It looks like Nikon is expecting a slowdown in camera sales in 2009 with lower prices coming from their competator. Again with all companies around the world - there will be cost cutting, let’s hope it’s not in innovation.

Here’’s what they say in their first half finanical report ending 30th Sep 08

“In the market of digital cameras the increasing adverse effects of the global recession on personal consumption cannot be disregarded, and the market growth is expected to slow with intensifying price competition.”

For the purpose of realizing “Strong Nikon” and a “Truly Excellent Company” able to make a continuous growth even under the severe market conditions as currently imminent, the Nikon Group is aware of a crisis and try to be prompt and precise in management and, at the same time, promote the enhancement of product competitiveness and cost reduction and try to realize our new vision formulated last year, “Our Aspiration: Meeting needs. Exceeding Expectations.”

Here’s what they say in the press release.

Canon EOS Rebel series of digital single lens reflex cameras – the cameras that defined and refined what it means to be an “entry level” digital SLR – have now redefined the gateway prowess and “pro-ness” of the DSLR category with the introduction of the line’s new leader, the 12.2-megapixel EOS Rebel XSi camera. Incorporating a number of high-end functions and technology found in Canon’s professional SLR models, the EOS Rebel XSi camera boasts an improved autofocus sensor, enhanced 14-bit A/D conversion, an advanced Live View function, and the proprietary DIGIC III image processor. When paired with any of the more than 60 compatible Canon EF and EF-S lenses, including optically image stabilized EF-S lenses like the EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS – now included in the EOS Rebel XSi kit – or the new EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS, the EOS Rebel XSi DSLR delivers images that will delight and inspire family and friends at an entry level price tag.

In stores now, both the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS and the EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lenses are manufactured by Canon specifically for the EOS Rebel XSi , EOS 40D and every other EOS SLR that takes EF-S lenses including earlier Digital Rebel cameras and the EOS 20D, EOS 20Da, and EOS 30D models. Though standard in the EOS Rebel XSi kit, the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens is also available as a stand alone purchase and carries an estimated retail price of $199.99. The optional EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens is available at an estimated retail price of $299.99.

The new model? Who knows? Most likely it will be the Canon 450D with a 12 mega pixel CMOS sensor and of course a 3 inch LCD screen. It seems everyone is moving towards the larger size these days.

The other rumor is the replacement for the Canon 5D and according to Tech.sina.com, it mentions the Canon 70D and even a 320D? on the UPC. Check it out!

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More news from Canon during 2008 than this year
Canon will skruva up the rate next year and assures to release more products during 2008 than during 2007. We know when the first new products for 2008 släpps.

1D mkIII, 40D, 5D mkII… 2007-12-15 01:13
I that Canon-användare is most smalest said little worried over that they will draw in in one MP-race. Cannot unfortunately claim annat. With the said, it be very in t.ex. 40D that would can to be pursued over to one 450D, t.ex.

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The details of an exotic kind of material that can slow light from its top speed of around one million million metres per hour so that it can be trapped as a crescent of colour is published by a team that suggests if could mark a revolution in computing.

This remarkable feat could allow “broadband storage” for “broadband computing” capable of much greater power than conventional silicon chips because it can process information in the form of many light beams simultaneously, just as optical fibres can carry lots of conversations simultaneously. And it could also mark an advance in quantum computing, named after the strange quantum properties of matter at the atomic level, that could enhance the power of computers millions of times beyond anything available today.

The extraordinary feat of optical sorcery is described today in the journal Nature by Professor Ortwin Hess and Kosmas Tsakmakidis at the University of Surrey, working with Professor Alan Boardman from Salford University.

Once theory is turned into reality, the technique will allow the use of light rather than electrons to store memory in devices such as computers and cameras. The team predicts an increase in operating capacity of 1,000% over the use of conventional electronics by exploiting light’s broad spectrum to lay down lots of different information simultaneously in the first “optical capacitor.”

