Toyo Keizai Online talks about the deep Nikon camera business issues

Tokyo Keizai Online wrote an article about the Difficulty for Nikon to fall into the red and suffer from “camera slump”. Here is the google translated text from the summary written by Digicameinfo:

  • The prestigious Nikon is in dire straits. The operating loss for the April-September period of 2020 announced by the company on November 5 fell to a deficit of 46.6 billion yen. The main reason is that the performance of the main camera business is deteriorating.
  • In the video business, which includes cameras, sales for this term are expected to decrease by about 40% from the previous term to 140 billion yen and an operating deficit of 45 billion yen.
  • Toshikazu Umatate, president of Nikon, emphasized the stance of carrying out structural reforms centered on cameras, saying, “We want to create a muscular structure in the video business that can generate profits even with sales of 150 billion yen or less.” The production of the main body of the digital single-lens reflex camera handled at the factory in Miyagi prefecture will be consolidated at the Thai factory, and the sales companies will be integrated. In addition, the number of overseas employees is planned to be reduced by 2,000 by March 2022, which is about 20% of the total overseas.
  • It’s not just the external environment of shrinking the camera market that plagues Nikon. The internal factor of delay in the mirrorless camera also echoes. Nikon is afraid of conflict with single-lens reflex cameras, and finally made a full-scale entry into mirrorless cameras in 2018. The difference is clear, with Sony’s 1.65 million mirrorless production in 2019 and Nikon’s only 280,000.
  • Nikon plans to launch three new mirrorless models at once in the second half of this year, focusing on professional and high-end products, but there are still concerns about whether Nikon can catch up with the delay. Within the company, the SLR orientation that has swept the world is deep-rooted, and it is essential to shift development costs and sales promotion costs to mirrorless cameras in the future.

Possible Sony A7IV specs: New sensor, 3.69 milion dot EVF, 4k60p, $2499

SonyAlphaRumors posted the first bunch of rumored Sony A7IV specs:

  • Announcement in Q2 2021 at earliest
  • A74 will have a new sensor with faster readout and will not recycle the 24 MP one. My source told me it will be in the 30-32 MP region
  • The EVF will have 3,69 Mdots and not 5,76 Mdots
  • Most probably the LCD will also be on the cheap side but the image quality and AF will be top notch
  • The video will certainly be 4K 60p and will feature the new menus.
  • The price will be in the $2499 region

 

A big good news for the Micro Four Thirds system: Voigtlander will soon announce the worlds fastest production lens: 29mｍ f/0.8!

Nokishita reports that Voigtlander-Cosina will soon announce the new SUPER NOKTON 29ｍｍ f/0.8 Aspherical Micro Four Thirds lens!This should make it the currently world’s fastest photography lens in production. It beats the very low quality Ibelux f/0,85. You can find some faster used lenses on ebay but those are mainly designed for X-ray or other industrial use.

Today is a good day for MFT :)

What’s next with Micro Four Thirds? New Sony MFT sensor, new 150-400mm PRO lens and new Panasonic high end cameras

The Micro Four Thirds future is still very uncertain. The big question is how willing JIP is to actually INVEST some money. The best guess for now is that they will start to CUT costs as much as it gets. And Panasonic may “downgrades” the system in favor of the APS-C L-mount cameras and lenses that they might announce in 2021.

In the meantime let’s check out the latest MFT rumors:
Sony has one newly developed MFT sensor ready for early 2021 (43rumors).
Will the Olympus 150-400mm PRO lens be announced around November 20 at the “Wild Bird Photo” event? (43rumors).
Panasonic will definitely focus on the High End MFT cameras while low end will not be priority (43rumors).

Oh yes: Sony wants to have their fair share in the Drone world too!

DJI pretty much dominates the Drone business. But now Sony announced they want to have their say in this segment too. They announced they want to launch their first “Airpeak” branded industrial drones in 2021. The first focus will be on high end drones for industrial and professional cinematographers. If successfull they might make some more “affordable” consumer drones too.

Here is the Press text:

Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation (“Sony”) today announced that it has launched a new project for drones in the field of AI robotics.

The recent proliferation of drones has contributed greatly to the delivery of previously unseen images, as well as to workflow efficiency and energy savings in the industrial sector. Sony has assigned the “Airpeak” brand to reflect its aspiration to contribute to the further evolvement and the creation of the unprecedented value through its imaging and sensing technology as well as 3R technologies (Reality, Real-time and Remote) in the drone area.

Airpeak will support the creativity of video creators to the fullest extent possible, aiming to contribute to the further development of the entertainment industry as well as to improved efficiency and savings in various industries. Airpeak will also promote this project to enable drone-use with the highest level of safety and reliability in the environments where this has been difficult in the past.

Sony will continue to post project-related information and obtain feedback from drone users through co-creation activities to prepare for the launch of the project in the spring of 2021.
The company soon plans to begin seeking for the partners in the professional space who can collaborate on the project.

Information regarding this project will be regularly updated at the following site

Airpeak Website: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/airpeak/?j-short=airpeak

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I already spotted in the past a Sony drone patent you can see here: