Samsung to stop producing cameras and lenses?

The bad grammar and spelling are likely because the author is not a native English speaker or it is a bad translation from the original source. If you click on the source of that article, you will find it comes from what looks to be a Korean publication written in Korean. The source article is longer and has more information. If you click on the link, Google will translate the Korean to English and it is somewhat readable.

Having tried to read the original article, it looks also like a rumor article and in fact it seems to say that Samsung is denying the rumor. Only someone that can read Korean would be able to figure out what the article is really saying.
 
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Good point, Paul, but the Google translation from Korean to English needs a LOT of work. Sample paragraph:
The camera industry insider said, "Samsung has issued a final order for the camera to factory production fell a horse." Another official said, "Samsung has no marketing activities differently at home and abroad before and after launch six months ago NX500 launch of new products also became moxibustion" and "business wants to once folded appearance is not would not take one off that way," said He said.
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Sure, makes complete sense! :tongue:
 
The camera industry insider said, "Samsung has issued a final order for the camera to factory production fell a horse." Another official said, "Samsung has no marketing activities differently at home and abroad before and after launch six months ago NX500 launch of new products also became moxibustion" and "business wants to once folded appearance is not would not take one off that way," said He said.
Click to expand...

It makes perfect sense to me. Six months after the launch of the NX500, the head of the Samsung camera division fell off his horse and required moxibustion therapy (look it up!) to help heal the aches and pains caused by falling directly onto his NX500. The unfortunate camera is now an ugly, folded up mess. He has ordered the division to cease development of new camera models until they can design one that will be sturdier and resistant to that kind of impact.

:)

- Greg
 
Greg Smith said:
It makes perfect sense to me. Six months after the launch of the NX500, the head of the Samsung camera division fell off his horse and required moxibustion therapy (look it up!)

- Greg
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I just did ... and it sounds very painful. Which must be how Samsung feels about their camera sales.

As to their strategic plan, I'd have recommended going to either fixed lens models for the bridge and the camcorders and for a PL for their higher end. IMO, there are too many mounts around and, while Canikon benefits from it, those holding small shares suffer from it. And, if they solve this problem, their main line of business in electronics and smartphones dovetails very nicely into the camera industry.
 
While Samsung may make some nice cameras and lenses I can't help but feel the market must be really stacked against them. m43 is considered a rather successful format compared to Nikon and Canon yet still doesn't have a super strong market share. It has to be even worse for a company that has not had a deep history in making cameras and lenses.

Its also much harder for professionals to invest in a system they are not sure of the longevity. m43 already faces this concern and they have a massive amount of lenses an bodies out there now and is pretty much a format here to stay for awhile. Samsung is really a speck of dust on the radar of the camera market and it isn't exactly a cheap market to get into. Perhaps this is more an issue of just not being able to compete out there with the big formats. Add to the mix that Sony is gaining a lot of traction in the video world for DSLR bodies and lenses that work on their DSLRs and more video friendly form factor bodies and the market share can't be super great for a new comer like Samsung.

Not saying I agree with the article just that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they gave up.
 
Greg Smith said:
It makes perfect sense to me. Six months after the launch of the NX500, the head of the Samsung camera division fell off his horse and required moxibustion therapy (look it up!) to help heal the aches and pains caused by falling directly onto his NX500. The unfortunate camera is now an ugly, folded up mess. He has ordered the division to cease development of new camera models until they can design one that will be sturdier and resistant to that kind of impact.

:)

- Greg
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Greg, that's a hilarious interpretation! Still laughing. :D

On a more serious note, what Thomas said makes a lot of sense too.
 
Thomas Smet said:
... Not saying I agree with the article just that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they gave up.
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I would be. IMO, all a Best Buy customer needs is an RX10II or its facsimile and something in that vein is well within Samsung's reach. Similarly, many pros can easily get by with DVX 200 or its iterations. Add some technologies already in use on some advanced models and soon coming to the same Best Buy near you. Then top it off with faster, more power efficient processors, higher bit rate codec, larger internal storage/media and only a small portion of the market - full frame enthusiasts and above - will be left to the ILC's. And that niche is shrinking fast too.
 
There's a price drop on NX1 ($1,200 body only) and NX 500 ($600, lens included). Plus, there are other combo deals.

There are rumors that there'll be new models announced by the end of October by the various manufacturers.

Or, is Samsung clearing out its photo-video inventory for good?
 
Interested to see what Samsung comes up with next. A FF model which can use adapted EF lenses with H.264 encoding would be quite interesting.
 
This was proven to be a hoax. I have been loving the quality of video and photos I have been getting out of the NX1 since March, it's been a fantastic machine.
 
C100Scottie said:
This was proven to be a hoax. I have been loving the quality of video and photos I have been getting out of the NX1 since March, it's been a fantastic machine.
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I don't know if a negative can be proven .. however ... Photo Rumors is quoting one of its readers who captured an online conversation with a Samsung service personnel ... who then asked its manager whether rumors of Samsung discontinuing its cameras are true ... and the response was "yes, it's true" ... make of it what you will ... there's nothing on it at Samsung Rumors ... but, with the recent financial releases, the global camera business looks to be in deep decline, with the compact (Point and Shoot) shipments dropping from ~ 105 million units in 2011 to about 30 in 2015 ... the ILC seems to be holding steady at ~ 15 million ... but P&S allowed great economies of scale, especially on R&D ... if that is no longer at play, I can see some companies dropping out ...
 
Yes, the P&S market has been chasing the Facebook crowd by adding everything outside of phone functionality but sadly, this is a dead end street as the Facebook crowd does not need a nice camera or mega pixels. They have their phone for that... This whole industry is seeing the same fate as Microsoft Word. The core functionality has been reached - 4k in video and overkill MPx in stills. Everything from here on out is sort of extra which is hard to make serious money on. I thought Samsung would have an edge due to their strength in semiconductors. Chip readout and speed is crucial for 4k and higher MPx. The NX1 showed that through its feature set. I hope they continue.
 
Samsung is one of those companies that actually has an overlap, due to their processor, media/storage and sensor branches. They're coming up short in the glass department, however, where their ILC mount is just not that popular and their selection of lenses is relatively small. There are solutions, such as fixed lens cameras a la Sony RX series or fixed lens camcorders. Considering that RX10 MKII is more than enough for a majority of consumers and the variable geometry sensors a la JVC LS300 allow non-digital zooming (a trade off with resolution), an ILC lineup may not be a necessity for Samsung. And, should they want to make a high end product, they can always make it a PL, which is open source.

PS. These new twin-lens/twin-sensor smartphones that will have a far greater depth of field/zooming capabilities are about to come out too, narrowing the phone-ILC gap even further. Add this and that and the ILC's can easily become an audio equivalent of tube amps - high performing but ultimately very much a niche market.
 
Is it out of the realm of possibility for Samsung to just make what they would be best at - sensors or camera bodies? Would Canon, Nikon or Sony ever license their mount? Making lenses are always the downfall of camera company newcomers. Might be an untapped revenue source for the big players to also sell more of their lenses. Probably not but worth the conversation point.
 
I have to say, shooting both Canon and Nikon, the Samsung glass is fantastic! both S lenses, and the primes I have are tack sharp and provide fantastic image quality and beautiful video. I have no issues sticking with Samsung on the video side of things.
 
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