Nikon to focus on medium and high end DSLR's.

Came upon this article talking about a press release in Japan. The long and short of it is that Nikon plans on focusing on the medium and high end DSLR's, not introducing so many models, and a proper assumption would be I guess thinning out the offerings at the entry level.

I'm curious on what this will look like. Like many things, people tend to have a loyalty to what they first cut their teeth on unless it was an overwhelmingly bad decision. I see this playing out one of two ways. This will be the death of Nikon because there will be too few jumping into the Nikon starter pool and even fewer that move on to the medium/high end stuff. Or, Nikon makes the few entry level so monetarily cheap that it is irresistible and then there is the potential for future medium/high end customers.

What do you nikonites think?

https://petapixel.com/2017/02/25/nikon-speaks-will-focus-medium-high-end-dslrs-lenses/

My fear is that this may be a shortsighted decision. While it is true that the profit might be on the medium and high end gear, Nikon will have a very hard time getting beginners who start with Canon, Sony or what ever brand gear switching to Nikon if they decide to upgrade to better gear. One of the primary reason that Apple Computer is doing as well as they are is that they flood the schools with cheap or free apple gear and then when the kids want their own PC, guess which brand they are going to tend to buy.

Very true on the Apple equipment. The Apples are a pain to use, but Apple has brilliantly entangled their roots into the schools and it has an influence. So unless Nikon does the same with their entry level cameras, dirt cheap, we are in agreement that it could be a bad decision.

So what's the next pro-sumer DSLR with an Exspeed 6 processor and the sensor from the Sony A7R II? That's what I'm waiting for. For now, there is a Nikon Df on Craigslist at $1,200, but it's only one stop better in low light than my D800. (The Df has even less of an edge if you look at DxoMark.)

hmmmm... Does Hasselblad have an entry level camera to grow their new users into?

FredKingston said:

hmmmm... Does Hasselblad have an entry level camera to grow their new users into?

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Very true, but I don't think Nikon is trying to be that exclusive.

FredKingston said:

hmmmm... Does Hasselblad have an entry level camera to grow their new users into?

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No but someone moving into Hasselblad does not expect to move their accumulated lenses over either.

I think that Nikon was shooting themselves in the foot, by offering soooo many entry level DSLRs and upgrading them so frequently.
3 years ago when I started with the D3100, you could still get the D3000. Since then we have the D3200-3300 and 3400.
same with the D5xxx series. 5000-5100-5200-5300-5400-and now the D5500.

This is just entry level DSLRs I'm talking about, not mentioning all the Coolpix series and all those different mirrorless offerings.

Nikon would do better IMO to cut out the D3xxx series, and just offer the D5xxx as an entry DSLR, and then the 7xxx as an upgrade to people who want to upgrade but are not willing or able to afford the higher end DX D500.

I have no idea how somebody picks out an entry level camera with so many options available. I think that people do stick with what they know, so removing entry level cameras would probably be a mistake. Then people are using phones so I don't know.

Its my feeling we will see them make more of the mirrorless market, if so they have a lot of difficult decisions to make not least the good old lens mount,the existing one could work with mirrorless but could also hinder future development.

If you look at the 1 series it shows what they are capable of, improving on this and scaling it up to DX/FX would put them in a strong position,ime not one of the DSLRs are dead brigade, in fact ime the first to admit if my circumstances were different i would still be using a DSLR.
The mirrorless is here and it looks like its here to stay and i dont feel Nikon can afford to ignore it,i think the canceling of the DL could be because they wanted to take their mirrorless in a different direction,if they sold a DL to a customer thats the end of the sales because every thing you want is on the camera.

It could be hard work selling a first camera to someone that has a phone like this,it could be an advantage though if they do up buy they could want something from the higher levels.

Sony Xperia XZ Announced - Features 5 Axis IS, Predictive AF and 960FPS @ 720p « NEW CAMERA

I didn't realize just how good some cell phone cameras are until I got my Samsung. I don't know how well the camera in my particular phone stacks up against other cell phone cameras but I was surprised to learn it will shoot in RAW as well as .JPG for one thing; outputting a very respectable 4032 x 3024 pixel, ~24MB (.dng) file. Left to its own devices (meaning full Auto) it outputs a very respectable .JPG image.

