Nikon Anticipates Huge Losses, Refocusing On Mirrorless Only

[Clix Pix]

A fresh article in Petapixel today:

Nikon to Focus on Mirrorless as It Anticipates Historic $720M Loss

Nikon's worrisome financial situation has cascaded as a result of the deflated camera market caused by the fallout from COVID-19, and in an effort to

petapixel.com

 

[James_C]

I have always been a Canon shooter, but it would be sad to lose Nikon. They have produced some great cameras and Lenses.

I really hope they don’t become another example of being complacent as new technology emerges and they did not innovate in time.

 

[Clix Pix]

Unfortunately long past the point where they should have made a pivot into mirrorless, Nikon kept clinging to DSLRs and lenses rather than putting much effort into developing and working with mirrorless cameras and lenses. This, of course, allowed other manufacturers to get ahead; Canon, too, had dawdled a little but they made haste to try and catch up so that they're now an active player in this field. In an already highly competitive industry, falling behind with technology and new offerings can be disastrous.

However, as mentioned in the article, it is certainly important to realize and acknowledge that the pandemic has certainly contributed significantly to Nikon's and everyone else's woes in the camera industry, too, it's not simply a matter of Nikon lagging behind in technology. That and the market for P&S cameras has now disappeared pretty much totally since most people use their smartphones as their camera these days, and it's always with them. A lot of factors come into play here.

 

[OreoCookie]

Nikon‘s decline makes me sad. My first proper camera was a Nikon F50, then an F80, D70, D80 and now a D7000, which works perfectly after almost exactly 10 years in service. But y’all are right, they have been trying to market against the shift to mirrorless and only released cameras that were no serious replacement for their pro-level dslrs (remember the 1-system?). I am very skeptical that a pivot this late will do anything, especially since their mirrorless cameras lack that special something. Don’t get me wrong, they are solid cameras, but I feel that I’d enjoy shooting with Fuji’s mirrorless cameras much more. Most of their competitors do one thing really well, say, shooting video, or they have a classic camera interface (Fuji). Nikon’s offerings are just taking their dslr’s UI and putting it on a mirrorless camera. I don’t think that’ll attract anyone but customers who already own a Nikon. Case-in-point: I also have an X100s, which I just love shooting with. My biggest problem with it was that my wife also loved shooting with it, so much so that I had to lug around both cameras if I wanted to have a chance of taking any photos. Its electronics broke earlier last year and I only thought about whether to replace it with another X100-series camera or whether I should get into Fuji’s mirrorless system. I don’t think I seriously considered Nikon’s mirrorless offerings, despite advantages from the larger sensor.

PS Funnily enough, Fuji also has a plant in Sendai, so perhaps they can scoop up some highly qualified workers from Nikon.

 

[robgendreau]

Oh my. The fool says he thought people would be put off from mirrorless because of battery life 🙄 . Talk about missing the point. If he was in the auto industry he'd be puzzled by the fact SUVs and pickups ate his breakfast in the US market, since after all they got worse gas mileage. I fear for Nikon. Sad to see this, especially since I think their mirrorless offerings aren't anything special. If someone were to gift me a Nikon, I'd still take a D850 over the Z's. But Canon? R5 thank you.

Still, I suppose they don't have much choice. They aren't a niche player like some other companies, and per the article both Sony and Canon are doing much better. And isn't the camera/lens part of Nikon's business pretty much the majority of it?

 

[Fishrrman]

Once fuel-injection for cars came onto the scene, carburetors soon faded away.

The mirrorless design is the photographic equivalent of fuel-injection.
That is to say, a "mirrored" SLR uses equipment that evolving technology has rendered all-but obsolete.

Nikon waited too long, remaining a "carburetor camera company" as the competition embraced "fuel-injected" (mirrorless) cameras.

It will pay the price.
How much longer before the company is "for sale", as was Olympus...?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Truth is all the the camera companies are chasing a smaller and smaller market. They aren’t all going to survive. Even if they do they will continue to scale down operations.

