According to reports from Japan, Nikon is expected to retire its DSLR range and concentrate entirely on mirrorless. And Canon is set to follow within a few years. If true, this will be a major blow to the future of the single-lens reflex design and a testament to the advances made by mirrorless technology in the past few years.
Nikkei Asia reports that shipments of mirrorless cameras overtook SLRs for the first time in 2020, with 2.93 and 2.37 million units shipped respectively: “The dramatic falloff has forced Nikon to focus on the segment that still has the potential to grow.”
The company has also been impacted by the success of smartphones at the lower end of the market. Nikon’s cameras have been losing out to smartphones and their increasingly powerful cameras, says Nikkei, and the company aims to compete by offering products with more unique features.
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Reissue of F2 is a non-starter. Too many of them made. The reason the re-issued rangefinders sold was, in the 1950s when they were current, only a few pros and serious amateurs bought them. Nikon was not a household name, you might say. It is only after Nikon dominated the market that, looking back, the rangefinders developed appeal.
If Nikon really wanted a legacy DSLR market, bring out a Df2. Yeah, I know, no chance.
FWIW, Nikon just released a firmware update for its 10-year-old D7100. Kudos to Nikon and I wish all other camera companies would act in the same way.
Discussions on such matters usually end up like the old pantomime conversation ” Oh yes, it is” and “Oh no, it isn’t”. Most properly run businesses will know when the potential cost of maintaining a product line is not exceeded by the likely revenue. That, in most cases, makes it an easy decision whether to continue or discontinue a product line. A lot of the discussions are, therefore, superfluous. The suggestions about nostalgia editions of old film cameras would seem to fall into that category. The cost of producing something like a replica Nikon F today would make such an item very expensive compared to vast number of Fs, F2s and F3s floating around at very reasonable prices. Also, collectors much prefer originals to any kind of tarted up replica.
The main concern for Nikon users is whether to stay with a line of equipment, particularly lenses, which may not get supported in the not too distant future. There will be a lot of second hand Nikon DSLRS around to ‘feed’ the market for many years to come, just like the film Fs.
William
Apparently Nikon sort of denies this report/rumour .
A non-article written by a non-writer. Unfortunately it has gotten a lot more traction than it deserves. Thom Hogan has a good commentary about this at his website. http://Www.bythom.com
PaulB
I also hear that they are going to stop production of film cameras.
I mean, it’s nit really surprising. 🙂
Have many friends w Z cameras and they are happy campers! I had D850 just too heavy and way more resolution than I needed, but what a tough beautiful camera!
I am surprised it did not happen before now. Nikon has been struggling financially and needed to focus their resources long before now on mirrorless. They and Canon sure gave the new entry in the camera market, Sony, a lot of time to build their mirrorless system and become a major player.
I wonder when Leica product management will sober up and finally flush the long dead medium format system?
About Medium Format, Stefan Daniel has confirmed the Leica is working on a mirrorless medium format system: “A mirrorless S is actually a consequent evolution, and it’s not that amazing that speculation is doing the rounds. Here’s the fact: A mirrorless S is a work in progress, but it’s difficult to predict anything further in the future. Today there are so many impasses with the procurement of materials, assemblies and electronic parts that we currently have no specific statement on the time of the next market launch of the S. ” I personally do not believe Leica is able to sustain both a high MP FF system and a medium format system at the same time, no other company does it either: Fuji, Hasselblad and Phase One do not have FF systems.
Stefan Daniel confirming anything should be taken with a large serving of salt. I’m not sure what business advantage selling medium format cameras and lenses would actually deliver to Leica. It’s hard to see how the development costs would ever pay back.
I fully agree (including on SD). A new medium format camera would go head-to-head with a 60MP SL3. Leica would IMHO not have enough users to sustain both systems.
Any Leica MF camera goes head to head with a much more extensive Fujifilm system and even Hasselblad system which are a fraction of the Leica prices. Already, Leica does not have the ability to deliver any breadth on their m and L systems. So is Stephan does not have the brains to focus limited research, design, development and manufacturing resources on the M, Q, and L systems, then I am even more astonished that the management and investors above him do not flush him before the iceberg appears.
This for me is unsurprising – they are following the coin of the paying public – clearly they have declining sales on DSLR/F Mount vehicles, and they are moving and rationalising around the piece of business that keeps paying.
The good news for me, is that until my Df gives up I won’t be considering spending money in the Nikon ecosystem – and when I need to, who knows where my photographic feet will tread.
Nikon has a history f reissuing (and selling out) long discontinued mirrorless opps rangefinder models like the S3 and SP…
I wonder whether it would make sense for Nikon to move a camera like a D850 to a new non mass market heritage division and charge Leica money for it? I believe they should consider it (just like they should have considered it for the film F6). I am pretty sure that special limited editions of vintage cameras like the F2 or F3 would sell like hotcakes.
Sure you right. I don’t see mirror and prisms in the time of straight sensor imaging
I take back what I said about the F2 and F3 though, they still seem to be inexpensive in the used market, and there are lots of them around, it might not be worthwhile bringing them back, although perhaps Nikon collectors could be tempted by special editions as well?
Never used them. Sure people is not so excited about future models and buying more and more past digital cameras. Perhaps improvements are just achieving not much more than pixels
My times of FE model is so far that I took them for digital. No, not vintage cameras in my mind really
Logically