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Follow UsVIETNAM: Nearly eight months after Canon joined hands with HP, Epson, Sony, Fuji and Olympus to announce the standard for transferring digital imaging files from any digital image capturing device to a photo printer directly without a PC, the company has announced 11 PictBridge compliant products–becoming the first one to do so.
The new communication protocol allow users to seamlessly connect digital cameras or digital video camcorders to photo printers directly, regardless of the make and brand, as long as the equipment is PictBridge compliant
Announcing the new products during an exclusive media preview at Canon’s Hanoi plant, the company’s Assistant Director for Consumer Imaging and Information Division (CIID), Hiroshi Hara said that these were part of the 18 products that the company plans to launch during the second half of 2003. The company plans to start shipping the 11 PictBridge compliant products–five bubble jets and two dye-sub printers, two 2.2 mega pixel video camcorders, a 4.0 mega pixel digital camera and a digital SLR camera–from October this year. The India launch is, however, scheduled for November 5, 2003.
THE NEW PRODUCTS
Similarly, the company plans to sell i865 as the perfect photo cum business printer while its i905D is targeted at professional photo printers. According to the company, i865 boasts of a fast print speed of 23 monochrome or 16 color pages per minute and comes with photo paper tray that can be attached to the standard A4 paper input tray. This enables users to switch from printing A4 business documents to 4x6 inches photos easily, without any hassles. It also comes with an optional paper feed cassette that can accommodate up to 250 sheets of paper to cater to high-volume usage.
What’s more, the i865 also allows color documents to be printed on both sides, through the use of an optional Duplex unit. The i865 can even print directly on CD-Rs and DVDs. According to the company, the printer also boasts of ContrastPLUS, which refers to the printer’s unique fifth color ink. "The fifth color means that besides the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and pigment black colors, there is a dye-based, photo black ink to give colors more depth and vibrancy," said the company’s Consumer System Products Planning and Control Department Product Executive Eric Chan.
The i905D, on the other hand is enabled to prints photographs directly from PictBridge-enabled digital cameras or via a range of memory cards. "You can pick the picture you want to print easily either through the camera’s LCD screen–when connected directly to the digital camera–or via a built-in LCD viewer while print from memory cards," explained Chan. He also added that the printer’s user-friendly panel offers full control of features like trimming and enlarging. The printer also has built-in photo viewer software that helps transfer images directly to the computer for storage and faster printing.
Besides, the company has also come up with two dye-sublimation direct photo printers. The CP-200 and CP-300 can be connected to any PictBridge compliant digital camera to print photos in 4R size, 3R size, credit-card size and sticker labels. The CP-300 also includes an optional battery pack that makes it ideal for photo printing on the road.
The company also announced its PictBridge compliant digital imaging input devices such as digital video camcorders and digital cameras. While Canon claims that its MVX 3i and MVX 10i digital video camcorders are also capable of capturing still shots at up to 2.2 mega pixel making it comparable to many digital still cameras, its PictBridge features enable these still shots to be transferred to a PictBridge complaint printer directly for printing.
Another digital camera that the media had a sneak preview of is the user-friendly PowerShot A80. It comes with 4.0-mega pixel CCD, a swivel LCD and packs comprehensive manual controls. Not only can pictures taken with this camera can be enlarged up to A3 size without any distortion, the A80 like its predecessors PowerShot A60 and A70, is powered by Canon’s well known DIGIC processor.
However, the one product that Canon really expects would enthuse the photographers is the new EOS 300D–the digital SLR camera that offers basic yet high performance features and is targeted at entry-level users who wish to try digital SLRs for the first time. According to Suzuki, the EOS 300D is powered by a proprietary 6.3-mega pixel CMOS sensor. Also, as it is part of the EOS family, users have an added advantage of choosing from a wide range of EOS compatible accessories, including over 50 types of Canon EF and EF-S lenses.
Talking about the evolution of the new products and company, Hara said, "We have moved from the analogue to semi digital to digital and now to the PictBridge way of image capturing and printing solution that would help bring different digital imaging devices together and give consumers the ability to print directly." According to Suzuki, the company plans to expand the entire photo-printing world for Canon using its expertise in DIGIC and PictBridge.
That Hara and Suzuki actually meant what they were saying was pretty evident from the fact that ever since PictBridge was first announced by Canon in December 2002, the company has been single mindedly focusing on converting its ideas from the design board stage to reality, determined to take on the first movers advantage. That it now wants to use these 11 products as a springboard to consolidate its presence across South and South East Asia was also pretty evident from the large contingent of journalists from across the region–India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
For the camera company which was set up in Japan in 1934 as Kwanon, Canon has come a long way to becoming a global photographic and digital imaging giant. Unfortunately, however, the company has so far failed to become a formidable force in the professional camera space. "Canon," stressed Hara, "is going full throttle ahead to plug this gap in its otherwise strong market presence." The company has been spending around 10 percent of its total revenue each year on R&D–so much so that between 1985 and 2002, the company has 19,902 US patents to its name, one of them being the digital image processor DIGIC and its latest variant DIGIC DV. Combine this with the newly acquired PictBridge variants, and one can look forward to the company bridging this gap.
"Advantage Canon", should we say?
(Cyber News Service)