Can the Market Support a High Quality NEW Fixed Lens Camera?

NickTrop

NickTrop

Veteran
Local time
3:51 AM
Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
3,077
Using eBay as a guage...

A Yashica T4 Super is currently going for $255 with 2 hours left in the bid with 12 bidders. Another is going for about the same price with 11 bidders at the time of this post. Another has longer to auction end but is already at over $100 with 9 bidders... You've seen what used G1 and G2s are going for. Hexar AFs, similarly.

Meanwhile, I've seen DSLRs - lower end ones a couple years old, go for $150-$250. Few bidders...

Makes me wonder how a re-introduced high quality autofocus film "T4"-like camera would do. Or - more so, a Hexar AF type camera. Thinking specifically of a small high-quality, high-end AF camera with a high quality lens...

Bet it would make out well if it's kept at around the $500 price point. Also, market it strictly through the Internets, skip the retail outlets...
|
 
I guess the same folks who buy other high end film cameras would buy it. It's a unique market where people who buy these cameras usually own many of them, or buy and sell different ones frequently. Looking for something new, I guess.
 
I think Ray Nalley is correct. For the rest of us unwashed masses, we are usually looking for something we know is very good, but at a much better than new price. The price range you quote might make it. However, I am not sure.

Wish some camera manufacturer would test the waters to see.
 
Every time you open up some junk mail from your letter box or walk into a chain store there's a new improved point and shoot digital staring you in the face for not much over $100 thats 6 megapixel and has all these so called imrovements over it's now heavily discounted predecessor ... and everyone seems to make them!!!

Surely one of these companies can come up with the camera you describe and price it at what you suggest ... Nikon for example could have it manufactured in any one of a number of countries where they have production set up to save costs. I guess electronics are far cheaper to produce than anything mechanical these days and this could mean that perhaps it may not be so cheap to manufacture?

I've often considered getting a Contax or Hexar AF but they seem to command pretty high prices and I do worry about being seduced by auto focus as my eyes deteriorate with age! :p
 
Keith said:
...Surely one of these companies can come up with the camera you describe and price it at what you suggest ... Nikon for example could have it manufactured in any one of a number of countries where they have production set up to save costs. I guess electronics are far cheaper to produce than anything mechanical these days and this could mean that perhaps it may not be so cheap to manufacture?

I've often considered getting a Contax or Hexar AF but they seem to command pretty high prices and I do worry about being seduced by auto focus as my eyes deteriorate with age! :p
Click to expand...

I don't see such a camera being marketed in high-volume retail stores along side digitals. But is that really necessary today? I would think that - similar to how Cosina markets the Bessa, that Internet distributorship would be the way to go. The camera would appeal to a world-wide market.

Again, I'm only suggesting this since (very, very) anecdotally there seems to be - and it could be a mirage, quite an interest in the later model more automated high-end fixed lens film point and shooters and RFs - Yashica T4, Hexar AF, G1 and G2 cameras. 250-300 and a dozen bidders for a T4 Super, and I'm not so sure how many are collectors in this equation.

In fact, the T4 prices are pretty crazy and much higher (judging from these actions) than they used to be.
 
I think the T4 has slipped into cult status and the prices are disconnected from the real value of the camera as a tool for taking photos. The one I had for awhile didn't focus accurately with enough consistency for my liking.
 
And, here I am thinking about Cosina making a camera in the mold of the fixed-lens 35mm RFs they made back in the day for the likes of Minolta, Konica et al. I don't know about reinventing the Yashica T4; how about an Auto S3 or Hi-Matic with a new trick or two up its sleeve? Price it below the cheapest Bessa body, and you have a new, accessible tier for the "digital-but-curious" individual. :)


- Barrett
 
I for one would by a new FF digital Hexar AF. :) Maybe with a 28/2 instead of a 35, 15 MPixel to have some room to crop .... What more does one need ?

But that's maybe not what you meant ?

Roland.
 
Just to clarify, you mentioned fixed-lens but the G1 and G2 are interchangeable lens cameras. I know you knew that......As to your point, I think it's clear that some number of people are willing to pay still hefty prices for used cameras that are truly excellent. I suppose a Nikon marketing guy would read your original post and say, yeah, 11 people are bidding up this older camera, but 11 isn't much of a market for a new camera. I hope the new Fuji mf folder gets produced, and then we'll see your theory tested.
 
NickTrop said:
UAlso, market it strictly through the Internets, skip the retail outlets...
|
Click to expand...

for more fun, let's make them in limited amount each month and put on ebay with reserve or min. price, covering manufacturing expenses. Put up some nice warm-up "who knows how much items left this month" website. Allow happy owners to register there with serials.
 
Nick, don't the Fuji "Natura" line of P&S auto-focus cameras fit this niche? I think they make a few models in the line (or did at one time... I'm not sure if they are still being made) that included a couple with fixed wide-angle focal length lenses and a couple with small range zoom lenses. Unfortunately they only seem to be sold in Asia and on eBay.

I've seen some examples of low-light photography done with these cameras, on flickr, and the images look very nice. The cameras can accommodate film ISOs up to 1600.
 
The market could support one, but it's unlikely we'll see one.

If you want something more than the garden-variety P&S, then you're talking about a design, a high quality lens in place of the slow zoom (f/5.6-f/8) that you generally see, new tooling and some R&D.

Camera makers want to make money, and that's mass market and not catering to a small but vocal group, most of whom won't buy the product new and will wait until it enters the second-hand channels.

How many people would be willing to spend $400-$500 on a film P&S? I would hazard a guess that not too many. And not in the age of digital.
 
NickTrop said:
Bet it would make out well if it's kept at around the $500 price point. Also, market it strictly through the Internets, skip the retail outlets...
|
Click to expand...

I thought the "Luxo-cameras"--Nikon 35Ti, Minolta TC-1, Contax T, etc-- were all rather above that price point when new--closer to a grand?
Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom