Canon will finally officially announce both the EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II the third week of July. We're not putting an exact date on it yet (a pretty constant failure of ours in recent months), but we have been told that it is still a bit of a “moving” target. That said, we're talking a moving target of days not weeks or months.
Availability of the EOS R5 Mark II will start in August, but at this point in time, we don't want to comment on the availability of the EOS R1. We have reported November in the past, but we haven't heard any further clarification on that in a while, so that may have changed.
Canon will also announce a few lenses before the month is out we have been told. At this moment, no one has been able to clarify what lenses and if any of them would be a “development” announcement.
We don't want to report on the specifics of the lenses at this time, as there have been a lot of contradictory information, even from good sources.
We are working on a story about some of the issues plaguing Canon at the moment, and we think it'll bring some broader understanding of why there are some confusing issues that we haven't seen historically from Canon. We have been covering this company for more than 15 years, and things are definitely different at this moment in time.
They're buying out some company?
Over the weekend, I had an extended fondle with a Sony A7rV at a camera show. The Sony was available at a greatly discounted price and I was very, very tempted... If the retailer supporting the show had had a Sigma MC11 in stock to try my EF lenses with it, then the wait for my DSLR replacement would have been over.
In other news, one of the photographers at the Barcelona Grands Prix was using a integrated grip bodied Canon (and an FD lens) without any markings on it. It was difficult to determine at HD broadcast quality whether it was the R1 - I couldn't see the little indicator on the left shoulder of the prism, but why would an R3 be disguised? R3 Mk II?
The rumored readout speed of the R1 is 2ms (and initial was 0.8ms), so that would result in the desired 1/500th sync speed.
Of course, I am also skeptical about that, but if the R1 is only marginally faster than the R3 and has the same MP count it would be a big disappointment.
They did, but Sony lost money on that. Most of the Sony "influencers" got all their kit for free.
I went on a Sony event a few years ago. 3 days paid for. Wined and dined. Hot air balloon ride, a special tour of the San Diego zoo.... some kind of fast sailboat ride (sailing up to an aircraft carrier was... a holy crap moment though! We don't have those in Canada), great restaurants and vino... though it's very much a beer town. Great hotel, play with all their gear. I don't know what they expected inviting me, but I'll take it. I met some cool people that I still talk to and they're extremely talented.
There were 12 of us on that trip..... 6 ended up getting free kits and off they went. Not many are getting rich in this industry, so if you can get all the tools that want and not have to pay for it? Any sort of brand loyalty you may have probably won't matter.
Canon did this sort of stuff in the early nineties to attack Nikon's dominance in certain areas, so it's not a new strategy. It can be effective though, as Canon proved back in the day.
It worked!
BMW became very successful in competing with Mercedes. Inviting customers every year for an aperitf with champagne and foie gras doesn't cost a fortune, and keeps them hooked. (It did cost $50 per capita, including flowers for Madame, average price of a BMW was around euro70000 !).
Can Canon really afford to neglect influencers and agencies in the long term? Time will tell...Sony's success is to a large extent due to such incentives, less to product qualitiy.
I guess it's a strategy used across all industries. I think it's the first thing a lot of new companies do now to get their stuff out there.
We're working on a Canon has a problem story, it will be coming this week. We've done actual research and talked to people.... it's been fun and eye opening. It has to pass across a few sets of eyes to make sure we don't say anything out of line... but any edits will still be true. We also don't want it to be a hit piece of negativity. There are some problems though.
One does have to look at the dismantling of the CPS program in many countries. Which I have always thought was the wrong direction to take CPS, but I guess part of it has been the push on CarePAK , and it's a forward-facing high margin revenue stream.
We have reached out to Canon about some things, I'm sure that'll go well. :)
I vaguely recall Thom Hogan writing that all three companies were having supply issues, delaying the release of new models.