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Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

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Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#151

Post by Youden »

perardi wrote: post #136
Hamuko wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do more boutique camera companies like Leica just survive on their (what I assume to be) large margins?

I imagine so. At the risk of angering Leica fans: they’re shipping not exactly state of the art technology at very high prices, with a lot of the R&D actually being done by Panasonic. (Or, in the case of their Lux compact cameras, they’re literally shipping Panasonic cameras with a different sticker on them.) Look at the Leica Q2: it costs $5000. The Fuji X100V costs $1300. I know there’s a bigger sensor in the Q2, b…

> they’re shipping not exactly state of the art technology at very high prices

I think that misses the point: when you buy Leica, you're not buying technology. It's not a technology company, it's a luxury brand. You buy Leica over Canon, Fuji or Panasonic for the same reason you buy Rolex over Casio, Swatch or Seiko.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#152

Post by meowzero »

dsego wrote: post #134
meowzero wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The X100 series is a cool camera. I had one since the first version of X100. But I found it more convenient to pull my phone out instead of carrying that camera. I do have a X-T2 if I want to take more "serious" photos.

I have an x-t30 and my phone can't even compare. It's an entry level Samsung and those have really bad and slow cameras, esp in low light. A flagship might be a different story. Tbh, I wasn't that impressed with the fuji camera with the included 15-45 kit lens, which is rather mediocre. But after getting the 35mm f2 I can really appreciate the difference in the quality of photos. The other part is doing a course on p…

I shoot manual with my X-T2 most of the time, especially during portrait shooting. But shooting manual on a DSLR is not the panacea. You only need manual mode in certain situations. Heck, I read pros like David Alan Harvey uses full auto setting on his camera sometimes (probably a lot of other pros too). On my iPhone 12, I have exposure compensation on the main camera app. And that is good enough as well.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#153

Post by perardi »

Youden wrote: post #151
perardi wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine so. At the risk of angering Leica fans: they’re shipping not exactly state of the art technology at very high prices, with a lot of the R&D actually being done by Panasonic. (Or, in the case of their Lux compact cameras, they’re literally shipping Panasonic cameras with a different sticker on them.) Look at the Leica Q2: it costs $5000. The Fuji X100V costs $1300. I know there’s a bigger sensor in the Q2, b…

> they’re shipping not exactly state of the art technology at very high prices I think that misses the point: when you buy Leica, you're not buying technology. It's not a technology company, it's a luxury brand. You buy Leica over Canon, Fuji or Panasonic for the same reason you buy Rolex over Casio, Swatch or Seiko.

Oh I am fully aware of “Leica as jewelry”, I just didn’t want to immediately wallop that straw man.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#154

Post by dmalvarado »

As a former Nikon user, that writing has been on the wall for a long time now. At lease 3 years when they first reported "catastrophic losses" They didn't have enough diversity to weather the rise of the smartphone, whereas Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, all have other lines of business to keep them afloat.

Really sad since they made such a great camera line. Perhaps a buyout is still possible.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#155

Post by KineticLensman »

dsego wrote: post #131
bee_rider wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pretty wild to think that, like, 20 years ago digital camera had relatively nice little screens on them and relatively good processing, while phones had those silly little green-and-black LCDs. I wonder if there's an alternate universe where people are saying "Nokia seems to be really doomed. This is sad but not surprising -- smartcamera antennas have gotten good enough that you can get reception almost anywher…

The camera manufacturers seem to be set in their ways. Wouldn't it be cool if you could load a sim card into your smart-camera & use android apps for cool features, like proper HDR (not the manual bracketing stuff), maybe apply some casual third-party filters, or instant streaming and sharing on social platforms. But maybe the target market, the professional photographers, are also the older generation that care more…

This discussion crops up every so often: "Wouldn't it be nice if a camera had a full OS behind it".

Personally, I'm very pleased that my camera (a Nikon D850) boots instantly (approx 0.2 seconds) and has a shutter lag of 0.05 seconds (when pre-focused). It essentially never unexpectedly hangs when I need to take a shot. For my preferred subjects (wildlife) a consistently instant response is far more important than arbitrary functionality. If I want to share pictures or do other things, I can use the built-in wi-fi or Bluetooth to shunt pictures to my SmartPhone.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#156

Post by meowzero »

dsego wrote: post #131
bee_rider wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pretty wild to think that, like, 20 years ago digital camera had relatively nice little screens on them and relatively good processing, while phones had those silly little green-and-black LCDs. I wonder if there's an alternate universe where people are saying "Nokia seems to be really doomed. This is sad but not surprising -- smartcamera antennas have gotten good enough that you can get reception almost anywher…

The camera manufacturers seem to be set in their ways. Wouldn't it be cool if you could load a sim card into your smart-camera & use android apps for cool features, like proper HDR (not the manual bracketing stuff), maybe apply some casual third-party filters, or instant streaming and sharing on social platforms. But maybe the target market, the professional photographers, are also the older generation that care more…

I disagree. I think Samsung tried to do a "smart camera" with one of their mirrorless lines. It didn't really sell well. Besides, most pros will still want to use Photoshop, Capture One, Lightroom, or whatever to edit their photos, not apps. The utility of apps is to upload quick to your social media photo sharing sites.

Also, what you're asking for is already available in most flagship smartphone these days. Instead of moving apps to cameras, they moved a good enough camera to a phone where all your apps are available.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#157

Post by kkylin »

Oh this is too bad. Can someone knowledgeble about comment on whether there may be a second-order impact on lens-making for e.g. astronomy?

(I got a tour of the Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona a couple years back; many large telescope mirrors are made here. Pretty cool. As I recall, one of the key steps involved getting raw material for glass from Japan.)

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#158

Post by tmalsburg2 »

varjag wrote: post #39
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4

Heartbreaking, 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…

> They have some of the finest scientists and engineers in the world, as well as a gigantic portfolio of patents. They aren't going away. Kodak would like to have a word.

And some long-forgotten German manufacturers as well.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#159

Post by dagw »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #143
KineticLensman wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kodak would like to have a word They will have to join the queue behind a lot of Swiss watchmakers.

Is there really that many watchmakers on their deathbeds? Every couple of months I'll spend several hours wasting time looking for watch styles I like and I'm amazed at how many traditional watchmakers are still out there, some with 0 smartwatch offerings.

I'm amazed at how many traditional watchmakers are still out there

There has been massive consolidation in that market and most of those brands you see are all owned by one of maybe three conglomerates.

Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

#160

Post by [deleted] »

howtofly wrote: post #47
staticelf wrote: post #34

Where 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.

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