Case Study – Consumer Behavior
Digital cameras and the run for the pixel count
The arrival of the new millennium had a lot to offer for the photography world and the enthusiasts with the rapid transition from a technology based on film to digital sensors. The main difference between the analogue and digital technologies is that an analogue camera using films has the main disadvantage of providing only a few pictures (24 or 36) per film that had to be processed by a specialized laboratory with significant costs involved. Originally, the turnaround time to get your finished pictures back was significant, about a week or two, but was progressively reduced to one hour in the years preceding the arrival of the digital sensors available to the masses.
Digital cameras entail numerous advantages over film with a) instant image and review, b) large capacity of pictures on a single memory card which can reach hundreds if not thousands nowadays, without incurring additional costs c) possibility of deleting bad shots on the spots or later on one’s computer, d) possibility to send images to friends shortly after, e) high capacity zoom lens that offer wide-angle to long telephoto views; all this in a small handheld package.
At the beginning, the quality of the digital pictures was quite poor to a point where some detractors were questioning the future of the innovative technology but in the last few years the quality of the images has gained incredible grounds to the astonishment of every photographer, amateur and professional. One aspect of the superiority of the photos lately has been the number of pixels each sensor can hold, which have been increasing constantly going from two million pixels in 2001 for popular brands such as Canon and Nikon to even reaching sixty million pixels for a professional brand such as the Swedish medium format Hasselblad. A pixel can be defined as the smallest element of information contained in a digital image and has normally three color components mainly red, green and blue. Technically, each pixel composing a picture is handled by a photo sensor applied on a photoelectric metal plate that captures light. Thus, a 10-megapixel camera produces images that has ten million micro elements each drawn on the photoelectric plate by a micro light captor.
At the moment, and current level of technological development, the market paradox lies in the fact that more pixels does not mean higher quality because the more you “pack” pixels on a sensor the less power each micro sensor has in capturing light. And yet, the camera manufacturers have promoted the ever-increasing pixel count in their competitive advertising and offer reaching 14-15 megapixels for many mass marketed models. Recently, Canon Corporation has launched the S90 a new model with 10 megapixels (rather than 14-15) specifically addressing the need for handheld night and low “noise” shots. This counter-intuitive market move was made with marketing courage and leadership due consumer perceptions that more pixels mean more quality as promoted in the past.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What do you suggest digital manufacturers should do to reduce the current perception paradox of pixel number or picture quality? Please use the perception process to substantiate your answer.
- If you had to develop an ad for a new digital camera based on your own benefit sought, where should the emphasis be, using the attention process?
- Based on the Kansei engineering principle, how would you improve consumer perception of your own digital camera?
Requirements: 5 pages, 1.5-line space, Times Roman 12, one-inch frame.