World Wide DSLR sales figure.

[Deadtrees]

http://translate.google.com/tr...%2FDSLR-Welt-im-Wandel

Nikon's come back is quite significant. No wonder Canon came up with 7D; they gotta play the game the way Nikon wants to play. Sony also made quite a progress though it's not as good as Sony wanted it to be. I don't know where Pentax is going.

 

[ElFenix]

well considering nikon was barely competitive at all up until the D80 release i'm honestly shocked they were doing as well as they were.

canon went from 2.5 million to 3.7 million sold

i'm not sure the 7D is playing nikon's game. if they were playing nikon's game they'd bow to the pixel peepers and stick around at 12 mp, or at the very least not increased from 15. canon has traditionally implemented it's new tech in mid range bodies before it's pro bodies (the first eos camera was decidedly mid range, for example).

 

[Eug]

Canon is most definitely playing Nikon's game with the 7D. And I applaud Nikon, cuz now I can get the 7D.

Sure, Canon has grown its market, but they've lost market share. They rested on their laurels with superior sensors and image stabilized lenses, but then Nikon responded with vastly improved sensors and image stabilized lenses as well. Then they started playing the features game, and took a whole lot of market share from Canon, even if Canon still managed to sell more units each year compared to both Nikon and their own previous year sales.

However, "playing Nikon's game" doesn't mean they have to match them feature for feature. No, instead what they've done is try to match some features and best them in others. Canon feels that high resolution is good when balanced reasonable noise characteristics, and I agree. The 7D is not a noisy camera, and probably is amongst the lowest noise units in the 1.6X APS-C market... yet it also happens to be very high resolution as well. Similarly, the 7D adds video support, but it's a much better implementation compared to the D300s.

 

[Aharami]

good job Nikon. Get Canon off it's ass. I already bought a XSi, so I chose the Canon route. But more competition means I'll get better cameras from Canon in the future

 

[Deadtrees]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
well considering nikon was barely competitive at all up until the D80 release i'm honestly shocked they were doing as well as they were.

canon went from 2.5 million to 3.7 million sold

i'm not sure the 7D is playing nikon's game. if they were playing nikon's game they'd bow to the pixel peepers and stick around at 12 mp, or at the very least not increased from 15. canon has traditionally implemented it's new tech in mid range bodies before it's pro bodies (the first eos camera was decidedly mid range, for example).

When it comes down to sensors, Nikon 'still' has to follow Sony. Nikon's got no game in that area though their situation improved much since the birth of D700 and D3. However, they still heavily rely on Sony whereas Canon plays their own game against Sony.
However, Nikon's got their own league when it comes to mechanical matters. They knew their strength in this field, remapped product lines and now Canon is following them with 7D.

 

[randomlinh]

all I have to say is yay for competition

 

[twistedlogic]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
all I have to say is yay for competition

+1

Hopefully Sony will help bring the price of FF down. I would love a cheap, small, featureless full frame entry level camera.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Yeah... Canon's next move is to bring a lower priced FF. They brought crop into the high end now, so they will have to bring FF down into the low end. But this'll be interesting. Choosing high end crop or low end FF?

 

[twistedlogic]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
Choosing high end crop or low end FF?

I'll take one of each please,

 

[alfa147x]

What are the chances that either one of these companies are looking to expanding into the medium format league ?

Slim... probably

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
What are the chances that either one of these companies are looking to expanding into the medium format league ?

Slim... probably

not enough of a market IMO. they can bring in more cash in the "35mm" market

 

[Heidfirst]

As they say their figures should be treated with some caution.
It will be interesting to see 2009 figures.

I don't know what it's like with other brands but it's been obvious for a while to those of us in the Sony camp that there are large differences in % market share in different regions e.g. Sony are widely accepted to have 20% (I've even seen figures nearer to 30% bandied about) overall in Europe & apparently in Poland they are no.1 outselling either Canon or Nikon but their uptake in North America don't seem as good.
Of course market share isn't everything & maybe North America is more profitable per unit sold.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst
As they say their figures should be treated with some caution.
It will be interesting to see 2009 figures.

I don't know what it's like with other brands but it's been obvious for a while to those of us in the Sony camp that there are large differences in % market share in different regions e.g. Sony are widely accepted to have 20% (I've even seen figures nearer to 30% bandied about) overall in Europe & apparently in Poland they are no.1 outselling either Canon or Nikon but their uptake in North America don't seem as good.
Of course market share isn't everything & maybe North America is more profitable per unit sold.

maybe if marketing costs are ridiculously high in the US, but i doubt that'd outweigh the fact that the EU and particularly the UK gets screwed on pricing compared to the US on consumer electronics. maybe it's all EU and mr. brown's taxes, i dunno.

 

[Heidfirst]

Some of it may be down to parts of Europe having been strong Minolta territory but imo that doesn't go anywhere near answering why Alpha seems to be doing so much better in Europe than N.A. especially now that Minolta has been out of DSLRs for several years.
Presumably it's competing against the same opposition in both areas so it's got to be down to differences in marketing/pricing by either the local Sony subsidiary or it's competitors

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
What are the chances that either one of these companies are looking to expanding into the medium format league ?

Slim... probably

My understanding is that a fair number of medium format film types have switched to full frame digital.

There are some medium format backs for hardcore portrait, fashion, and landscape photographers, but they are becoming few and far between.

In the old days, 35 mm film geeks used to salivate over Mamiya or Hasselblad medium format cameras. It seems that drooling for medium format has all but disappeared. They simply don't care, when they can get 20+ million pixel full frame digicams with usable ISO 12800 support for a couple of thousand bucks.

P.S. My favourite camera of all time that I've owned is the Yashica MAT-124G. It's a medium format camera, and it still works.

 

[magomago]

Pentax has stated the 645D will be out in Japan next year and it is MF.

Of course, 645D has been in R&D forever, however I would actually believe it now. Since Hoya took over they actually seemed to have gotten things out on a timely schedule. Things like DA* 60-250, which I was positive was going to be the Duke Nukem Forever of cameras, is actually purchasable. That alone inspires confidence from HOYA.

Now lets see if things turn around for Pentax with a lot of the changes in the past year. I'm suprised they only lost 1% over those years lol.

 

[Eug]

Heh. I was gonna make a Duke Nukem Forever joke, but you beat me to it.

 

[jpeyton]

The latest credible rumors say Nikon will have a D3s and D700x (or D800) out this fall.

 

[firewolfsm]

Ugh....I need a new Olympus body to go with my new pro Zuiko lens, which I probably should not have bought. They're more expensive and are having so much trouble catching up to Nikon and Canon.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
Ugh....I need a new Olympus body to go with my new pro Zuiko lens, which I probably should not have bought. They're more expensive and are having so much trouble catching up to Nikon and Canon.

everyone is complaining about the e3's age, and i think they all want a k7 (but with olympus glass and color). funny that the company that invented the compact pro SLR and claimed that 4/3 would result in smaller bodies got completely shown up when it comes to size.

4/3 has been nice over the last several years in the lower range. olympus and panasonic have continually improved their sensors and not been shy about getting them into products, even if it means lower range stuff has better IQ. as long as nikon is content to stick at 12 mp 4/3 can sit there as well, and continue to approach nikon on IQ.