DPReview managed to pin down four windswept Nikon Executives to answer and evade questions about Nikon’s future plans. Not surprisingly there was no mention of yesterday’s news of a potential US law suit. On the questions that the execs did answer it appears that they are not kept up late into the night worrying about the state of the camera market but it does cause them moments of mild panic, or concern. Nikon sees there is opportunity to embrace the competition of their mobile rivals by possibly producing cameras that attach to mobile devices permanently (WiFi) allowing instantaneous uploads and interaction with social media sites.
It also seems as if the mirrorless ambitions may be reigned in as Nikon view the American and European markets for mirrorless cameras to be shrinking, while although offering the most growth potential China is still failing to grow as they would like. In relation to whether there would be a follow on to the D300s they are willing to listen to consumer demand but evaded fully committing to either a yes or a no. Looking forward five years Nikon is gearing up to look at how to integrate sophisticated functions for both still and moving image photography more into each camera as the lines between consumer needs become increasingly blurred for professionals who have mixed demands and require the dual capabilities. They believe that technological demands will require people to use a mixture of both still photography and moving images in their work, and will have a need to seamlessly move between the two. Short term they are most focused upon not at improving 4k to 8k, but on how to deliver speed and deliver images quickly. The full interview is available here.
What do you think? Do you think the separation between still image photographers and videographers is blurring? Will photog professionals need to be capable of delivering multi-platform visuals in the future to meet their client’s demands?