Canon EOS M

An interview at DC Watch with those responsible for the product design of Canon’s compact mirrorless camera, the EOS M, seems to be saying that Canon is mainly targeting women in the 20 to 30 years old demographic as the primary buyers and users of the camera. A slide also seems to indicate that the EOS M is viewed as an entry point to users later upgrading to an EOS traditional mirrored DSLRs. Seems to me a strange way of positioning the EOS M, but time will tell how successful that positioning is.

Read the Google-translated article at : DC Watch.

In this video from Reviewed.com, Ben Thomas of Canon gives us an insight on how Canon is viewing its mirrorless entry with the EOS M. It especially hopes that the video success it experienced with its HDSLR models will rub off on the EOS M.

©Greg Gorman: “Tony BentOver”

For over four decades, highly acclaimed photographer Greg Gorman has continued to master the art of photography. From personality portraits and advertising campaigns to magazine layouts and fine art work, Greg has developed and showcased a discriminating and unique style in his profession.

I met Greg Gorman after his 2.5 hour keynote address at the Profusion 2012 Pro Imaging Expo in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In his address, Greg discussed his Portraiture, Celebrity and Nude photography as well as his ever-growing bibliography of photography books.

©Greg Gorman: “Grace Jones”

Greg’s work documents that peculiar obsession of the 20th century -  celebrity. The roster of celebrities he has captured reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood and the recording industry. He has lectured and conducted seminars and workshops throughout the world.

Timeless. His photography is timeless and not confined to has-beens, hot properties, and wannabes. Each shot gives a picture of human nature in its infinite range. Each picture is also a testament to the individual character.

“For me a photograph is most successful when it doesn’t answer all the questions, and it leaves something to be desired.”

©Greg Gorman: “David Bowie”

Born in 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri, Greg attended the University of Kansas from 1967-69 with a major in photojournalism. He completed his studies at the University of Southern California in 1972, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in cinematography.

At the Epson booth in the Profusion 2012 Pro Imaging Expo on Tuesday, June 19, I had the pleasure of talking with acclaimed photographer Greg Gorman.

Here is my interview with Greg Gorman:

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London Evening Standard interviews Sir [he's been knighted] Jonathan Ive ["Jony"], Apple’s Senior Designer of many of the successful iconic products. He talks about the design-prototype-make process as being integral, about being inquisitive, the need to make products that are “better” rather than “different” or “new”, the challenge of creating a need from opportunities, a fanatical attention to detail, why Apple does not do focus groups, spending months solving a tiny problem, how success means the user is not aware of the product anymore, and how users can “sense” the care and work that have gone into the design of Apple products.

Read the Interview with Sir Jonathan Ive @ London Evening Standard.

via dvice

Focus Numérique has an interesting interview with Steve Curry. It’s in French but you can read the Google English translation. Curry speaks of using natural light to bring out the dramatic in his photos, on how digital is “better” than film, working with the Nikon D3x and Hasselblad, the iconic young Afghan picture, on working alone in the field and on the need to keep an emotional distance from your subjects.

Read the: Interview with Steve McCurry @ Focus Numérique | Google English translation.

Olympus OM-D E-M5

Toshiyuki Terada is the person at Olympus responsible for the development of DSLRs and mirrorless DSLRs. Renaud Labracherie of Focus Numérique interviews him and discusses mostly missing/future specs: electronic shutter, multitouch gestures, a larger (OM-1 SLR style) EVF, GPS and Wi-Fi capabilities, focus peaking, separate external microphone jack, and built-in flash, among others.

What is interesting (and a tad disappointing) is how Terada seems to have a ready answer for every “missing” specification as he keeps differentiating the E-M5 from “professional” cameras.

Read a Google translation at: Focus Numérique.

Lisez l’article chez: Focus Numérique.

Interesting interview by Rob Galbraith of Nikon D4′s engineer Toshiaki Akagi.

The gist of the interview: D4 has much faster focus acquisition (“first frame” of a burst); sharper, more fine detail and reduced color noise at high ISOs; only Sony to make XQD cards; no comment of a mirrorless F-mount DSLR.

Read the interview at: Rob Galbraith.

Interesting series of interviews by Imaging Resource from the camera manufacturers at CES 2012. The first three are from Olympus, Pentax and Fujifilm, with more to follow.

Olympus: Interview with Toshiyuki Terada, Manager and Group Leader of the Product and Marketing Planning Group, Product and Marketing Planning Department at Olympus Imaging Corp., and Sally Smith Clemens, Product Manager at Olympus Imaging America Inc.
Concerning Olympus’ financial problems, “Actually, for our usual business, not so big an impact, we are working usually. Nothing special.”

Pentax: Interview with John Carlson, Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing at Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas Corp.
Pentax is trying very hard to get the “message out there that a small camera [Pentax Q] with a combination of a high quality sensor and a high quality lens is going to give you better results than a compact camera where it’s all combined together.”

Fujifilm: Interview with Kayce M. Baker, Director of Marketing in the Electronic Imaging Division of Fujifilm North America Corp.
Fujifilm is making big claims that their new sensor in the X-Pro 1 is “equal in resolution to a full-frame sensor, and signal to noise is equal to a full-frame sensor.”

Canon EOS-1D X

The Canon EOS-1D X is the replacement for both the EOS-1D Mark IV and EOS-1Ds Mark III, and is slated for late March 2012, just in time for the 2012 London Olympics. The “X” apparently stands for “Crossover” or “Xtreme” or even the 10th generation EOS (or something like that).

DC Watch has an interview of the execs responsible for the design and development of the camera. It is in Japanese and we provide a [rather crude] English translation via Google translate.