“We see 2020 as a year or moratorium. Though the top line has been affected, I don’t think this will have an eternal impact,” Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi said. (Archive photo)

Despite calling this a “moratorium year” because of the unprecedented pandemic and its impact on business, Canon has gone ahead and launched its new mirrorless flagship cameras, the R5 and R6, in India. Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi told indianexpress.com that since their production facilities are all located in Japan, the operations are going smoothly and they are not seeing any impact on the long-term planning for the company.

“We see 2020 as a year of moratorium. Though the top line has been affected, I don’t think this will have an eternal impact,” Kobayashi said, adding that if they are able to endure this year, they can restart growth strategy again.

However, the imaging company is seeing a positive side to the lockdown also. “With work from home promoted through the country, the demand for our inkjet and laser printers is in the top 10 of online for the last three months,” Kobayashi said. He said work from home is likely to help promote this lineup and Canon’s marketing strategy, as well as, the business strategy would be able to help such printers that can easily be installed by the user at home.

Priced between Rs 2,15,995 and Rs 3,39,995, the EOS R6 and R5 are the new mirrorless flagships of the Japanese camera major. (Image: Canon)

Meanwhile, Kobayashi said that while in the short term the impact of the pandemic might push a higher proportion of sales online, he does not think this balance will change much when you look at a larger time frame of three to four years.

Priced between Rs 2,15,995 and Rs 3,39,995, the EOS R6 and R5 are the new mirrorless flagships of the Japanese camera major. The EOS R5 is the top-of-the-line offering with a 45MP full frame CMOS sensor and 8K recording. The R6 offers 4K movie recording with an advanced 20.1 megapixels full frame CMOS sensor.

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Calling them the flagships for the new phase of photography, Kobayashi said: “With these cameras, you can keep on shooting video in 8K or 4K and can crop photos from them. You don’t need to switch the operation between movie and still shooting.” While he expected a lot of users who are focused on video to find the new cameras good for the coming decade, he thinks the top photographers will continue to stick on to high-end DSLRs which offer them a live natural view of the subject. “We are still keeping those guys on the DSLR side and the positioning is different from that of a mirrorless camera.”

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