Shifting Tides

[Eye-level]

Found this link on another website. Seems as if the high end amateur and prosumer cameras have the biggest profit margins for the Japanese. When you think about it over the past couple of years this is what we have been seeing released by Nikon with maybe the lone exception of the 3200.

Also on this thread that I robbed this link from someone was talking about Apple and they said right before Jobs died he was telling everyone the next frontier to conquer was the camera. Can you imagine an Apple DSLR?

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[stmv]

well,, that is not too surpising, at the low end SLRs, the price is so low, that it is hard to think that there is much profit. Looks like both Nikon and Canon are trying to raise profits with the latest release of the D600 and the similar Canon model.

 

[Eye-level]

I'm really surprised there hasn't been more comment on this thread.

Think about how the DSLR consumer market (and the pro market for that matter) is so over saturated. Since the mid 2000's manufacturers have released model after model after model each and every year it seems. The marketing convinces us that the camera we bought last year is inferior to the camera they put out this year and the camera we bought 4 years ago that used to just blow us away with it's performance is now a total POS. It is almost like here in the last year or so they have finally hit the point of diminishing returns or the point of no returns. So in order to make the coin they are having to put "pro" stuff into the consumer models eg FX. The D600 is an example of this. I know there are many who will disagree with me on this one but to me the D600 is a high dollar consumer level camera but that is really another thread.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a DSLR that will upload snaps to the internet through the camera here in the next few years. They've run out of gimmicks and features and they will have to come up with more soon or they will tick off their shareholders. It's all good but it is also insane if you ask me...the throw away society in full force. One of these days this is going to bite us in the @ss!

 

[AC016]

lol, well, they should use crApple marketing strategy. Make a camera, for example D600. Every couple of years, add something to it that should have been added last time around and then call it revolutionary. At the same time, change the model number: 601, 602, 603, 604s, 605... and withhold logical upgrades. All the while luring people into beleiving they are buying a revoluitonary product; but in reality, it is the same product they bought when it first came out, just very slightly better. Nikon has it all wrong, tsk tsk.

 

[Carolina Photo Guy]

lol, well, they should use crApple marketing strategy. Make a camera, for example D600. Every couple of years, add something to it that should have been added last time around and then call it revolutionary. At the same time, change the model number: 601, 602, 603, 604s, 605... and withhold logical upgrades. All the while luring people into beleiving they are buying a revoluitonary product; but in reality, it is the same product they bought when it first came out, just very slightly better. Nikon has it all wrong, tsk tsk.

The venom that you display for Apple is palpable. Did Steve Jobs put out a hit on your grandma or something?

Your disdain for Apple's marketing is also out of place.

Apple is now worth well over 650 BILLION dollars, so I am guessing they are doing SOMETHING right.

I wish to hell that I had bought their stock twenty years ago. I would be a multimillionaire now.

What have YOU done that has changed the world even remotely like Apple?

I am not being a smartass, I just have a hard time understanding unreasoning hatred.

It doesn't make any sense.

 

[AC016]

The venom that you display for Apple is palpable. Did Steve Jobs put out a hit on your grandma or something?

Your disdain for Apple's marketing is also out of place.

Apple is now worth well over 650 BILLION dollars, so I am guessing they are doing SOMETHING right.

I wish to hell that I had bought their stock twenty years ago. I would be a multimillionaire now.

What have YOU done that has changed the world even remotely like Apple?

I am not being a smartass, I just have a hard time understanding unreasoning hatred.

It doesn't make any sense.

Nope, i don't hate Apple at all. I had an Apple computer for the longest time and like using their products. I think the way they market their products is genius, albeit far to hyped up. They have a nack for making people beleive their products are revolutionary and are needed no matter what. How much money they have made is really irrelevant and is of course in direct correlation to their marketing. I am not saying that their marketing strategy is wrong in anyway - i think you missed the sarcasm. What i say is not far from the truth, that is how they market their products, that is how they make their money. The arguement is not wether it is wrong or right or if we should hate them or not. The point is, some people don't like to realise these things when they are right in front of their eyes. What have i done to change the world? I am bringing up my daughter in the best way i can, so that she knows right from wrong, will be accepting of all people, will keep an open mind, will challenge herself and will just put her best foot forward. That is changing the world by bringing up an exemplary citizen of this world. Kind of beats an iPhone, doesn't it Pete.

 

[Carolina Photo Guy]

What have i done to change the world? I am bringing up my daughter in the best way i can, so that she knows right from wrong, will be accepting of all people, will keep an open mind, will challenge herself and will just put her best foot forward. That is changing the world by bringing up an exemplary citizen of this world. Kind of beats an iPhone, doesn't it Pete.

ABSOLUTELY!!! I applaud anyone that has their head screwed on right. I guess what got me was the denigration with no good reason.

The crApple designation just seemed out of place in what I took to be a reasonably well thought piece. Kinda like a zipper being down on a Brooks Brothers suit.

It was just glaringly out of place.

No recrimination intended.

 

[Dave_W]

Apple computers were the best in the world once. But in the past 6 or so years now both Apple and PC boxes use the same Intel chips there's really little to no differences between the two other than the name. Don't get me wrong, branding is a great way to make money and Apple as a company is making cash hand over fist but it's the Apple label that people are now buying.

And don't think I'm some kind of Apple hater, far from it. Chemists and most other scientists were huge Mac fans because ChemDraw only ran on Macs. We stuck with them from the mid 80's and they were the best money could buy. But now that I can buy a PC from Dell that will do the same thing as the highest end Mac for 1/3 of the price, it just doesn't make sense to pay the premium any more....IMO.

 

[Eye-level]

Something along the lines of the computer chips is going on with our cameras too. Camera design and manufacturing is being "out sourced" if you will. Shutters are made by companies like Copal who have a monopoly on shutters. They are no longer made in house. Huge electronics companies like Sony are making sensors for everyone including Nikon. Not many sensors are made in house now. The camera makers provide the specs and the sensor folks make the sensor. Aspherical lenses used to be hand ground and super expensive. Now they are built using automation and there is a lot of tolerance because in board camera processors can take up the slack and "fix" whatever distortions or aberrations exist.

As for Apple I for one would like to see a dedicated Apple camera. They have done it before. The Apple QuickTake 100 was released in 1994 made for Apple by Kodak (recognize the trend?) It was a digital camera with one meg of storage...amongst the first digital cameras!