Kitakyushu toll way renovation project, snapped with Loxia 25mm f2.4 lens.
I had to wait about 12 minutes in front of this mall to confirm a couple of annoying selfie-obsessed ladies leave here, they never moved in front of me, shooting so many selfies for about 12minutes or a bit longer. They were so vain and obsessed with selfies......
There are too many self-obsessed, paranoid ladies here, many of these self-obsessed tiny ladies hide their faces whenever I use a REAL camera with a lens bigger than my old FE35mm f2.8 fake Zeiss in a busy street of this aged city.
Some of them actually scream or shout something nasty at my face.....one insulted me as a stalker or following them without their permission. Please.......I do not like women at all, please leave me alone.
Whenever I use a wide lens shooting or snapping the highway construction field from about 30 feet away, they think their faces are captured close with every single wrinkle on their faces.
It is funny that they automatically assume they are captured, or I am actually trying to shoot their faces closeup whenever I pull out my camera from my work bag here(I do not even carry any long lens, though). But the fact is I do not want to shoot them because I do not want to waste my memory card space for any crazy person, but they stay in my way and just never move out of my way taking their selfies(so many of them at every place).
They are so self-obsessed and capturing themselves every single block or so , with their cheap phone camera , every where I go there are so many of these tiny annoying ladies that think themselves so desirable and every man around them want them so much... It is hard to avoid them these days, and that is the reason why street photography is really unpopular here in Japan now....I mean it is too risky for any man or boy to do it here unless you are an obvious foreigner with blond hair or blue eyes(or both).
Why those women automatically think every man or boy wants them is beyond me.
Do they not know there are kind of people called "Gay" and we do not want them at all. Now most of times I do wear a rainbow necklace on me, but they still do not understand I do not like any woman(sexually).......
So please please leave us alone and let us document the toll way and new station construction project for 2020.
The near future state of the ILC market 16(updated 4):
It's really time to throw away the notion smartphones are killing the ILC market altogether, because phones are not killing the ILC market. The real problem of this very rapidly contracting industry is total lack of innovation of any kind......Sure Sony fanboys say other wise, but it is not the reality, far from it.
They think Sony is doing much better than the rest, but it is plain wrong just Sony's own financial reports show us. Sony has lost just as much as the rest and may even be worse as they have invested more into the ILC business than any one else.
Also, it is time for us to realize that the current form of so-called mirrorless is not a savior of this industry.....it is just extremely identical to D-SLR, technically it is just DSLR without a mirror and the needed optical path for the OVF. Though the majority of forums and the industry itself see it like some sort of second coming of savior of the camera world, that is the problem.
Sony fanboys never realize that in actual use DSLRs and Mirrorless are just identical, technologically nothing new in the mirrorless. If it is so new and exciting, then some one give it a more interesting name than the crappy term,' mirrorless'.
Many of us know it is a DSLR without the slapping mirror , that is why it is called MIRRORLESS.
I used to be an avid fan of mirrorless, and I still prefer mirrorless as it is tiny bit smaller and I prefer EVF to OVF for my personal kind of works. But I also know it is nothing really new or gama-changing at all, it is basically the same tech without the optical finder. Thus it should be cheaper, and the fanboys and Sony once told us that mirrorless prices getting much more affordable with time and it will always be cheaper than the same class D-SLR cameras.....
Is it happening? No. Except the first A7R vs the D810, the mirrorless is always more expensive than a similarly performing D-SLR. And the price gap seems to be becoming bigger than ever. The Nikon D850 costs only 3200 US, while the Z7 costs a bit more than 3400 US. The Sony A7R4 costs about 3499US or 352000yen, even the R3 costs more than 2500US. The same class D-SLRs costed only like 2600US , The D810 when it was announced in 2014 it was just 2600 US. The D800 was even a bit cheaper. The D700 and the 5DMK2 were around 2300 when they were announced in 2009. So, with advent of FF mirroress cameras, FF price is actually increasing not decreasing or becoming more affordable to the mass market as Sony fanboys always tell us in many camera forums.
Sony has always told us they are all ears, always listening to their core user base and those experts on YouTube ( not experts but their shills actually)and written review community at every event or photo show.
When DPR interviewed Sony and asked Kenji Tanaka of Sony how they would react to the CN FF mirrorless camera systems at last CP+ show in this spring, Mr.Tanaka told DPR and IR and many others that they do not care about the competitors but their core users and what the experts say about their cameras...
At the time I was honestly impressed by what he said , but now I truly wonder who and what have they been listening to and was it really improving any weakness or weaknesses of Sony camera system over the last few years.
Is listening to the old forum extreme gearheads or self-proclaimed experts like Tony Northrup or Jason Janier actually helping manufactures sell more cameras?
Definitely not, and listening to these kind of people actually kill once a great market leader in any industry. Remember those self-proclaimed experts talk about anything that gets more trrafic to their sites......that's all their interest.
IMHO, designing cameras for 1990's or even 80's minded old people gathering at many silly camera fora , with 90's or even 80's like UI and menu system is actually killing this industry.
These so-called experts do not even know the real state of the camera market , they only know the incomplete monthly sells data that CIPA has been publishing for years, and every body in this industry knows it is not the real sells data, just shipment numbers. But these experts still use that incomplete shipment numbers to analyze the market.
That's why those experts think FF is doing so well, when FF is actually selling extremely poorly in reality.
Basically those experts are analyzing the market with a very incomplete set of data, thus they think smartphones have been killing ILC cameras when the only one camera market segment that is kind of slowly growing is the One sensor compact market. This means that Smartphones are not actual killer of the ILC industry.
If the smart phone was/is the main cause of the rapid market contraction , then the One would have been hit hardest , but it is the only one camera category kind of growing right now.
This alone shows how clueless these experts really are, and even misleading.
Many of those old time forum denizens claim Nikon UI is the best and Canon R , Panasonic , new Zeiss ZX1 ,etc are the worst, but for me or any one younger than my generation, the Panasonic or Canon(especially the R) UI is much more logical and user friendly than that of Nikon or Sony (with a low quality useless touch screen UI), still most of us have to agree the new Zeiss ZX1 is the best with respect to UI and I think all major camera manufactures should copy that. After all, the ZX1 is a game changer in regards to camera UI and actual user experience.
However, the problem for Zeiss is the ZX1 wasn't released in the right time , now it is no longer a hot camera and I do think it has already missed the chance to devour the market. Still the concept itself was amazing and I think all manufactures should try to copy it and release it with a bit bigger LCD screen like 6 inch or even 8 inch one without any physical buttons of the 80's style.
Because there are many young but rich artistic students who actually want a serious camera but without the current 80's style camera UI, the camera makers should really try designing totally new 21st century camera UI.
Honestly, there are many young iPhone shooters who are completely growing out of that tiny sensor camera and asking for a better camera with a big sensor and many of those young kids are serious, smart and rich, they may not have much experience in this thing, but know what works for future better than FM forum guys or Nikon fanboys at PhotoRumors, or any of those annoying rumor sites such as Nikon rumors, Mirroless Rumors, SAR, CR, Fuji Rumors etc.....you name it...basically, those sites have no clue about the rich and artistic younger people or more specifically what they want in a hardcore camera system. Since those forum guys and rumor sites are too narrow minded and think the young people would never buy anything more serious camera than Sony RX100 toy, they tend to dismiss or ignore the rich young students market altogether. This is a very arrogant view and plain wrong. Maybe in the USA , it is correct, but here in Japan, in Hong Kong, in Thailand ,etc., it is not the case.
Problem with the FM, PR, SAR, CR, NR and Luminous Landscape forum consensus is that they tend to think US equal the entire world and they only know about the rich conservative American view of USA.
Sure US is a huge powerful nation if not the most powerful one, but there are also many other huge growing economies such as Brazil, China , Thailand, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Russia, Mexico,etc.......
Also it might be important to point this out that those camera rumor sites are just re-using or stealing what Nokishita or some Asian rumor sites reported here in Japan or in China. There are no really original rumors from them at all. Remember the A7R4? They could not even guess it coming. I wrote it coming a few months before it was announced in this July as I saw it in Japanese article here.
There are many young art students whose parents are really rich and that group is growing bigger every year in most part of Asia and Europe....when I was in Spain in last week , I was really shocked to see that, there were many many people with a big camera in most of their universities. I saw similar in Korea too, I met many young enthusiastic students there.
Even locally here in Fukuoka and in Kyoto, we have many RICH (some are super rich) art students customers who want a real camera and occasionally ask us which camera system to buy into, we usually suggest Sony, or Fuji G mount or Hasselbald X1D for them but they will usually give up on these clunky cameras in a matter of a few months, or sometimes in a few days(literally)..... They tell us ," these are too clunky and kind of awkward to use with a useless laggy touch screen, so it is impossible for us to operate it", or "we don't need so many odd dials and buttons on a camera, why not just use more sophisticated phone like UI with a bigger LCD? "
I hundred percent agree, we do not need any physical buttons on our cameras , just use virtual keyboard and buttons......I mean why do they have to make it like a film camera from 80's?
