4 ms·

This is anecdotal at best but I went to my big camera store last weekend. The last time I went was around 2011. Back then it was 48% Nikon, 48% Canon, and the r

This is anecdotal at best but I went to my big camera store last weekend. The last time I went was around 2011. Back then it was 48% Nikon, 48% Canon, and the rest being the other makers, think pentax, fuji, sony, etc. Now it's 30% Canon, 30% Sony, 20% Nikon, 20% Fuji. I think Nikon is dying. Sony ate everyone's lunch, now Canon is coming back big with the R mirrorless cams, and Fuji is also making one hell of a comeback. The Leica, Panasonic, Sigma alliance is also working to their advantage.

hef19898 4y ago
Nikon is late to mirroless, but their Z mount lenses are superb. As are their second gen mirrorless bodies. Also their first gen, even if the gear fanatics had some greavences about single memory card slots. In that light, also considering Z mount lenses took a while to be released, 20% is actually pretty solid.
- Auracle 4y ago
  As a pro, I actually haven't invested in any Z mount lenses. They're completely neglecting the mainstays of wedding photography - f/1.4 lenses. The single memory card slot of the first generation was also ridiculous for the wedding photographer crowd in that it made them completely unusable.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Agree for wedding photographers regarding the f/1.4 lenses. For all other purposes so... Tge second card slot was fixed so, and I don't know of anyone who actually lost shots due a failing memory card. I do see the need for redundancy for stuff like weddings and events so.
hyperbovine 4y ago
The bigger story of course is that phones came along and ate everyone's lunch. I don't know a single person who desires to lug around a body and lens, no matter how compact, anymore. (Have you seen what the top-of-the-line iPhone can do? It's amazing.) I say this as someone who used to own five figures worth of Canon glass. The whole industry feels like it is dying to me. The professional segment will always be there but the consumer and, increasingly, "prosumer" markets are history.
- bombcar 4y ago
  The loss of the prosumer market is the one that will hurt the most - professionals can support a smallish group of companies/models, but prosumers buy way more camera than they need.
  - hyperbovine 4y ago
    Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real" pictures was to buy about $5000 worth of equipment. It worked well and made a lot of money for a long time... but also completely took all the fun out of photography imo. People were more likely to sit around arguing on online forums about "bokeh" and f-stops than go out and actually shoot pictures. Now suddenly everyone has an amazing camera sitting in their pocket, everyone is a photographer, picture taking has increased, what, ten-thousand fold? Photography is fun again ... and they are not even in the conversation. You reap what you sow.
- FpUser 4y ago
  When I am on nature I see boatloads of people with pro looking cameras. For example Tomson part here in Toronto is choke full of those.
- positus 4y ago
  I use two Nikon N90x bodies with AF-D lenses and occasionally shoot 4x5 as well. I develop and scan the negatives myself and make traditional prints in a darkroom. The only thing I really use my iPhone (13) camera for is for taking visual notes of things I need to refer to later. It's convenient, but the small sensor of a cell phone cannot replicate the look and feel of a large format film camera. Most professionals have moved on though, for sure. It is going to be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
- cypress66 4y ago
  I don't know. My 10 year old dslr has much more detail than an iPhone. IPhones photos basically can't be cropped. Even uncropped, when I see a photo at almost full screen size on my 27" monitor, it looks pretty crappy. Of course you can argue for social media it doesn't matter. But that's another point. And for things such as YouTube it's incredibly noticeable when a video is properly filmed vs using a phone (see Mkbhd "secret" iPhone recorded videos)
armadsen 4y ago
The Z9 has made quite a splash, though. So it's hard to criticize Nikon's most recent moves. That said, I switched to Fuji (from Canon SLRs) almost 10 years ago, and Fuji certainly makes the most interesting cameras to me as a dedicated but decidedly non-professional photographer with a real interest in cameras themselves. For example, Fuji's rangefinder-style cameras with a hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder are just plain cool (X-Pro and X100 series).
fleddr 4y ago
Nikon isn't dying. They were slow to make the jump to mirrorless but that's due to their giant legacy customer base, which Sony lacks. And in a way, Nikon never really is fast in releasing things. Only now is the Z system really coming together and it's quite fabulous, worth the wait. The lenses are top notch, their second generation bodies very competitive and the Z9 an absolute beast. Further, they are aggressively pricing new releases, undercutting the competition. So the true adoption for the Z system is still to come, whilst they're already doing quite well given the late entry. They're not going to be market leaders anytime soon, maybe never, but they're not dying, far from it. Note that they also sit on a lot of cash and are part of a far larger corporation.

hef19898 4y ago

Nikon is late to mirroless, but their Z mount lenses are superb. As are their second gen mirrorless bodies. Also their first gen, even if the gear fanatics had some greavences about single memory card slots. In that light, also considering Z mount lenses took a while to be released, 20% is actually pretty solid.

