Test your photo knowledge—at the end of last year (December, 2007), Canon, Inc. issued a press release in Tokyo that announced it had passed:
A. Its own 70th birthday
B. The 20th anniversary of the EOS system
C. The 30 millionth Canon EOS camera
D. The 10 millionth Canon EOS DSLR
E. All of the above
____________________
Mike
P.S. The answer is "E." Happy birthday and happy anniversaries to Canon!
P.P.S. Regarding "C," it was only 4 years earlier that Canon produced its 20 millionth EOS camera.
Look at that - 1/3 of EOS series cameras sold were Digital SLRs. Compare the short life of DSLRs to the entire life of the system. Seems like planned obsolescence is paying off LOL!
Posted by: Jason | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 11:15 AM
20 years since Canon abandoned millions of FD-mount cameras, grrr...
Posted by: David A. Goldfarb | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 12:31 PM
"20 years since Canon abandoned millions of FD-mount cameras, grrr..."
David,
True, but look on the bright side--my friend Bob in Minneapolis and I both had great fun amassing gratuitously huge Canon FD systems 8 to 10 years ago, hunting down various rarities and testing all sorts of lenses we never used to actually take pictures. Something we never would have been able to do had Canon not "abandoned" the FD system. So there's that silver lining.
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 01:14 PM
In a way it's amazing that at least in theory, 2/3rds of all EOS cameras out there are film. The other day someone took my picture with a Canon SLR. I was surprised to realize that I had assumed it was a DSLR, until I heard the film advancing...
Posted by: Juan Buhler | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 01:31 PM
oh, I was hoping for a question about photographs...hmmf
Posted by: Mark S. | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 01:49 PM
Oh, even as I lament the abandonment of the FD mount, I've seen that silver lining, too. I have or have had all sorts of lenses I couldn't have justified had they not been "abandoned." I don't think I would have taken up bird photography, if I couldn't buy a relatively affordable FD 600/4.5 and a really cheap FD 400/4.5 SSC. The FD 7.5mm fisheye was fun until I sold it to buy something large format, and I still have a 50/1.2L that I use fairly often.
Nonetheless, it would be nice to be able to try one of those newfangled bodies I've heard about that types the picture straight onto punch cards or something like that without having to buy new lenses, or to try some of those new-and-improved lenses without having to buy a new body. That said, I do have a few Tamrons with both FD and EOS mounts, and I've got that rare FD-EOS converter for the bird lenses when the time comes to buy an EOS-mount body.
Posted by: David A. Goldfarb | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 03:34 PM
But it's only been 60 years since they stopped selling cameras with nikkor lenses and changed their name to canon!
Posted by: hugh crawford | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 05:15 PM
I teach a couple of classes in b/w film and darkroom at our local community college. In the first meeting, I present a brief history of photography, including the introduction of the Brownie in 1900 as a major step in getting photography into the hands of regular folks. I just did the math, and the ratio of population/units sold is very, VERY close to the modern EOS.
Thomas
ps: I've already revised the powerpoints.
Posted by: Thomas | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 06:15 PM
It would seem that Canon could expect to sell at least as many DSLRs in the future as they sold SLRs in the past and so I guess they have a fairly good idea of the sales arc of these things and when they may actually need to start worrying about saturation. I think it's also likely that due to digital's acceptance and the current explosion it has caused in hotography they are likely to sell far more of the DSLRs by the time we all get to the finish line. That's a lot of cameras.
Posted by: Chris S. | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 11:38 PM