Even those guys like Samsung, who is a huge player in Smartphone, or Sony, who is a huge player in console still make their cameras like film cameras from 80's that my grandpa had when I was a little boy.
So I suggested some of them to try the EOS R or Panasonic S1R and most of them actually liked it. I think if they like the iPhone like touch UI on a camera, they may prefer the Canon R or the Panasonic S1 to the clunky touch UI of Sony or Nikon because these have a bit better touch screen and more modern clean UI. But, for these students, as most of these guys are artists and interested in fine art photography, they may need a higher resolution Hasselblad X1D or at least the Panasonic S1R. I would love to recommend the Sony A7R4 to them but not many of them like the Sony due to its poor quality laggy touch screen.
Also, the A7R4 sensor is kind of disappointing, it is noisier than the R3 sensor at any ISO even at the DxO normalized 8mp resolution level.
No review sites talk about these minor but important camera qualities such as the quality of touch screen or screen visibility in harsh sunny days, but these are actually the most important qualities that make people actually buy or invest some big money into a system.......Sony usually ignores that kind of really important usability related things, and I think it will cost them a big amount of money in the near future.....
I have rented Panasonic S1R a few times and tested it in a mountain area with our students and we like the way Panasonic worked better than the way Sony or Nikon worked in a very cold mountain, the UI is very impressive(still far from great, though), by far the most logical one in the FF mirrorless market now. At least younger people prefer it to any of Nikon , Sony or Canon.
Those young students need a high quality touch screen before anything, then maybe a high resolution sensor and a great video-hybrid-ability. I really wonder why none of these cameras get a 6 inch or bigger screen wihtout many useless buttons and dials beside the screen.....which we no longer really need. All new FF cameras and MF cameras need a( at least) 6inch screen with real smart phone like smooth touch U.I.
Yeah I think this is the key to sell those high end mirrorless cameras to the rich students market. The real problem of the camera companies is actually listening to likes of Northrup, Lanier and other YouTube(old men) and forum experts who are extremely narrow minded, kind of fixated on the idea of the old 90's style UI is the only acceptable UI menu system for any serious camera, and that is actually making their(the camera manufactures') understanding of this modern era U.I. for any sort of digital device worse and worse.
Honestly, no one younger than 45y/o really needs many physical dials and buttons on their cameras.......these modern camera UI and ergonomics do not have to be similar to that of film cameras, instead it should be similar or identical to what we have been used to using such as iPhone 11 Pro, Google Pixel Phone 4XL, or even one gen older iPhone XS.
Now most of our high tech devices have no physical buttons or just one or two of these, and everything else is virtual......and I think cameras should be designed identically...
I really do not get why these companies never think it.....especially Sony, who also produces smartphones and PlayStation consoles.
Why they do not get this simple thing right is beyond me , and why not they try harder inventing real 21st century camera UI and call it smart camera like they did with their Bravia TV.
Those YouTube and review experts always criticize cameras do not have many dials and physical buttons and worship for old awkward 80's style Nikon user interface system, but actually it is the thing actually annoying those young artistic people, in some case it is even scaring or annoying the young students away from their systems.
Many people in many forums who think everything they come up with and suggest are better than what the camera companies actually do always insist listening to these forum experts is the key for them to actually succeed in this business or any tech business, but in reality most of those companies who are listening to analysts or user base are actually suffering more than their rivals.....not only in camera or phone business, but in almost all high tech digital device markets.
Actually I think and not only I but many think listening to these old forum men the fastest way to kill their camera or even phone business, as they have no clue what is actually selling and not. They simply have no access to the REAL sells data that we have access to. They only can see sites like BCN , CIPA and Thom Hogan and those are an incomplete set of data.
If any of camera makers actually seriously listens to a guy like Tony Northrup or Nikon Rumors, SAR,etc. , they must keep the oldest of their AF camera interface from the late 80's and reuse it for all their new serious cameras over and over. And I think most of these makers actually trying to listen to them seriously, as a result, all the current cameras have similar 80's style camera UI.
Many of us younger than 45 do not want too many physical buttons or actual levers or like that on our cameras. That is not cool and not very sophisticated.
