Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]To tag along B.D. comments, there is now a race to the bottom for DSLR's. Both Nikon and Pentax are heavily marketing a kit lensed 6mp dSLR at $599. They are doing this as the digital P&S market is actually shrinking, less units sold in 2005 than in 2004. What is going up in sales volume are camera phones. Olympus, by offering the continuous viewing is differentiating themselves from all the other DSLR's out there. Also, they hope to have the familiar use patterns for someone moving up from a P&S. In this market, size, ease of use, price, then picture quality are what matters. The Olympus reps just about told me that an E-2 was on the way with a 10mp sensor. When is the issue. As to surviving in the market, with a two lens outfit at $899 Olympus moved up to 11% of the dSLR market for December. The Nikon and Canon reps vowed that this would be a one time event. Look for a pretty attractive price war in the near future. Who will be left standing is probably a foregone conclusion: Canon, Pentax(very low cost structure), and then either Olympus, Panasonic, or Sony. My bet is that the Sony offering will be still born as they do not know how to sell to the specialist and their offering will be months late and no bettter than the Nikon offering. I am not betting on Nikon as they are hostage to Sony at this point for CMOS sensors and all the D200 sensors are going into the Sony offering. (Rumor) Don don.dory@gmail.com On 2/26/06, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@comcast.net> wrote: > > IF the various folks involved with the 4/3 system can increase the pixel > counts and reduce the noise - and the new Oly330/Panasonic whatever > suggests > just maybe they can, 4/3 will indeed prove to be viable. If they can't - > it > won't. Period. > > > On 2/26/06 7:03 PM, "Colin J" <smcj35@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Steven A. Melnyk" wrote: > > <snip> > >> In short, I am not convinced of the long term > >> validity of the 4/3 > >> standard. I am not sure that Leica does itself > >> any benefit by > >> aligning itself with this standard. Past > >> history tells us that when > >> there are several standards, only one or two > >> will emerge as the > >> dominate standard. In a world dominated by > >> Canon and Nikon, I am not > >> sure of the long term viability of this > >> standard. I may be wrong but > >> history would argue against the 4/3 standard. > > > > > > About 80 years ago, when the "standard" was 4x5 > > inches or larger, along came an innovator who > > proposed a much smaller format, using a film that > > was a mere 35mm wide. > > > > In a world dominated by larger formats, a great > > many people were not sure of the long term > > viability of this new 35mm standard. They also > > probably thought that history would argue against > > 35mm. > > > > Like Steven, I am a "4/3 skeptic", to the extent > > that I sold my Olympus E-1 and three lenses and > > bought a Canon EOS 5D and some EF glass. 12.8 MP > > and low noise was too hard to resist, and 5 MP > > and a lot of noise was too hard to keep. > > > > However, the lesson of history is surely that it > > is too soon to write the epitaph of the 4/3 > > standard just yet. We should wait and see. 4/3 > > may yet be "the new 35mm", and it is good to see > > that Leica will be involved. > > > > Colin > > > > > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > > NEW Yahoo! Cars - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used > cars > > online! http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >