Severe crisis at Nikon

I like the idea of a digital Nikon Rangefinder. They have the heritage to pull it off. The issue I see is with lens compatibility. They just can't compete with the variety of lenses that are available in LTM or M mount.

So... why not an M mount, SP or S3 retro styled digital rangefinder??? Priced lower than the latest Leica offerings, I think it would do well.

And if you still want to use your Nikon rangefinder lenses, there are adapters for that already. (Thanks Amedeo!)

I'd buy one.
 
fdarnell said:
Interesting story. Here's the fundamental, unavoidable, irreversible facts:

1. The number of people that appreciate the performance of a high quality DSLR or mirrorless is declining and doing so rapidly.

2. The number of people that want one device to text, email, post to social media and keep them connected and make wonderful selfies and food pics to show their friends is growing at an exponential rate.

3. The population of #2 is not well suited to the rigors of detailed, thorough problem-solving skills need to compete successfully in modern manufacturing. Problem solving, data analysis, fact-finding and critical thought are ideas from another universe to them.

4. It's too late to enter the smartphone business, mirrorless business or any format of camera business of any kind in the digital realm.

Therefore:

Given #3 & #4, Nikon should dump the camera division ASAP as it is still profitable and move to building the automatic measuring systems business, since the population of #2 will not be able to provide the skills to keep their ever-increasing demand for instant social approval gratification technology satisfied for their astronomically growing masses. Nikon has a good marketing force for the industrial imaging division and adding this kind of product to its mix will give them a "full cart" to sell from.

This manufacturing should not take place in the United States.
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#1 The number of new DSLR and Mirrorless cameras sold does not directly tie to "The number of people that appreciate" them. While that may be a part of the reason, I might suggest that perhaps the market is saturated with product that is not sufficiently different from the new products to generate any pull from the customer's side.

#2 While it's growing I would submit that the impact upon DSLR and Mirrorless is limited as the functionality overlap is minimal. While IQ of cellphones is catching up to entry-level interchangeable cameras, I would suggest the impact is immaterial.

#3 A bit too broad brush and abstracted for any meaningful observation. I would submit that Kodak sold thousands of instamatic cameras to folks who later proved they could load a roll of 135 in a P&S camera.

#4 The barriers to entry are not too high. There is at least one Chinese manufacturers coming to market now and I suspect at least two others will in the coming 18 months.

I'm actually writing up a test right now for about 250 students in my sections of Biz Mgt 370. The test is focused on when face with a decision to list the information you want to gather before you make decision and describe why it's important. Make a decision (no wrong answer here) and then list how you will monitor that decision to insure it doesn't go sideways (e.g. unintended consequences, just plain wrong) and why. I suspect about a dozen students will present information similar in nature to what you have. They will not be getting any credit for those answers.

Nikon has leveraged lens prowess across multiple lines of business and selling their foundation products as they have cut back R&D in many areas to maintain profitability over the past 20 years would be IMHO, bad for business and a time to go short on their stock.

B2 (;->
 
Huss said:
I bought a perfect, like new USA model F6 for $800. I wouldn't bother waiting for a refurb for $1400.
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Sounds like a great approach. Save the $600 for any CLA that might (though odds are won't) be needed. I know, it's a Nikon, they don't need CLA but once every three decades.

B2 (;->
 
BillBingham2 said:
Sounds like a great approach. Save the $600 for any CLA that might (though odds are won't) be needed. I know, it's a Nikon, they don't need CLA but once every three decades.

B2 (;->
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"Like New". And it was (still is akshully). If it needed a CLA, it wouldn't be "Like New"!

These are very very smooth shooting cameras. Makes my Nikon F feel like it was built in the 1960s...
:D
 
mothertrucker said:
I like the idea of a digital Nikon Rangefinder. They have the heritage to pull it off. The issue I see is with lens compatibility. They just can't compete with the variety of lenses that are available in LTM or M mount.

So... why not an M mount, SP or S3 retro styled digital rangefinder??? Priced lower than the latest Leica offerings, I think it would do well.
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I'm not so sure this is the way to save the company... even if we'd love to see it.
 