Virtual software buttons are better than physical ones, and now these cameras are the only ones not using the smartphone like UI in the hitech device market, as I already pointed this out many many times.
Remember when Blackberry was the king in smartphone, they were the one actually listening to those so-called experts and what would happen to them after that? We all know that having carefully listened to those forums actually killed them.
When Nokia was the king with their "connecting people" by-line slogan, could anyone imagine them asking a customer what "perfection" was from a phone would improve their business?
Well, my university team (not me) did exactly that research for another unnamed mobile phone manufacturer. I can absolutely assure you that what the customers were demanding was nothing resembling a modern smartphone. Not even within a bull's roar. In fact, those phone companies that actually followed the customer demands of the time are either tiny players (or ) , or not with us today in the mobile phone business.
The customers at that time in late 2007 - 2009 era were demanding more physical buttons and actual keyboard on their phones. Apple and Google ignored it and listened to the Young people instead.......now they are dominating the market. Many say Samsung is the leader but they are just a part of Android group and Google is the founder of it.
So I think listening to the customers or the self-proclaimed experts does not help any of these camera manufactures, since these older more dominant user group or experts do not know what most of young buyers who will sustain the industry want from their serious dedicated cameras.
Even worse, those old forum guys just presume every young pople has already lost interest in any form of camera except smartphones or One inch sensored compact cameras. Simply wrong, and this really arrogant attitude clearly shows us how clueless these forum experts really are.
They have no idea why these tiny RX100 , RX10 and some Canon equivalents selling so well, why those Fuji X100's sell so well, and who are the people buying these. The Ricoh GR3 seems to have been selling very well too.
If what those needs or wants of the forum experts are what actually the market demand , then Canon should have been suffering much harder than any one else from lack of sells, they are the most conservative of all(according to these self-proclaimed experts) and seem to be doing all just opposite to what the FM, LL and SAR forum experts and other YouTubers suggest ......and Nikon and Sony seem to be the ones actually listening now(but selectively) are suffering more than Canon or Fuji.
The reality is , like it or not, Canon has always been the best seller and the biggest manufacture of the ILC since about 1996........and they are the financially most successful camera company in the world as well. This very fact should be more respected.....and the other companies should learn something from Canon's incredible success in this business for an incredibly long period.
So listening to the forum experts and fake camera authority figures online such as Northrup, Rabar, Steve Huff ,etc.are the fastest way to kill any one's camera business, they should avoid those arrogant self-proclaimed camera experts , instead they should start listening to the rich young art students who will sustain the ILC industry in the next few decades(more like the next couple of decades in reality , though).
The old guys do not know what younger people (than they are )actually want from dedicated cameras, so they just push selling their idea of what camera makers should do to save the industry from collapsing.
They say better DR is the key, is it? No. If a camera with the best DR was the key to make the best selling camera, then the D800 would have done much better than it did in its time.
The A7RMK2 and R3 should have been outselling the A7MK3.....the Z7 should be selling better than the Z6 or the R.
Then what about 10 frame per second shooting ability with amazing AF? No. It only appeals to sports guys and bird /animal shooters. Most of us do not need that and do not want to pay for it.
Then what about 4k video, it is important but not as important as the experts think it is. If that is the most important feature, then why is an old used D810 still selling well in the used camera market? And why is the best selling mirroless EOS M50 does not even have decent 4k video recording capability? And why isn't the Panasonic S1 or S1H selling better than any crappy Sony A7X cameras?
Personally , I want 240p @ FHD more than 8k or even 4k, I think many of casual video shooters agree with me on this one. And most of stills camera users are casual video shooters , at least not really professional video guys......those really demanding pro video guys buy serious real video cameras from Arri,BlackMagic, Panavision, Red, Sony, Panasonic, Canon ,etc...
These experts and forum guys are just too narrow minded, so often fail to see many people do not share the same needs and wants list they have, and condescendingly push selling their very anachronistic idea of how ILC cameras should be designed or how ILC cameras should be. They seem never realize everybody has a different set of needs and many young people do not like these very intimidating looking ILC cameras with many buttons and dials which those forum guys love.
People like Hogan always repeat the same things over and over again " Nikon UI is the best , the D850 is over all the best ILC ever", etc., but they fail to see why Canon outsells their beloved hardcore Nikon every round.............they may think most of Canon buyers are unserious or naive , or stupid, but all of them? Obviously no, and there is some reason why they choose Canon over Nikon or Sony that are supposed to be more professional or more sophisticated hardcore camera gear(at least in those forum experts' view).....I think what this shows us is that these experts know nothing about what they preach and what they call innovations are not real innovations that many actual camera buyers actually need.
