[Urkeldaedalus]

For those interested in watching HoyaTax from the business side of things...

"Net sales decreased compared to the same period last year," said Hiroshi Hamada, chief operating officer of HOYA. "However we see a sign of turnaround in many business units such as optical glass and PENTAX camera compared to the preceding quarter."

Hoya Announces First Quarter Financial Results for FY2010

[NaClH2O]

Thanks for posting that, I wonder how their numbers compare with competing companies. Significantly lower than last year, but so is pretty much everybody else (excepting banks and Apple).

NaCl(third quarter will be the interesting one)H2O

[Dr_who]

I've read numbers between 72%-82% drops for Canon. Here is one link NewsDaily: Canon profit tumbles, nudges forecast higher

Also NaClH2O I'd say banks have lost lots of money just that the gov has given it taxpayers money in the forum of bailouts to survive :P

[goubejp]

If you have a detailed look on the figures you'll see that R&D expenses are at the same level than same quarter last year. This is a great new. Most of the companies are cutting their R&D expenses to face the crisis, and maintain the marketing expenses to make short-term profits. This shows the determination of Hoya to develp Pentax brand
By the way Sony has lost 278 millions euros in the same quarter

[vinzer]

I've read numbers between 72%-82% drops for Canon. Here is one link NewsDaily: Canon profit tumbles, nudges forecast higher

Also NaClH2O I'd say banks have lost lots of money just that the gov has given it taxpayers money in the forum of bailouts to survive :P

On Sony's side, DSLR sales tripled, though compact sales fell.

[nostatic]

On Sony's side, DSLR sales tripled, though compact sales fell.

I thought that dSLRs were a "huge mistake" by Sony (as some have opined) and they are going to quit the market.

Of course I'm wondering how much of a loss the a900 sells and, and if the a850 will also be a loss-leader. You can't sustain that forever...

[Torphoto]

I thought that dSLRs were a "huge mistake" by Sony (as some have opined) and they are going to quit the market.

Of course I'm wondering how much of a loss the a900 sells and, and if the a850 will also be a loss-leader. You can't sustain that forever...

Sony is taking a hit on the A900 and will on the A850 ( obvious to compete with the 5d mk2 ) but seem to be making it up in glass so they might be breaking even with that line, plus their low end sales are keeping the a900 line afloat. Pentax might wisely invest in FF but only if the lower end models can float it and the get some FF glass.

Yes the mk2 is spoiling me with it's hi iso iq, but the damn thing feels like a cheap Chinese made plastic toy.

[nostatic]

Sony is taking a hit on the A900 and will on the A850 ( obvious to compete with the 5d mk2 ) but seem to be making it up in glass so they might be breaking even with that line, plus their low end sales are keeping the a900 line afloat. Pentax might wisely invest in FF but only if the lower end models can float it and the get some FF glass.

Yes the mk2 is spoiling me with it's hi iso iq, but the damn thing feels like a cheap Chinese made plastic toy.

I was amazed at how much the 5d body creaked. Certainly not particularly "well built" and I found AF not much better than Pentax but other features seem worth the price of admission. No free lunch...

[Rondec]

Sony, for whatever reason, has decided that they will take a loss on cameras in order to build a customer base. You can only do that for so long and it will kill them in the end, because customers who are only there for cut rate prices tend to flee when the prices rise, as they eventually must do.

On Sony's side, DSLR sales tripled, though compact sales fell.

Sony is a recognised brand that people buy without researching. People will buy a DSLR or a Compact but probably not both. Pretty soon they'll probably start giving away the compacts free with their higher end DSLRs I expect.

[Pål Jensen]

Sony is a recognised brand that people buy without researching. People will buy a DSLR or a Compact but probably not both. Pretty soon they'll probably start giving away the compacts free with their higher end DSLRs I expect.

Sony sells a lot of entry level DSLR's (they sell a lot of entry level anything!) to unsuspecting buyers. They have a hard time selling higher end stuff. Pentax problem is the opposite. Relatively high sales of their more expensive products but having a hard time sell lots to the masses of the cheaper stuff....

[Samsungian]

Sony sells Nikon sensors. Sony makes both CCD and CMOS sensors. Don't they sell pentax sensors for their K2000/Km ? Is Sony selling all these sensors to other camera manufacturers at a loss? You may not realize this but nikon captures 40% of the annual dslr market. I think theres alot of Sony manufactured Sensor sales happening, every year, year after year....

What did Sony pay Minolta for their legacy cameras division? Was the amount Sony paid Minolta more or less than Hoya paid for entire pentax corporation?


Thats sad Sony sold only 21 million point and shoots last year and only tripled their dslr sales during a global recession. I wonder how 1.5 million sony dslr unit sales stacks up against total 2008 pentax dslr sales, and how 21 million P&S unit sales stacks up against 2008 pentax point and shoot unit sales?

Would you roll in profits for making sensors Sony sells to other companies or exclude it from cameras division?

I haven't noticed Sony launching newly issued dslr's at lets say $1,299 and then just 6 or 7 months later selling it for half of that launch price. The a900 started at $3,000 and now its $2,700. A solid 10% drop for those who wait, not some 40% to 50% off a couple seasons later.

[Torphoto]

Sony sells Nikon sensors. Sony makes both CCD and CMOS sensors. Don't they sell pentax sensors for their K2000/Km ? Is Sony selling all these sensors to other camera manufacturers at a loss? You may not realize this but nikon captures 40% of the annual dslr market. I think theres alot of Sony manufactured Sensor sales happening, every year, year after year....

What did Sony pay Minolta for their legacy cameras division? Was the amount Sony paid Minolta more or less than Hoya paid for entire pentax corporation?


Thats sad Sony sold only 21 million point and shoots last year and only tripled their dslr sales during a global recession. I wonder how 1.5 million sony dslr unit sales stacks up against total 2008 pentax dslr sales, and how 21 million P&S unit sales stacks up against 2008 pentax point and shoot unit sales?

Would you roll in profits for making sensors Sony sells to other companies or exclude it from cameras division?

I haven't noticed Sony launching newly issued dslr's at lets say $1,299 and then just 6 or 7 months later selling it for half of that launch price. The a900 started at $3,000 and now its $2,700. A solid 10% drop for those who wait, not some 40% to 50% off a couple seasons later.

Sony makes a huge profit on their sensors, it's the a900 they are selling at a loss as if we look at the d3x which is basically the same camera/sensor just made by nikon it's 7gs!! vs the a900 $2700.

but it looks like the sony dslr division will be around for a while, then again selling at a loss for sony is noting new, look at the ps3, sold hardware at a loss to sell games. it's also like printers, the hardware is at cost or next to nothing to sell ink.

[Pål Jensen]

Sony sells Nikon sensors. Sony makes both CCD and CMOS sensors. Don't they sell pentax sensors for their K2000/Km ? Is Sony selling all these sensors to other camera manufacturers at a loss? You may not realize this but nikon captures 40% of the annual dslr market. I think theres alot of Sony manufactured Sensor sales happening, every year, year after year.....

That is Sony Semiconductor; not Sonys DSLR division..,...

[MikePerham]

Well, sales and profits are down, but sounds like Canon are haveing a tougher time. Read here: Canon's profits plunge 84.5 pct in first-half - Yahoo! News