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Nicht viel Neues, aber trotzdem ganz interresant zu lesen, wie ich finde.




The Way It Is
Grabbing a Piece Of the DSLR Pie
by Herbert Keppler

Now that the post-Orlando and pre-Photokina dust has settled a bit, let’s examine the fascinating forthcoming scramble among the new gaggle of digital SLR wannabes and their chances of grabbing a profitable piece of the Canon-Nikon pie. With Nikon-Canon presently gobbling up 90 percent of DSLR sales, according to industry figures, fighting over the remaining 10 percent wedge available to the Panasonic-Olympus, Pentax-Samsung bedfellows plus Sony is not an economically sound policy.
Pentax Reaches for a Slice of the Pie
During an interview with the Japanese weekly trade news, Photo Express, reported by International PEN, Kou Torigoe, head of Pentax’s digital imaging division, admitted that the 120,000 Pentax DSLRs sold worldwide last year and even the predicted double that planned for this year will not result in a profitable bottom line. But he expects it to increase to a million units in the near future.

Where will such sales come from? A vast continuing increase in the total number of DSLRs to be sold. It calls for enlarging the pie rather than squabbling over the present 10 percent piece. Torigoe said last year’s total DSLR sales were 3.79 million, which is expected to climb this year to 4.67 million. He thinks in time this number will reach to between 7 and 8 million, of which Pentax, he hopes, will garner a million sales or about 14 percent of the total market. Pentax will concentrate on entry-level and middle-level DSLRs and will bring costs down by sharing common parts and development with Samsung. Torigoe sees vast opportunities in being able to turn point and shooters into DSLR enthusiasts through operational simplicity, colorful graphics on the LCD panel, automatically chosen subject exposure and ISO speed—all at a moderate price.

Three years ago while I was visiting Pentax in Japan, Torigoe asked me what I would think about an updated Pentax K-1000, which had been the best-selling, longest lived 35mm film SLR of all time, ideal for beginners and photography students, but beloved by anyone who owned one. However, instead of the all-mechanical film K-1000, this would be an all-electronic DSLR. "Do it," I urged. Torigoe smiled and said, "Let this be a little secret between us." And I kept it so—until I read Torigoe’s interview in PEN where he was quoted as saying, "The K-1000 we are introducing this summer has been designed to exploit our assets of lenses, including the K mount and 42mm screw mount."

Did Photo Express or PEN make a mental slip, meaning the K100D and perhaps even the simpler K110D without the shake-reduction system? Or did Torigoe mention the K-1000 deliberately, or by error?

Soothsaying Sony Maneuvers
From this slight puzzler we turn to a Sony puzzler. At the Alpha DSLR-A100 launch in Japan, Sony predicted a turnover of a half million cameras per year or a market share of 10 percent, according to Photo Trade News. Was the spokesman referring to just the A100 or other Alphas in addition not yet released? If you’ve read Sony press releases you may have noticed that they have referred to the cameras in the plural, not the singular. Can you possibly imagine Sony not having a top-of-the-line Alpha to compete with the blockbuster expected from Canon at Photokina?

Before we get into predictions about that Sony, let’s set matters straight about this present Alpha A100. Basically, it is the Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D done up proper. The Maxxum 5D was described by Konica Minolta as being "an affordable digital SLR aimed more at the beginner’s market." Principal gripe about the Maxxum 5D was the paltry 6 megapixel sensor. The Alpha A100 has 10 megapixels. Its doubling up of the Maxxum 5 LCD monitor’s pixels provides clearer, sharper images. Other admirable advances over the Maxxum 5 are the internal anti-dust vibration system and coating, the inclusion of selectable eye-start AF, more powerful battery and direct manual focus. But in most other specifications, the Maxxum 5D and Sony A100 are the same, including polycarbonate bodies and mirror prism viewfinders. Will Sony’s recently renamed Super SteadyShot system on the Alpha A100 provide greater steadiness than Konica Minolta’s anti-shake system? Objective tests are difficult to construct due to the variable unsteadiness of the camera holders.

What could Konica Minolta and Sony engineers be concocting for Photokina? Konica Minolta’s top of the DSLR line was the Maxxum 7D. When in Japan last December, I inquired of KM’s president about the sensational new KM DSLR being developed at KM’s Sakai Technical Center. He smiled and said, "If you can be back at Sakai next May we might be able to show it to you." With KM relinquishing its DSLR photo business, the visit was not to happen, but I fully believe that the camera exists and with proper Sony additions should find its way to Photokina.

What could such a Sony DSLR have? Here is a combination of my imaginings and (as a hard-core Maxxum DLSR user) wishes. Starting with the Konica Maxxum 7D as a proven base, how about a 14 megapixel CMOS sensor in the Canon-Nikon can you top this race? Add in a magnesium alloy body, glass prism finder and a 3-inch, 330,000-pixel LCD monitor.