If what they say innovation is really important such as IBIS, Eye-detect AF, FF 4k , or at least more important than most of basic but very important camera features such as improved touch screen UI, better sealing, better finish and paint that does not easily come off like the Sony and Nikon mirrorless cameras(such as A7R3, A7R4, Z6 and Z7), a great high resolution EVF, real RAW(not the fake RAW like the Sony one with terrible sta-reater detail destroying RAW NR), Sony and Nikon should have already taken over the most of sells from Canon, Fuji and Panasonic, but that does not seem to happen any time soon. Sony is still the distant second and losing share every quarter and Nikon has dropped to no3 with very poor lens sells. Now Sigma easily beats Nikon in lens sells.
I think Nikon's main issue is they actually LISTEN to the people call themselves reviewers or experts like Luminous-Landscape guy, Hogan(IMHO, Hogan is a lot better than other real crappy snake oil salesmen kind of camera celebrities , though), Northrup...Huff, etc. Like I said , if any of the major camera companies tries to invent a truly new 21st century camera UI for iPhone generation people , these so-called experts just trash it or slam the idea down , so they quit trying anything really new. Remember Nikon themselves used to try it with Android powered cameras. But all experts just trashed it. Yeah it was still a primitive immature product, but the idea was great --if they tried to keep refining the Android based camera UI to the point it really gets matured like the one in the Zeiss ZX1 or Leica SL, then it may have done much better.
Hogan recently said the D850 still has the best U.I. and menu system in any ILC, so you can tell what his idea of the best camera U.I. is: It should obviously be like ' the more dials and buttons the better it is' in the 80's type of camera U.I. Northrup and others also share similar idea of proper camera UI or ergonomics. That is why they love their D850 so much, but the real sells data shows many people disagree with them.
These self-proclaimed experts always prefer traditional camera UI inherited from the film era, but many people do not share the same idea belief, many of us actually want touch AF rather than so-called proper AF-Joystick that they love. They are so anachronistic and way out of the touch to the reality.
Their idea of ideal ergonomics seems to be the middle sized FF body with many many physical dials and buttons, with an old clunky and uselessly laggy touch screen. And many old Nikon lovers and Sony diehards follow them and trust what they preach(view) is always right, so how Nikon or Sony can succeed if they actually try to listen to these experts who do know very little about the camera market(not much more than any forum guy).
As I already pointed it out these self-proclaimed experts have no proper data to analyze the market properly, so they tend to blame every negative data from CIPA on smartphones. At this point keep saying Samrtphones killed camera market is kind of coping out......... Phones are not the real main cause of the rapid market contraction , the market saturation, with lack of innovation is. They should face it.
I mean all new cameras are just iterative updates , nothing in camera industry is new.
The A7R4 is just a bit higher resolution version of the R3 with a bit more excessive shadow read noise at base ISO and a bit more heat noise at high ISO.......it still has all the issues the R3 its predecessor had.
The R3 was the same camera as the R2, if you would not use it for sports or 4k video.
So for me and for many rational people, the R2 is still the best value camera......so how can Sony sell the new camera to many of us who do not need the 10 frame per second or a bit more resolution of the R4 at the huge cost of losing about 2300 US in transaction?
The Z7 is basically the D850 without OVF and one SD card slot.....so if ones not interested in the EVF or the new line of Nikon's new generation lenses, then it is much safer to stay with their D850.
In the diehard gearheads forums , it seems like many jumping ship or moving into the Z system , but in reality almost none of these guys with a couple of D850 are trading their perfectly fine D850's for the Z7 with the unknown future mount , that is, I have to say , a rational, logical sound decision at this point.
Why do any of those D850 users venture into an unknown mount system with very uncertain future now, especially the D850 is actually as sophisticated and trusted as Thom says it is?
It is too risky....no one knows the near future of the Z mount. It may fail just like the Nikon One system....
In case of Nikon(and in case of Canon and Panasonic too),the majority of their users seem to be just waiting the best time to move to the Z from the F, to the RF from the EF.
But the real problem for them is the right time may never come as the new mirrorless systems may just die or aborted prematurely.
Then is Sony a much safer system than those CNPL?
Actually not, and their position may even be worse than the rest.
