Have you forgotten the Canon envy years? Canon's super telephotos in particular during those years? Sports photographers in particular had to switch as Nikon could not compete with auto focus. Nikon was habitually five years behind. Full frame or 36x24mm? I don't remember how many years but Nikon was behind here. I believe Nikon fell behind because of late technology.
Dave Hartman
Not at all. Nikon had already lost the #1 position by then. Remember the "Image is Everything" campaign? All of those AE-1 and AE-1 Program bodies Canon sold created the cash flow and corporate support to take on Nikon and win.
Nikon's venture into autofocus was a primarily a marketing mistake, which was that they believed that professional photographers "didn't need" technologies such as autofocus and VR and absolutely, positively wanted to hold on to the F-mount at any cost. Even so, their R&D department beat Canon and Minolta in producing an AF SLR, had the first lens with a CPU, and was the first to put VR into a consumer camera. After the F3af failed, the next batch of Nikon AF cameras and lenses were targeted at amateurs. They used Series E designs for two models and didn't bother with professional favorites like the 80-200mm f/4 or 105mm f/2.5. Even now, 30 years later, people express anger at Canon for switching mounts, but history has shown it was the right choice.
As a microcosm of Nikon's poor marketing, consider, if you will, the F3 flash system. By the time the F3 came along, it was pretty clear that hot shoes were becoming the industry standard, and Nikon took a major technological step forward by adding TTL to the F3. Yet not only did Nikon carry forward the "over the rewind" approach, but when it introduced F3P to add a hot shoe, they didn't include TTL in that design. Then something like
18 years later, they finally introduced the AS-17, even though the F4 had been out for a decade. Believe it or not, Nikon USA still lists the AS-17 as a current product.
