Canon 1st Quarter 2024 Financials
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You are welcome to that opinion. If it is intentional, there must be a reason for it. If it's not intentional, it's mismanagement on a colossal scale.
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I think it is quite possible that they mismanaged. Canon might have thought that the lower end lenses would sell better (given that they are selling R50s and R100s by the truckload to maintain their market share, and they had hoped that people buying those would also buy more lenses) and higher end lenses sell worse.
The production plans and numbers for the lenses are set quite far in advance so that suppliers are informed and parts are ordered, so they might not have the chance to adjust for the set of lenses that came out in 2023.
It would also explain why they kept delaying long rumored (and patented) lenses like the 200-500 -- they are too busy trying to catch up to demand for the 100-300, and launching another lens that shares production resources will make the problem worse.
This also makes sense in terms of Canon going the longest period without announcing anything (lens or camera) in at least 15 years -- they are busy trying to solve production issues for existing stuff before announcing anything new.
Things like launching the R50 Creator Kit with the recently released RF-S 10-18mm, and taking the margin hit there would also seem to indicate that there is likely some oversupply of this lower end lens at least.
I think Canon is not infallible in terms of demand projection (or anything else) and it is definitely possible to make a mistake like this. To bring it back to financials, their camera division revenue and profit YoY decreased in Q1 2024 despite launching all the lenses (and the R50 and R100, which are selling well), and it is not something I imagine they wanted to see.
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My point about 100-500 v 200-800 was that they may be producing them in similar quantities. But the demand for the new lens is higher than the demand for the older lens and therefore the 200-800 is difficult to get while the 100-500 is readily available.
I do not think Canon has screwn up anything. I think they are capacity-limited on higher-end lenses.
Who said anything about unplanned failure? I only said that if they could make more of the in-demand lenses they would. Whether they do not because they are investing more capacity on lower-end lenses or because there are other factors at play I do not know. The price would not go down immediately if there was an adequate supply of the higher-end ones.
And please, do keep it civil. I understand statistics thank you very much. Canon is not infallible and neither are you nor am I. We're all speculating without hard data, your conclusions do not hold more weight than mine.
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For comparison, it will be curious to see if Nikon also had a down quarter. They report financials on May 9.
(Sony doesn't have a separate camera division, so you can't tell how profitable camera sales are.)
(Sony doesn't have a separate camera division, so you can't tell how profitable camera sales are.)
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That's my point – I disagree with that. IMO, they could make more of these 'hard-to-find' lenses and are choosing not to. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy theory, merely that there is a sound business reason to limit supply of high-margin products. This has been going on for several years, and I know from experience with manufacturing in other contexts that a solution should have been found and implemented by now if one was needed.
At the end of the day, the reasons don't really matter to us as users. The key point is that consistently for the past several years, newly-released high-end Canon products (lenses and bodies) have been in short supply for several months to over a year after launch, regardless of the reasons. The consequence of that is as I've said – pay attention to what's being released (step one is to be on here, since we usually get 1-2 days notice before the actual announcement), then if a product you want is announced be prepared to pre-order it within minutes of being able to do so. In that case, you'll almost certainly get the product as soon as it's available.
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That's fine - we disagree on this. But I am not suggesting a conspiracy theory either.
True - why this happens doesn't change the fact that the longer one waits to (pre)order a hot item, the longer one will have to wait to get it in one's grabby hands.
I have had the same experience: ordered the R5 immediately and received it in the first batch. Waited 1 day due to a snafu on the 135 1.8 and that costed me 3+ months. I ordered the 200-800 on the 3rd day (that was my decision) and now it's been 6 months ish and counting
Personally, I am going to wait. But others may be put off or something happens (in the US a sudden incident or illness may very well change your views on buying an expensive lens).
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If it is intentional then the strategy must include factors that overcome the very real "time value of money." I will admit, if there is a quality factor associated with producing product too quickly in the wake of announcing said product, then that alone is reason for cautious, calculated release... the last thing I want is a fleet of bodies and lenses (R1, R5 MkII, RF 100-300mm, RF 10-20mm) with bad copies. My latest struggle was that I prematurely sold EF 11-24mm lenses before I could actually get the RF 10-20mm replacements (took 4-1/2 months but finally received my first one this month). I was super excited to move to the RF version even though the EF lens was excellent coupled to adapter. But I should not have ignored Canon's recent patterns and won't make that mistake again...BTW it was worth the wait; the RF 10-20mm is extraordinary. Now waiting for RF 100-300mm.
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Got my 10-20/4 in February and 100-300/2.8 right at launch. Both are amazing.
CPW lists the 100-300/2.8 as in stock via their street price program, $400 off list and from a Canon USA authorized dealer. Act fast!
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it really depends. it's not as if the APS-C line shows any innovation. So it's probably driven just as much by profit.
with no mirrorbox assembly to worry about - I would be surprised if a human touches one of those cameras before it gets plopped into a box and shipped out.
and I'm not sure Canon sells the higher end stuff at a much higher margin. My understanding is that it's the accessories where they make like mint. And if someone buys a cheap camera, they have more money for accessories.
But to be honest, I have no idea on the current camera economics.
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Sony stopped separate reporting when their sales started to slide. Coincidence, I'm sure.
According to SAR - it was all part of the The Master Plan™
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Don't forget about Sony moving the camera department to a different business unit every year to make year-over-year tracking impossible!
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You're a hater. I will never again communicate with you!
How can you despise such an advanced high quality professional camera?
Shame on you, you'll soon be indicted for propagating hate against such an innocent cute little camera!
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When you look at those to outlines, it is clear that the limiting factor must be the very rare type of air that they fill the 200-800 with.
/irony.
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Suppose Canon has good evidence that for the high-end lenses, the customer are willing to wait up to (say) 12-18 months with it impacting significantly on the total volume sold, and suppose that making extra 'production lines' will either incur a significant cost up front, or keeping it running at "over sales-capacity" / having the production line run intermittently has a significant cost to Canon. That could explain why Canon chooses to do it this way.
It might be that the high-end lenses tend to sell a lot just when they are launched, and then only relatively little over the years, whereas the consumer/low-end lenses tend to have a more steady sale over the entire lifetime of the lenses.
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Even Canon sometimes doesn't know the camera market.
For example, their best compact camera is Canon IXY 650 in Japan 2023.
I remember they close powershot department but it seems compact camera market come back in 2024.
I don't think Canon could release any compact camera this year.
Canon might releases R100 which is focus for photo booth business.
I don't know about American but I find most photo booth in Japan or Taiwan is using Canon. Some uses Nikon or gopro.
I find this youtube talks about photo booth setup.
He says R100 is the best choice because the cheapest and lightest.
I would say it would be the only reason Canon releases the cheapest camera without 4k and touchscreen.
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