Where have they all gone?

[John]

That is, makers of SLRs....

Voigtlander, Zeiss Ikon, Minolta, Konica, Fujica, Rollei, Mamiya, Ricoh, Cosina, Zenit, Ihagee (Exakta and Exa), Praktica, Miranda....and no doubt many more.

We have left Nikon, Canon, Sony and Pentax. Olympus is hardly a DSLR player any more, with one aging model in the E-5. Leica isn't really in the equation except for the rich few.

How quickly things change.

[Alan Duckworth]

Tempus fugit!

[Stu B]

Im surprised John that you of all people List Pentax as a manufacturer. When these days they are simply a brand. As all their merchandise is now manufactured by the Ricoh imaging systems Company... But at least they are, still around. As also are Sigma and Leica to name just a couple. Though I would have to accept that their market share wouldn't set anyone rushing out to purchase one...

[John]

I've also listed Ricoh as having disappeared, which, as a manufacturer of film SLRs they did a long time ago. Voigtlander also exist as a brand, made by Cosina. Fujica exist as Fujifilm, but not making SLRs.

I list Pentax because as of this moment the actual physical presence , although now called Ricoh Imaging, is exactly the same as it was before the buyout. The factories are in the same place, turning out the same kit. The development continues as before and the process is continued without interruption.

Companies as such don't exist anyway. They might on paper, but companies are groups of people bound together. Nikon don't exist either, they are owned by several other organisations, only the name says Nikon. Some lower end SLRs have been made by Cosina, those products are only branded Nikon. Everything can be sub-contracted. Zeiss lenses can be made by someone else under licence. Speaking of Pentax, look at the MX-1 compact and then at the Olympus XZ-2, strip away the Pentax brass construction and SMC coating on the lens and you have something looking pretty much identical. Who makes it I wonder?

So, we will see only Nikon, Canon, Sony and Pentax DSLRS in the next few years as DSLRs in any sort of mass market. In 1964 we would have said Pentax, Nikon, Minolta and Canon as the pecking order!

[Paul Jones]

I just saw this and thought it quite apt...

Man breaks own World Record, now owns 4,425 antique cameras

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/08/28 ... =title_0_8

Mumbai-based photo journalist and camera collector Dilish Parekh has been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the second time. The previous record holder? Parekh himself. His collection has now grown to 4,425 antique cameras, ranging from Leica to Voigtlander.

[Paul Jones]

How quickly things change.

I actually wonder whether people will still be buying cameras in a few years' time... Many people now have smartphones with camera and video capabilities and the camera specs are only going to get better over time as new models of phone are released.

Will people still need to buy and carry a seperate camera when their phone can do it all?

[Paul Jones]

Man breaks own World Record, now owns 4,425 antique cameras

And I bet he bought most of them off John on Ebay...

[Walter Brooks]

Just back from a tourist trip around the Mediterranean and it was a mixed bag with regards to photo capture.

Plenty of people with DSLRs with large telephoto lenses attached and sporting photo backpacks; probably an equal number of people sporting smartphones and iPads [using these also as a screen in front of them when walking!] and a few with camcorders held in such indiscriminate ways as to suggest unintentional and accidental recording of 'a version of life, rather than life itself'.
Good to be back ... really.

W