Well, if customers largely stop buying "to wait and see" then Nikon won't be launching anything pretty soon after (since they won't have any money to pay salaries). It sends the message from customer to Nikon: "what you make today is not useful to me". If something that they make is in fact suitable and useful, buying it sends the correct message. Of course, one should not buy what one does not need.
My duty is not to Nikon, Nikon's duty is to me (all its customers).
I can decide to spend my money (or
not spend my money) how and when I want, whenever it pleases me, however it pleases me.
When a company charges as much as Nikon charges for its products, that's a lot of <bleepin'> money, added-up, and I have
the right to be concerned regarding
which direction the future is likely to hold when I make my purchase decisions.
The offering (and then sudden retraction of) the DL series shows that Nikon is willing to shut-down production of an entire line at the blink of an eye ... if it feels the line is not headed in the right direction.
On the other hand, the release of the D850
also shows Nikon is willing to pull out all stops and produce what is arguably "
the greatest single camera" available in today's market place.
My opinion is Nikon makes the best cameras, and the best (super-telephoto) lenses in the market today. And I intend to keep spending money with Nikon ... but I just want to know
where?
The trouble is, almost all of Nikon glass is the outdated "G" physical diaphragm ... which I would never purchase today.
Although I purchased many of their AI-S MF lenses, I have/am selling them all to upgrade to Zeiss glass. (Hence my previous thread,
Will Nikon Re-Invent the AI-S?)
Further, while their new "E" electronic diaphragm AF glass is almost universally at the top its game, they're designed for DSLRs,
not mirrorless ... which are coming sooner, not later.
Even if Nikon "stopped making" any
future DSLRs, if they kept making
the ones that exist now (D5 / D850 / D500), I think they could still keep selling these cameras for many years to come, because they are simply fantastic. (The negligible advances in sensor excellence over the last few years indicate image quality is reaching a plateau.)
In the same fashion, Nikon continued to make film cameras, even when film was essentially dead, so I want some assurances that DSLRs (and in particular DSLR
AF lenses) are not going to suddenly stop in production, in favor of mirrorless.
In fine, I hope that Nikon brings out mirrorless as
a companion to DSLRs,
not as a full replacement, at least for the next 5+ years.
I also want to know if Nikon 'E' glass can be transcended to mirrorless format (by adapter or, preferably, by lens mount conversion), because then I will make certain purchase decisions their high-end 'E' AF glass.
In closing, I believe the D850 is
so good its relevance will last for a very, very, very long time, even if DSLR production stops tomorrow. That said, I don't see a very long future for DSLR advancement at this point; therefore, I don't see a very long future for DSLR glass, either.
- The looming question is ... what about "right now" purchases?
- Will they be protected with some kind of "transition bridge" (adapters/lens mount conversions)? Or,
- Will they be abandoned?
My gut feeling is they will be protected, because Nikon protected its customers by keeping the F-mount in the film-to-digital transition (unlike Canon, which dropped its entire lens line).
However, this time Nikon is very clearly creating a different mount for their mirrorless (judging by the recent patents, as Roland pointed out), so I want to know
if/how well any transitions are going to work with (what will soon be) the old way as it makes room for the new way.
But I still plan on spending my money with Nikon, because I am 100% confident they'll be producing high-quality, regardless.[/list]
