Peripherals Special: Digital Cameras

Digicam sales rock as digital SLRs take a quantum jump

New technology and price cuts will boost the penetration of digicams in India and take them closer to the goal of replacing film-based cameras, says Akhtar Pasha

Due to the vast cost difference, the potential of a studio getting converted into digital mode is huge, says Manisha Sood

Digital cameras (digicams) have finally entered the mainstream. According to IDC India, the Indian digicam market witnessed 75,600 units being sold in 2002-03, a whopping growth of 148 percent over 2001-02. In value terms, the digicam market was worth Rs 122 crore vs.

Rs 77 crore in 2001-02. Kodak, Samsung and Sony are the market leaders. Says Ajay Sindhwani, senior analyst-computing products research, IDC India, “The massive growth seen in the digicam market was primarily due to this pull factor—increasing digitisation that touches everybody’s life, be it home, SOHO or SME. We expect the digital revolution will expand the digicam footprint on a large scale.” The falling prices of these devices are further fuelling this market. The average price drop of digicams was 30-45 percent year-on-year. Taking into account the current uptake of digicams, IDC expects this market to grow to 163,000 units with a value of Rs 194 crore in 2003-04.

Within the digicam market, digital SLRs that saw few takers in 2001-02 have grown by 120 percent in 2002-03. Explains Alok Bharadwaj, director and general manager, Canon India, “Professionals have the option they have been asking for—optical zoom, which is now a major driver for digital SLRs in India. There is an inherent need to increase the picture quality, especially moving pictures or objects from afar. This technology magnifies the picture by a factor of two (2X optical zoom) or more without distorting the picture quality as in case of digital zoom.”

In the webcam space, conservative estimates from industry veterans put this segment in excess of 1,30,000 units in 2002-03. The reason it is difficult to track standalone webcam sales is that most of these devices are bundled with PCs by OEMs and assemblers. Logitech is the leader in this segment. Creative, D-Link and Best IT World are some of the other vendors in this market. Anand Mehta, manager-New Business Area Development, D-Link India says, “The current market driver for webcams is Internet chatting, driven mainly by the home and SOHO segments. End-users want to chat with their relatives staying abroad and it is the perfect medium.” Entry-level webcams start from Rs 1,500.

Digital sweeps the board

The current market driver for webcams is Internet chatting, driven mainly by the home and SOHO segments, says Anand Mehta

The drive towards digital technology, which is affecting every sphere of electronics, is helping drive digicams into two distinct markets—consumer and professional photography. On the consumer side, portability (in the form of CDs, USB pen drives and Internet uploads to sites such as Yahoo! Photos), instant photography and image manipulation are driving the amateur (home) market. Digicams are easier to use; therefore amateurs are able to take better photographs than they did in the past with film-based cameras. Digicams electronically auto-balance background lighting, there’s no question of using the wrong type of film. Educational studies have shown that instant feedback accelerates learning: if one can recognise and correct a bad shot at the time one takes it, chances are one won’t make the same mistake again.

High quality digicams become affordable

Digicams with 3 or 4 megapixel ratings (a two megapixel image will give you a decent 6 x 4 inch photo printout) have become standard at the entry-level and are priced at almost the same level at which a 2 megapixel camera was selling a year back. This, coupled with digicam prices falling at 30-45 percent every year is another driving factor for the growth of digicams in India. Today, an entry-level digicam from D-Link (350 FS-350 pixel) is available for Rs 3,000. That’s good enough if you want to take pictures and view them on a PC but if you want to print out your photographs on a colour inkjet or photo printer you will need a digicam with 2-megapixels, such as the Kodak CX6200, priced at Rs 9,000.

Can digicams displace film?

In developed economies like the US and Singapore digicams have taken over 50 percent of the camera market. While that’s heartening for Indian digicam vendors, India is a different market and it will take a while before digicams beat analogue film-based cameras. Bharadwaj adds, “This trend is bound to happen but not immediately—it will take at least three to four years in India.” The introduction of high-quality plain paper printing in models such as Epson’s C63 and Pictbridge technology from Canon by which a digicam and printer can talk to each other regardless of the brands involved should lead digicam sales to accelerate further in 2004.

