Today I came across an article on Reuters saying that Nikon is about to release new mirrorless cameras into the market by the end of the year (2011). The “secret” information was released by Nikkei newspaper, saying that Nikon will release new Mirrorless cameras, priced around 70,000-100,000 yen ($900-$1,300). Nikon has quickly posted a reply, claiming that it didn’t announced of any plans of releasing such products. That didn’t stop investors from purchasing new Nikon Corp stocks.
If we look at the mirrorless market today, we can see that Olympus, Panasonic and Sony are dominating the mirrorless market, and Samsung also start gaining more market share. No doubt that in terms of technology innovation, Sony certainly has brought some very interesting ILC cameras this month, including the Sony NEX-7 and the NEX-5N (the NEX-5 replacement). Both utilize new sensors, while the NEX-7 is the first ILC camera to use a high-resolution OLED electronic viewfinder. Things are getting very hot in the ILC market. However, Canon and Nikon, the two largest camera manufactures still haven’t announced their own line of mirrorless cameras.
I know that many rumors and predictions talked about Nikon Q cameras and the Canon EIS 60, but was back in October 2010, and we haven’t seen nothing yet from both vendors. This new came from Nikkei newspaper in Japan. The suggestion of new Nikon mirrorless cameras has caused Nikon Corporation to rose three days in a row, as investors see that as a good option for the share to be boosted in a positive direction. Nikon in its hands posted a short response on Nikon.com:
“Nikon understands that some article appeared in the media regarding Nikon’s imaging product. Please note that Nikon has made no announcement in this regards.”
So Nikon actually dismisses any rumors, predictions or assumptions regarding new product announcements. At the same time, I do believe that if such claims are based on a good evidence, Nikon certainly don’t want this to be published so early. I honestly think that Nikon has no choice but entering the Mirrorless market as it sees the ILC sells eating more of the SLR market share as times goes by.
I also believe that by releasing a line of new ILC cameras can certainly hurt the entry-level SLR camera sells in present and in the long run. Nikon has invested a lot of funds in developing and marketing its product. Even if Nikon intends to release new Mirrorless cameras, it doesn’t want everyone to know about it, not right now. People might delay their buying plans and wait until Nikon introduces new ILC cameras. New Interchangeable Lens Cameras means that we might see a new line of interchangeable lenses, that fits the new mount.
I am a big fan of Nikkor optics and I really hope that Nikon WILL enter the mirrorless market with new products. I am more excited of seeing the new range of lenses, rather than the camera body itself. No doubt that things are starting to get very interesting. We still haven’t heard anything from Canon, but something tells me that Canon secretly prepared its own armory in order to gain its lost SLR market share.
People believe that Nikon will release its Mirrorless cameras before Christmas 2011. Others say that Nikon will delay the release date just after Christmas. If such cameras will eventually be released, I think that it will happen before Christmas. Its the best time to get a big attention of new products and get more of the media attention. On the other hand, advertisement prices are higher in that period of time, as more advertisers are competing for the same advertisement space. So ads will costs much more compared to the time range before the holiday season.
I have a good feeling that this is not the first article we’re going to see. I honestly believe that there is a good piece of evidence behind that assumption by Nikkei. Let’s just be optimistic and hope that Nikon has something new in its sleeves. Just for you Nikon fans out there, CNET Asia has already posted an article on January 2011, saying that Nikon will announced mirrorless ILC in April 2011.
What’s you opinion? – comment below.