Inside Story

For photography lovers

"Because the name is so simple, it is obvious what kind of camera the R8 is,"tells Fukui. The targeted users are "people who like photography." Fukui adds, "More than ten years have passed since the birth of the digital camera, so the market has matured considerably. I get the impression that there is an increasing number of people who become more interested in taking pictures after using a digital camera."

About 60% of all households have a digital camera as the change has been made from "one camera per family to one camera per person." Many people are "thinking about buying a second or third camera."

Convinced by market surveys

A market survey was conducted to see whether this was the right direction or not. Takeuchi points out, "After analyzing the opinions of a wide range of digital camera users, we are sure about our concepts."

The user class revealed from the survey included not only people wanting to capture commemorative moments like events and vacations but also people who carry a camera with them on a daily basis, photograph stimulating subjects and post them as artistic works on blogs, etc. The plan for the R8 included a "tool that users would want to use everyday"as a concept.

What kind of camera would people with preferences use on a daily basis? -- Planning staff carefully selected features to include.