Nikon to enter mirrorless DSLR camera market (says Digitimes)

And here we are with the next Nikon mirrorless rumor. This time from Digitmes:

“Japan-based camera brand Nikon expects its new mirrorless DSLR-similar camera will help expand its market share in the interchangeable-lens camera (ILC) market in the Asia Pacific to 40% in 2011 and 50% in 2012, according to the company.

As Sony and Samsung Electronics have both recently entered the DSLR-similar camera market, Nikon pointed out that the DSLR-similar cameras should not cause damage toward the sales of traditional DSLR, instead the model has helped increase consumer acceptance of ILC.

According to figures from GfK, Taiwan’s ILC shipments in 2009 were about 108,000 units and the forecasted volume for 2010 has already increased from only 140,000 units in early 2010 to about 160,000 units currently, a significant growth.

In the first half of 2010, affected by tight supply, Nikon’s share in Taiwan’s ILC market once dropped to only 25%, but as the company is working on resolving the issue, the company is expected to grab 35% of Taiwan’s ILC market by the end of 2010.“

In a DC.watch interview Mr. Goto (Nikon) said that “If the lens system and body are not smaller in total, the whole meaning of reducing size is lost. If it was up to him to make such a thing, a mount smaller than the F would be chosen. It’s a new genre of camera…something that no maker is currently making. It is not targeted towards people who use cameras in their work, some will look at this product as a really fun to use camera.“

Is the Nikon Mirrorless “Q” camera ready to be unveiled?

Sounds like Nikon will present their mirrorless “Q” camera at Photokina (next week). I don’t know if they will release a real camera or just present the new system with sme prototype. Anyway, there is a long Nikon mirrorless patent history that leads us to believe the sensor will be smaller than APS-C. I guess on Monday we will know more!

Does Leica have „one more thing“ for photokina?

Leica Camera Forum has been invited for a „Leica Design Preview“ at Photokina. Leicarumors believes we will see a Leica EVIL system. The administrator from LeicaCameraForum will be there on Monday evening (photokina’s eve) to report live from Cologne and says “Don’t make any other appointments for Monday evening (8 pm CEST), ut some beer in the fridge and follow the Leica Forum twitter feed!“

Mirrorlessrumors doesn’t believe that there will be a new Leica mirrorless system. ANyway it is better to not miss their Twitter Live report :)

Mr. Hamada from Hoya-Pentax says about mirrorless: “we would like to release products with an individuality that shines through”

Mr. Hamada from Hoya-Pentax provided an interesting market overview:

“•    Inventory is still accumulating in Europe. Production and shipments are higher than the momentum of consumption. This year, SLR cameras will grow by 15-20% over the previous year in terms of production, shipment and sales but inventories of compact cameras seem to be building all over Europe. We are keeping careful watch on the situation.
•    In Japan, in particular, the mirrorless camera market is growing and is positioned to capture approximately 30% of the SLR market.
•    Overseas, mirrorless cameras are selling to some degree in the United Kingdom. Manufacturers may not have got around to sales yet but one way or other the mirrorless cameras are starting to catch on, and all companies will be focusing on sales from now. I think they will have about 30% of the global SLR market within two years or so.
•    We have looked carefully at the situation but since sales are not good even when we release the same products as other companies, we would like to release products with an individuality that shines through.”

Oh yeah Pentax is coming soon with their mirrorless camera!