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An Interview with Toru Katsumoto.

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raymondluo

Guest
Something I thought I'd give back to the community for being just so awesome. This came out from my local tech newspaper, I thought it was an insight to ponder upon Sony's future products- even if I never owned a Sony camera. (Just PS1)

Toru Katsumoto, 52
Senior general manager of Sony's Digital Imaging Business Group

Q: Sony is a leading camcorder maker and many of it's compact cameras have video functions but not a single Sony DSLR model can shoot movies. Why is that?

A: We have been in the video camera market since 8mm camcorder to today's Handycam, so we know the customer's needs for movie making. Unless we can make the video capture experience user-friendly like having a one-button operation and continuous auto focus, we don't want to introduce it in our DSLR cameras.

That said, we already have announced at PMA that we will be introducing a DSLR camera with movie functions this year.

Q: Sony has been in the DSLR camera market since 2006, what is its share of the market.

A: When we entered the DSLR camera market, we set a goal of gaining 10% of the global market share. We achieved this last year. Our target today is 15%. This includes the sales of our NEX models which comes under our Alpha family of cameras. We have already achieved this new target in Europe and Latin America.

Q: Won't the new NEX line of cameras affect Sony's compact and DSLR camera sales?

A: From surveys on our Cyber-shot compact camera users, only 10% would want to upgrade to DSLR-quality cameras.

This group of people will buy the NEX cameras, but theyw ill still want a compact camera as it is handy with just one lens.

We believe there will be no cannibalisation here. That is true too for our DSLR camera market. Buyers of such cameras actually want the big body of these cameras. They also want the range of lenses available like more powerful zooms, macros or higher quality G and Carl Zeiss lenses.

We believe that the three types of cameras can co-exist.

Q: Both the NEX and Sony's DSLR cameras use the same sensor. What will differentiate them?

A: The NEX cameras are smaller, lighter and easy to use but with picture quality that matches DSLR cameras. This arouse from customer requests for a more handy camera.

For our DSLR range, the focus will be on performance so wit will be attractive to professionals and advanced amateurs.
 
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raymondluo

Guest
I liked that Sony seemed to have understood the 'ergonomics and form factor' market well, though it seems like a pro-spec'ed Nex camera is unlikely based on their target market and if you want to nitpick his words, 'Carl Zeiss lenses on Alpha bodies, not NEX'.
 

roweraay

New member
I liked that Sony seemed to have understood the 'ergonomics and form factor' market well, though it seems like a pro-spec'ed Nex camera is unlikely based on their target market and if you want to nitpick his words, 'Carl Zeiss lenses on Alpha bodies, not NEX'.
Thanks for posting the interview. However, Carl Zeiss lenses for the NEX format is on the way, according to Toru Katsumoto's boss, Masashi "Tiger" Imamura.

Click here for link

Quoting from the above:

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In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Imamura also told us that the company’s relationship with Carl Zeiss will extend to lenses designed for the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, unveiled at this year’s PMA.
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