Canon Raises Output of Fast-Selling EOS Digital Rebel

According to a Reuters news story posted today, Canon Japan has raised the production capacity for its hot-selling "EOS Kiss" (Digital Rebel / EOS 300D) digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera by about 25 percent, anticipating explosive growth in the coming months. We reported back in August 2003 that Canon had set the monthly production for the camera at 70,000 and it has been flying off the shelves ever since. The major attraction being its 120,000 yen (,085) price tag, well below that of competing cameras from Nikon and other rivals.

Analysts expect Canon and Nikon to dominate the market, as they did in the film era when they sold millions of lenses for use with analog SLRs. A key selling point is that interchangeable lenses from that era can be used on digital SLRs.

Canon has completed plans to boost monthly production capacity of the "EOS Kiss" to 100,000 cameras in the first quarter of this year. Half of that capacity is housed in a Taiwan plant and the other half in Japan. Canon sold 600,000 digital SLRs in 2003, capturing 70 percent of the rapidly growing market and leaving Nikon, which did not have a camera anywhere near the "EOS Kiss" model's price range, in second place with 30 percent.

Nikon, for its part, will launch a new digital SLR this Friday called the "D70" to compete with Canon. It will also sell for around 120,000 yen and is expected to attract solid demand given that Nikon has sold millions of lenses and analog SLRs. While analysts expect the "D70" to help Nikon recapture some of its lost market share, competition will only get tougher with rivals like Konica Minolta planning to launch its new Maxxum 7 digital SLR later this year.

In what could be another headache for Nikon, Canon said it has plans for a lower-priced digital SLR that could be about one year away. The next target would be to retail a digital SLR for under 100,000 yen (.00).