Ed Lee
May 18, 2012
In October 2011, Nikon’s DSLR camera factory in Thailand was devastated by flood waters, which caused the complete shutdown of its entry-level and mid-range DSLR production lines right before the critical holiday season.
In its year-end Fiscal results, Nikon highlighted the events and its recovery timeline.
- October 6, 2011: Operations suspended at Nikon Thailand Corporation (NTC) due to the fact that the factory was submerged under 2 meters of flood waters. The flood came at a critical time of the year, when all camera manufacturers were gearing up for the all-important holiday season and beginning production ramp up of soon-to-be announced cameras.
- November 30, 2011: Nikon restarted partial deliveries of DSLR cameras and interchangeable lenses thanks to alternative production by Thai partner factories.
- January 3, 2012: Partial operations resumed at NTC, as Nikon had forecasted would happen back in November.
- January to March 2012: NTC ramped up its camera production, adding to finished goods produced by partner factories.
- By the end of March, the combined production capacity of NTC and partner factories had reached normal production levels.
Read more »
Ed Lee
May 1, 2012
The digital camera market is fast approaching a new milestone. According to InfoTrends’ estimates, the one-billionth digital camera will be produced this month. That is a lot of cameras produced since the first consumer models launched in the 1990’s. Congratulations!
Read more »
Ed Lee
Apr 19, 2012
Since 2007, InfoTrends has been promoting the need for a Connected Experience in the photography market. While Wi-Fi enabled cameras have seen some fits and starts, the concept has not become an everyday reality. Camera vendors have been slow to respond to the threat of smartphones and have allowed them to set the stage for a connected experience. InfoTrends has been encouraging camera vendors to add connectivity to their cameras in order to remain relevant in the Connected Era of photography. Since 2012 began, Canon, Fujifilm, Kodak, Samsung, and Sony have announced a total of nine Wi-Fi enabled point & shoot cameras. However, consumer digital interchangeable lens cameras (DILC) have remained outside the mix. That is until today.
Read more »
Tags: Android, Canon, Compact Interchangeable Lens Camera, digital camera, digital interchangeable lens cameras, FujiFilm, iOS, Kodak, Nikon, Samsung, Sony, Wi-Fi
Consumer | 
Comments (1)
Ed Lee
Feb 10, 2012
On February 9, 2012, to the surprise of no one, Kodak announced that by the middle of the year it would close its capture devices business, which includes digital cameras, pocket camcorders, and digital photo frames. The Kodak name will likely remain in the market through the licensing of the brand name to others to put on camera, camcorders, and photo frames. The company expects to save more than $100 million annually and according to Kodak, up to 400 employees may be affected. Moving forward, Kodak will focus its consumer facing efforts on home, online, and retail photo printing.
How should the market view this news? Here are our thoughts on some of the effects of this news.
Read more »
Ed Lee
Jan 19, 2012
On January 19, Kodak announced its much-anticipated Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. The filing only affects Kodak’s U.S. Operations and its U.S.-based subsidiaries. Non-U.S. subsidiaries are not included and for them it is business as usual. Under Chapter 11, Kodak will continue to operate while seeking to reorganize its finances and the company is hoping to complete its restructuring in 2013. Many companies emerge successfully from Chapter 11 and we hope that Kodak is one of them.
This report looks at some of the numbers that we found in the court documents that we consider noteworthy.
Read more »
Ed Lee
Jan 6, 2012
According to InfoTrends’ latest Worldwide Digital Camera forecast, digital interchangeable lens cameras (DILCs) sales were strong last year and are expected to continue to sell well over the next 5 years.
Over the holiday break, we visited each of the Amazon.com websites (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and China) to do an informal poll to see how popular Digital SLRs (DSLR) and Compact Interchangeable Lens Cameras (CILC) were for Amazon.com shoppers. The websites shows the 100 most popular cameras sold and updates the list hourly. Camera body only and various kit configurations are counted separately.
Read more »
Ed Lee
Sep 23, 2011
Last fall, just before the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany, it was rumored that Nikon would announce what some thought would be its entrance into the compact interchangeable lens camera (CILC) market. But, Photokina came and went without an announcement. Now, exactly one year later, the rumors that grew in intensity over the last few months have become a reality.
Read more »
Ed Lee
Sep 15, 2011
Excerpt from Photo Industry Reporter’s State of the Industry 2011
In the war between digital still cameras and smartphones, a battle is being fought on a convenience versus quality front. Smartphones offer the convenience of instant sharing of images on social network sites and online photo services, but the image capture quality is not as good as many digital cameras.
Digital cameras offer some of the best image-capture quality, but their lack of connectivity makes the process of getting the images out of the camera and onto the Internet difficult.
Read more »
Ed Lee
Aug 9, 2011
On August 8, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Xpand 3D announced they will team up to develop a new technology standard for active-shutter glasses. They have termed the partnership the Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative. The universal active 3D glasses will allow consumers to mix-and-match their glasses with various brands and types of 3D displays such as televisions, personal computers, projectors, and 3D theaters. Universal glasses are expected to be available in 2012 and are targeted to be backward compatible with 2011 3D active TVs. Read more »
Ed Lee
Jul 8, 2011
When it was introduced in 1996, APS (Advanced Photo System) film was supposed to herald the future of film photography. Just a short 15 years later, its epitaph is being written. Smaller and lighter 35mm point and shoot film cameras dampened APS film’s early days, and now affordable, high-quality compact digital cameras have taken the steam completely out of this market.
Read more »
