[MD Optofonik]

For Fujifilm you now get specialized Capture One Express/Pro Fujifilm versions as alternative - although these will cost some bucks.

Silkypix has always been an OEM bundled horrorshow but for most people it's fine because most people (see my post above) don't care or know enough to care. For serious enthusiasts, however (and it should go without saying, high end professionals), the cost of Capture One is worth it. Also, as expensive as it is, at least Capture One still offers a perpetual license.

When my perpetual LR software stops meeting my needs, Capture One is what I'll be upgrading to. I did a several month trial with a "borrowed" version quite awhile ago. I really liked Capture One, better than LR, but couldn't afford to buy a non-borrowed version at the time so I purchased LR instead.

[beholder3]

Yes, numbers don't lie, but there are legions of photographers, institutions, and governments already invested in the system, that aren't going to jump ship because of forecasts.

Sadly there is no evidence whatsoever that what you claim has any impact on Nikons well being. For six years in a row they are falling now.
The numbers suggest that there is no "legion" but a "irrelevant handful" of hardcore fans.

---------- Post added 9th Jun 2019 at 11:24 ----------

The second mouse gets the cheese.

Yes, that is what is happening to mFT and Sony currently.

---------- Post added 9th Jun 2019 at 11:27 ----------

had I

You don't. That is all that counts and impacts the future of those companies.

[acoufap]

Silkypix has always been an OEM bundled horrorshow but for most people it's fine because most people (see my post above) don't care or know enough to care. For serious enthusiasts, however (and it should go without saying, high end professionals), the cost of Capture One is worth it. Also, as expensive as it is, at least Capture One still offers a perpetual license.

When my perpetual LR software stops meeting my needs, Capture One is what I'll be upgrading to. I did a several month trial with a "borrowed" version quite awhile ago. I really liked Capture One, better than LR, but couldn't afford to buy a non-borrowed version at the time so I purchased LR instead.

On my Mac Capture One Pro was the follower for Apple Aperture 3 that still is usable. For Fuji and Sony there is an Express version that costs less - don't know the price. But this version lacks some interesting functions compared to the Pro version.

[acoufap]

On my Mac Capture One Pro was the follower for Apple Aperture 3 that still is usable. For Fuji and Sony there is an Express version that costs less - don't know the price. But this version lacks some interesting functions compared to the Pro version.

Just saw the Capture One Express version is for free - nice.

[Alex645]

Sadly there is no evidence whatsoever that what you claim has any impact on Nikons well being. For six years in a row they are falling now.
The numbers suggest that there is no "legion" but a "irrelevant handful" of hardcore fans.[COLOR="Silver"]

I am old enough to remember when Nikon noticed Canonʻs rise in the 70ʻs, not from the pro end, but from the entry level Canon AE-1. They made a gesture with cheaper optics like the Series E lens and more of an attempt to go for the consumer market, although the pro and institutional/corporate was their forte. So any drum beating "Nikon (or Pentax) is doomed" is a chicken little story.

The world IS changing on so many levels and there is plenty of evidence of that. And smartphones have certainly changed the photographic world, albeit more in the consumer world than the industrial and pro end. But I know many, many pro photographers and yes some of them have switched to Sony mirrorless, but most (that I know) have not. In the same way, most of the Pentaxians (that I know) are still Pentaxians. You win some, you lose some, and yes the DSLR is trending down in the consumer market for everyone.

But itʻs always someoneʻs ceiling is anotherʻs floor. Iʻd argue this is the worst time to sell because of the perception of lowered values. This is a great time to buy. I noticed the Nikon D3500 with a dual lens kit is now under $400 which is a great for consumers and bad for Nikon. Iʻd still recommend a K-70, but all I can say from personal experience, is donʻt sell anything youʻll regret later. Replacing it will cost a lot more than what you can sell it for, unless of course, you prefer mirrorless or your smartphone.

[Paul the Sunman]

Pentax/Ricoh is in every Bic and Yodobashi in Japan. The Pentax/Ricoh section in those stores is on par with everyone else. Pentax/Ricoh is a Japanese camera company. Period. Here in the west, our myopic view is not accurate concerning what Pentax/Ricoh is doing. When the shelves carrying Pentax/Ricoh start disappearing in Japan, is when I will start to worry. Pentax/Ricoh will never be a Canikony...and they never wanted/want to be.