 

[OreoCookie]

Truth is all the the camera companies are chasing a smaller and smaller market. They aren’t all going to survive. Even if they do they will continue to scale down operations.

Exactly. So you need a unique selling point (ugh, I hate marketing speech) and appeal to customers that owned cameras from other companies. Fuji's is their old school interface coupled with slightly smaller cameras and lenses. And if you want to go for IQ, they have medium format cameras — very smart, asymmetric competition. Canon's claim to fame is probably video, although to be honest I find its mirrorless cameras to be somewhat unexciting, too. Sony, the new king of the hill, has tons of intelligent features (AF that follows eyes, etc.). And Nikon has … what?

Nikon (and Canon) would probably point to lenses, but meh. I think all of the companies I mentioned (and didn't) have high-quality glass and some unique lenses. Fuji, Canon and Nikon have superfast f/1.0 and f/1.2 lenses in their line-ups. All of them have versions of the holy trinity of zooms, many of them in a slow and a fast flavor. Only if you have very particular needs as far as lenses go will that single out one company over another.

 

[r.harris1]

No comment on the petapixel clickbait article (although that’s a comment, I guess 🙂) but the FF camera makers Nikon, Canon and Sony all make great stuff with varying degrees of the same functionality - everybody’s got really good to great Eye AF if that’s important to you. IQ is roughly the same. All with great to exceptional lenses. As a Nikon stills shooter, there’s no “killer feature” in Canon or Sony bodies that’s calling my name so no reason to switch and I enjoy the ergonomics, UI, imaging pipeline and stellar optics. But that’s just me. Its a great time to enjoy photography - so many great choices! I also enjoy my Fuji x100f. None of the companies are going anywhere soon, so find something that floats your boat, tickles your fancy or blows your dress up and start having fun.🙂

 

[Clix Pix]

Exactly. So you need a unique selling point (ugh, I hate marketing speech) and appeal to customers that owned cameras from other companies. Fuji's is their old school interface coupled with slightly smaller cameras and lenses. And if you want to go for IQ, they have medium format cameras — very smart, asymmetric competition. Canon's claim to fame is probably video, although to be honest I find its mirrorless cameras to be somewhat unexciting, too. Sony, the new king of the hill, has tons of intelligent features (AF that follows eyes, etc.). And Nikon has … what?

Nikon (and Canon) would probably point to lenses, but meh. I think all of the companies I mentioned (and didn't) have high-quality glass and some unique lenses. Fuji, Canon and Nikon have superfast f/1.0 and f/1.2 lenses in their line-ups. All of them have versions of the holy trinity of zooms, many of them in a slow and a fast flavor. Only if you have very particular needs as far as lenses go will that single out one company over another.

The problem right now for Nikon with regard to lenses is that they are still behind in bringing out mirrorless lenses -- which if someone wants or needs a particular type of lens could be a deal-killer. People are still waiting for native mirrorless lenses from Nikon which are already available from other manufacturers and have been for a while.

 

[ian87w]

Nikon has exited Indonesia last year, leaving just the distributor to do everything. It doesn't bode well for them.

 

[MacNut]

Does Nikon have any other divisions to fall back on like Canon and Sony have?

 

[Apple fanboy]

The problem right now for Nikon with regard to lenses is that they are still behind in bringing out mirrorless lenses -- which if someone wants or needs a particular type of lens could be a deal-killer. People are still waiting for native mirrorless lenses from Nikon which are already available from other manufacturers and have been for a while.

True. But I think the Nikon idea is you keep your F mount lenses and use the adapter.

But let’s be honest, if you can’t take a good photo on anything Nikon, Canon, Sony or any other camera manufacturers brought out in the last 10 years, the problem isn’t the camera!

 

[r.harris1]

I need to stop poking my head into these endless "Nikon doom and gloom" topics as I should be out shooting with my world-class Nikon products 🙂.

The camera industry for ILCs is tough. Some companies are better positioned to handle it - Sony's a massive electronics and entertainment company that was lucky enough to jump on the mirrorless train earlier than others. It really doesn't matter to Sony how well their cameras sell at the end of the day. Canon has office equipment. Nikon is also heavily involved in semiconductor fabrication and a bit in medical, 3d printing and so forth.