I think Nikon Canon and Panasonic Leica team all still have some time to get it better more competitive, they can fix all the issues they have now with their future mirrorless bodies, then they can shift these awaiting guys eventually.
But, in case of Sony, their issue seems to be much more serious, they have nothing new to sell, sure they have been announcing many NEW cameras but none of these seem as convincing upgrades to their long term users(like me) with their third generation A7X cameras(or to me the A7R2 is just fine, in fact, I prefer the A7R2 with a new 61 mp sensor to the A7R4).
They are 100 percent relying on their super fast user exhausting updating cycles to sell their cameras, but many of us-long time Sony users have already figured out that unless we are sports shooters or hardcore video shooters (or you are the kind you must have the best spec-sheet available at any given time just to brag about it in stupid camera fora) we will never benefit from constantly upgrading our Sony kit.
In the last 6 years, as they were the only one serious player in the FF mirrorless market, they have literally owned the market, but now they have been consistently losing their share with being constantly squeezed from many different angles. Fuji with the cheap MF system is becoming a huge threat to them, many of those seriously interested in high resolution high DR sensor on a tight budget choose the Fuji GFX100 over the A7R4(a much better sensor).
Those guys more interested in real hardcore video go Panasonic, or even Nikon(surprising but the Z6 is a better camera than any Sony E mount camera for video now).
And if they have a big fat wallet they might get a serious Sony pro video camera like the F65, or a similar Panasonic or a Red.
Those who want a really high quality tiny FF system go Sigma now, as Sony dumped that line of cameras in favor of the current super fast high speed shooting cameras.
Many Sony fanboys especially those at FM, SAR and MR dismiss Canon , but they are also a big threat to Sony since they have a better more logical sound mount system with potentially a better lens lineup. Currently, Canon is no2 in FF mirrorless market, but they are already the no1 ILC maker by a large margin...... It is an incredible feat, if you seriously consider how seriously Canon have worked on this to get where they are at now.
So Sony should be really worried about it , and should realize there is no way they will gain their market share from now on, just lose from here and on. They just try very hard to protect what they have now as much /long as they can. That is all what they can do now and on.
A good impressive spec sheet is important, but it is not everything, there are many more also very important things to a great camera system that many of Sony bodies really lack.
So as other brand camera systems become more and more matured with time, Sony will lose more and more of their share in this market, that what one of major news papers here predicts now, and many of us actually agree with them.
But if any one repeats something like that in any of these gearhead fora, then he or she will be immediately crucified, or dismissed as though he is a complete moron that cannot understand true value of Sony's incredible innovations.
Then, I'd like to ask what are those incredible Sony innovations in their consumer grade FF camera business? Do not tell me Eye-AF, or IBIS.
The first FF CMOS chip? No it is one of many Canon's inventions.
Then FF mirrorless? No. Let's face that Mirrorless is just DSLR without the mirror and OVF optical path, nothing new about it.
That's why it's called ,'Mirrorless'.
Personally, I hate DSLRs but they are still outselling Mirrorless and they are just as capable as any mirrorless , that is the fact and we cannot deny that no matter how much you or I hate about DSLR.
So I think as long as they see mirrorless as though some sort of a truly new type of system camera technology, it may never fully grow to its fullest potential. But the reality is the industry and rumor sites always treat it as though it is some kind of a truly better new higher tech than anything before it.......I think this silly mirrorless-centric mentarity is the biggest threat to the manufactures like cancer of the industry. This mirriror-less is so much more advanced and innovative and it may likely be the true savior of the dying industry kind of totally erroneous view of the industry prevents all the manufactures from inventing a true new smart camera system. I think they really needs a smart camera system , rather than a slightly faster AFing video-centric extremely oversized overpriced so-called mirrorless system.
Finally, what really bothers me about SAR, NikonRumor guy, Northrup, Huff, etc. is they pretend or claim to know everything about this camera business better than any one of actual experts at Nikon , Leica , Sony, Canon, Fuji , Samsung, Pentax, Ricoh, Zeiss , Olympus and Panasonic, and always try to compare each of their camera business with Apple's incredible success in the last decade and this decade.....If these guys knew that much in every area from marketing , product design to sensor tech, why do they not just try to sell their own idea or concept to those makers that they have to belittle so much about, or they just start their own camera business just like the sunglass guy started Red?
They will never do it, as they don't actually know anything about what they preach...it is obvious.
Usually, some one says he knows everything , that means he does not know anything.
No people know everything, we only have some time to study only one area or two at best....that's it unless you are an Einstein kind of genius.