After three visits to Japan in the last few years, I am still yet to see anyone else carrying Pentax around their necks. I am genuinely perplexed about where all these purported Japanese Pentax buyers are.

[monochrome]

I am old enough to remember when Nikon noticed Canonʻs rise in the 70ʻs, not from the pro end, but from the entry level Canon AE-1. They made a gesture with cheaper optics like the Series E lens and more of an attempt to go for the consumer market, although the pro and institutional/corporate was their forte. So any drum beating "Nikon (or Pentax) is doomed" is a chicken little story.

The world IS changing on so many levels and there is plenty of evidence of that. And smartphones have certainly changed the photographic world, albeit more in the consumer world than the industrial and pro end. But I know many, many pro photographers and yes some of them have switched to Sony mirrorless, but most (that I know) have not. In the same way, most of the Pentaxians (that I know) are still Pentaxians. You win some, you lose some, and yes the DSLR is trending down in the consumer market for everyone.

But itʻs always someoneʻs ceiling is anotherʻs floor. Iʻd argue this is the worst time to sell because of the perception of lowered values. This is a great time to buy. I noticed the Nikon D3500 with a dual lens kit is now under $400 which is a great for consumers and bad for Nikon. Iʻd still recommend a K-70, but all I can say from personal experience, is donʻt sell anything youʻll regret later. Replacing it will cost a lot more than what you can sell it for, unless of course, you prefer mirrorless or your smartphone.

We have a member here (and active on PDML) who owned a camera store in Florida. From the late 90’s through the introduction of the *istD he bought and accepted as trades-in ss many Pentax lenses - especially M42 lenses - as he could acquire, at insanely low prices. Beginning around 1999, he was a constant presence on eBay, selling very fine Takumar lenses (as well as Rodenstock and other large format lenses) mainly at three price points - $189.99, $289.99 and $389.99. He always had 8 lenses for sale, and was one of the first eBay sellers to use a custom HTML template for his offerings.

Most of the K-mount manual lenses I own came from that seller. I’d bet he averaged $300 profit per lens, buying when others were selling and selling when others were buying.

He seems to be sold out of lenses. Now he is selling legacy audio gear. The really good stuff I wanted in the 70’s but couldn’t afford or sold when leaving college and wish I hadn’t. Like a pair of mint AR-4x bookshelf loudspeakers.

[RGlasel]

I still miss the days of CP/M 2.2, ASM (the assembler) and WordStar

Ah, those were the days. I studied at one of 8 universities that developed Michigan Terminal System, and used TEXTFORM, which predates Wordstar by about a year. But Wordstar was definitely a better writing tool. With TEXTFORM, you had to manually type in both opening and closing formatting tags. The prof for a DBMS course I took used to regale us with tales of changing program code by moving wires. The mainframe for the entire campus was an Amdahl V-8 (470V/8), which was definitely cutting edge.

[stemked]

Since the mid 70s how many times did we hear Pentax would go under? I'd hate to see Nikon fail, hopefully they will hold on.

[Merv-O]

What's curious to me is why traditional camera companies aren't pushing harder into the smartphone, service, and software markets after having realized that demand for entry-level cameras is dwindling, and upgrade cycles are becoming longer for advanced users.

At least Ricoh has the Theta!

When I was a teenager in the 1970's I bought some Bang & Olufson equipment and as HiFi began to become more compact in the 1970's, I thought they would really rise in market share. Instead, over the 1990's they virtually disappeared from the audiophile market place. Last year I bought a new HP computer for my office and lo and behold, the iconic "B&O" logo was stamped next to the speaker grille on the base....That was a laugh out loud moment because B&O was high end and here they were, 40 years later licensing their name on mainstream laptops....Oh, how the mighty fall at certain times....
Nikon was a beast of the camera industry at one point. The Original F-series was a tool of the trade catapulting them into consumer sainthood. But, as with many recycling bins strewn with obsoleted products or companies hat diluted their brand, Nikon has either developed or produced cheap, disposable forgettable cameras, binoculars and lenses.....their eventual demise was predictable. I think we may see a camera phone labeled "Nikon" just like the B&O logo on an HP computer--oh how the mighty have fallen they will say.
While Ricoh sells the heck fire out of the GRIII, let's hope they save some R&D $$$ for the new Pentax.

