Sony becomes #2 full-frame interchangeable-lens maker in US

C

combatentropy

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Sony has become the #2 seller in the U.S. of full-frame interchangeable lens cameras and lenses. Its sales are 23% higher than last year, mainly from the the a7R II and a7S II. If it were not for Sony's recordbreaking growth, the market would have been slightly down. --- PR Newswire

(The #2 was Nikon.)
 
It was bound to happen (and I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner) when the #2 guy hasn't really done much in the last 5 years.

What would be more impressive is when Sony is #1 and Canon is #2. But not sure a world like that will ever exist...definitely not with the lenses.
 
In the industry where (the lens/lens mount) compatibility is paramount, the last two years have been huge for Sony and hugely disappointing and, perhaps, disastrous for Nikon. The more Sony E-mount bodies are sold, the more people are switching from the Canon and the Nikon ecosystems. Once changed, there's very little reason to reverse the move. That 22% increase (I assume in bodies shipped) is a huge trend in what is, basically, a flat ILC market. Combined with the disappearing point&shoot niche, Nikon's F-mount has a good chance to become Beta to E-mount's VHS.

As a side note, Ricoh/Pentax is alleged to be dropping out of the photo biz too. They're publicly denying it, claiming that they will try to concentrate on the high end product but those denials make them sound exactly like Samsung did about a year and a half ago.
 
- What surprises me is how slow customers react. The a7R II has been THE CAMERA for me since it was released: awesome sensor, unbelievable eye-detect AF (I prefer accurate and intelligent to DSLR's fast), great lenses (and I would have added "though not cheap" but now the FE 50mm f/.8 and FE 85mm f/1.8 are changing that too), and great video capabilities. I would really have to have a huge investment in lenses to stop me from switching.

- The claim by Pentax sounds absolutely preposterous: what are they concentrating on? The one camera with a FF sensor that they took ages to bring to market? Do they even sell a full range of modern lenses for that one? Much more likely, they mean they're concentrating on the relatively successful but definitely niche 645 market.
 
Nikon make arguably the finest lenses and cameras on the planet. (the Canon 1dx series is good too)

So good that for my stills work I use a 14mm purchased in maybe 1998, a 20-35 purchased in 1995, a 50 purchased in 1998, and a 2011 80-200, and a 1998 400 2.8. My 2007 nikon D3 is great, a D4 would be good enough for any photo job ever. A nikon D5 is, completely brilliant but people only buy them if their D4 is stolen or dropped in the sea (nothing else breaks a D4)

As a stills photographer I just dont need any new purchases and the old stuff is not falling apart or technically superceded for any working professional who realises that a million ISO or 40mp are just not required.

So as a huge Nikonite I give them NO money ever. Which is not good business for them.

--

But the video side of my business has been a money pit since 2008, FS7, whatever and Ive given all that money to Sony.

Nikon have brought nothing in the last decade of note.

Stills wise I cant think of much..

a silent camera?
a camera with wifi throwing pictures to the client Ipad?
built in pocket wizard?
1000 flash synch?

Video.. the money pit.. what could they do?
The nef shooting video camera would make an arri alexa file look thin and puny. But it does not exist.
Failure to release the lens data to metabones is a huge fail
17-80 DX lens that is not rubbish?

Really I think they have burned themselves with failure to move forward.
 
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Run&Gun said:
Let me fix that for you. ; )



Even Nikon's (former) number one acolyte, Ken Rockwell, has pretty much written Nikon off.
Click to expand...

Whatever Ken thinks (he is basically an amateur snapper/hobbyist is he not?)

The point is a nikon D4 or 5 and a few AF nikkors and you can operate as a still photographer at the very top level with no stress.

No need to buy anything else. They killed their own market!

Have you ever experienced a D4/5?

Lightning AF, many FPS, dual safe data, long batt life, just robust functionality. No need to read blogs, care about upgrades or even think about anything but your content. The things just react to your thoughts - a photographic extension to the arm.

