[Winder]

Nikon: Not Really About Cameras Anymore - Nikon Corp. ADR (OTCMKTS:NINOY) | Seeking Alpha

[mee]

This is the real story.. the major camera companies are transitioning into other industries and product types as demand for their formerly primary products weakens. They all seem to be doing this. So the sky really isn't falling for anyone.. as far as the company is concerned. Though perhaps this means fewer product releases and slower development on the whole?

I think there is a more interesting story being played out with smaller 3rd party camera lens and accessory manufacturers... they are likely in a more challenging situation long term unless they diversify their product types and delve into other industries. That is since they are more directly tied to the weakening camera market..

[normhead]

Interesting. And it really points out the uselessness of people trying to draw conclusions on the health of various companies based solely on retail sales numbers. Until folks understand exactly how those numbers fit into the total corporate structure, they have nothing. And most of the forum speculators don't even have accurate sales numbers.

Why did Ricoh buy Pentax? The long answer is Pentax had something Ricoh wanted. And there's a very good chance it had little directly to do with actually making cameras. There was some advantage there Ricoh could exploit, that quite possibly they were the only ones who could exploit. Until people know what that something is, their comments on Ricoh and Pentax are just hot air.

There's quite possibly nothing as dangerous as believing an opinion posted by someone who doesn't know what they don't know.

[D1N0]

of course they are in cameras. smartphones aren't killing dslrs. They largely killed compacts though. Other parts of Nikons business are therefore becoming more significant. The same goes for any traditional brand. This is just an article written for investors.

[normhead]

I guess you haven't seen the endless parade of "so and so company's sales are falling, they are doomed" threads and comments. Your "of course" is hardly a universal concept.

[biz-engineer]

Standalone cameras aren't wide spread anymore, they are joining the medium format crew. It's not only Nikon, it's for all camera makers, also Sony is impacted.That's because only users interested in the highest quality images make the effort to carry a camera, the other folks leave the camera at home and use their smartphone.

[D1N0]

I guess you are in a contradictory mood. Last time I looked Nikon had four aps-c and four or five full frame DSLRs in their line up.

[stevebrot]

I guess you haven't seen the endless parade of "so and so company's sales are falling, they are doomed" threads and comments. Your "of course" is hardly a universal concept.

I have two Exakta bodies on my display shelf. They are both very pretty in that quirky manner of Exakta. The newer one (VX1000) was made in about 1968. Next to it is a VXIIa from about 1958. Neither have a meter or convenient shutter design* and both simply don't fit the hand for eye-level viewing**. While the VXIIa was top-shelf product in 1958 (priced similarly to an M2 Leica) and highly respected, the 1968 product added only updated construction and an instant-return mirror. Clearly Exakta was on a downhill slide and had been for most of the preceding decade. Addition of a TTL meter option in 1969 was too little too late and the last of the "true" Exaktas were made in the early 1970s. The Pentacon-made Exakta RTL 1000 remained in production until the late 70s.

So why did the brand continue as long as it did despite competition from superior product from Nikon and others? Quite simply, the camera had its fans, its system was extensive, and it was expensive. Speaking of fans, in the mid-1960s, the Beatles loved Pentax and Bardot had her Exakta.


Brigitte Bardot from 1965. The Exakta VXIIa dates from at least 5-7 years earlier and would not have been a recent purchase at the time.

How is this post on-topic? The point I am slowly making is that the survival of the Exakta camera for 20 years after it should have sunk was due the quirks of the market and (probably) inertia. I knew Exakta owners in the late 1960s who were quite enthusiastic about their cameras, and lenses in Exakta mount continued to be available well into the early 1980s. There is no easy way to predict the future in the world of photography. Exakta is one example, but I could have just as easily suggested Linhoff (Linhof Fachkameras aus München), an improbable survivor.


Steve

* Shutter speeds above 1/25s (1/30s) are best changed only with the shutter cocked and the dial must be lifted to do so. Turn anti-clockwise only please. Slow speeds are cleverly combined with the self-timer and are done using a separate dial by preloading a clockwork mechanism. Yes, the mechanism is accurate, but not confidence-inspiring.

** The trapezoid body shape looks backwards and seems intended to encourage the camera slipping from one's hands. In a word, the camera is clumsy for eye-level work. I say eye-level because it was not until I got a waist-level finder that I discovered the logic of the Exakta design. The body design predates pentaprism finders and with the camera at elbow level or below, it is quite comfortable and feels natural in the hand. Why they never offered an optional right-hand finger grip is anyone's guess. Go figure...

[Wheatfield]

of course they are in cameras. smartphones aren't killing dslrs. They largely killed compacts though. Other parts of Nikons business are therefore becoming more significant. The same goes for any traditional brand. This is just an article written for investors.

The smartphone will, and probably sooner rather than later, start to take huge bites out of the low end ILC market. We are already seeing smartphones with dual focal length lenses, as soon as some smart engineer figures out how to put a "kit zoom" into a smart phone, the entry level ILC is dead in the water. I suspect Ricoh knows this, and this is why the emphasis is being put on higher end equipment all of a sudden.
The phone makers have to keep putting new junk onto their stuff to keep it moving out the door. Aiming at a different segment of the camera market is a logical move.

[Mikesul]

I am trying hard to resist the obvious comment on the Bardot photo and commentary...

[beholder3]

The spin on this is funny. I guess we should reply to "Pentax is doomed" whiners with "Why, Pentax medical is doing fine."

The author of that blog page is pretty much explaining that Samsung/Nikon (he didn't mention Samsung) has more business outside photography and so the company as a whole will not go bankrupt.
No.
Samsung is alive and kicking.
Good news for Samsung photography gear owners (as much as Nikon owners).

And if one actually looks at the lithography market, it becomes clear where Nikon actually is: at the small, low end while Dutch ASML is leaps and bounds ahead in market share and technology. See https://seekingalpha.com/article/4139540-asmls-dominance-semiconductor-litho...g-implications. Nobody knows how Nikon can even catch up a little bit.

[stevebrot]

I am trying hard to resist the obvious comment on the Bardot photo and commentary...

You mean the puzzled expression on her face? I will have to look it up, but if I remember correctly this was one in a series that were shot on set. In the others she is addressing the camera with somewhat more authority and actually taking pictures. Apparently she was quite the shutterbug back then. There are photos of her using a Leica III, Nikon F, and two different models of Pentax, one having slow speeds on the front. Edit: Or perhaps she just liked posing with cameras


Steve

[D1N0]

Is that a Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 25cm F6.3?(or is it just happy to see her ) I only find silver versions of that online.

[stevebrot]

Is that a Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 25cm F6.3?(or is it just happy to see her ) I only find silver versions of that online.

More exotic that that...how about Angenieux 135mm f3.5? (Yes, it speaks French.)





Steve

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Interesting article. Reminds me of Hitachi. They used to make consumer electronics. Now they're doing heavy duty industrial work. Kind of like General Electric in the states. Many other companies that are feeling a pinch in their current/former sector are doing something similar.