Slow light could also, paradoxically, be used to increase the speed of optical networks, such as the Internet. At major interconnection points, where billions of parcels of information from myriad phone calls arrive simultaneously, these materials could be used to slow, divert and allow through information, working in the same way as traffic congestion calming schemes do on motorways, when a reduction in the speed limit can lead to a swifter overall flow of traffic.

Previous attempts to slow and capture light have until now required extremely low temperatures, have been extremely costly, and have only worked with one specific frequency of light at a time. The new technique proposed by Prof Hess and Kosmas Tsakmakidis involves the use of exotic “metamaterials” with extraordinary optical properties.

These materials, which consist of carefully-designed shards of metal a billionth of a metre across (nanometres), have the strange property of negative refraction, which means that light bends in the opposite direction to the way it shifts when passing from one ordinary material into another (think of how a straight stick in water looks bent.) This means that, in theory at least, a metamaterial could be designed so that light would curve around it, making the object invisible, an idea already under serious study for cloaking devices. When combined with the “Goos Hänchen effect,” where light can even go backwards, Prof Hess’s team has shown it is possible to use metamaterials to halt a light beam in its tracks.

As different component ‘colours’ of white light have different frequencies (colours) each individual frequency be stopped at a different stage of a wedge of such material, he said, likening the way the light slows down to walking on shingle. At the point that every step of the light beam forward leads to an equivalent slip backwards in the metamaterial, an effect that depends on the colour of the light.

The result is a ‘trapped rainbow’. “The key to understanding the trapping of the rainbow,” he says, “is that every frequency of a white light wave packet has in a tapered shape of metamaterial its own particular width where it eventually stops – the result is the spatial spread of stopped/trapped light – the trapped rainbow.” Prof Hess said that an onlooker could in an appropriate arrangement of metamaterial layers (as shown here) see the rainbow of trapped light.

This ability to store light will conceivably provide a powerful new tool to control optical information, even harness the quantum properties of atoms, and so exploit the possibilities of quantum computers that, in theory, will be able solve problems millions of times faster than current machines.

The extraordinary properties of quantum computers were first explored by theorists such as the late Richard Feynman at Caltech and David Deutsch of Oxford University. While a conventional PC shuffles information in the form of binary numbers, those containing only the digits 1 and 0, which it remembers as the “on” and “off” positions of tiny switches, or “bits.”

By contrast, the switches in a quantum computer can be both “on” and “off” at the same time. A “qubit” could do two calculations at once, two qubits would do four and so on. Thus, it was theoretically possible to use quantum computers to explore vast numbers of potential solutions to a problem simultaneously. The new work, which suggests a way to create optical qubits, adds to a range of recent advances that make scientists confident that quantum computers will be feasible within a few years.

An artist’s impression depicting how the trapped rainbow is displayed below.

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Here are three supporting questions and answers mentioned in their financial results for the first half of the year ending March 31, 2008.

Question: What is the outlook for the digital camera market?

Answer: Nikon’s digital SLRs led the market during the first half of the year ending March 2008 in Japan. And they sold in other regions as well. October sales in the US exceeded our forecast, and while we as yet do not see any slowdown in consumer spending due to the subprime mortgage problem, we are paying close attention to how the Christmas selling season is going. Next fiscal year our competitors will develop their marketing to full extent in the digital SLR market, and we expect this will stimulate market growth and contribute to sales.

Question: What is the profit outlook for Imaging Products Business?

Answer: Robust digital SLR and interchangeable lens sales are being boosted by the appreciation of the exchange rate. We forecast an operating profit rate of 13.5%, higher than the 10.2% of the previous fiscal year. Currently, we are moving ahead with our manufacturing reform projects with the aim of achieving profit margins and cost efficiencies that rival our competitors.

Question: How are the new digital SLRs, D3 and D300, performing?

Answer: They have been extremely well received on the market since their announcement and we receive a great number of orders. In response, we are preparing to increase production of both models.

Just recently, Sweden based Morphic Technologies’ subsidiary Cell Impact AB has received a further order relating to initial mass production of fuel cell flow plates for operating consumer electronics from Asia.

The Asian purchaser is one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers. The initial order is valued at around MSEK 90 and the first delivery is to take place 2nd quarter 2008.