I think Thom Hogan, Lloyd, etc. are a bit more honest and more realistic than these crazy rumor guys or these industry con artists.
In any case, Sony is not gaining anything, in fact, they are the one losing the biggest amount of money as they've spent the biggest amount of money into R&D and the fastest product updating cycle in camera business. If the industry is still growing, Sony's investment may pay off itself, or even earn some extra for them. But the problem is the market is rapidly shrinking.
The industry itself is rapidly shrinking , and there is no company that can keep the pace of updating cycle Sony is on....in the rapidly shrinking market.....
No rational company invest as much as Sony does in a dying business, they are wasting the money they made from their highly profitable PlayStation, Sony Insurance, Sony Semi Solution business units. That is really crazy.
If Sony or Nikon is in the serious MFDB market like Phase One is, then it is understandable to listen to the old super rich gearheads in a various camera forums, but for consumer FF business they are in now , it won't work out well for them.
Strangely enough we cannot even mildly criticize about it in a forum like FM, LL or SAR, if you do that your post will be deleted or the thread itself will be locked.
UPDATE: I think the fundamentalists and their posts making those online camera forums really bad and boring to many of us and that make people leave there.
So there are no many good people left there any more , and as such listening the forum guys really make camera companies' long term view and product strategy worse and worse.
Many people think Fred Miranda forum and Luminous Landscape more civil than DPR, but I strongly disagree, FM forum is just more censored than DPR. In other words, DPR is more liberal and more open minded with less serious forum bullying.
If any one disagree with FM mirrorless fanatics , he she will be bullied, these fundamentalists cannot even take a bit of criticism or accept any different view than their own.
That is why those forums are losing popularity , less and less interesting, there used be many great posters like Jim Kasson, Eamon Hickey, Bobn2 , Bill Claff, Thom Hogan , etc......but all those guys left Fred Miranda fundamentalists forums and silly old landscape men dominated LL forums.
I do not even see Roger Cicala or any real expert there any more, I guess they just got too tired of too much censorship at those so called more civil forums.
I think DPR's approach is much more straight and honest, they are gearheads but openly so. And they do not do much forum bully although some excessive trolling there too.
A month ago, one long lasting thread called ,'Latest CIPA Data Thank God for Mirrorless', started by one of Sony fundamentalists and many of us disagreed with him on his views on Mirrorless saving the industry.
There was a guy called himself Big trouble, who was obvious supporter proponent of Nikon DSLRs,and the OP started insulting him with many names , such as usual 'Nikon Troll' , 'D-SLR fundamentalist', etc.....and the Bigtrouble guy eventually banned for trolling(he was not and it was the Nikon forum so he could post anything about Nikon I supposed).
To me this really revealed the true face of FM forum, they are extreme micro control freaks and they never allow any one to logically DISAGREE. This one and the Sony 35mm f1.8 debate there showed me how obstinate and obdurate those guys really are. Never accept their mistakes and force others to share their very narrowminded extremely Sony mirrorless biased view on any thing.....even in the Nikon forum......or Canon one.
Personally I disagreed with almost all of these guys in that particular thread and I think mirrorless and DLSRs are both extremely doomed, but I did not even bother to post that as a few other more levelheaded people there doing that for me.
There was one really nice open-minded Chinese guy there and I think he was the most neutral one in the particular thread in Nikon forum of FM. He was a Nikon user from Singapore, and he was a proponent of both mirrorless and D-SLR. To me he sounded most neutral although I am a 100 percent mirrorless user. What is the problem for any one there to have his or her own opinion? It is healthy to have their own views on anything.
But most of posters there just took his opinion personally and attacked him and even insulted him in extremely nasty rational or political ways. I found it really disgusting.
He likes DSLRs a bit more than Mirrorless , what is wrong with that? It is his choice and he find it works better for his particular works. And IMHO, DSLRs and mirrorless are too similar to even consider different tools. All future D-SLRs can do whatever the current best mirrorless can do now and more, and due to the less heat generating LV system in the D-SLRs they are always less noisy than the mirrorless of the same generation with the same or identical sensor tech.
It is just an intrinsic advantage of DSLR without permanent LV.
And it is a very coherent fact. So just be it.
Even me obvious D-SLR hater admit that and I think many of other DSLR haters can see it. So what is the problem for him to point it out in a very neutral and very logical even scientific way?