Konica Minolta had championed wireless off camera flash. Why not let Sony go all wireless? Add in an infrared release for both behind and in front of the camera (the former to substitute for wireless or wired cable releases. But Sony also will need a provision for distant electronic release. Most other pro cameras have it, but Konica Minolta never furnished it.

A glass prism viewfinder instead of a mirror prism system would allow Sony enough room around the edges to split off the Super SteadyShot indicator bars from the data bar beneath the picture area and place bars showing shake clearly at the right of the picture area. And when Sony gets around to explaining how to use the bars, I hope it doesn’t adopt the obtuse info contained in the Maxxum 7D instruction manual. Instead, Sony might rewrite Peter Burian’s instructions that appear on page 144 of his Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D Magic Lantern Guide.

And if Sony really wants to put on the dog, as they say, they should ask some of the ex-Konica Minolta engineers to scare up a sample of that rare bird, a Minolta Maxxum 9 titanium-clad camera. I’ll bet Sony could do something with that!

This gets us back to where we started, namely how can the outsiders prevent Canon and Nikon from glomming on to 90 percent of the upsurge in DSLR camera sales—if indeed they do happen as Torigoe predicts? They have one major sales advantage over Nikon and Canon. Image stabilization is built into the Sony, Pentax and Samsung camera bodies. Canon and Nikon are too deep into building stabilization for each individual lens to back out now. Photo dealers can show customers that body stabilization is an obvious plus for every new DSLR convert.

So run with it, all you tigers. But don’t forget, without smart, snappy advertising, you’ll be just as sunk as Konica Minolta.


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Grüsse
Marco

ZITAt (damn ed @ 2006-09-09, 20:16) So run with it, all you tigers. But don’t forget, without smart, snappy advertising, you’ll be just as sunk as Konica Minolta.[/quote]
Zumindest was das Marketing angeht, scheint Sony deutlich cleverer und aktiver zu sein als KoMi. Ich habe in den letzten Wochen soviel alpha 100 Werbung gesehen wie sonst von Minolta in den ganzen letzten Jahren nicht für deren Produkte.
Ansonsten: nettes "Geplauder" über Träume, Schäume. Fantasien. So schön es sich anhört - gerade als KoMi-Benutzer haben wir in den letzten Monaten und Jahren doch einige Enttäuschungen wegstecken müssen. Daher gibts nur eins: Fakten, Fakten, Fakten. Und an die Fotografen denken. Kurz: Es ist ja nicht mehr lang hin bis zur Photokina. Bis dahin gebe ich nix auf Gerede, sondern nur noch auf Tatsachen.

ZITATEs ist ja nicht mehr lang hin bis zur Photokina. Bis dahin gebe ich nix auf Gerede, sondern nur noch auf Tatsachen.[/quote]

...so isses, aber ich würd's euch gönnen /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

Grüße
Erhard

P. S.
Anscheinend habe ich wieder zu viel weggelöscht, das Zitat stammt von Ingo...

ZITAt ("damn ed @ 9. 9. 2006, 20.16 h) "And when Sony gets around to explaining how to use the bars, I hope it doesn't adopt the obtuse info contained in the Maxxum 7D instruction manual. Instead, Sony might rewrite Peter Burian's instructions that appear on page 144 of his Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D Magic Lantern Guide."[/quote]
Hmm ... hat jemand eine Ahnung, was Herbert Keppler damit meint? Hat jemand dieses Buch von Peter Burian?

-- Olaf

ZITAt (01af @ 2006-09-10, 9:03) Hmm ... hat jemand eine Ahnung, was Herbert Keppler damit meint? Hat jemand dieses Buch von Peter Burian?[/quote]
Ich habe das Buch nicht und kenne insofern auch nicht das, was dort steht. Aber ich entsinne mich an diverse Gelegenheiten, wo hier im Forum von Dynax 7D-Neulingen die Frage aufgeworfen wurde, was diese Anzeige eigentlich bedeutet - offenbar ist das im Handbuch nur unzureichend oder mißverständlich beschrieben. Vermutlich hat der Autor des obigen Buches einfach nur eine treffendere Beschreibung gefunden. Mehr interpretiere ich jedenfalls nicht in Kepplers Anmerkung hinein (obwohl ich beim Lesen auch erstmal stutzen mußte, daß er gerade auf sowas abhebt - als ob es nichts Wichtigeres gäbe, was Sony machen müßte).

Viele Grüße,

Matthias

Keine Ahnung, was damit gemeint ist... Die Beschreibung im Dynax 7D-Handbuch auf Seite 32 ist eigentlich klar und deutlich.