Auracle 4y ago
As a pro, I actually haven't invested in any Z mount lenses. They're completely neglecting the mainstays of wedding photography - f/1.4 lenses. The single memory card slot of the first generation was also ridiculous for the wedding photographer crowd in that it made them completely unusable.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Agree for wedding photographers regarding the f/1.4 lenses. For all other purposes so... Tge second card slot was fixed so, and I don't know of anyone who actually lost shots due a failing memory card. I do see the need for redundancy for stuff like weddings and events so.

hyperbovine 4y ago

The bigger story of course is that phones came along and ate everyone's lunch. I don't know a single person who desires to lug around a body and lens, no matter how compact, anymore. (Have you seen what the top-of-the-line iPhone can do? It's amazing.) I say this as someone who used to own five figures worth of Canon glass. The whole industry feels like it is dying to me. The professional segment will always be there but the consumer and, increasingly, "prosumer" markets are history.

bombcar 4y ago
The loss of the prosumer market is the one that will hurt the most - professionals can support a smallish group of companies/models, but prosumers buy way more camera than they need.
- hyperbovine 4y ago
  Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real" pictures was to buy about $5000 worth of equipment. It worked well and made a lot of money for a long time... but also completely took all the fun out of photography imo. People were more likely to sit around arguing on online forums about "bokeh" and f-stops than go out and actually shoot pictures. Now suddenly everyone has an amazing camera sitting in their pocket, everyone is a photographer, picture taking has increased, what, ten-thousand fold? Photography is fun again ... and they are not even in the conversation. You reap what you sow.
FpUser 4y ago
When I am on nature I see boatloads of people with pro looking cameras. For example Tomson part here in Toronto is choke full of those.
positus 4y ago
I use two Nikon N90x bodies with AF-D lenses and occasionally shoot 4x5 as well. I develop and scan the negatives myself and make traditional prints in a darkroom. The only thing I really use my iPhone (13) camera for is for taking visual notes of things I need to refer to later. It's convenient, but the small sensor of a cell phone cannot replicate the look and feel of a large format film camera. Most professionals have moved on though, for sure. It is going to be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
cypress66 4y ago
I don't know. My 10 year old dslr has much more detail than an iPhone. IPhones photos basically can't be cropped. Even uncropped, when I see a photo at almost full screen size on my 27" monitor, it looks pretty crappy. Of course you can argue for social media it doesn't matter. But that's another point. And for things such as YouTube it's incredibly noticeable when a video is properly filmed vs using a phone (see Mkbhd "secret" iPhone recorded videos)

armadsen 4y ago

The Z9 has made quite a splash, though. So it's hard to criticize Nikon's most recent moves. That said, I switched to Fuji (from Canon SLRs) almost 10 years ago, and Fuji certainly makes the most interesting cameras to me as a dedicated but decidedly non-professional photographer with a real interest in cameras themselves. For example, Fuji's rangefinder-style cameras with a hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder are just plain cool (X-Pro and X100 series).

fleddr 4y ago

Nikon isn't dying. They were slow to make the jump to mirrorless but that's due to their giant legacy customer base, which Sony lacks. And in a way, Nikon never really is fast in releasing things. Only now is the Z system really coming together and it's quite fabulous, worth the wait. The lenses are top notch, their second generation bodies very competitive and the Z9 an absolute beast. Further, they are aggressively pricing new releases, undercutting the competition. So the true adoption for the Z system is still to come, whilst they're already doing quite well given the late entry. They're not going to be market leaders anytime soon, maybe never, but they're not dying, far from it. Note that they also sit on a lot of cash and are part of a far larger corporation.