More on the Canon vs Grey Market Retailers Legal Action

canon

Photography Bay posted an update to the Canon vs. grey market retailer legal action started by Canon. Canon USA has filed an amended complaint against F&E Trading, which represents BigValueInc, Electronic Valley and other grey market retailer. According to Photography Bay the amended complaint is about…:

In its Amended Complaint, Canon USA doesn’t really add on any additional egregious actions, but rather takes aim at pinning the alleged misconduct on Albert Houllou, who appears to be the principal owner/operator of F & E Trading.

Canon USA slices out several facts in an attempt to paint Houllou as the real wrongdoer in its trademark violation case. This strategy is a common tactic in lawsuits against companies.

[…]

As someone who used to practice corporate law, I can tell you that it is always a big win to get an individual (typically an owner or executive) on the hook for the wrongdoing (aka “piercing the corporate veil”). This allows the plaintiff (e.g., Canon USA) to hold a person (not just a company) personally liable for the wrongdoing. If you can get at a person’s assets, then you can apply a whole lot more pressure in settlement negotiations or drive them into bankruptcy.

Canon refers to the video below to claim that Mr. Houllou is the sole responsible and in the charge of F&E’s actions.

Photography Bay also published the PDF of the amended complaint (below).

Canon USA v. F & E Trading, LLC

[via Photography Bay]

Canon patent for 200-600mm f/4.5-5.6 superzoom for full-frame DSLRs

 

Canon patent
200-600mm f/4.5-5.6

Canon patent for a superzoom lens for full-frame DSLRs, an EF 200-600mm f/4.5-5.6 lens.

As always with patents, you can’t be sure if the described product will hit the market. However, the optical formula in the patent reminds the [shoplink 25432]Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM[/shoplink] lens, and given how well the latest Sigma lenses perform (given the price), I wouldn’t be suprised if Canon decides to strike back. I think such a lens would be welcome by the community.

  • Patent Publication No. 2015-212724
    • Published 2015.11.26
    • Filing date 2014.5.1
  • Example 1
    • Zoom ratio 3.00
    • Focal length 200.00 340.00 600.00
    • F-number 4.60 4.60 5.20
    • Angle of view 6.18 3.64 2.07
    • Image height 21.65 21.65 21.65
    • Overall length of the lens 355.16 355.16 355.16
    • BF 65.16 65.16 65.16
Canon patent
200-600mm f/4.5-5.6 performance, left wide end, right telephoto end
[via Egami]

 

PIXMA MX492 Wireless printer deal – $50 (reg. $100, Canon Store)

PIXMA MX492

The Canon Direct Store has an early access holidays deal. The PIXMA MX492 Wireless printer (black) is on sale at $49.99. You have to use code JINGLE1-GK3MEKC at checkout. Regular price is $99.99.

Do not miss to check the Canon Store’s refurbished gear listings for hot deals:

PIXMA MX492 overview after the break.

Click here to open the rest of the article

Canon’s 250MP APS-H sensor is based on column parallel ADC technology

canon 250mp sensor

Do you remember the 250MP sensor Canon showed off last year? I am pretty sure the sensor is based on column parallel ADC technology.

There is an interesting paper presented at ISSCC 2016 (2016 IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference) by a team of Canon researchers, with title (thanks Richard)

“An APS-H-Size 250Mpixel CMOS Image Sensor Using Column Single-Slope ADCs with Dual-Gain Amplifiers” (H. Totsuka, T. Tsuboi, T. Muto, D. Yoshida, Y. Matsuno, M. Ohmura, H. Takahashi, K. Sakurai, T. Ichikawa, H. Yuzurihara, S. Inoue -Canon, Kawasaki, Japan)

Unfortunately the paper will be presented in January, when the conference takes place, and is not yet available to the public.

I posted a few days ago that Canon filed a slew of patents regarding column parallel ADC technology, and that I got a hint this technology may be implemented in future Canon pro bodies (which in the meantime has been reposted by some sites). I am currently studying more Canon patents that all refer to column parallel ADC technology. Given the sheer amount of such patent, I think it is safe to assume that Canon has some plans with this technology.

2016 will be an exciting year for Canon, with new pro bodies coming (EOS 5D Mark IV and EOS-1D X Mark II) along with the EOS 6D Mark II and possibly a full-frame mirrorless camera. It’s too early to speculate on which cameras Canon will feature a sensor with column parallel ADC technology, but they will. I believe we may see this technology first on the EOS 5D Mark IV and EOS-1D X Mark II.

The video below (by Fotografiapuntoit) gives an overview on Canon’s 250MP sensor. Stay tuned for more…

[via Image Sensors World]