We can only hope for the best. I seems ironic that all of this is happening on their 100th birthday. I cannot believe that Mitsubishi (Nikon's actual owner) would allow such a landmark company to decline like this. With all their resources you would think they could do more. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
rgpadron said:
The IPhone is killing photography!
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It might be killing the box that photography exists in, for a select few but for the rest of the world, it has brought photography into their daily lives. Photography doesn't need to measured by the merit of the tools or the print/image alone. Everyday I am able to see into the world of folks from Helsinki to Tokyo via the smartphone. Some of them are friends from RFF, some are colleagues and others complete strangers. It chips away at the unknown and creates emotional response/connection. I'd argue the camera phone has given photography a boost we never thought possible a few decades ago.
 
mothertrucker said:
I like the idea of a digital Nikon Rangefinder. They have the heritage to pull it off. The issue I see is with lens compatibility. They just can't compete with the variety of lenses that are available in LTM or M mount.

So... why not an M mount, SP or S3 retro styled digital rangefinder??? Priced lower than the latest Leica offerings, I think it would do well.

And if you still want to use your Nikon rangefinder lenses, there are adapters for that already. (Thanks Amedeo!)

I'd buy one.
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Basically all you need is the L mount, something very similar, without the Sony problems of narrowness.

Once you make the mount, you can design any number of bodies for it.

Perhaps that cannot accommodate a mechanical RF mechanism, though I'm not sure why. You certainly have a point about wanting M/TLM working on a Digital RF Nikon. Since Amedeo already adaptes in multiple ways, it does not seem an unsurmountable issue.

It's a shame they had to use Contax as the model, and even more that they did not get it right. Complicates everything :bang:
 
Nikon has interesting APS-C DSLRs, but absolutely poor offer of high-quality APS-C prime lenses. Any wide for the D-500 ?
robert
 
emraphoto said:
It might be killing the box that photography exists in, for a select few but for the rest of the world, it has brought photography into their daily lives. Photography doesn't need to measured by the merit of the tools or the print/image alone. Everyday I am able to see into the world of folks from Helsinki to Tokyo via the smartphone. Some of them are friends from RFF, some are colleagues and others complete strangers. It chips away at the unknown and creates emotional response/connection. I'd argue the camera phone has given photography a boost we never thought possible a few decades ago.
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Agreed. It was a disruptive technology for sure but I see *far* more people taking pictures and sharing pictures then I ever did in the days of film.

Shawn
 
lawrence said:
Whenever I walk into any kind of tourist area and look at what people are carrying, phones aside it's all prosumer SLRs, nearly always Nikon or Canon. Generally there's not a Fuji or Olympus mirrorless in sight because brand recognition is so important in this market. If Nikon simply concentrated on the prosumer and pro I think they'd do OK, although at some point they need to come up with is a mirrorless that can take F mount lenses. Everything else they do photography-wise should be dumped.
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I work in London just by Tower Bridge, which is prime tourist-trap territory; and while the overwhelming majority of cameras used are either dSLRs or cellphones, the SLRs are almost all entry-level models (mostly Canon and Nikon). Occasionally one will see the patriarch of the group carrying a tank with gold-band or white zoom lens; but most will be smaller models with just the kit zoom.
 
Huss said:
Sooooo.... no F7?
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There will be a new film F-mount SLR every year. Nikon will struggle to meet the demand.

Leica can barely keep up with the demand for the M-A (Typ 127).

By 2020 Canon's still-camera business will collapse because they didn't bother to take advantage of the global tidal wave of people switching from smart-phone photography to 35 mm film SLRs.
 
dmr said:
I dunno. To some of us, at least, the idea of using a phone for photos makes about as much sense as making a phone call on a Pentax Spotmatic!
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It is unfortunate that the iPhone exists, Steve Jobs would have rather it have been an internet device, more in the form of an iPad.

But the lack of a robust internet 10 years ago, forced it to be the clumsy marriage of a phone, and an internet device.
 
rgpadron said:
The IPhone is killing photography!
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More like its killing the camera industry (or maybe it already did :eek: ). Smartphones (not just iphone), on the other hand, are giving the everyday photography a huge boost.

I'm sad for the future and development of camera as we used to know them, but I kinda like how photography has evolved.


Regards.


Marcelo
 
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