Well, yeah. There's all that too. They're pricing themselves out of business. Any Blue Chip's standby is: "We're the name brand. Our stuff is better, so we can charge more for it."
The only problem is, their stuff isn't necessarily better anymore. All my lenses are Tamron, because I can't justify paying Nikon prices for arguably a so-called better lens. Not for double the money, it isn't. Ditto flash units, mine are LumoPro. For the huge price gap, I'll give up TTL and do it manually.
As for the bodies themselves, well...I'm on the fence there. Yes, a lot of these bodies are basically the same as their big brothers, just with firmware restrictions and swapped out parts. It is what it is. They have to make money somehow.
absolutely. like I said in my first post, anyone wanting to get serious and become a pro wedding photog doesnt need to buy a single nikon lens to get stellar IQ. tokina 16-28 2.8/tamron 24-70 VC/ 70-200VC and youre set. add the sigma 50(not art) the sigma 85 1.4 and sigma 15mm fisheye, the tokina 105 macro and even sigma is coming out with a 24-70 f/2 OS and a 135 1.8. you can have a complete set of pro gear for weddings without even worrying about build or IQ. when a few years back it was a compromise, but not today. as well buy the yongnuo 568 flagship flash for less than half of the SB910, or better yet, the phottix mitros for $300, has almost everything the SB910 has (and things the SB910 doesnt) and 2 years warranty vs nikons 1 years. battery grips at 1/5 the nikon price and batteries as well. theyve been ripping people off for years and people are tired of having to pay so much. thats it nikon, its over. those days of paying so much for top performing flash and excellent battery grips are over.
Everyone is suffering in this abysmal obamaconomy, but I do admit that Nikon really hurt themselves with the D600 and all of its related problems. And with so much of it coming from China nowadays, I really think the quality has declined as well. ALL of my Nikon gear, that it is not "new" by any means, was made in Japan and the quality was without peer, especially the Nikkors.
I agree 100%. build quality on the plastic lenses today
look nice but they are very cheap in feel. love the feel of my rock solid metal 85 1.8d. with metal filter thread!
the g looks impressive till you hold and realize theres nothing there. cheap hood and slow AF. I held the 58mm 1.4 and I laughed my a** off wondering how they have the balls to ask $1700 for a plastic lens with plastic filter thread. they
look nice but feel very cheap when you hold it. not like it used to be. now they make them big looking but doesnt even have weight to it. im sure everyhting inside is plastic. some say "yea, but its high quality plastic" what like tupperware? no thank you. ill take metal lenses any day over plastic.
This is depressing! They better make a come back because I can't afford to start all over with another brand! Besides I'm so stuck on Nikon that I'd likely be hanging in there till my gear was worthless, before giving up on them and heading for a different brand! Lol
nikons not going out of business. money wise theyre ok. but its a downward spiral and only now are they starting to really realize it. they are very stubborn in their ways. all about honor to them. when things get bad then they change. I said it my posts that this quarterly revenue, it will be bad.
Time for a big sale! Seriously, they launch new stuff at ridiculous prices which offends the folks waiting to buy it. Then they reduce the price when those who would have bought it on day one have spent their cash on something else. They need to learn how to strike while the iron is hot, thats how you grab market share.
yes, ridiculous prices. in this crappy economy they need to realize they cant charge they crazy prices. $3000 price jump for the new 400 2.8. old generation zooms vs new ones are not in proportion to anything and are way too high. the 14-24/17-35/24-70/70-200VR2/80-400 compared to the older lenses they sold for is just ridiculous. sure we expect inflation and a little price jump, but crap some of them are ripoff prices.
Using myself as an example, I was eagerly awaiting the V3. It is announced at about $1200 , it's cute, but only $800 cute. I could buy it, but now in my annoyance, I've decided on something else.
when I saw the price tag, I clearly thought, nikon is clueless. they have no clue. $1200 for the v3, theyre quite stupid. like the stripped off features, DF at $3000. a lot were hyped up to get it. the second they saw the greedy $3000 price tag, people were pissed. you take an extra $100 for the 50 1.8 because it has a metal ring? youre theives nikon. theyre rude for asking so much. the only thing about the camera is the low light performance. but removed video and crap AF negates that. I even think the look works against it, but thats my opinion only.
