"Nikon slams shutter on single-lens reflex cameras"

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Dated April 26, 2021

By HIROKI ITO

Source: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14327802


Article Text:
Nikon Corp. announced it will wrap up domestic production of single-lens reflex camera bodies this year.

The sturdy camera bodies were the model of choice for war photographers covering conflicts around the world, and won particular renown for reliability during the Vietnam War.

The digital camera giant, along with Canon Inc., once led the industry, but Nikon found itself struggling in recent years against demand for high-performance smartphones and compact mirrorless models.

Nikon said manufacturing of the last domestically made model, the D6 series that is intended for professional photographers, will be relocated from Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan to the company's core production base in Thailand.

“We have a system to ensure exceptional quality no matter where our products are churned out,” said a Nikon representative.

The move will mark the end of Nikon’s camera body production in Japan that started in 1948. It will, however, continue making related parts and spare lenses in Japan.

“Nikon had no choice but to shift its production base to Thailand in an effort to cut costs as its domestic market share kept falling,” said Ichiro Michikoshi, a chief executive analysist at research firm BCN Inc.

A BCN survey shows that Canon held the dominant position in the Japanese digital camera market in 2020 with a 36.8 percent share, followed by Sony Corp. and Nikon at 19.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively

Michikoshi also noted that Nikon lagged behind Sony in the mirrorless camera field, though Nikon, along with Canon, had long served as the two leading suppliers of high performance models across the world.

“Sony has quickly increased its presence with products equipped with large imaging sensors, but the first models released by Nikon and Canon were mainly products designed to cater to beginner photographers,” he said.

“My impression is that Nikon fell behind terribly,” Michikoshi added. “The company continued using the original lens mount that it first adopted for the Nikon F model, but fewer digital camera buyers than expected kept using the same lenses, forcing the company to change course in 2018.”

Sticking to the lens mount likely sidetracked Nikon from focusing on the development of mirrorless models in the early stages, according to Michikoshi.

Interest in the digital camera market has also fallen off markedly.

Shipments in and outside Japan dropped from 1.4681 trillion yen ($13.43 billion) in 2012 to 420.1 billion yen in 2020, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association.

Sales of single-lens reflex cameras also are not nearly as popular as they once were.

Growing advances in smartphone camera technology severely undermined the global popularity of Japanese-made cameras, Michikoshi said.

“The performance of cameras mounted (on smartphones) has dramatically improved, eliminating the need for consumers to bother to always bring a camera with them,” he said.

The novel coronavirus pandemic proved to be another nail in the shrinking market.

Nikon reported a 23.9-percent decline in year-on-year sales for the fiscal year ending in March 2021 with annual turnover of 450 billion yen.

The operating loss amounted to 65 billion yen, while an operating profit of 6.7 billion yen was recorded in the previous year.
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Merlijn53 said:
I think we heard this a few months ago already?
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We’ve been hearing “Nikon is dead” every week from some quarters for a while now, but, no, this is new today.

It’s simple offshoring. Love it or hate it, it is more likely to improve viability than as a signifier of morbidity. It’s unlikely to affect quality, though might be a blow to Japanese pride of manufacture.
Toyota makes cars in Kentucky and Mexico, nobody thinks Toyota is going out of business.
 
Larry Cloetta said:
We’ve been hearing “Nikon is dead” every week from some quarters for a while now, but, no, this is new today.

It’s simple offshoring. Love it or hate it, it is more likely to improve viability than as a signifier of morbidity. It’s unlikely to affect quality, though might be a blow to Japanese pride of manufacture.
Toyota makes cars in Kentucky and Mexico, nobody thinks Toyota is going out of business.
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Toyota is a totally different situation. They make cars in the US because this is their biggest market and making them here avoids paying import tariffs and the high cost of transporting cars, a large and heavy product, across the pacific. Thailand is not a major camera market; the stuff Nikon makes there is mostly sold elsewhere. They're doing it to **** their workers, no more and no less. Given the outrageous prices charged for photo gear today, they can make the stuff in Japan and pay their workers decent wages.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
They're doing it to ***** their workers, no more and no less. Given the outrageous prices charged for photo gear today, they can make the stuff in Japan and pay their workers decent wages.
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If a company is struggling to remain profitable, why is the the common point of view? Do you think the same of all the US companies who shifted their production to China or Mexico?
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Toyota is a totally different situation. They make cars in the US because this is their biggest market and making them here avoids paying import tariffs and the high cost of transporting cars, a large and heavy product, across the pacific. Thailand is not a major camera market; the stuff Nikon makes there is mostly sold elsewhere. They're doing it to f--k their workers, no more and no less. Given the outrageous prices charged for photo gear today, they can make the stuff in Japan and pay their workers decent wages.
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Nothing hurts workers as much as their employer going belly up, but I’d agree with you that outsourcing hurts a country’s workforce. That’s something of a no brainer, if your job just went to someone in another country.
But nobody outside of Nikon management is in a position to know how much they can afford to pay their Japanese workers and still stay in business.
I’m no fan of outsourcing believe me, but this is another case where answers probably are not that simple.
 
Yes, something American companies have excelled at over the past few decades...sending work overseas to save a buck. For the same reason, corporations want low-wage workers to come across the border, and it's why the political elites won't enforce immigration law...because they are owned by the corporations. This influx of labor of course creates competition for American workers at the lowest rung, and keeps their wages down.
 
There are plenty of Americans making a good wage... and who have a great quality of life.
Of course there are pockets within the country where things are very tough with concentrated poverty. Jobs change and new jobs become available. Japan will be fine.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Doom and gloom third parties bozos rumours... Of course it will be slow down in cameras sales for 2020, 2021 because here is no social gathering, sports, events. In civilized countries people can't even photograph weddings during 2020-21.

Meanwhile Nikon USA sells DSLRs directly to end users.

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/dslr-cameras/d850.html
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Why is it "bozo rumors"? Wondering out loud how many D6 cameras they anticipate they'll sell in 5 years.
 
jsrockit said:
There are plenty of Americans making a good wage... and who have a great quality of life.
Of course there are pockets within the country where things are very tough with concentrated poverty. Jobs change and new jobs become available. Japan will be fine.
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Half of working Americans are so poor that they're exempt from paying income tax. That is a direct result of the intentional deindustrialization of my county. We are NOT ok, and Japan is headed down the same path to ruin.
 
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