[rdj92807]

I see very few if any decent sales on Pentax lenses this Memorial Day. Can't imagine the sales are strong with this marketing effort. Lots of Canon, Nikon, Sony. I wish Ricoh would get back in the game.

[RockvilleBob]

Nikon recently posted a 41% drop in profit Nikon drops sales forecast as high-end camera market stalls | Reuters

My guess things are no better at Canon and Sony - they are just cannibalizing each others market. I am not sure how Pentax is doing financially but spending millions on advertising and selling equipment with little to no margin doesn't make sense to me. I am happy Ricoh is moving Pentax forward, introducing new cameras and lenses.

Buyers pick Pentax because the cameras provide the best bang for the buck.

The demand for high end DSLR's is declining and Canon and Nikon need to continually bring out more high end systems nobody is buying in sufficient numbers to warrant their production. This provides a lot of sizzle and attracts people to buy the lower end, low/no margin of their product line in COSTCO, BEST BUY, TARGET etc. The old adage of not making profit on your products but making it up in volume.

Again, I am happy Ricoh took over Pentax. I am planning to buy the 1.4TC soon. I am waiting to see what the new telephoto zoom looks like.

The only area that I would like to see improved is more support for Sigma's product line on Pentax or more high quality Pentax lenses at the long end - since I enjoy wildlife photography.

[jatrax]

I am waiting to see what the new telephoto zoom looks like.

+1 on that. it will either be the DA*300 + 1.4TC or the new zoom. Cash is in the bank. Would have gone with the 300 already but I want to see what they bring to the table with the new zoom.

And not having sales does not have to mean you are not in the game. It might mean your production is closely matched to demand and you don't have to give margin away to clear product.

[woodywesty]

+1 on that. it will either be the DA*300 + 1.4TC or the new zoom. Cash is in the bank. Would have gone with the 300 already but I want to see what they bring to the table with the new zoom.

And not having sales does not have to mean you are not in the game. It might mean your production is closely matched to demand and you don't have to give margin away to clear product.

Same with me (except having all the cash in the bank..) I'm curious about the long telephoto. If its as good a quality as the DA300 then I'll spring for it and the new TC otherwise its going to be the DA300 and the new TC.

[Rite]

Nikon recently posted a 41% drop in profit Nikon drops sales forecast as high-end camera market stalls | Reuters

The demand for high end DSLR's is declining and Canon and Nikon need to continually bring out more high end systems nobody is buying in sufficient numbers to warrant their production. This provides a lot of sizzle and attracts people to buy the lower end, low/no margin of their product line in COSTCO, BEST BUY, TARGET etc. The old adage of not making profit on your products but making it up in volume.

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DSLR sales are going to continue to dive with smart phone photo imagery and capabilities quickly narrowing the gap and will eventually kill the DSLR. Probably within five years, if not sooner.

Nikon cut its leg off when they released a faulty D600, and even the Chinese government boycotted it on a national level. Talk about a hit!

Ricoh does not view the Pentax camera line as a main income channel, and is quite diversified in markets other than photography, which means it will likely survive the coming global monetary recession.

I don't see a ton of R&D going into new DSLR technology at all since the demand for the products is rapidly disappearing.

It is kind of like the iPad type devices replacing laptops and desktops for their ease of use and lower cost while still being able to perform 90% of all the same functions as the products they replaced.

see: http://www.eoshd.com/content/11409/consumer-dslrs-dead-5-years

~ Rite

Canon especially has sold 23% fewer cameras so far in 2013 than at the same point last year. Nikon have sold 18% fewer.
Investors are taking fright. Shares in Nikon who are the most camera orientated of the big manufacturers are down the most; a 33% fall.
Sony and Fuji’s sales are down a huge 35%. Although Fuji’s X line has revitalised interest in the brand from enthusiasts and pros, both company’s have suffered at the low and mid sections of the market.

[RobA_Oz]

It should be no surprise that DSLR sales have levelled off and declined a little. If you look at the situation from a classical marketing perspective, treating DSLR sales as a single new product, we've been through the early majority stage, now that DSLRs have evolved to a mature product that will only improve marginally from now on. It doesn't mean that the DSLR is doomed, any more than motor cars are doomed, in spite of continued punditry that predicts both those scenarios. Phone cameras will continue improve, too, and that means people who mistakenly bought a DSLR for taking better snapshots of their family or events will be less inclined to do so. But DSLR sales will continue along for people who want a better image or a greater range of focal lengths, etc. Lens sales will become more important, though, as photographers expand their range of activities. All is not lost.

[Imageman]

I agree 100% initial growth in the market was rapid and unsustainable in the long term, but the market still exists.


Its common practice in the USA in high tech products, to expect 30% growth in sales year on year. These figures are unsustainable in any mature market. So it appears that sales are dwindling whereas you have a stabilisation of sales due to market saturation, the big 5 are forced to fight for each others market share.


Digital cameras as individual products have a finite life and the lifecycle of a digital camera model by its very nature is taken to be only a few years whereas film cameras had a much longer expected life. This in itself generates continued repeat sales due to planned obsolescence.


Given that we are exiting a recession. dSLR sales can be expected to pick up in my opinion, consumers have in my opinion been putting off purchasing decisions due to lack of spare cash.


As long as technical advances in sensors and product continue modest but sustainable sales will be assured. I think we will see a downsizing of manufacturing capacity as the new realism of modest sales begins to bite.


Most major manufacturers are Japanese and Kaizen is the relatively modern Japanese practice of product development through incremental improvement,


The kaizen philosophy sits well with a structured product development approach that the photographic market expects and can handle. The kaizen approach will allow manufacturers to constantly offer enticing upgraded products and keep sales on the boil.


I have no doubts that Pentax and the other major players will still be here manufacturing for the foreseeable future.


The only uncertainty in my opinion is the direction that product development will take.

[magkelly]

DSLR's will continue to exist for one simple reason. Serious hobbyists and professional photographers are continuing to use them. Sorry but as much as I like my M43 camera it's just not a complete replacement for my DSLR when it comes to work. No way I could just pull my Oly out and get to work. My clients would have serious reservations about my photography skills if I did that. As family cams though the DSLR is nearly dead thanks to cameras in everything from phones to tablets. The serious hobbyist will still be there at family events or on vacation shooting away with a DSLR or more likely a M43 type camera, but most people they're just whipping out their phones etc to take pics now. The tablet/phone cams are eating away at point and shoot sales something fierce too. But I don't think that either P&S or DSLR cameras will totally go away. I do think they'll be a much smaller chunk of the market than they were before and that some camera makers may actually go under from reduced sales before it's done but so long as the serious hobbyists and pros are still buying there will still be a market albeit a smaller one.

[K-9]

DSLR sales will never go away completely because of professionals and advanced amateurs. However, where the DSLR is fading fast is on the wantlist of amateurs and the casual snappers. In the film days, there were tons of low cost SLRs. This is not the case with DSLRs. The prices aren't low enough to motivate enough people to justify using more than just their phone, or cheaper compacts and bridge cameras.