Cell Impact has received a further order relating to the production of flow plates for methanol fuel cells. The purchaser this time is a global electronics manufacturer which has been evaluating Cell Impact flow plates for some time. The plates are to be used in a number of the customer’s future products, powered by fuel cells.

Second order in a short time
The order is the second volume order within a short period. At the end of August, Cell Impact received its first volume order concerning series production of fuel cell plates for operating consumer electronics for a customer in the USA. That contract has a value of approx. MSEK 60 over a two-year period. As has already been communicated, apart from the now published orders, Cell Impact has also received a number of test orders for flow plates from players within various areas of application, including the vehicle industry.

Production of the flow plates will take place, in both cases, at the Cell Impact production facility in Karlskoga.

“The fact that one of the world’s biggest players within consumer electronics is choosing us as it´s supplier shows the strength of what we have to offer. However, this order is not just a breakthrough for us, it is also a breakthrough for the entire fuel cell industry”, says Jonas Eklind, President and CEO at Morphic Technologies.

“We have now reached the point where fuel cells are in the consumer field. The fact that this order also relates to fuel cells for consumer electronics is characteristic of the way things are developing within the fuel cell field right now. In all certainty, consumer electronics, including computers, cameras and MP3 players, are going to be the first area in which we will see products powered by fuel cells. We estimate that methanol fuel cells for consumer electronics will start being introduced onto the market in 2008“, says Martin Valfridsson, MD at Cell Impact.

The principal advantages of fuel cells in consumer electronics include their significantly longer operating times. Unlike today’s batteries, very rapid charging of discharged units powered by fuel cells will also be possible.

In a fuel cell system for consumer electronics, electricity is produced by breaking down the fuel which then reacts with oxygen. Fuel cell technology has a great potential because of its virtually non-existent impact on the environment and its superior level of efficiency.

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Here’s what ruters has to say:

“TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc. (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research) will invest about 55 billion yen ($451 million) to build a new factory in Japan to double its production capacity of image sensors used in digital cameras.

Canon is aiming to produce 24 million digital cameras this year, including 3 million SLRs, which are high-end models that use interchangeable lenses.”

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This eighth generation of Interline Transfer CCD technology developed by Kodak, this new platform reduces pixel size by almost 50%, doubles the maximum frame rate available from the image sensor, and provides a significant increase in image quality compared to the previous technology generation. With these advancements, customers working in applied markets will have access to new levels of performance, improving the capabilities and performance of their imaging systems.

“Exceptional imaging performance is vital to the success of applied imaging applications,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solution group. “This new technology platform was developed specifically to address this need by improving key sensor parameters such as pixel size, frame rate, and image quality. As camera manufacturers develop products with our new KAI-01050 image sensor, and later with other image sensors developed using this new technology, they will be able to offer a new generation of cameras that provide improved throughput, performance, and quality for their customers.”

Kodak has a rich history of supplying image sensors for use in applied imaging markets. With a broad portfolio of interline transfer CCDs ranging from VGA to 16 megapixels in resolution, Kodak is a leading supplier of image sensors used today in applied applications such as the automated inspection and assembly of electronics components, traffic monitoring, and medical and scientific imaging. As these applications have evolved, the ongoing requirement for improved throughput and imaging performance has driven the development of this new sensor technology to address these needs.

Kodak’s new Interline Transfer CCD platform was developed using a “clean sheet” approach, leveraging best practices in Kodak sensor design to optimize the imaging performance available from these new devices. To facilitate the design process for camera manufacturers, Kodak will also use a common package layout with shared electrical specifications where possible for image sensors commercialized using this new technology, allowing manufacturers to develop a single camera design that can easily support multiple sensors.

The KODAK KAI-01050 Image Sensor is the first product to be commercialized using Kodak’s new Interline Transfer CCD technology. With a 1024 x 1024 array of 5.5 micron pixels, the sensor provides a readout speed of up to 120 frame-per-second in a 1/2-inch optical format. Engineering grade devices of the KAI-01050 are currently available, with volume production planned for early 2008.

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