Digital studios proliferate

Digital studios are mushrooming. These are primarily seen near regional transport offices, large bus stands and passport offices where customers want instant photographs. Canon India believes that there are close to 100,000 photo studios in the country, mainly taking passport photos. At this point three percent, or 3,000 studios, have converted to digital mode. Most photo studios have a digital section for instant photography. Manisha Sood, country business manager, Digital and Applied Imaging at Kodak India says, “The potential of studios getting converted into digital is huge. Individuals can start a digital studio with a small investment of Rs 70,000 onwards (PC, digicam and photo printer). This is in comparison to the Rs 20 lakh to 30 lakh that was required to set up a full-fledged photo studio with developing machines in the past. This factor will drive the remaining 97 percent of photo studios to go digital.”

Optical zoom and OLED drives digital SLRs

Kodak, Sony and Canon offer optical zoom on their high-end digicams. Kodak is using these two technologies in DX products that are priced in the range of Rs 23,000 to 32,000 while the LS 633 is priced at Rs 29,900 and uses OLED technology. Canon has three products in this category, IXUSi, a 4-megapixel digicam offering 2X optical zoom priced at Rs 29,000. A300 is priced at Rs 17,995 while the EVS 300D is a digital SLR offering 6.3 megapixels. Canon says the digital SLR camera is sold to professional photographers who want to capture fast-moving objects. In India, digital SLRs are priced three times higher than analogue SLRs. High-end digicams from Kodak let a photographer manually control aperture and shutter speed setting through the PAS setting (program, aperture priority, and shutter priority modes). It allows photographers to use particular type of aperture (to control the intensity of light) or shutter speed to take different shots—for sports, portrait, night, landscape or close-up, giving professional photographers complete control over the shot.

Camera phones—fun photography

Mobile phone manufacturers are aggressively pushing camera phones to lure younger buyers.While these products have mass appeal their relatively low image resolution keeps them from threatening digicams, at least for now. Sood says, “Though there is a mass appeal for this type of product, it cannot challenge a digicam. For one—it (phone-based camera) offers a very low resolution picture, which is not good enough for [printing] a passport photograph.” In addition, lenses in camera phones are tiny, resulting in a smaller aperture that is not designed to take pictures at a long distance. Lastly, there is no question of optical zoom and the essential flash is missing. Despite all that, there will always be takers for the latest technology in cellphones and camera phones are where the action is at the higher end of the phone market.

The need for instant photography and the ability to take any number of snaps without worrying about wasting film are the two strongest factors that have propelled digital photography into the limelight. So far, price and the low resolution in entry level digicams has kept them from becoming a mass-market item in India. That will change as 2 and 3 megapixel camera prices start dropping in 2004. For now, vendors are trying hard to cut grey market sales to increase their market share and to ensure product availability to consumers.

Checking out webcams
Vendor	Product features	Price (Rs)
D-Link	The D-Link DSC-350F is both a digicam and a webcam. It has a 350K pixel VGA quality CMOS sensor to capture pictures in digital camera mode. 8 megabytes of built-in memory let you store up to 70 images in VGA quality mode. It comes with a USB connector.	3,500
D-Link	DVC-1000 i2eye VideoPhone simplifies videoconferencing and eliminates the need for a computer. A telephone instrument goes in at one end for audio, a TV is used for output and a standard Ethernet network cable connects it to your leased line or broadband Internet connection.	19,000
Best IT World	iCam Robo 351 is a 350 kilopixel CMOS sensor-based Web camera with a built-in microphone and a snapshot button. It provides 640 x 480 hardware display. It can also capture video.	1,600
Logitech	QuickCam Zoom comes with an in-built zoom software that can be controlled by mouse and keyboard. It features an in-built microphone and has a VGA CMOS sensor.	7,500
Best IT World	QuickCam Pro 4000 is a 1.3 megapixel webcam with a VGA CCD sensor and automatic face tracking software	9,200

Tips to choose a digicam

In simple terms, a good digital camera is one that captures images at a good resolution. The resolution of an image produced by a digital camera depends on three factors. It is important to bear in mind all the above factors while assessing digicams. First comes the quality of the camera lens. It does not matter whether you are shooting with a traditional film camera or a digital camera, if the quality of the lens is poor, the quality of the image will be poor. The second factor to be looked at is the number of pixels on the sensor. This is the most frequently assessed specification of a digital camera. The higher the pixel count, the better the resolution and quality of the image. Lastly, the processor that the camera uses to perform a variety of data processing tasks can result in two different cameras with similar lenses and pixel counts giving different results. Source: Canon India