[tokyoscape]

What's curious to me is why traditional camera companies aren't pushing harder into the smartphone, service, and software markets after having realized that demand for entry-level cameras is dwindling, and upgrade cycles are becoming longer for advanced users.

At least Ricoh has the Theta!

Same here, To me, it seems like they are too afraid of change that involves software development.
Maybe next interview, you should ask more question related to the lack and too slow push on the smartphone, service, and application development too. What makes them so afraid to invest in that area early on and why still not doing it more right now?
Personally, I don’t believe the phone is eating into the camera’s market. They are doing exactly what they have to do to survive and grow. But it is the camera makers don’t try (enough) to adapt to the changing market for their own survival.

[AstroDave]

But Wordstar was definitely a better writing tool.

But it still sucked! I managed to get so screwed up in there that I wound up once with a forward arrow resulting in a destructive backspace!

Give me WordPerfect any day - it's still my standard, go-to word processor, and I can read (and re-create) files from the 80s - try that with Word!!!!! Works best with my genuine PC/AT keyboards, with the function keys on the left where they belong!

[RGlasel]

But it still sucked!

Everything is relative, in my final year, I was part of a 3 person team that did a 120 page marketing study. Without lots of terminal time and access to even as user-unfriendly a program as TEXTFORM to do typesetting, the final product would have been much shorter, less complete and really ugly. I couldn't afford typing services, so my portion would have had whiteout all over it; legibly writing out a final draft is even more time-consuming and you are at the mercy of regular business hours for your hired typist, so you can't burn the midnight oil and make last minute changes until 4AM (when the building with the only two laser printers on campus -maybe even in the entire city- closed).

Give me WordPerfect any day

Same here, complex formatting is much easier with WordPerfect because its stream formatting is superiour to Word's block formatting. But no one ever got fired for standardizing on Microsoft products in the workplace, so here we are talking about former industry juggernauts becoming obsolete/obscure/out of business.

Somebody will continue building Nikon cameras and lenses for a long time. Other than hybrid viewfinders (which might not be the boon that some people expect it to be), there aren't any technological advances that are going make some manufacturers winners and others losers. A manufacturer with a well-established and comprehensive product line doesn't need to spend much on R&D to compete. To sell to the photographic diehards, you need to offer lenses that complement their existing collections, so they can add to their collection on a regular basis, and you need to provide camera bodies with AF that works best with those lenses. If existing customers (and there aren't any truly new customers out there) can get what they want in glass from your system, there is very little incentive to switch to another brand.

[Rondec]

I guess my question has more to do with whether Nikon is in the process of transitioning away from the F mount and what that means for their future. To this point, F mount has meant Nikon the way that K mount has meant Pentax. Regardless if Nikon continues as a restructured, slimer company, the F mount may be in its final days and Nikon will attempt to transition its photographers away from it and into their new Z mount, just like Sony did with the old alpha mount.

While this may be a necessary move from their perspective, it also could really damage a weak brand even more. I know that when Canon abandoned the FD mount, a lot of their photographers were pretty upset and hold that resentment to this day.

[RGlasel]

Nikon will attempt to transition its photographers away from it and into their new Z mount, just like Sony did with the old alpha mount.

The mass of working F-mount lenses is greater than the mass of Minolta/Sony A-mount lenses and I don't know if Sony has been able to build up enough business in E-mount lenses to keep its camera customers loyal for the long term, so while moving to E-mount didn't weaken the Sony brand, it didn't really help either. Nikon's Z-body customers can seamlessly switch between Z-mount and F-mount lenses, so promoting Z-mount doesn't hurt their F-mount business and with the current market conditions nothing is going to really grow their business (nor will any other manufacturers be able to generate real growth).