Canon Professional Services (CPS)

[peety3]

Huh....it was a Canon rep that suggested I join. I did mentioned I was just a hobbyist, but they were more concerned that I had enough gear.

I've had a Canon Repair rep suggest that I join...when I said I don't meet the 51% requirement, they said "oh yep, that's a problem". *shrug* I do see that the wording was changed...almost worse for me. With 51%, I could make a killing ("could" being the operative word) at photography and keep my full-time job in Internet networking while qualifying for CPS. Now I'd have to have two full-time jobs to qualify, and that ain't happening.

[HDNitehawk]

This is from the actual Terms and Conditions for Gold the wording is slightly different than the FAQ;


"1. Membership is available only for those individuals, (a) that are full time self-employed, or an employee of a professional imaging business, who plays a direct role in the creation of moving or still images for third parties on a professional basis, (b) are legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and (c) who are at least 18 years of age at the time of enrollment. At this time, membership benefits, and repair service are available in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia."

Now I am a full time self-employed individual who plays a direct role in the creation of moving or still images for third parties on a professional basis. However my images would be secondary to my business, for documentation and such. My business is in no way photography and most of my competitors would hire someone to do their videos and photography. But by the description I would qualify.

There is no 51% requirement that I see. Please point this out.

For that matter what is "Full Time Self-Employed"? Full time employment is defined by the hours not the wage. Companies define what is and is not full time employee there are no set amount of hours.

Surely Canon is not trying to keep a wedding photographer just starting out, that has very little income and works long hours just because his income is less than his "other" job.

Canon asks you to put real information in that shows you own a certain amount of gear.
They ask you give them a credit card and pay them $100.00.
They do not ask for any proof what so ever that you meet the employment requirements.

We can look at something like this and think some are dishonest in joining.
Actually petty3, if you are making an income from photography you have a fair argument that you do qualify.

[neuroanatomist]

Likewise, I wonder about the 'professional imaging business' bit. My Fortune 100 company employs a couple of full-time photographers among its ~75,000 employees. They should be excluded because our mission is making medicines not images?

For that matter, many computer/graphics designers would fit the description, even if their Canon gear has nothing to do with their day job.

I say if you want to join, join. Canon will be happy to take your money, provided you have sufficient gear registered for the level at which you want to join.