Nikon's PR Problem . . . Is It Real Or Just An Exaggeration

This was taken from Youtube and is Matt's (Art of the Image) recap of a piece done by Thom Hogan:

Thom Hogan's 8 Reasons Why Nikon has a BAD PR PROBLEM - YouTube

haha. I'd say the 600, and their lack of doing much about it.

What would we do without American YouTube reporters/presenters?

"...fuelling the bad pr snowball. Adding more snow to the ball..." !!!

Thanks for posting, but it did feel like an ad for Canon. If they sent me free cameras and lenses I might switch, you go where your bread is being buttered.

He mentioned they were already a sponsor, so you have to keep your sponsors.

I have no idea who this guy is but I only got through half of it when it just sounded to me like a whiny ass whine. "It's a great camera but some people......."

"Some people" always dislike something. Give them a Ferrari and.........."It's a great car but some people complained about it's lack of cup holders".

A little over a year ago I was pretty unfamiliar with the market. I do like to read up a good bit before purchasing something like this. I read very little in the way of complaints. Since then I have seen the problems with the D600 and understand why those owners are upset but not in the full frame market I never read those issues. I saw nothing in the way of a PR issue that swayed me from a Nikon.

I had mentioned before that I had used an Olympus OM-10 for years and sort of looked at Olympus first but seeing that they really didn't have what I wanted I looked at the Canon and Nikon. I picked the Nikon and haven't regretted it the more I learn.

Nikon has made some big blunders over the past 10 years, like trying to lock Adobe and all other third-party software developers from working with ,NEF files. This occurred with the D2x and cameras of that vintage, they encrypted portions of the .NEF file and hid behind the Millennium Copyright Act. Nikon backed down, but never admitted it was anything but misunderstood intentions trying to make for a better product. the D600, they have a problem - but have not owned up to it.

There is the mention that some people were not happy there was not a DIRECT replacement for the D700 and that the D6xx or D800 didn't do it. Can a D700 enlighten me as to what it is about the D700 that makes it special enough the other two don't fill the void. Honest question, not being a smart arse.

Moabman,

I've got a D700, but no real experience with the D600 or D800 beyond handling them in a store. IMHO,The D800 comes much closer to being the replacement for the D700 than the D600. Why? The size of the D600. I don't like how the D600 feels and some of its controls are too small for my hands. The D800 is a larger body and feels better to me. If Nikon had called the D800 the D710 instead, would that have made it the replacement? I don't know first hand, but the people I know with the D800 love them. I do know two shooters that had D600s, and they both got rid of them because of the issues others had with the camera. That's right; they had no problems with their copies, but the D600's reputation lead them to unload them. Silly!!

There's no doubt that Nikon has a PR problem. The magnitude of its problem appears to be due largely to its response to its customers. What Nikon needs to due is improve the level and quality of service to its customers, and fast. They apparently could take a lesson from Canon on that.

WM

The way I viewed this guy's video is that he is just jumping into the band wagon. He doesn't even have user experience about the issues that he is trying to discuss except his D5200.

Maybe it's just me but I really could care less if. Nikon is doing well or not. They have employees that are hired to address that.

Just worry about what concerns you if your camera is affected. However, just like Thom, Scott Kelby, and just about everyone who is trying to get more web hits for their video including this guy has to come up with something of interest in order to attract viewers or they don't make $. That is the nature of the beast. Plain and simple.


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Lot's of people do an awful lot of talking without really knowing what they are talking about.........case in point, Ken Rockwell.

Whiskeyman said:

I've got a D700, but no real experience with the D600 or D800 beyond handling them in a store. IMHO,The D800 comes much closer to being the replacement for the D700 than the D600. Why? The size of the D600. I don't like how the D600 feels and some of its controls are too small for my hands. The D800 is a larger body and feels better to me.

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Replace D700 with D300 and D600/D800 with D7xxx and the story is the same. . .

Opinions are like... well, you know the saying - everyone has one. Thom Hogan, knowledgeable, "guru" or otherwise, is a bit of a whiner, so when he needs to hunt for something to say it's going to be stuff like this. Until I see people practically giving their gear away because they can switch from Nikon fast enough, I could care less about PR problems, real perceived or otherwise.

