Last night saw the celebration by Canon of ten years of the Ixus range of compact cameras.
Whilst I wasn’t invited as a guest, I did have the luck of working on the event and getting to see all of the presentations.
The day consisted of a conference during the afternoon where photos taken by many top fashion photographers were exhibited. Each of these photos was later auctioned off and the proceeds given to the Red Cross.
The evening started with a presentation by many different people, including the chairman of the design museum, the Head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe - Mogens Jensen, and the London fashion week president.
Throughout the presentation, guests were presented with different videos detailing the creation and rise to popularity of the Canon Ixus range. We got to meet the original designer of the very first model of the Ixus, Yasushi Shiotani and another designer of some Ixus models whose name escapes me.
Also to note was the mention of the new DIGIC III processor, which will be used in the newer models of the Ixus, soon to be released here in the UK and Europe. Interesting to note, no press release has been made in Europe (that I could find) detailing the existence of use of the DIGIC III processor!
Some of these new cameras were previewed in another area where all guests could try the cameras out and get prints from the photos that they took. I didn’t manage to get to this area during the evening, but I did see some of the cameras the day before and have to say they look pretty smart!
Most of the new Ixus range of cameras are made from titanium as opposed to the stainless steel that most are made from and have a higher pixel rating.
There were also two very special cameras displayed during the presentation. Two Canon Digital IXUS 850 IS encrusted with diamonds. This camera is due to be released some time in October. These two very limited edition versions were auctioned off with proceeds again going to the Red Cross.
All in all, I think it was a pretty successful day for Canon. Everyone seemed to be having fun, even the Nikon photographer who had to hire in Canon equipment because he wasn’t allowed to use his Nikon equipment!
On Saturday I was part of the team involved in putting on the Chinese new year celebrations at the British Museum. It was a very long day, but we got to see some of Monkey: Journey to the West which was written by Damon Albarn.