Canon press release:

TOKYO, February 28, 2014—Canon Inc. announced today that nine Canon designs were recognized by iF International Forum Design GmbH with prestigious 2014 iF Design Awards in the product design and communication design categories.

iF Product Design Awards went to the EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 100D (EOS Rebel SL1 or EOS Kiss X7 in other regions) digital SLR cameras, the PowerShot N compact digital camera, the LEGRIA mini (VIXIA mini or IVIS mini) camcorder, the PIXMA MG7150 / MG6450 / MG5550 (PIXUS MG7130 / N/A / MG5530 in Japan) inkjet printers, the i-SENSYS LBP7680Cx / 7110Cw (N/A / imageCLASS LBP7001Cw or N/A / Satera LBP7110C) color laser beam printers, the WUX450 multimedia projector, and the LE-5W LED projector. The iF Communication Design Award went to the user interface for the EOS M compact-system camera.

Update: After having published the interview, Imaging Resource was told by Canon USA that there are no plans to bring the EOS M2 to the US.

[Editor’s note: We received an update after we went to press that Canon USA does not have plans to sell the EOS M2 at this time. We’ll let you guys know if this changes!]

Imaging Resource’s Dave Etchells met Mr. Go Tokura, Group Executive, ICP Group 2, Image Communications Products Operations at Canon, and his colleague Mr Naoya Kaneda, Senior General Manager, ICP Development Center 1, Image Communications Products Operations at Canon. The interview was conducted with the help of a translator. Among other topics, in the interview they talked about Canon’s EOS mirrorless plans, the innovative and groundbreaking Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology, and the future of video shooting with mirrorless system cameras.

When asked about Canon’s mirrorless plans, more precisely about the EOS M2, Mr Tokura said that there “are plans for the M2 to arrive in the U.S.”, and then adds that this is a “decision that is led by the sales groups in each division, so they are the ones who are holding the decision-making responsibility on that.”. At least there are plans to bring the EOS M2 to the States (and hopefully also to Europe).

And the lens roadmap for the EOS M system? Mr Tokura says he “can assure [us] that [Canon] do have plans to roll out some lenses in the future” but he can’t say anything more precise about the roadmap (because of company policy).

When asked about the reason’s of the EOS M initial AF slowness, Mr. Tokura said that is was due to a very conservative approach to AF implementation, an approach that put more emphasis on precision than on speed.

There are more gems in the interview, as Dave Etchells’ investigation about the inner working of Dual Pixel CMOS Auto-Focus. Every pixel on the sensor “has two full readouts, so every pixel on the sensor can be read as two halves”.  Next question was “whether the signals from the two halves of each pixel are combined on the sensor chip for data image readout, or if they’re read out separately and then later combined in the processor?” – unfortunately Mr. Tokura couldn’t answer here since this information is kept under embargo by Canon. And what is the major drawback of the Dual Pixel AF technology? It is very expensive to manufacture because of the high precision required to tie the AF technology into the sensor.

There is more in the interview.

B&H Photo has both the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM and the Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM lenses in stock right now (limited supply) and ready to ship.

• Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM – $799
• Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM – $899

Canon will attend The Photography Show in Birmigham, UK.

A brand new photography show for enthusiast photographers is launching next month (from 1-4 March) at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, UK, and Canon will feature strongly both as an exhibitor, showcasing its superb range of imaging equipment, as well as fielding four members of its Ambassadors Programme as special guest speakers.

Giving talks throughout the duration of the show will be Canon Ambassador Jeff Ascough as well as Canon Explorers Danny Green, David Noton and Clive Booth.

Adobe’s Richard Curtis (author of the recent CPN Lightroom 5 tutorials), National Geographic photojournalist Steve McCurry (Magnum Photos), fashion and celebrity photographer Rankin and legendary portrait photographer Terry O’Neill will also be there, where they will each give talks about their careers and showcase some stunning images.

[via CPN]

B&H Photo has the new Sandisk Extreme PRO UHS-II SDXC memory cards available for pre-order, claimed to be the world’s fastest memory cards. 16GB, 32GB and 64GB can be pre-ordered. Shipping is expected for April 10.

Specs and description after the break.