Sure the D600 had issues, and I believe there were a disproportionate amount of owners here who had them, or at least thought they did, and not one of us, no matter how loud we might have complained, switched or even seriously threatened to. The D610 came out and no one has bitched once except to say, "It's just covering up for the D600". Yeah, so what? It's a great freakin' camera, and they even lowered the price $200. Some D600 owners still have an issue to deal with, but it would seem Nikon is quietly resolving them behind the scenes.

Look, BP had a PR issue, and people are still buying their gas. Let folks like Hogan make all the noise they need to make themselves happy. It got the job done because people are talking about it. But it's just noise on top of noise.

BackdoorHippie said:

... I could care less about PR problems, real perceived or otherwise. ... Let folks like Hogan make all the noise they need to make themselves happy. It got the job done because people are talking about it. But it's just noise on top of noise.

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Could not possibly agree more.

.....

I guess I do care- I want Nikon to always be the company that made Japan a world leader in the photographic business after World War II, and to be the company that made me proud to use a Nikon. My wife had "Nikon" staring her in the face for so long that when I asked her what names did she like for our daughter she responded "Nicole". "Nikki" for a nickname.

Just to be clear, I care about the health of the company - I just don't care what one guy with an opinion and an audience thinks about it, regardless of what the immediate, short-lived repercussions might be.

Let's look at it another way with regard to Thom Hogan. In this age where you make money not by how good your information is but by how many views, links and click-thrus you get, he's really no different than folks like Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Rachel Maddow, you name it. It doesn't matter that you have your facts right, you're gig isn't about sharing information it's about provoking a response and building an audience of like-minded provocateurs and hard-headed detractors. They don't care if the reaction is good or bad, they just care that they got a reaction.

If you take the time to backtrack through Hogan's litany of posts (I don't necessarily recommend it), you'll find that it's pretty much a matter of piling on, day after day, with rants and praises about the same old same old. This industry changes faster than it should, probably, but nowhere near fast enough to support a 24x7 blogosphere that wants to hear the latest on the latest. There are plenty of sites doing rumors, so he needs more. And I've already given him more thought than he's worth ... to me at least.

BackdoorHippie said:

Let's look at it another way with regard to Thom Hogan. In this age where you make money not by how good your information is but by how many views, links and click-thrus you get, he's really no different than folks like Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Rachel Maddow, you name it. It doesn't matter that you have your facts right, you're gig isn't about sharing information it's about provoking a response and building an audience of like-minded provocateurs and hard-headed detractors. They don't care if the reaction is good or bad, they just care that they got a reaction.

If you take the time to backtrack through Hogan's litany of posts (I don't necessarily recommend it), you'll find that it's pretty much a matter of piling on, day after day, with rants and praises about the same old same old. This industry changes faster than it should, probably, but nowhere near fast enough to support a 24x7 blogosphere that wants to hear the latest on the latest. There are plenty of sites doing rumors, so he needs more. And I've already given him more thought than he's worth ... to me at least.

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I thought as I started reading that you were going to mention Rockwell, but fortunately you controlled that urge!!!

Geoffc said:

I thought as I started reading that you were going to mention Rockwell, but fortunately you controlled that urge!!!

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Remember, I mentioned people that start out with their facts right.

Brian said:

I guess I do care- I want Nikon to always be the company that made Japan a world leader in the photographic business after World War II, and to be the company that made me proud to use a Nikon. My wife had "Nikon" staring her in the face for so long that when I asked her what names did she like for our daughter she responded "Nicole". "Nikki" for a nickname.

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BackdoorHippie said:

Just to be clear, I care about the health of the company - I just don't care what one guy with an opinion and an audience thinks about it, regardless of what the immediate, short-lived repercussions might be.

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That is also my concern, since I have a stake in the company's health in all of their equipment that I already own. I want that equipment to be supportable for a long time.

BackdoorHippie said:

Remember, I mentioned people that start out with their facts right.

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Oooohhhhh!!!! That left a mark!! :beaten::beaten:

That & all else being said, you either know, or will learn, that you can't believe everything you read & see on the internet. I see Hogan, Rockwell, et all, as a source of data on items, not as a be-all/end-all cornucopia of information. I may get some good stuff from them, but I deem it necessary to filter it all. There are no "Joe Fridays" on the internet, so I don't treat it as such.

WM