Originally posted by Aristophanes Olympus is in deep trouble. Sony is bleeding money. Fuji admits to losses in their camera sales.
And the other brands, including the one we cherish, are doing absotely splendid then? They're all in trouble. Some are just putting in more effort at recovery.
Originally posted by Aristophanes Sales are how we determine success.
Go ahead, but speak for yourself. All camera brands are in the water. None of them are safe yet. Far from it. So looking at sales is a poor indicator, in my honest opinion. Such figures can be skewed by all kinds of things. I'm putting my money on the ones that are working their hardest and smartest to keep afloat and to get someplace dry.
Originally posted by Aristophanes Ricoph takes risks. They took one buying Pentax when the entire industry knows that DSLRs are a mature, perhaps low- to no-growth tech.
The copying/printing market is on its way down. Cameras may be changing (I prefer "evolving") but the hardcopy market is disappearing. They're exploring new markets in their own conservative slow way. Buying a past-glory-forgotten-brand for little,and trying to polish it up is about as risky as buying an old Super Takumar for $5 at a garage sale. You can't really go wrong there.
Originally posted by Aristophanes The lack of consistent vision by the Japanese makers is unbelievable right now. They've been totally sideswiped by wi-fi, for example. it's taken 2 products cycles too long for wi-fi to get into $1,000 cameras. Ridiculous.
Spot on. My wife has this €50,- 10x zoom (? maybe more?) Samsung point and shoot with android and wifi. She snaps, does some processing (if she wants) and shares without even thinking. Just a one time setup.
There's more examples like that. My quest for the ultimate photo printing resolution has been a long and hard one. When people come into my house they see a lot of big very high resolution prints on plexi and aluminum. It stuns them how clear and sharp they are, they stand still to look at the tiny details. It takes time to take in a large print with such details. Why do I have to contact very specilistic companies, far away abroad, to print my high resolution pictures from my high resolution camera in a print quality that almost matches that resolution? And why does it cost half a kidney per print? With all Canon's printing history and experience, why is there no printer for the photo enthusiast yet? The new Pentax boss is excused because of the little time since the takeover of course.