In "Pro Mode" on this phone I can adjust shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance. The camera has insanely fast focusing, focus-tracking and face recognition With the built-in editing application I can adjust brightness, hue, saturation and contrast. I can selectively "Brighten Faces", just like using fill-flash. I can rotate and crop and I can crop to specific ratios with a single touch. It's not exactly a "beast" in low-light situations but you know what... It's no slouch either. And if I want to run one of its raw files through post-processing and remove that noise it cleans up really, really well.

With this much power in a device that is already fully integrated into my life (it's my "watch" calendar, to-do list, etc.) and pretty much lives in my pocket, I can see why the entry-level DSLR market may be in peril.

Horoscope Fish said:

I didn't realize just how good some cell phone cameras are until I got my Samsung.

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There was a video I watched of someone comparing the D300 to the current IPhone. Across the board the IPhone held its own and in the area of dark shadow noise it did better. The tester acknowledges the D300 is older quality, but the camera is still used by a lot of people and its pixel count was close to the IPhone. Of course people can argue about the informal testing, but the fact is today's camera phones are impressive in what they can pull off thus making it that much harder to make the argument for most people that they need a dslr. Add to it that most photography is shared digitally anyway.

Difficult to call. Do Nikon make too many entry models? dunno, maybe. Its difficult for many companys to keep up with the pace of technology and maintain healthy sales. Like everything piece of technological equipment, your latest newly purchased camera is out of date by the time you exit the shop door, and theres huge market pressure on to release the next improved model. Its a bit like the difficulty Samsung and Apple are having in their mobile phones sector

Went whale watching yesterday. I must have seen at least 100 people. I saw one other dslr and one point and shoot all others, cell phones.

Cell phones ARE the entry level cameras. When that won't do, a high level dslr or mirrorless comes next.

jay_dean said:

Difficult to call. Do Nikon make too many entry models? dunno, maybe. Its difficult for many companys to keep up with the pace of technology and maintain healthy sales. Like everything piece of technological equipment, your latest newly purchased camera is out of date by the time you exit the shop door, and theres huge market pressure on to release the next improved model. Its a bit like the difficulty Samsung and Apple are having in their mobile phones sector

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Nikon and other industry groups regularly release world-wide sales figures by line... entry level camera sales, for all makers, not just Nikon, have been steadily declining for several years now. Cell phones have done two things. They're immediate, and their price point is low... Cell phones have replaced the stand-alone camera... Digital has replaced film. It is what it is.

The biggest distinction at this point is, you ain't slappin' a 600Mm lens on a cell phone, nor will your speedlite do much for your phone-camera at this point...

FredKingston said:

entry level camera sales, for all makers, not just Nikon, have been steadily declining for several years now.

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It would be interesting to see how the sales are doing for just the medium and high end dslr's. That may be why they are wanting to focus in just that area.

chris@sabor said:

Cell phones ARE the entry level cameras.

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Exactly.

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Horoscope Fish said:

I didn't realize just how good some cell phone cameras are until I got my Samsung.

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My older Samsung Note 5 has a great camera. It has the pro mode you described. Also, using the "Selective Focus" mode, you can make portraits with bokeh. Essentially, this is the same as the new Portrait mode that Apple has been heavily advertising for their new phones. In this mode, the Samsung basically makes two shots... near focus and far focus, then after the shot you can select either one or both to be in focus, and the computer blurs the other. Really good feature.

ETA: I said "older", but it's only 18 months old. They brought out the newer Note 7, but we all know how that ended up. This is still the top-of-the-line in the Galaxy Note series.

I have a friend who uses a D7000 and 300f4 for his bird photography, but for nearly everything else he is using his new iphone. In his words " it is easier to use, fits in my pocket, and takes great shots" I cant argue, because some of his beach panoramas are stunning.