Nikon is not only profitable again, but they have shown, that they are having a fantastic future ahead of them. Do you remember the doom and gloom by Youtubers like Tony Trump? Pushing the agenda of an impending bankruptcy, and how Nikon is behind everybody. Lo and behold, it's 2021, and suddenly Nikon is the company that is creating the most excitement in the camera world. Earlier this year they have announced the development of the flagship Z9, a short ime later they have launched 2 amazing macro lenses (a 50mm and 105mm), as well as the development of 2 compact lenses (28mm and 40mm), as well as an 18-140mm DX lens (see my whole list). When we thought this was everything, they shocked the industry with a retro inspired Nikon Z fc! Not only is this camera an amazing omage to the Nikon FM2, it's a big improvement over the Z50 with which it shares the sensor. The Z fc is such a departure to how Nikon used to think. With the Df they produced a nice camera, but it was uninteresting to 99% of Nikon photographers due to being stripped of the video function and costing around 2800 USD. While it had a much better sensor than the Z fc, it just wasn't a good value proposition for most people. That was in 2013, and it all changed in 2021.
Not only did Nikon include the video function this time, they even improved in comparison to the Z50. They basically embraced vloggers, by also adding a flip-out screen, but they also offered a vintage styled camera for all Nikon DSLR shooters who have not yet switched to Z. This is a great secondary fun camera for people who are still very loyal to their D850s and D780s, and there are still many of them out there. It seems that Nikon finally changed direction, and is being bold instead of traditional. It's interesting, that they have produced a better product than Fuji in this segment, so Fuji must be really worried right now. There were some reports of Fuji being in financial trouble and laying off people, so the Z fc could not have come out at the worse time for them. It seems that Nikon is reinvigorated, and we can expect an expansion of the Z fc line, perhaps with another full frame body, and a more lower end offering. If the Z fc keeps being sold out, Nikon will surely go deeper into this market and Fuji's market share is probably going to decrease further. It's a great time to be a Nikon shooter. While the company takes its time as compared to some others, they don't launch half baked products. They have a quality control that is far superior of that of Sony and Fuji. All they need to do now is improve their marketing, because they already have some of the best products on the market.
I think this camera will be very important for Nikon as it will attract new customers to the Z system.
ReplyDeleteSeveral brands pay influencers to perform fake reviews and product comparisons. For me the key battle is to convince some smartphone users to buy a real camera. Nikon Z FC can do this job in a better way than any camera proposed by Sony or Canon.
Even 0.5% of smartphone user-base would represent a huge increase of sales for any camera manufacturer.
I get your point, you want to increase the pie itself instead of Nikon getting a piece of the ever shrinking pie. I think every brand would like to see more people buying SLR styled cameras, but one of the issues is that they're producing too many models and fight too much on price, so they kind of devalue a product with a high added value. Fuji now goes down to high-end FF levels with their GFX, FF is going toward 1000 USD into DX levels, it's really going crazy. Good for us who love cameras, but I'm not sure attractive to the average consumer to buy a really good camera. They're killing their margins for market share.
DeleteI agree with you, this price war will be bad for many players.
ReplyDeleteNikon has been able to have an 18.4% operating profit on it's imaging products business during Q1. This is a good figure considering that they didn't issue any new products during Q1.
I think full frame and the hype surrounding Z FC are the solutions to protect margins.