Sony India: Getting better

Sony India’s digital imaging division is a Rs 70 crore division that sells digital still (digicam) and digital video cameras (handycams). The company’s product strategy has been to cater to all market segments. Product offerings: Sony offers nine different products, starting with the DSC P 32 and P 72 at the entry level. DSC P 10 is for amateurs and the DSC F 717 and DSC F 828 are targeted at professional photographers. Sony India sells products through specialised channels. It has 35 Sony Worlds located in ‘A’ class cities. It has another 30 Sony exclusive stores across the country that are equipped with resources and trained personnel. to educate and demonstrate products. Strategy for 2004: Sony has some aggressive plans to counter the competition. The company plans to add three more models by the end of January 2004. Ranvijay Singh, product head-Digital Imaging, Sony India says, “With the introduction of these models we will have 12 offerings that will help us maintain leadership in the market and add depth to the choice of consumers who are looking for variety.” Sony expects tremendous growth in the market—both in terms of first-time buyers, amateur and professional photographers who are looking at upgrades to get better picture resolution and more features.

Canon India: Aggressive and catching up

Canon India is an aggressive digital imaging solution provider with a market share of 5 percent in digicams. The company offers eight digital camera models, four video camcorders and three camera direct printers. Canon is also offering an entire range of digital imaging products, including cameras and printers. Product offerings: Canon’s range of digicams starts with the entry-level A300, going up to the digital SLR EOS 300D for professionals. Strategy in 2004: Canon wants to double its market share in digicams. To do this, Canon is planning to pump Rs 10 crore into its advertising and marketing budget for 2004 to create brand visibility and awareness. Secondly, the company wants to curb grey market sales and to this end it plans to appoint 25 distributors (Canon has seven distributors currently) by Q1 2004. Additionally, Canon plans to open 40 retail points in the country. Lastly, it will focus on converting traditional photo studios to digital studios. Canon has a target of converting 2,000 studios to digital mode by the end of 2004

Kodak India: Miles ahead

Kodak India is a subsidiary of Kodak Limited, UK. It was the first photographic company to set up operations in India, way back in 1913. Today, Kodak India is a leader in the Indian digicam market with a market share of 47 percent. (Source: IDC) What makes Kodak the leader in this market segment is the fact that its products are not available in the grey market. On top of that, Kodak’s products are well supported by its 250 channel partners and it has 29 billing points who act as clearing and forwarding agents. Kodak offers a range of products in consumer, professional, entertainment, digital and health imaging. Kodak has four regional sales offices and has three manufacturing plans located in Goa, Bangalore and Malanpur. Product offerings: Kodak has nine products. The CX range starts from Rs 9,000, while at the other end of the spectrum the LS 633 is priced at Rs 29,900. Strategy for 2004: Kodak is planning to add 12 new products to its existing range. It plans to focus more on the CX range, where it plans to introduce a 3 megapixel digicam at the entry-level. The second area of focus will be the LS 633.

Understanding digital photography

For over 150 years, photography has been a chemical process involving films, development of film and then printing them. Much of this processing must take place in a dark room. Digital photography does away with the need for films, chemicals and a dark room. It brings photography into the electronic age. Images are captured with arrays of photo sensors (called CCDs—Charge Coupled Devices) instead of traditional film. Once captured, the photographs are stored in a digital format that lets the user move them to a computer, print, view, e-mail and upload them so that they can be viewed by someone across the globe. In today’s networked world, digital photography is gaining popularity because of the flexibility it offers when an image needs to be used or distributed. In a digicam you get to see the photograph on the LCD screen the moment it is shot. You can decide to reshoot on the spot unlike in the case of film where it has to be processed before you know if the results match your expectations. Digital cameras provide ‘instant gratification’. Source: Canon India

Logitech: Riding piggyback on PC sales

Logitech India is a leading supplier of computer peripherals in the country with a wide range of offerings, ranging from keyboards, mice, and webcams. The company also sells wireless keyboards and optical mice. Product strategy: Logitech leads the webcam market with its flagship product, QuickCam. Sanjeev Shah, national sales manager, Logitech India, says, “QuickCam Express is the highest selling entry-level webcam product. It is priced at Rs 2,500 and is based on CMOS technology.” Logitech sells its products through its national distributors—Rashi Peripherals and Neoteric Informatics.

akhtar@expresscomputeronline.com