Nikon is least best placed for success in diversification at this time. That said, it's is not about to shutter. At least just yet. They absolutely made poor product decisions, in particular around such products as the infamous KeyMission. Also around the CX mount, one of the first mirrorless cameras in 2011 (maybe a year after the Samsung and Sony intros) featuring world-beating hybrid autofocus and stellar little lenses. They were horrible at marketing what was an absolutely fantastic camera. Canceling some of their higher end compacts that they announced and then pulled was not a very good move.

And yes, they were slower getting into the FF mirrorless space than many would have liked. And how they did it bothers other people with some lens compatibility and the FTZ. And yep, if you need a mirrorless camera and absolutely need a lens not available natively and the FTZ doesn't work with your lens of choice or you otherwise prefer not to use it, then for sure, the right move is to seek what you need amongst the other excellent choices out there.

All that said, the ZIIs are selling, the lens roadmap looks good and Nikon is consolidating and cost-cutting. They're focusing on prosumers/advanced hobbyists/high-end amateurs and professionals. The rumor pipeline for camera bodies is positive. For Nikon Imaging these are what any company or division of a company would do.

As a backseat strategist, I'd suggest Nikon Imaging:

* Jump in to video more fully - it's both a perception problem and a real one as part of the market segment they should be after
* Release an FTZ with drive for more lens compatibility (take out of Sony's playbook)
* Get both the higher MP d850 equivalent out and the "Z9" equivalent professional body out there - I'd buy either or both
* Diversify their manufacturing pipeline to eliminate bottlenecks in product availability
* Accelerate their Z lens roadmap
* Open up their Z-mount specs (this will never happen)
* Fire their leadership and marketing teams and give their stellar engineers a well-deserved massive raise 🙂

Go enjoy your day with whatever excellent cameras you all have!

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Exactly. So you need a unique selling point (ugh, I hate marketing speech) and appeal to customers that owned cameras from other companies. Fuji's is their old school interface coupled with slightly smaller cameras and lenses. And if you want to go for IQ, they have medium format cameras — very smart, asymmetric competition. Canon's claim to fame is probably video, although to be honest I find its mirrorless cameras to be somewhat unexciting, too. Sony, the new king of the hill, has tons of intelligent features (AF that follows eyes, etc.). And Nikon has … what?

Nikon (and Canon) would probably point to lenses, but meh. I think all of the companies I mentioned (and didn't) have high-quality glass and some unique lenses. Fuji, Canon and Nikon have superfast f/1.0 and f/1.2 lenses in their line-ups. All of them have versions of the holy trinity of zooms, many of them in a slow and a fast flavor. Only if you have very particular needs as far as lenses go will that single out one company over another.

Canon has been the leader in the sports and press fields with DSLR cameras until recently, although it has maintained a good reputation with videographers. Sony the largest company and is dominating the mirrorless arena, while Canon is second. Now both Sony's a Canon's eye tracking and autofocusing are close to each other, and Nikon may be just a tad slower. Nikon still can be a player in the mirrorless-camera arena, even if being a small company compared to Sony and Canon. In my view Nikon will do just fine as long as they support research and development, plus careful marketing. Just look at how Fuji maintains a portion of the market while the big players fight with each other 🙂

Sony is doing great in the camera and lens market. And now Canon's R5 ad R6 are big sellers, since with the EF to R adapters that are being offered by Canon and several manufactures, one can use all the older Canon lenses, plus other lens brands with EF mounts in addition to the new RF lenses. The demand for EF and R lenses (plus adapters) is so high at the moment, that most major stores have them on backorder. I had to wait several weeks for a Canon EF to RF adapter.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Canon has been the leader in the sports and press fields with DSLR cameras until recently, although it has maintained a good reputation with videographers. Sony the largest company and is dominating the mirrorless arena, while Canon is second. Now both Sony's a Canon's eye tracking and autofocusing are close to each other, and Nikon may be just a tad slower. Nikon still can be a player in the mirrorless-camera arena, even if being a small company compared to Sony and Canon. In my view Nikon will do just fine as long as they support research and development, plus careful marketing. Just look at how Fuji maintains a portion of the market while the big players fight with each other 🙂