(The 1dx are the same)
 
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WHat does ken actually say about the D5?

"Autofocus is completely clairvoyant."

"not only does it really run at 12 FPS and sometimes faster, it does this while continuously tracking autofocus. Other cameras usually only meet their claimed frame rates with static subjects, but as shown above, the D5 really does run at 12 FPS even when it's having to focus and change exposure for each and every frame."

"Even ludicrously high ISOs look superb. "

..no other camera matches the D5's ability to shoot anything, anywhere, in any light. It's the king of low light, and the king of action. It's sort of like what the US Marine snipers tell their targets: you can run, but you'll just die tired. If you want to shoot it, the D5 will get it, and it will be sharp and colorful as well."
 
The problem is that one can't run a photo/video manufacturing company with one highly regarded camera. The existing business model for the last couple of decades was to have a dozen SKU's, from the low end P&S to the high end pro tier, that allowed these companies to offset their R&D and other fixed expenses across their entire lineup. With the smartphones taking over the P&S, the overall sales shrunk, the total profits shrunk and the number of industry players shrunk. Mitsubishi has a lot of money to keep Nikon around by slicing overhead and moving people to other branches a la Samsung circa 2015. At some point, however, when too many people are relocated to other branches ...

PS. Side point, D5's standing is the result of the substantial flesh peddling with Sony, which more or less refrained from entering the high end pro market (A99II, however, does pretty much everything that that D5 does and for a lot less). Had Nikon not been entangled in these various agreements and contracts, there is one major business plan it could do and that is to release a series of the spec laden cameras (a la NX1 and GH4/GH5). Its refusal to do so likely means that it would rather play nice with its Japanese brethren rather than compete against them for survival. In that case, the survival itself is surely at stake.
 
Not only that, but your "halo camera" isn't going to be where you make a large portion of your profit. The D5 is most likely a drop in the bucket sales-wise compared to the lower models in Nikon's line.

For every Nissan GT-R sold, Nissan sells a metric assload of Altimas. It really doesn't matter how awesome the GT-R is to Nissan's bottom line.
 
I only bigged up the d5 because ther was an assertion that nikon are not good.

Clearly nikon have a marketing fail on that youngsters are somehow under the impression that an a7 is a joyful still camera - it isn't but the youth don't get that.

The broader business is of course well past the flagship - and nikon have demonstrated themselves to be clueless.

Arri of course seem to survive by making only "halo" kit. I guess at some point nikon did massive expansion in to consumer and that is thier core fail - losing thier core value - quality optical tools at small car prices - and that is biting them. Arri don't actually care if they are number 2 or 3 they just make stuff for doing the job with

I don't know any nikon product that I want - I assume all thier Dslrs shoot 8bit mush and none talk to my clients iPad, none have 1/1000 flash synch. I assume thier compacts don't Fire pictures to Instagram (is this what the kids want?)

All of these things may be wrong but I i don't know it is a marketing fail.

oh nikon mid/low lenses suck too

Frankly I feel insulted that some stuff nikon make they expect anyone to buy.

Last night I was at home with a mate drinking wine and playing with the camera archive - on the table my fully functioning fm2 - a thing of beauty (at the time they were considered a bit plastic compared to the f3)

Maybe the key is to make only beautiful things?
 
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Cell phones now can take awesome photos and videos, so entry level dslr's and mirrorless will shrink further in sales as a consumer can spend their $600 on a new phone instead of camera and still get great camera features. On the other hand Nikon has been too slow in making 4k video available and improving video features which resulted in the migration of thousands of users like myself to sony and panasonic. I would expect their sales to dip much further in the next three years to the extent that they will wake up one day realizing their mistakes, but it's going to be too late as by then they will have lost so many customers that they will start shrinking their production and departments. This is a sure thing to happen if they don't wake up and start competing with serious video features to compensate their lose in the consumer photo department to video enthusiasts and pros. As the cell phone lenses gain better optical zoom features in the future it will be the end of consumer photography cameras, just like the end of the film camera era.
 
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