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Forums > Back > Camera sales continue to tank ...
#1
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discu...ping-blood

 

Makes me wonder about the first victim of the blood bath.

 

FWIW, we are feeling the effects as well has in the zone. Fortunately we (the editors) are not relying on the revenues from the site but the glorious days are over really. Some of the smaller sites with dedicated staff will vanish soon I reckon.

 

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#2
It would be interesting to have statistics for various individual countries, things here in general in France are the quietest I've ever known in terms of tourism as well as business, unemployment is huge and commercial premises are closing all over. The euro is also dropping off the board!

 

 Obviously the camera market is under pressure more than most, but times are not good for all business! 

 

 

 

 When you think that my grandmother in her youth saw neither electricity, running water,drainage, there were no cars etc.           yet before her death she saw man land on the moon and the birth of computers.......... ..... 

 

  Frankly, I fear for the future of the young and the generations to come and where this planet is going...                     excuse me I digress.....

 

 Where was I?      Ah yes, the camera industry......hmmm......

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#3
Well, the camera industry is surely very different from the rest of the economy.

After a period of hypergrowth, it is clear that the market is saturated now and with few if any new innovations this isn't going to change.  The rise of camera phones (and action cams) and the subsequent collapse of the digicam market doesn't help the higher end portion of the market either - an upgrade from a smartphone to a DSLR/MSC isn't an obvious step anymore.

I suspect that the market will shrink somewhat further till stabilizing on a low level.

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#4
Shrinking can be healthy, especially if I've too much fat in my body. I'm only speaking for myself but within the last five years I collected more gear than I ever imagined to have before. Sometimes nice stuff, well designed, well made. Other times more promise than reality could deliver.

 

The connection between all those software stuff and new cameras should be considered. So many times I had and have to wait for updates until the latest camera is suppported - so, why run for a new one? Just to wait another couple of weeks and shoot RAW and JPGs menawhil? Not anymore.

 

Yesterday I've seen a sketch from Kai Wong pretending to be head of Canon, a day before I read an interview from DPReview with Masaya Maeda, head of Canon. As stupid as Kai sometimes behaves and maybe is, but some parts of his sketch were close to reality.

 

Now, what do we need more to make great pictures? I could think of a couple of details, but in general and watching what great photogs do, there's not much to blow away people with photos. Storytelling happens more and more by videos and the fantastic places on Earth are more or less well documented. Now we do selfies with octocopters.

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#5
Quote:http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discu...ping-blood

 

Makes me wonder about the first victim of the blood bath.

 

FWIW, we are feeling the effects as well has in the zone. Fortunately we (the editors) are not relying on the revenues from the site but the glorious days are over really. Some of the smaller sites with dedicated staff will vanish soon I reckon.
 

Well you're probably hit with the double-whammy of ad blockers too.
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#6
Quote:Well you're probably hit with the double-whammy of ad blockers too.
 

Well, not sure whether this is really any "worse" than 2 years ago.

Of course, some aspects are home brewed like the demise of the Nikon sections - Markus has been hit hard in the real life.

And this has heavily delayed the new "responsive" portal - thus also optimized for the mobile devices out there.
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#7
Quote: 

Yesterday I've seen a sketch from Kai Wong pretending to be head of Canon, a day before I read an interview from DPReview with Masaya Maeda, head of Canon. As stupid as Kai sometimes behaves and maybe is, but some parts of his sketch were close to reality.

 
 

Let's be honest - people such as Mr. Maeda are part of the problem. He thinks that performance is everything and ignores all other dimensions.

When was the last time we were thrilled by something that came from the traditional camera industry ?

To be honest - even mirrorless isn't really an innovation (think of Leica M - introduced 80 years ago). 
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#8
Quote:Let's be honest - people such as Mr. Maeda are part of the problem. He thinks that performance is everything and ignores all other dimensions.

When was the last time we were thrilled by something that came from the traditional camera industry ?

To be honest - even mirrorless isn't really an innovation (think of Leica M - introduced 80 years ago). 
….well, for this little koala, performance is everything….+ the big C’s update path and lens range is very seductive….

….and, ahem, i feel that could be thrilled with an 11-24/4….except for the little ole weakling the A$, espec as i could also go for FF again as the pixel count is now approaching my age, so me&cam could fall in love again….except that the total cost would be more than a new set of teeth, and that’s nothing to smile about….

 

….Oh the economy? ….not to talk ‘bout politics here!!….maybe just think idiots….but i might be wrong.

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#9
Quote:Let's be honest - people such as Mr. Maeda are part of the problem. He thinks that performance is everything and ignores all other dimensions.

When was the last time we were thrilled by something that came from the traditional camera industry ?

To be honest - even mirrorless isn't really an innovation (think of Leica M - introduced 80 years ago). 
 

The traditional camera industry is doing business with conservative, traditional photographers who have to make a lot money before they can afford another stupid conservative camera body with just a little more fps / pixel count / dynamic range. Industry is telling us this little difference will make an ordinary picture an outstanding one. Some of us do know better, but for all of us it's hard to resist to play with new toys if we can afford them - otherwise we won't be reading this site Wink

 

And the Leica M, to put that one in place, doesn't come with AF on film plane. It has to rely on an optical finder with parallax issue. Is not working for tele lenses longer than 200 and the mirror device they're offering looks like a steam engine to a Porsche. I agree there has been not much of innovation, much less than industry has to make believe us. But sometimes there is. And we're not taking it: Lytro? Foveon sensors? Cameras with interchangeable lens + sensor units (a little bit ridiculous, I admit), exchangeable sensors, for day, night. So in theory it's alway easy to complain "no innovation" (I'm talking about me) but when it comes to the question "will you buy it?" we do hesitate because we know the next version will be better and the first one we've got we already lost money.
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#10
Quote:Let's be honest - people such as Mr. Maeda are part of the problem. He thinks that performance is everything and ignores all other dimensions.

When was the last time we were thrilled by something that came from the traditional camera industry ?

To be honest - even mirrorless isn't really an innovation (think of Leica M - introduced 80 years ago). 
All other dimensions, like best lens line up? or what? The mirrorless market still is small, and mostly (not totally) for non-serious customers, who buy 1 or 2 lenses. So what exactly is he ignoring? Only Sony makes "DSLR" (SLT) and MILC, the other main MILC manufacturers do it as a last ditch attempt to stay in the camera business, without making profits for now. The American and European economies still have not recovered, which keeps on hitting the serious camera segment. Phones have hit the compact camera segment hard. Another point to consider, maybe, is that the big market leader Canon has not updated the line up for while now, which will hit the upgrade sales cycle. With the new 750/760D, the 5Ds and 5Ds R coming, the 7D mk II, a coming 5D mk IV and possibly updates to the 6D and 100D, an impact will be seen on sales figures.

 

Interpreting badly made sales data graphs keeps on being an issue, it seems. 

 

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/interest...artner-gfk
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