: NST