Sony is doing great in the camera and lens market. And now Canon's R5 ad R6 are big sellers, since with the EF to R adapters that are being offered by Canon and several manufactures, one can use all the older Canon lenses, plus other lens brands with EF mounts in addition to the new RF lenses. The demand for EF and R lenses (plus adapters) is so high at the moment, that most major stores have them on backorder. I had to wait several weeks for a Canon EF to RF adapter.

As a supplier of cameras you wouldn’t believe the back order situation with Canon. Terrible.

 

[dimme]

I hope they turn it around, not because I'm a Nikon shooter but because competition is good for all.

 

[Clix Pix]

As a supplier of cameras you wouldn’t believe the back order situation with Canon. Terrible.

Canon has built up a loyal user base, that's for sure. About a year or so ago I went out shooting with a friend and he has a Canon something-or-other, just loves it. He told me he'd been shooting Canon for years and so of course the natural next step in his photography journey was to move from Canon DSLR to Canon mirrorless, which he'd done not too long before we got together.

I imagine that there is high demand for both the new Canon bodies and native mirrorless lenses. The used camera market is beginning to get flooded with older Canon and Nikon bodies and lenses as people make the shift from DSLR to mirrorless.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Canon has built up a loyal user base, that's for sure. About a year or so ago I went out shooting with a friend and he has a Canon something-or-other, just loves it. He told me he'd been shooting Canon for years and so of course the natural next step in his photography journey was to move from Canon DSLR to Canon mirrorless, which he'd done not too long before we got together.

I imagine that there is high demand for both the new Canon bodies and native mirrorless lenses. The used camera market is beginning to get flooded with older Canon and Nikon bodies and lenses as people make the shift from DSLR to mirrorless.

I think all camera manufacturers have a loyal customer base. Changing from one to another is expensive! Then there is the learning curve of course.

 

[Clix Pix]

Quite true, that! Yes, certainly Nikon has a very loyal base and I assume Sony has as well. Many Nikon and Canon users have been shooting with their chosen brand for over 30 years or longer, which says something! Most of the people I know on Nikon Cafe have gone from the early SLRs to the Coolpixes and the DSLRs now right into the Nikon mirrorless offerings. There are some of us who for various reasons chose not to stick with DSLRs or to go with Nikon's mirrorless cameras -- a few went early-on with m4/3 but are now gradually finding their way back to full-frame mirrorless (not always Nikon-branded), while others made an early leap from DSLR to mirrorless without waiting for Nikon to develop their bodies and lenses. Some, like me, waited to see what Nikon would be doing and offering, before making any decisions. Others eagerly embraced Nikon's offerings when they arrived in the marketplace. As long as everybody's happy with their current gear and gets out there and has fun shooting, that's what counts!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Quite true, that! Yes, certainly Nikon has a very loyal base and I assume Sony has as well. Many Nikon and Canon users have been shooting with their chosen brand for over 30 years or longer, which says something! Most of the people I know on Nikon Cafe have gone from the early SLRs to the Coolpixes and the DSLRs now right into the Nikon mirrorless offerings. There are some of us who for various reasons chose not to stick with DSLRs or to go with Nikon's mirrorless cameras -- a few went early-on with m4/3 but are now gradually finding their way back to full-frame mirrorless (not always Nikon-branded), while others made an early leap from DSLR to mirrorless without waiting for Nikon to develop their bodies and lenses. Some, like me, waited to see what Nikon would be doing and offering, before making any decisions. Others eagerly embraced Nikon's offerings when they arrived in the marketplace. As long as everybody's happy with their current gear and gets out there and has fun shooting, that's what counts!

Exactly. As I said previously, if your camera was made in the last 5-10 years it’s good enough. But we all like getting new gear!

