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Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan

mirrorlessrumors.com

11–20 of 371 posts

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

#11
Oof, 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 should re-evaluate their business model; my dad ended up swapping to Fuji after ~40 years of Nikon after his last camera failed and they treated him like crap as he tried to get it repaired. In contrast I bought an 11 year-old second-hand Canon DSLR which needed a new shutter mechanism and Canon Japan found an out-of-production replacement in their warehouse and shipped it to my repairer immediately.

I've always found Nikon to be lacking in competitive models with Canon in the places that count. Canon frequently make lenses of the same focal length but for different budgets, e.g. they have 4 70-200mm models. Nikon's range has always been weirdly spotty, with some excellent lenses at the high end but weird gaps elsewhere.

Tangentially, I recently bought a superb Sigma lens and was happy to see that it was actually still made in Japan as well; I thought all the third-party lens makers had moved abroad, but surprisingly a number of them are still there.

I was also very happy to discover that Canon promotes wildlife reserves around its factories and headquarters. It's nice to see a company that reflects some of its customers' interests: https://global.canon/en/environment/bird-branch/index.html

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

#12
post #8
post #6

Earlier 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.

Sony yes, but Canon? I thought it was faring worse than Nikon, or am I mistaken?

Canon is pretty much even with them, on the DSLR front.

Canon kind of "owns" the DSLR video camera market, but gets regularly beaten in still images for pros.

What Canon has, is diversification. It's a much bigger company, with many different markets.

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

#13

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…

At least for the Japanese market, not ‘made in Japan’ is a big downgrade in perception.

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

#14
post #13

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…

At least for the Japanese market, not ‘made in Japan’ is a big downgrade in perception.

I wonder if they will do the "Apple" thing: "Designed in California."

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

#15
post #5

The 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 line-up.

The funny thing here is that Nikon outsourced the sensor development to Sony in the 2000s.

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

#16
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony yes, but Canon? I thought it was faring worse than Nikon, or am I mistaken?

Canon is frequently used in film for smaller productions. Nikon isn't used at all in that market.

Which is stupid, it’s just because you can’t. Most Nikon models don’t have a clean hdmi output and limit video recording to twenty minutes.

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

#18

Oof, 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…

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 ones. Not always but sometimes. I would assume that the new mirrirless cameras are less complex to build, so maybe the Thailand based manufacturing facilities are best suited. After all, it's the lense and the person behind the camera that counts.

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

#19
post #8
post #6

Earlier 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.

Sony yes, but Canon? I thought it was faring worse than Nikon, or am I mistaken?

Canon is much larger and more diverse company than Nikon. I don't know who is doing better in the DSLR space, but Canon is almost certainly doing better overall.

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

#20
post #5

The 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?

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...

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