Nikon is my favorite type of camera. I hope they survive.
Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
211–220 of 371 posts
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cameras =!= Lenses. I always found Nikon cameras more my taste than canon. But that is just taste, in terms of quality, in the sense of the pictures, I never saw a difference. Not back the day when we still developed our black and white pictures ourselves and not now with digital cameras. Lenses on the other hand a different thing altogether. There I saw defferences between the "cheaper" Sigma and the premium Nikkor…
There I saw defferences between the "cheaper" Sigma and the premium Nikkor ones I've always wondered what the difference is between Sigma and a brand like Canon or Nikon. I used to have both Canon and Sigma lenses. The Sigmas felt different, and the pictures they produced had a different "look" for what was supposed to be an equivalent lens. My eye isn't trained for these sorts of things, so I was never able to quant…
Sigma tend to do what Canon do; provide a range of similar lenses but with varying features. As an example, I have the 150-600mm Sport lens, which is fantastic; it's weather-sealed, has great autofocus, and full image stabilisation, but it's still ~£1300, which is a lot of money. It also weighs quite a lot. However the image quality is exceptional and by no means worse than anything else on the market in that range; it punches at the same level as the Canon 100-400mm IS II, which is about £800 more.
So they also do a 150-600mm Contemporary model, which has 90% of the performance. It doesn't have full weather-sealing, and it has a different element arrangement which slightly changes the picture quality, but it also drops a huge chunk off the weight and about £400 off the price. It's not quite as solidly built but for a lot of people it's more than enough and provides a good alternative.
In my personal experience Sigma lenses tend to be heavier than Canon for equivalent build quality. ~10 years ago I'd say the picture quality was slightly poorer, but now they compete very well in a variety of ranges.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sigma used to be one of the brands you bought because you didn't have the money for the camera manufacturer's lens. Now, they have unique models in a number of cases. I still have mostly Canon glass but I have a couple Sigma models because Canon doesn't have the equivalent.
Haven't used a sigma lense for years. Are they now comparable quality to NIkon/Canon lenses?
I have a Sigma 150-600mm Sport, which is a hell of a lens, both in quality/features and uh...weight :D
It's totally hand-holdable, but reviews online make me wonder if everyone else has pipe cleaners for arms; it took a couple of weeks to get used to it but I don't have any trouble now. The image quality is fantastic and extremely competitive. The image-stabilisation works superbly, and the autofocus is very good - much better than their older lenses.
I mostly photograph birds and I'm extremely happy with the quality. All the recent bird photos I've uploaded are taken with it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robotmay/50528664881/in/datepo...
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
There I saw defferences between the "cheaper" Sigma and the premium Nikkor ones I've always wondered what the difference is between Sigma and a brand like Canon or Nikon. I used to have both Canon and Sigma lenses. The Sigmas felt different, and the pictures they produced had a different "look" for what was supposed to be an equivalent lens. My eye isn't trained for these sorts of things, so I was never able to quant…
Leaves OSS out of all their lenses. That's what they do. Annoys me that the best fast prime for my sony A6100 (sigma f1.4s) won't work for video because of this. I'm stuck with the far shittier sony f1.8s...
OSS is.... ?
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#215The article states: > Don’t think this is enough to make them stay in the business. Troubling times for Nikon :( Is there some context on this? Is Nikon facing trouble, and if yes, why?
Nikon was the second biggest camera manufacturer until recently when Sony ate their market. Even in the early 2010s Nikon was thought as the innovator and techically better than Canon but Sony stole that title. Nikon fumbled with the mirrorless market quite spectacularly and nowadays its mirrorless cameras like Z6 and Z7 are basically copies of what Sony published year or two earlier but with quite bad native lens li…
Plus they compounded their misstep by not publishing the spec for the new Z mount, so third-party manufacturers can't make lenses for it without reverse engineering. So the result is now not only are they behind on body tech, but you can only buy a dozen or so native lenses for Z, meanwhile the are ~150 for Sony. You can guess which system I chose to buy into.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it was what was explained to me by a marketing manager. The cooling thing hasn't been an issue for many years, since they changed their sensor design. Might also be a power-consumption thing, as the shutter needs to be kept open (I don't think they are using virtual shutters, yet), as well as (for DSLRs) the mirror.
I don't know much about the topic, but I noticed this the other day: https://www.diyphotography.net/this-guy-liquid-cooled-his-ca...
There's definitely an issue with any kind of electronics and heat. "Hasn't been an issue" doesn't mean "won't blow up when overclocked."
That said, astrophotographers like to cool their sensors, because it reduces noise.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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 can't relate to this at all. I have a Canon EOS 450D (Rebel XSi, 2008 model year) with a few lenses that I used to love, but haven't really used for years now. Its low light performance sucks, it's almost impossible to photograph people at night. My phone does a much better job of that. Yes, the DSLR's optics run circles around any phone, but the sensor really does show its age. And since you specifically mention t…
I kind of straddle both the positives and negatives - recently pulled out my 7D from a while back and the images are fantastic even only JPG.
I don't expect to do low-light without long exposure (ie, no impromptu shots) and I do have an external flash for bounce lighting indoors.
It's still better than my iPhone (which admittedly is a couple of years old), but weight is a huge factor I only use this when intending to get really good shots. Another is the extra time it takes to transfer files, sort through bursts and put into iCloud or smugmug.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#218Oof, that's not a good sign. For me, Japan is the place for the best camera and lens manufacturing. Most of the makers seem to split their manufacturing between Japan for their quality models/lenses and cheaper countries for the consumer stuff, which I think is a valid compromise. But this feels short-sighted on Nikon's part and rather like they have already failed. Perhaps instead of relocating their production they…
> I've always found Nikon to be lacking in competitive models with Canon
Over at Fred Miranda and DPR, canon shooters always lament about the lack of competitiveness Canon was regarding Nikon glass.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#219Earlier 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 would love smartphone postprocessing over DSLR raw images.
I feel that phones usually make better decisions for contrast, white balance, exposure than DSLRs do. With a DSLR, reaching the same finished product usually requires a ton of manual work editing photos.
Of course, the DSLR has far better detail on the pixel level, and if you need to zoom in at all, it wins in a landslide. I wish I could combine the strengths of both platforms.
Re: Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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)…
>Doing great things with 10X less light is impressive, but at some point, you need a big sensor and good quality glass. This problem is basically solved already by taking multiple exposures and blending them in software. Once we're at the point where stacking 10 exposures works reliably even in challenging conditions (and we're pretty nearly there with the latest phones) then many of the advantages of a larger sensor…
> This problem is basically solved already by taking multiple exposures and blending them in software.
Here's the problem.
Doing "things in software" is akin to saying ultraprocessed food is gourmet "food".