Its natural progression, cameras and sensors have a 2 year life cycle. If a "noob" customer walks into a shop and has to choose between a Pentax with 16mp's, and a Canon 20mp or Nikon 24 mp camera, which one would he/she choose ? The sensor makers skipped over 18mp, to surpass canon, this put Sony, Nikon and Pentax 3 generations ahead, and it was too far, and that really shows how much they wanted to surpass Canon. But now they pegged things back like Sony with 20mp on the A58, and now Pentax with the K-S1. I think they caught canon with their pants down and stopped and went, oh, Canon didn't have a 20mp sensor ready nor a 22mp sensor and we've just blasted past them at "Ludicrous speed" (Spaceballs). Lets peg things back a bit and milk the mega pixel rise for our own "Creative destruction" purposes.
I was told that you don't really need anything more than 10mp. But thats not the point, the market wants more and more and more, and as the technology improves, eventually it will hit a glass ceiling. Who knows when that will happen, maybe at 4 billion pixels for crop sensor, I know there's probably some math out there that won't allow it unless its a "Front-and-backlit-plasma-sensor, or dark-matter-sensor, or plasma-fractal-sensor !
I beg to differ and so do governments and legislative bodies, plus the securities and investment agency/watchdogs in western governments. These things are usually tied to anti-monopoly corporate behavior, or price-fixing, corporate collusion activity etc etc.
I think if Canon or Nikon had its way, they would eliminate all its competition - and thats exactly what they are doing. The sponsorship program, is in a nutshell unlawful, and distorts the market. The sponsorship programs - or Photographer welfare program - turns photographers into walking and talking billboards, with no disclaimer stating they're sponsored by a company. Also websites which purport to be independent are actually controlled by the corporate sponsor. Magazines, where on one page there's a full page add for a camera, and the adjacent page there's a glowing review of that camera.
Here where I live, certain businesses only stock Canon and Nikon DSLR's, and their sales people support the duopoly. You can walk into a camera store, and salespeople ONLY push Canon and Nikon, and largely do not know and do not care about the other brands on the shelves. Its not an even playing field ! Where as TV's, there are many brands, and stores do not lock-out other brands.
So why is there so much ant-competitive corporate behavior in the photography industry ? The sponsorship programs have caused the market to be distorted, and the industry has become a duopoly.
So if any other manufacturer tries to step into the market, there is a MASSIVE outcry from individuals (who are sponsored), acting as agent provocateurs. They are even on this site and many others, constantly talking down Pentax or other brands. There is an army of canikonites in the pockets of Canon and Nikon.
So as an example, you may find the Ricoh GR going head to head against the Nikon thing, the Ricoh is better, but the reviewers (Who are sponsored), saying its not good enough. So how can Ricoh step into the industry with products when they can never gain acceptance from photographers.
So what Canon and Nikon have done with the sponsorship programs and the industry, has made it extremely difficult for other manufacturers to gain a foothold in the market- where there are principles of western law, the rule of law and democracy, plus the free market ! People are saying that Canon and Nikon have done very little in the way of innovation, in fact - Canon and Nikons business model and practices, are stifling innovation in the manufacturing industry. Companies are frightened to come to the market with products in fear of the canikon wolves tearing apart the products, and that company being forced to shut down. Sony and Pentax have come to the market with innovations, in-spite of all of this. Sony pioneered APS-C mirrorless, and 35mm mirrorless, and the canikon army derided it and mocked it - with the political arm of Canikon (the sponsored photographers). Then on the other hand, Nikon and Canon are moving into Sony, fujifilm and the others territory of mirrorless - BECAUSE THE CANIKON FORCES THEM OUT OF THE DSLR MARKET ! Canon and Nikon have no business being in mirrorless - IN PRINCIPLE ! (because of the political wing locking the other brands out of the DSLR market).
The Photographic industry is one of the most corrupt industries I've seen. The car industry is pretty bad with the kickbacks to the magazines, buts nothing compared to the canikon.
So as far as I'm concerned, Ricoh IS entitled to a market position and share, and so is Pentax. This is supported by democratic principles, free market principles and are enshrined in laws. Canon and Nikon and the political wing of the sponsored photographers, are destroying the industry with the duopoly, and you should not support their products in any way. Though professional photographers will say - hang on a minute, Canon and Nikon have given us the tools for our profession, we should support them because of the products. But if Canon and Nikon are so good, why do they need to give away cameras and lenses to professionals - a bribe is a bribe !
Hopefully governments will step in and punish Canon and Nikon with massive fines, and abolish the industry bribes and restore a level playing field. Ricoh is entitled to a market share, and hopefully Canon, Nikon and their cronies are shut down. How did the canikon get so big - through bribery, plane and simple corruption. All sponsored photographers and supporters of sponsorship should hang their heads in shame, because its disgraceful.
