Between my father and I we have 11 Nikon DSLRs starting from 2005. I think 8 of them were made in Thailand and 3 were made in Japan. They all work fine. One of the Thailand cameras had a shutter issue after 2 years and I had it repaired. All of the other cameras have been flawless. Even my D70 from 2005 was made in Thailand and still works today although I converted it to infrared use.
Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
51–60 of 371 posts
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mobile phones have devoured the camera market. It’s 1/100th of the size it was a decade ago. On the professional DSLR front, they’re having their lunch regularly eaten by Sony, Canon and Fujifilm.
I can imagine, I also just switched from a Canon DSLR to a mirrorless Fujifilm. Even apart from smartphones, purely in the photography space, mirrorless cameras are becoming more popular (and I'm not aware of a significant offering by Nikon in that area).
Nikon has a nice mirrorless series of cameras (the Z-series). Both Canon and Nikon have gotten more serious on that front over the last few years. Especially their full frame mirrorless offerings are pretty nice and competitive. Sony is still considered quite good in this space but it is a lot closer than it was a few years ago.
I also bought a Fuji this year (X-T30), upgrading from an old Canon Rebel. I'm so far really liking it. For me it's as much about the form-factor as it is about the image quality.
Regarding phone cameras; they are quite nice these days but it's a different market. You can pick up a decent mirrorless camera for the price of a top range smart phone and it will give you a much wider range of options in terms of quality, focal length, stabilization, etc. That matters to only some people but those people still exist.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the short term: The pandemic. "Camera Sales in 2020 Have Plummeted As Much As 54%" https://petapixel.com/2020/11/06/camera-sales-in-2020-have-p...
Weird. With people stuck at home, and less time spent commuting and socialising, I'd have imagined hobbies like photography to take off.
Cameras are _really_ expensive and a lot of photo opportunities, such as travel and events, have vanished. Even landscape photography is hard when you're discouraged from driving to the interesting landscapes and your local area is probably not that interesting for photo opportunities (at least for yourself).
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#54Where in the world is Sony and Canon cameras produced? I bought a sony android phone (which after a lot of research seems to be produced in Japan) to my father because he refuses to use anything produced in China and I am also very hesitant to buy stuff that is produced in countries that don't generally care about quality, the environment etc. I have thought about buying a Nikon for a long time but this maybe will ma…
LOL Let's guess where your father's mask is made during this pandemic. Given that China has provided 200 billion masks, the answer is almost obvious. Please throw away all your masks made in China, right away! I'm also curious how long it will take you to find a country that is both willing and able to sell you masks during this pandemic.
I, like my father, of course use some stuff made in China since for several things there are literally no other choice.
But regarding masks, I live in Sweden and basically no one here wears a mask, including my father. Both me and my father have been isolated of course but there is really no need for him to wear a mask. We shop online and otherwise only meet people from our own family.
I work from home and he closed his company and went retired this year. I guess the joke is on you my friend.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Traditional lens manufacturing is likely in its last days (which can easily take a decade or two, but ... the end is visible). Modern lens are made with techniques perfected in semiconductor manufacturing, and use advances in material science (meta materials in particular). I don't know how close this is to mass market, but I've seen superthin flat lens, with a marginal cost of production around ~$2 in a university f…
>but I've seen superthin flat lens, with a marginal cost of production around ~$2 in a university facility, that work better than some $500 lens -- and the latter are expensive because they are hard to make the traditional way. I find this very fascinating because while I enjoy my ever-increasing smartphone camera and use it as a daily driver, I have a about 13 year old Canon DSLR (one of the first one they made now)…
I was not referring to phone lens, although those things are being applied there too.
It is now possible to build a telephoto lens for your DSLR, that costs $2 to make, is short and flat, yet has better optics than your current kit. When these become common, it will likely cause another seismic shift in the pure-camera market. Perhaps some of them will actually be bonded with the sensors, unlike what we have today.
Regardless, new lens technology -- while likely to make a greater impact on mobile phones -- is largely orthogonal to them.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Traditional lens manufacturing is likely in its last days (which can easily take a decade or two, but ... the end is visible). Modern lens are made with techniques perfected in semiconductor manufacturing, and use advances in material science (meta materials in particular). I don't know how close this is to mass market, but I've seen superthin flat lens, with a marginal cost of production around ~$2 in a university f…
There's a couple of lens advancements I've seen recently that I found particularly interesting: Canon putting Fresnel elements in their lenses to reduce size/weight: https://kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/400mm-f4-do-is-ii.htm Canon making an f/11 800mm super telephoto lens that can still autofocus thanks to the new mirrorless camera bodies: https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/eos-r/lenses/800mm.htm I think we'll see a b…
> At the moment lens prices are pretty bonkers but I think that Canon f/11 lens is a great indicator; it's basically less than 1/10th of the cost of a traditional 800mm lens and does more than enough for most people.
But that tradeoff seems hardly new to me. Consumer 70-300 for ~300 $ vs. Pro 70-200 for 2000+ $. The "only" difference is build quality and the pro lens being 2-3 stops brighter. Price difference: ~10x.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#57Heartbreaking, but they are a "survivor" company. They have lasted over 100 years, through a world war (including firestorm bombing), earthquakes, fires and tsunamis. They had never been particularly big, until the 1990s, with the advent of point-and-shoot digital cameras. That gravy train ended when the iPhone came out. They are probably contracting to their more traditional role, of Big Black Cameras, as well as so…
At least for the Japanese market, not ‘made in Japan’ is a big downgrade in perception.
Big downgrade in quality too, in most cases. When I moved here and had to furnish a house / stock a kitchen, I was amazed at the diversity and quality of basic cheap home goods here.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Traditional lens manufacturing is likely in its last days (which can easily take a decade or two, but ... the end is visible). Modern lens are made with techniques perfected in semiconductor manufacturing, and use advances in material science (meta materials in particular). I don't know how close this is to mass market, but I've seen superthin flat lens, with a marginal cost of production around ~$2 in a university f…
>but I've seen superthin flat lens, with a marginal cost of production around ~$2 in a university facility, that work better than some $500 lens -- and the latter are expensive because they are hard to make the traditional way. I find this very fascinating because while I enjoy my ever-increasing smartphone camera and use it as a daily driver, I have a about 13 year old Canon DSLR (one of the first one they made now)…
I use a little bit newer Nikon DSLR (~2013), which adds another thing (the first generation of DSLRs wasn't really good at this): Color. The color of iPhones is just bleirgh in comparison, which is a little bit weird considering the cargoculting on HN of Apple's "computational photography".
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#59Incredible article from 2018 about Nikon's factory dedicated to lens glass.
https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2018/04/17/glass-for-g...
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
The twenty minute thing is because of device classification. If a device records twenty minutes or more of continuous video, it is classified as a video device, which changes the regulatory structure. If you watch movies, these days, it's almost unheard of for a single shot to be more than a minute or two in length. Even films like 1917 are really digitally-stitched montages. I think the real reason is that Canon is…
Are you sure about the clasification? From what I heard the main issue is often cooling. Cameras and sensors are often not engineered as video capturing devices, so recording time needs to be limited to prevent overheating. Often you cannot just stop and re-start the recording after the recording limit, because the camera is still too hot, it will stop recording after a few seconds. At least this is how it works for…
> Are you sure about the clasification? From what I heard the main issue is often cooling.
It is a tax issue - specifically a 2007 EU decision. (https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6779714320/cipaeustatement).
I have a Sony A7S2 which can do, after the jailbreak, over two hours without breaking a sweat (never went above that because I didn't need it). The exception is anything involving sunlight - there the A7S2 runs into cooling issues without a sunshade.