The Nikon struggle to Survive Nov 2020

Sierra Club said:
Back in the day the choice was simple and made sense.
You really did see a difference in IQ, functionality and ergonomics.

I was more motivated to move up from the old D3000 to D7100 than from D7100 to D750.
With D750 I'm not even planning to buy any new digital cameras in the foreseeable future.
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Agree entirely. I got the d750 relatively soon after it was released - and now I see that was more than six years ago. Apart from quibbling about some details - in my case, I occasionally wish it had a deeper buffer (kids) - about all I'd want is 'better', but very little of that is critical.

Image quality, handling, autofocus, exposure are all really damn good on d750 and later. And the newer ones don't provide the 'jump' that previously would have been seen between generations.

I've looked at the mirrorless Zs: I don't see any clear, obvious benefits. Everyone raves about the Z lenses (mostly) - but with only one or two examples, they're ... not at all cheap. The truth is, for what I need, lens quality/performance of what I have is mostly acceptable (actually way better than acceptable). Of course, there's always one or two things I'd like to acquire - but very few clear-cut wins that would make a difference. The relatively large size of the Z lenses so far also puts me off.

It seems to me that what's lacking in the Z series - for me anyway - is anything particularly fun that they would enable (at a reasonable price). They need E-series lenses - relatively small and decent quality, decent price, and small.

About the only other thing the Zs would let me do right now that I can't is goof around with putting old lenses on it (which I'd certainly do, just for kicks, but doesn't justify a new camera).

As it stands now, when I feel like changing things up or playing around with something different, just for inspiration or a change of pace, I either use an Oly micro four-thirds (also not recent, but small and fun with a fast prime), or something from the herd of older film cameras.

I'm not sure that approach would work financially for Nikon - I understand what they're doing now by going for premium/pro market (take as much cream in the form of margin as they can), but that market is by definition limited and hard fought.

At some point they'll come out with more for their stable of offerings that reaches further down into more of a mass market, but that might be too late.

I see lots of people with dSLRs when traveling, but otherwise - not so much.

That said, I'm not personally concerned - I honestly expect I'll be okay with the d750 for another ~five years, and who knows what will be on offer by then. But my indifference is hardly a good thing for Nikon.
 
Some people are ok with still using DSLRs and some will not change. That does not mean that they will feel that way forever... or they will have to move onto Pentax (who seems dedicated to DSLRs). I'm a big fan of mirrorless... being able to predict my exposure (more or less) while making the photo has been a game changer for me. For me...

What I do not like in the camera world is that they all are making the same camera basically. I mean, even Fuji's new GFX is a full SLR shaped camera with PSAM dials. They had to conform to the norm in order to sell this. Even Leica is doing it with the SL series. For those of us that love classic controls and minimal design, options are dying out.

In the future, I would imagine camera companies will have to start taking chances in order to differentiate themselves from each other.
 
In the future, I would imagine camera companies will have to start taking chances in order to differentiate themselves from each other.
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Who knows? It very much depends when 'the future' begins. Right now, during these volatile times, everyone is playing safe, expanding market share through exponential improvements of existing designs, and maximizing sales and profit. In the meantime, investors will demand a decent return on their investment. If Nikon continues to struggle for too long, they'll be gobbled-up. Happens all the time. Cheers, OtL
 
I wonder if the Japanese government would get involved? In the past, I’ve heard that they wouldn’t want one of the major parties of an industry to fail.

However, we certainly had the Minolta, Konica, Sony transition.
 
Pál_K said:
I wonder if the Japanese government would get involved? In the past, I’ve heard that they wouldn’t want one of the major parties of an industry to fail.

However, we certainly had the Minolta, Konica, Sony transition.
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Lloyd Chambers commented on the Sony, Fujifilm dominance and Canon's equivocal ability to join them again. Nikon may be as he noted, on "Death Watch". I just can’t see how Nikon can refashion themselves. One year loss of $720 million and worse ahead is a bitter pill.
 
james.liam said:
Lloyd Chambers commented on the Sony, Fujifilm dominance and Canon's equivocal ability to join them again. Nikon may be as he noted, on "Death Watch". I just can’t see how Nikon can refashion themselves. One year loss of $720 million and worse ahead is a bitter pill.
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Both Sony & Fuji have such deep reserves that at this point they can muscle the market to suit their long term goals. Both seem willing to pack their cameras full of cutting edge technology at what may be little to no profit, in an attempt to drive competitors out of the market.
Fuji seems to be trying this with the medium format cameras - delivering loads of features at a price to match Hasselblad's lower tech efforts. How long can Hasselblad compete with this?
Sony have successfully pushed the market towards full frame in such a way that many photographers will no longer consider APS-C or MicroFourThirds. Olympus has fallen, and everyone else is scrambling to enter the FF market (with more or less the same product).

Interesting times.
 
james.liam said:
Lloyd Chambers commented on the Sony, Fujifilm dominance and Canon's equivocal ability to join them again.
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Looks like Mr. Chambers don't know what he is talking about. As 99% of all these bloggers and influencers, who make just marketing for those companies who pay them.
And fact is that Sony und Fuji pay a lot to these influencers.

Sony was only number 3 in global sales in 2019 (there is no data yet available for 2020), behind Nikon. Canon by far no. 1.

And Fuji is a very small niche manufacturer with only about 5% global market share in digital cameras. Fuji is making double the revenue with its analog business.
 
oldwino said:
Sony have successfully pushed the market towards full frame in such a way that many photographers will no longer consider APS-C or MicroFourThirds. Olympus has fallen, and everyone else is scrambling to enter the FF market (with more or less the same product).
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The global APS market has still about more than 70% of the total market volume.
And concerning FF mirrorless and Sony: That was their profit center for some years because they had no competition.
But now
- the whole mirrorless market is collapsing (see the CIPA numbers)
- they have very strong competition from Canon, Nikon, Leica and Panasonic
- their market share in FF mirrorless is in free fall: they have lost 35% in just two years, and this fall is accelerating.
 
I don't know what products Nikon needs to offer, but feel that for years they pretty much ignored the enthusiast market except for D3xx, D8xx and Dx-class SLRs, and they've tended to be very stingy with more advanced features like raw output from Coolpix cameras.

Z-system looks decent, but aside from Nikon fans, I don't know who it's for, and I think neither do they. Aside from the very costly Noct-Nikkor, it's not clear to me what Nikon's Z offers that Canon and Sony don't.
 
I wonder if it would be wise to pick up a couple of D850s, just in case.

I can't imagine Nikon being no longer in business.
 
Rob-F said:
.....I can't imagine Nikon being no longer in business.
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I can. 30 years ago I could have said the same thing about Minolta, and they are now gone, being absorbed by somebody else. Stuff happens.

That being said, Nikon has taken some drastic but necessary actions to put the company in a better financial position. Last I heard, they were still going to lose money this FY. Next year looks to be profitable.

Jim B.
 
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