[Daikokuya]

Panasonic is retreating from consumer products on many fronts - Plasma TVs, Cell Phones, and compact camera divisions are all either in the process of shutting down or scaling back. They haven't said anything yet about their u43 business although they did announce new products in that line recently.

Sony's agenda in the camera business is much different than Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji, or just about anyone else. They want to push the industry in terms of electronics because they sell components like sensors, microprocessors, and LCDs, and other chips to everyone else in the industry and they are happy to sell or license virtually anything they put into their camera to their competitors. In the consumer realm, they will continue to be Sony and doing what Sony does in all of their consumer electronic lines - selling a solid but somewhat quirky product with a couple premium features (like a Zeiss lens), a couple gimmicky features (like panorama), and a couple of quirky features (like memory stick or SLT) at an ultra premium price.

Panasonic and Sony are kind of losers in the electronics industry. My work place was once near Panasonic's subsidiary, called "Panasonic Telecom", which sold cell phones. Panasonic merged that subsidiary with a rival company, and sold every stake in it. Panasonic is in the process of focusing on the "core business" that it deems to have growth opportunities like car or housing. Panasonic lost almost $15 billion in the last two fiscal years, so it has no choice but to sell everything excluding that core business.

It looks like Sony is currently in the real estate business. Last year, Sony sold a building with 25 stories and 3 basements constructed only three years ago for $1.1 billion. Sony's US headquarters in NY was also sold for $1.1 billion. It's funny that Sony added up those sales profits in operating profits.

[woodywesty]

I think the economics of scale pushing production to masses making small revenues on sales per camera unit makes it very hard to go down in businessscale without going out off business. It is not only the photography that changed, but the bases of earning money in this internet economy changed. Ricoh (with Pentax) has kept a small and divers productionsystem based on working on products in batches. For that you can alter your productionsystem very fast even wenn you sales would drop. To keep production on the same level or growing, Ricoh needs to increase their marketshare in a shrinking market and that is a hard task, but duable.

So it's not the gloom and doom that is the basis for the article, but looking at the market in a realistic perspective.

I also don't think that the average teenager will keep making a thousend images with their smartphone each month for the coming decade, since you have no serious audience for those images on the long run. Social media sites are overwelmed with number off images and there will be a point that making less images and not sharing your breakfast images will be cooler then sharing them.

I'm late to this thread so forgive me if this has been addressed but Ron's comment above about "teenagers making thousands of images with their smartphone" is SUPER important. There are many, many millions of people taking lots of pictures today. Magnitudes more than 40 or 50 years ago when I started my interest in photography and a percentage of those young people around the world are going to get super excited about photography and want to learn more and do more and that will bring them to serious cameras. I think the future looks very good for DSLR cameras.

Bob

[ElJamoquio]

Heck, I had given up on film photography. P&S's eventually brought me to DSLR's.

[derekkite]

I'm late to this thread so forgive me if this has been addressed but Ron's comment above about "teenagers making thousands of images with their smartphone" is SUPER important. There are many, many millions of people taking lots of pictures today. Magnitudes more than 40 or 50 years ago when I started my interest in photography and a percentage of those young people around the world are going to get super excited about photography and want to learn more and do more and that will bring them to serious cameras. I think the future looks very good for DSLR cameras.

Bob

Absolutely. It is a change to a vastly larger market. The expectations will be different as well.

[IchabodCrane]

I'm late to this thread so forgive me if this has been addressed but Ron's comment above about "teenagers making thousands of images with their smartphone" is SUPER important. There are many, many millions of people taking lots of pictures today. Magnitudes more than 40 or 50 years ago when I started my interest in photography and a percentage of those young people around the world are going to get super excited about photography and want to learn more and do more and that will bring them to serious cameras. I think the future looks very good for DSLR cameras.

Bob

I thought about your post a second time and came around to thinking the camera maker that is preparing best for the future is quite possibly Samsung. All of those people using their smartphones for image capture are not likely to give up the connectivity they enjoy and employ with those images. Samsung, today, is out in front with this facet.

[woodywesty]

I thought about your post a second time and came around to thinking the camera maker that is preparing best for the future is quite possibly Samsung. All of those people using their smartphones for image capture are not likely to give up the connectivity they enjoy and employ with those images. Samsung, today, is out in front with this facet.

True.... but the DSLR manufacturer who does some serious, open brainstorming can take the existing high end DSLR and morph it into other things... its a creative tool, its a technical device, a computer, a communication device. I think that in ten years Pentax/Ricoh, Nikon and Canon are going to be attaching their wonderful lenses to devices that will surprise us and we'll be eagerly waiting to purchase them...

[mikemike]

I thought about your post a second time and came around to thinking the camera maker that is preparing best for the future is quite possibly Samsung. All of those people using their smartphones for image capture are not likely to give up the connectivity they enjoy and employ with those images. Samsung, today, is out in front with this facet.

When someone says a camera with android on it I say, meh. Speed is a crucial feature for a camera you don't want to wait for the thing to boot up and then get ready to take a picture etc... and have a quad core general purpose CPU, wifi, and cell radio chewing up your battery mostly to support the OS. My camera goes from off to on, focuses and takes a picture faster than my phone wakes from standby.

[asw66]

I thought about your post a second time and came around to thinking the camera maker that is preparing best for the future is quite possibly Samsung. All of those people using their smartphones for image capture are not likely to give up the connectivity they enjoy and employ with those images. Samsung, today, is out in front with this facet.

I agree that Samsung will become an increasingly strong contender for the reasons you suggest. But it's worth remembering that Ricoh/Pentax execs are on record as stating that the camera industry is reminiscent of audio a few years ago. That is, a decade or so ago there was a push for high-powered amplifiers, but this was ultimately superseded by devices that are smaller, more flexible and better integrated with other systems. So connectivity is evidently a consideration behind the scenes at R/P.

BTW, this also explains why R/P see a bright future for the Q mount, but are dragging their feet on FF.

[philbaum]

I'm late to this thread so forgive me if this has been addressed but Ron's comment above about "teenagers making thousands of images with their smartphone" is SUPER important. There are many, many millions of people taking lots of pictures today. Magnitudes more than 40 or 50 years ago when I started my interest in photography and a percentage of those young people around the world are going to get super excited about photography and want to learn more and do more and that will bring them to serious cameras. I think the future looks very good for DSLR cameras.

Bob

I agree with this attitude and think its far more probable than the doom and gloom predictors who forecast the end of photographic art.

[eurostar]

When someone says a camera with android on it I say, meh. Speed is a crucial feature for a camera you don't want to wait for the thing to boot up and then get ready to take a picture etc... and have a quad core general purpose CPU, wifi, and cell radio chewing up your battery mostly to support the OS. My camera goes from off to on, focuses and takes a picture faster than my phone wakes from standby.

Well said. And I am sure camera-makers are thinking of making something we'll take for granted on a camera a special feature with premium price...

[ElJamoquio]

My K200D could take a picture by turning on the camera, more or less!

[JimmyDranox]

It does not need that connectivity and camera to start all at once. Camera can start in an instant, and, wile you take the pictures, wifi and others features can start as well. And I think that in the near future, connectivity and good video will be a must even for professionals DSLR.

[eurostar]

Connectivity will become a must because no one would look at the live view or replay the picture on a measly 3" LCD, but only on his retina ipad or similar android tablet.

[ElJamoquio]

I don't want connectivity but agree it is a requirement.

[Zygonyx]

Connectivity with flucard is enough.... provided its available !