 

[AlaskaMoose]

As a supplier of cameras you wouldn’t believe the back order situation with Canon. Terrible.

I bought a "knockoff" Canon adapter while waiting for a Canon EF-R adapter that I had ordered from B&H and put on backorder. The adapter did not work as expected, so I returned it to Amazon. None of the major US stores had the canon adapter, but a friend of mine called me and told me that Sammy's Photo in CA had the adapter. Five weeks later I finally had the right adapter for the canon R6. I cancelled the backorder at B&H.

The reason for this is that Canon didn't anticipate the great demand for the adapters. Starting with the Canon R, and then the R5 and R6, all the EF and EF-S lenses that incorporate IS, and even the ones that don't have this feature, become more accurate. The lenses that already have IS benefit from both IBIS and lens IS, while the lenses that do not have IS benefit from IBIS.

There is also a demand for new (unused) EF lenses such as the EF 100-400mm L. This lens still costs around $2,300 new, and about $2,200 Canon-refurbished. And of course, the price of the big EF primes (500mm-800mm L) remains the same (exorbitant prices). The mirrorless cameras and the Canon adapters have given a new life to the EF lenses.
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[AlaskaMoose]

Exactly. As I said previously, if your camera was made in the last 5-10 years it’s good enough. But we all like getting new gear!

I am still using a canon 5D II and a 7D, both which are now old cameras. The reason why I decided to buy a new one is because of the very advanced AF system which is very useful for wildlife photography, plus the high ISO/low digital noise capability. The idea is to use this camera post my second retirement (just retired a second time on October 2020) along the 7D and the older EF lenses I already have. I will probably buy a Canon RF 100-500mm lens for the new camera since all I have are "primes" from 100 to 400mm. I need a zoom for taking photos at the local sled dog races.
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Those loyal Nikon users who have invested in older Nikon lenses can still use Z-series mirrorless cameras to achieve the same things I can achieve with canon Cameras. In fact, these Nikon cameras are quite good and not as expensive as the Canon counterparts. The technological advances relating to auto-focusing and IS, plus cost or price, are the major reasons for switching to mirrorless cameras. For example, a Canon Idx III (DSLR camera) with the most advanced AF system costs a fortune compared to a canon R5 or R6, but both of these two cameras incorporate an AF system that is quite similar the 1Dx III. Nikon is offering great deal to its loyal customers, just the same as Canon.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Canon has built up a loyal user base, that's for sure. About a year or so ago I went out shooting with a friend and he has a Canon something-or-other, just loves it. He told me he'd been shooting Canon for years and so of course the natural next step in his photography journey was to move from Canon DSLR to Canon mirrorless, which he'd done not too long before we got together.

I imagine that there is high demand for both the new Canon bodies and native mirrorless lenses. The used camera market is beginning to get flooded with older Canon and Nikon bodies and lenses as people make the shift from DSLR to mirrorless.

Believe it or not, there is a high demand for existing Canon EF "L" lenses, while the demand for DSLR cameras has diminished. Some of the older Canon EF L lenses are on back order at some of the major US stores, and the price of the most expensive EF L "prime" lenses never drops. The canon EF-R adapters has given a second life to the older lenses, as they can be used on both the DSLR cameras as well as the mirrorless ones.

 

[OreoCookie]

Canon has been the leader in the sports and press fields with DSLR cameras until recently, although it has maintained a good reputation with videographers. Sony the largest company and is dominating the mirrorless arena, while Canon is second. Now both Sony's a Canon's eye tracking and autofocusing are close to each other, and Nikon may be just a tad slower.

Plus, even if Nikon were to go away, I still think enthusiasts and pros still have plenty of great options. Even my D7000s, which was an enthusiast's camera 10 years ago (almost to the day 10 years ago), does everything I need it to and more, save for low light capability.

I'm surprised that Nikon and Canon did not borrow a page out of Fuji's book and offer full frame+-sized sensors. They could offer compatibility with older lenses by cropping, but I reckon that would have made all lenses larger and perhaps more expensive and/or slower.