SamuliSchielke
Typical. They announce that they’re ‘saying goodbye’, and then you find out that two models are staying in production. I think that’s great. It’s better to keep three or four analogue cameras in production than to have many go bust because there wasn’t enough to go round...
Samuli
Gast
That’s fine, I suppose; the F6 and the FM3A will probably still be available. I wouldn’t have been interested in the rest anyway.
Regards, Phil
cfb_de
Forget about the FM3a. That leaves the FM10 – the highest-quality camera Nikon has ever had manufactured by a third party. Or, to put it more bluntly, ‘the Braun from Cosina’.
(I’d just forgotten...) Nikon UK naturally knows more about this than Der Spiegel, and the bit about the FM10 is in the original press release.
Best regards,
Franz
Gast
Hello!
A recent article from the *Handelsblatt* dated 16 January 2006, to add to the discussion...
Nikon shifts focus to digital cameras; the group is moving away from the traditional film business – newcomers from outside the industry, such as Panasonic, are catching up.
AXEL POSTINETT | DÜSSELDORF
Japanese photography specialist Nikon is withdrawing from the analogue photography sector. Production of cameras using traditional film will be almost completely discontinued; only the top-of-the-range F6 and an entry-level model will continue to be manufactured, said a company spokesperson. Resources will be concentrated on the digital market in future.
There are two reasons for the strategic shift: sales of analogue cameras have been falling for years (see chart), and now newcomers from outside the industry – from the consumer electronics sector – are increasingly pushing into the high-end segment, which was previously dominated by Nikon and the global market leader Canon.
Canon is also by far the number one in Germany. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the Japanese group achieved a market share of 32 per cent in terms of turnover. Nikon ranked second with nine per cent. But the challengers are already hot on Nikon’s heels and could soon be set to overtake.
Take Panasonic, for example: when the American photography trade fair PMA begins in Orlando in February, the launch of Panasonic’s first SLR camera will be one of the highlights. A complete nobody on the photography market three years ago, Panasonic has fought its way up to fourth place ahead of Casio in the German Christmas sales, with a 7.7 per cent share of sales. Nikon and the number three, Sony, are already within reach.
“By the end of 2006, we will have a ten per cent global market share,” said Fumio Ohtsubo, head of Panasonic’s audio-video division, last September at the International Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA) in Berlin. The company sees particularly good prospects for so-called high-zoom cameras, where, according to its own figures, Panasonic is already the largest supplier with a 36 per cent market share. High-zoom cameras are models without interchangeable lenses but with at least a tenfold optical zoom. They are regarded as the fiercest competition to SLR cameras. Nikon is represented here by just one model, the Coolpix 8800.
Panasonic is not willing to comment on the details of the new SLR camera with Leica lenses. However, the challengers are convinced they can compete with the top-of-the-range products from the established suppliers. Canon and Nikon together still hold 80 per cent of the high-margin SLR market.
Unlike competitors such as Hasselblad or Kodak, Nikon has managed the transition to digital technology well. In the first half of the 2005/06 financial year, which runs until the end of March, the operating margin rose to a new record high.
For the full year, the company is forecasting a 50 per cent increase in operating profit. In addition to cameras and lenses, Nikon also manufactures machines for the production of LCD screens – so-called steppers – and is active in medical technology.
The importance of the analogue segment in the camera sector has declined significantly in recent years. In its heyday, Nikon shipped more than a million analogue SLR cameras a year – this year the figure is likely to be just 140,000 units, but eight million digital cameras. In the 2004/05 financial year, film camera bodies accounted for just three per cent of turnover.
Yet film lives on in a niche market. However, growth is taking place in areas that Nikon does not cover: disposable cameras. According to the Japanese film and camera manufacturer Fuji, 450 million disposable cameras are set to be sold worldwide this year. Fuji, which now generates just six per cent of its turnover from film, supplies around 70 per cent of all camera modules for mobile phones.
MirkoBoeddecker
Yes, but that doesn’t really surprise anyone, does it?
NIKON is the market leader among press photographers and focuses exclusively on the manufacture of 35mm cameras.
It’s quite clear that this clientele now only wants digital.
The choice of medium depends on the required or desired end result.
Nowadays, professionals usually deliver a digital file to the client rather than a slide or negative.
So it all comes down to whether you want to hold a physical image in your hands or whether you need to deliver information or content somewhere.
Analogue photography is becoming the preserve of specialist manufacturers (and things are certainly happening in that sector again) who build models designed for image quality (keywords: Messerschmitt cameras, Fotoman 4x5, Fotoman 8x10 etc.) rather than run-of-the-mill professional workhorses.
Best regards,
Mirko
