Takkun
Ian M.
That statistic's been mentioned a few times here and while I don't dispute it, I'm just saying that it might not be a tempting factor for the bigger mass-market manufacturers: it's just a different market than they want to focus on. As an analog, I'm sure the growth of electric sedans is outpacing box truck sales as well, but that doesn't mean delivery companies are jumping ship to Tesla. (I also realize that they're trying to break into the trucking game, but bear with me for the sake of argument)
I should clarify what I meant by 'niche,' and that was within the context of what I assume is the target market of Nikon/Canon/what have you, who buy entire kits at camera and electronics stores. Niche within product lines, not volume. Of course it's a huge booming market, but as a fun, creative toy to augment cell phones (which, of course, cannibalized the point-and-shoot sector). It looks like these companies are really trying to refine their product lines toward 'higher end' digital photography rather than spread thin chasing the casual snapshot market, which was already lost to Apple and Samsung, etc.
Complicating all that are tooling costs, marketing and distribution networks, and so on. A lot of money to sink into something that isn't your core brand. But easy to do for these little Kickstarter projects where there's less financial risk and you don't have fingers in other pots. I'm thinking of Hasselblad's strange and ill-received forays into the small-format game a few years ago.
I see it a bit like disposable cameras, in their day: hugely popular, but dominated by Kodak and Fuji—why didn't, say, Pentax jump on board? I don't really have an answer,
I'm not in the industry and haven't worked in it in about a decade, so I'm just speculating on your original implication as to why established manufacturers aren't joining in on the craze. I'm also not knocking it either; they're fun, and I really do miss shooting pack film on my Bronica.
Do I wish a little bit Nikon would make a full-featured instant camera, maybe with interchangeable lenses? Absolutely. Would I be willing to pay a couple hundred to buy into another new system? Probably not. And I think that's why we probably won't see a whole lot from traditional manufacturers. Fuji makes money off every pack of film, like the old Gillette model. Camera manufacturers make money off of customers upgrading and expanding their kit. I just don't see casual Instax users as a whole buying feature-packed cameras or digital photographers sinking a lot into 'toy' cameras. The beauty and appeal is their simplicity.
Anyway, rant over. I'm waiting for some way to adapt MF cameras to Instax so I can shoot instant with MF again...