I think if they cannot tolerate Singaporean English or Singaporean or Asian way of view on any camera or photographic gear, then they should just close the site to foreign visitors? Why not make it only available to extremely narrow minded US based Sony fanboys that love FM and worship his view on anything.
I think DPR does not have this micro controlling of politically correct opinions issue, or excessive censorship or moderation issue there.
So Bobn , Jim K, Bill C, Roger C, etc. still post there but not at FM or LL.
I love something about FM forums but hate the extreme censorship there, and I cannot help but that really negatively affecting on image of Photographic or gearhead community.
So I really think the camera companies should stop listening to those forum mirrorless fundamentalists.
UPDATE 2: Since many people complained about my previous writing here on Nikon lens issue, I think I would have to dig it a bit deeper one more time here.
Many Nikon people never realize why Sony won this ILC game over the two conservative previous dominant duo CN, and many forum guys still think CN will be back.
But if they knew a bit about how and why Sony has won the series of important fights against CN over the last 5 or so years, I am sure they would never think Nikon will eventually come back, they won't.
Nikon is the biggest loser in this industry now, and it is very clear. If Nikon's health is really good , then why those Nikon related forums and members of Nikon fanboy sites are so worried or agitated(or disturbed) whenever a thread like "Nikon is ignored by third party and why?" or something like that posted at Nikon rumors or DPR Nikon forum?
They are so overly defensive and out of touch with the reality.
They never admit Sony and Panasonic's lead in lens game , they still say Sony lenses are garbage quality, L mount is doomed,etc., when their beloved Nikon Z is actually the most doomed system.
They are basically completely shunned by all accessory and lens makers, they are even ignored by Adobe , Adobe is not fixing Nikon Z lens profiles even though many many Nikon shooters have requested that.
In F mount era , Adobe was very supportive of Nikon mount and fixed any bug or issue as soon as they could....because the F had a huge user base.
But now they simply ignore the Z, they focus on Sony, Fuji, Canon , Leica and Panasonic. And after that if they still had a bit of time for super minority Z mount system, they work on that.
So the time has changed, the industry has changed and the way the ILC game played seems to have changed dramatically.
Sony saw the changes before others and that was why Sony made the E mount open system, many of us know that they have learned it from their PlayStation business.
If you want to succeed in ILC business, you must make your mount as open as it gets to third party lens makers.
And the E is the most open(to lens and accessory makers, not to body makers) ILC camera system. Therefore, they have been enjoying the biggest collection of lenses without spending too much R and D money themselves.
Many Canon haters at DPR type of forums always put Canon in the same league as the obvious loser Nikon, but it is really a wrong notion.
They are not equal , Canon R is not really a closed system like many Nikon fans think it is, it is open to those actually take some money and time to reverse engineer it.
So Samyang and Sigma have already announced some new lenses for the R system.
And Sigma will soon announce their latest lenses they have just announced for the L and E in RF mount too.
It is already written in their Japanese site.
And as Sigma makes a EF to E and EF to R mount adapter, they already know the R mount protocols, so we are hundred percent sure Sigma Samyang (not sure about Tamron though) and Cosina will make many lenses for R soon.
But Sigma has never mentioned about the Z mount even in their Japanese main site , other than they just infer their apathy towards Nikon Z that they are not really interested in that system as it does not have any significant presence in the current ILC world and it is really risky to reverse engineer that system. Sigma thinks it is not worth it. They have been sued by Nikon many times, and although they won the court battle in the end , they had to pay a lot of money for a team of great expensive lawyers and court trials....and that left a really bitter taste in Sigma's mouth.
Cosina had the same experience with Nikon, and after that, they are also avoiding any legal case with Nikon.
So I am pretty sure we will never see any Sigma, Cosina and Tamron lenses for the Z system unless the Z becomes invincible dominant player in the FF market.
Canon , unlike Nikon, never sued the major third party lens makers other than some really obscure small lens makers, so they will get at least some from Sigma, Samyang, Cosina and others. So Canon's position in the current ILC world is very different from that of Nikon, and it has always been.
Many Nikon fans in denial never get it but it is the fact , Nikon needs to pay Sigma, Tamron, Cosina to get supported, as they need them more than they need Nikon.
Now, Nikon is no4 in FF in Japan, already surpassed by Sigma, Canon and of course Sony.
To my surprise, now Sigma fp is the no 1 selling FF camera in Japan, if this trend continues in Japan and Asia, Sigma may not need any of these camera companies, they can sell their own lenses for L mount users and maybe also for E mount people. So why do they still need Nikon?