Thu, January 12th, 2006 by Miles
Yesterday Nikon put out a press release stating it's intent to scale back all of its film products to concentrate on digital.
"Nikon Corporation has made the decision to focus management resources on digital cameras in place of film cameras."
Even though they are continuing to manufacture the F6 and FM10 I can't see that lasting very long without a firm commitment to film. Nikon's had great success in the digital market, especially with compact cameras, and that seems to be spelling the end of one of film's greatest proponents.
Will Nikon's existing film users be switching to other systems following this announcement and the uncertainty they must certainly be feeling? Nikons digital SLRs will continue I assume but perhaps future lenses will be digital only.
January 12th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Every cloud has a silver lining:
All those expensive Nikon cameras we sold our souls to own, that we thought to ourselves: its ok to buy this F3, because when I am down on my luck I can sell it and it'll kind of be an investment as well as a camera, will start to acrue value once more.. maybe.
Actually, this is probably just wishfull thinking.
And I love my FE but I hate my F3.
January 12th, 2006 at 11:44 am
I bought a Nikon F50 off ebay for 75. & I love it. I think Nikon should keep a firm commitment to Film & Digital. I love both, my Nikon F50 & D50. So this is a bit of bad news.
January 12th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
boo hiss! although i don't own a nikon it is sad to hear, especially since nikon kits are so well respected and used by photags of all levels. quite a shock really. i think i need a moment of silence and to go shoot some more film today.
January 12th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
This is disheartening but not entirely unexpected. Digital is becoming the bottom line for many large camera companies like Nikon and Canon. Glad to see that the FM10 will still be in production. It's a great manual camera from what I've seen.
As for me, I'm still hanging on to my original Nikon F and my N90s. And thank buddha for the used market. Film isn't going away any time soon but will become more of a niche market as time goes on. For me, as long as I can get medium format film for my toys, I'm one happy camper...
January 12th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Being a film guy, I'm really sad to see anyone cutting back on film and equipment production. I can understand the business behind it, but it just doesn't feel right.
January 12th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Yes, its hard to know what to think. Does it matter if digital wins out? Great pictures are great pictures whether they are taken on film or digital. But I must admit to feeling a pang of regret. I love my leica M6 and I love my little rolleis.
Film has a special quality distinct from digital. A softer depth of field. It's more unreal. And somehow the lack of instantaneity adds it's own flavour too. Also there is something to be said for "less is more". Of course, you can get a shot if you shoot 16,000 pictures but in that fuzziness of thought and action what WAS the vital moment? And what about the anticipation - the wait for your film to be processed and the hit and miss factor of that process. that is exciting. It's in the hands of the god's in a way. And, finally, if you have film in your camera - you can take a picture. With digital, without a charge on your battery you can't and I have been many places with nary a plug or battery within miles.
With all that said. I will continue to use digital on a day-to-day basis, as film, for me, is too expensive. I'm not a pro so I can't pass on the costs. And the market will be lead by the consumer, not the prosumer, as photography has become a pastime of the people. I wonder if Marx would approve.
Digital will win out.
January 12th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Maybe they're just trying to reduce the distance that Canon made with them on digital market.
I don't think film is dead for NIkon, but I understand if they're focusing on digital.
January 12th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
I've been using the canon 300d for the last year (my first DSLR) and have thought about going Nikon, they make a solid digital camera so I don't blame them for wanting to focus (pardon the pun) in that arena.
January 12th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
I think Nikon will be out of the film camera business within a few years. They're only continuing production of two models and I can't imagine they will last long, Nikon won't be putting the same kind of development into film bodies and sales will surely drop off to next to nothing in the next few years. Nikon aren't going to put money into developing these two film bodies and I doubt they'll even upgrade the F6 with future developments related to their digital SLRs, like improved AF and metering, since that would require new body designs and production for the F6.
It does make sense to focus on the digital market, Canon lead Nikon in both fields (sales wise) and if Nikon wants to re-gear and compete digital is the obvious way to go. I think I'm right in saying that Nikon's sensors are made and developed by Sony, so by being able to focus on development of digital camera functions, rather than lens (which I understand are being made by Carl Zeiss) or film/sensor technology, they're cutting down on the amount of r&d they'll have to do.
January 13th, 2006 at 6:10 am
Probably a smart business decision. Digital IS here and will be the future. I enjoy the new D50 and the ease of viewing myshots without paying to be developed. Nikon has always been a quality product and I'm sure they will continue to be.
January 13th, 2006 at 7:02 am
time to pick up an fm3a and a fast 50.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Why oh why did I switch to Nikon 4 years ago after using Canon for 25 years?
Someone bop me on the head.
That's it. I'm selling my Nikons. Traitors!!!
January 14th, 2006 at 9:34 am
I use film and digital and have twelve nikon camers.
I only started with digital past two years,and stop useing film.
I got the digital to see if i would like it and it was the 995 nikon
now i use the 8800 nikon.i can shot all day come home download and fix in my pc the photo if needed and print it,and have kodad
do the 20x30 right from my pc.
Both are great but digital is the way to go.
January 15th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Nikon is the camera i use and no other. It came up with the best ways to used all it lens on just about every model.the worlds press people use it.that the people who shot photos about the world. It is the best made camera on the market to. Second to none. From 35 film to digital cameras nikon is rated the best in its field.
January 15th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
I'm not a Nikon guy, and my next "real camera" purchase will probably be a Canon DSLR (20D, though a 5D would rock), unless I can find a local, affordable medium format SLR system in decent shape. But this is sad. Nikon seems to make great, if prohibitively expensive, stuff.
All this talk about how awesome digital is, though... anybody got a DSLR that'll do clean 30-240 minute exposures? My current DSLR gives up about 3 minutes into a shot with batteries fresh out of the pack in sub-freezing temperatures (I spent most of last night hovering over my Seagull GC-104 after I realized that 1 minute+ exposures on my current DSLR were too much of a drain on the batteries - if I had hiked a mile in and had only packed the digital, I would not have been amused). How a digital camera that doesn't "bleed" light into adjacent color wells on the sensor? I've over-exposed night shots of buildings where the contents of the windows were completely blown-out and lost, but the edges of the windows were very crisply defined.
I've had fun with my DSLR, it's come in handy, and I've been able to do a lot more shooting that I would have been able to without it, but digital isn't the answer to everything... some things you really can still only do with film. I don't think the fact that I suck at those things should necessarily mean it's okay to accept the limitations of a lesser format, simply because that's where the money is for the camera makers.
But maybe I'm just bitter - I spent the first 30 years of my life having no idea I'd enjoy photography as much as I do, and it looks like I've just about missed the best part.
January 16th, 2006 at 5:11 am
I just setup a site the world of butterflys. All the photos are shot with a nikon 8800 camera, the camera is one of the best digital out there. It got 10 x zoom and all the lens are in the camera. The saleman ask why not buy the d70 slr boby and use your lens that you have. The answer is i got with nikon on the phone and ask which would give be the best for a 20x30 enlarge photo and the answer was the 8800 nikon.
1-it has 8 pix. To d70 with 6 pix.
2-it has vr which is vibration reduction
3-the battery will shot in fine more than 256 pictures
i do not work or get paid by nikon but you have a love of photography. That i have you will let people know how great it is.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
I felt nausea reading that. I don't think it's Nikon that's contracting so much as the world of film. I'm going to hate switching to digital. (Then again, I say that because I don't like change. Or getting rid of perfectly good cameras.)
January 17th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
My Nikon FE-2 just got stolen, and I have been shopping for a new camera, Nikon of course. I had just about settled on the FM3a, even though its expensive as hell. I considered the D-50 but the lens that comes with it supposed to suck. No multiple exposures. I cannot believe a digital camera can take the same quality photos I have been able to achieve with this FE2. But I have to consider that now all the processers will let their equipment get poor, choice of film will be nill in the future, people who process will be rookies. Bottom line is I loved film and the clunky sound of a MD-12 motor drive that said NIKON everytime it clicked, but I HAVE to go digital. The 6.1 Mega D-50 I buy today will be an antiquated relic in 3 years, and the fool that pays thousands for the high end 12 Nikon today will feel ripped off then as well. This is big, folks, bigger than any other announcment I've heard in a long while. You can't go back.
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