It appears to me that there has been a marked brand shift, again,
amongst this group. Since my initial joining this list, I think this
is the third MAJOR change. Here are my observations:
Late 1990's - OM System Swan Song (boiled). Nikon, Minolta and Canon
are ruling the roost with new AF cameras and fully modal control
design. Fill Flash technology becomes the deciding factor for many.
Nikon gains the greatest conversion from the Oly crowd, but Canon is
pretty close. Others make the shift to Minolta and Contax. Failure to
have any AF camera was certainly an issue, but failure to implement
fill-flash control was another.
Mid 2000's - E-1 System Swan Song (baked). The E-system had initial
troubles because of the dinky sensor and failure to adequately embrace
prior system lenses. Not many lenses was a complaint, but unfounded.
Flash system very good. But Olympus failed to be competitive with AF
speeds and sensor technology. They were trying to sell a 5MP CCD
against 8MP CMOS. A huge migration to Canon resulted and combined with
adapters, old Olympus OM lenses were somewhat supported.
Late 2000's - The last remaining straggler sold his Olympus gear and
bought a Full-frame Nikon kit.
Early 2010's - Micro Four-Thirds recovers a lot of "lost souls".
Finally, the dinky sensor is getting some respect. People are buying
them as "second systems". But is this a short-term gain? Sony and
Fujifilm making noise. Canon hasn't been heard from for ages.
Mid 2010's - Fujifilm nails it again and again. The new migration,
started in the midst of the m43 revolution, is to the X-series cameras
and lenses. The question is whether this is from m43 buyers or from
other brands to the Fujifilm cameras? I think it's more a case where
people are switching from their, now old, DSLR systems to the new
(classic) style cameras. This is a case where Fujifilm just seems to
be doing it better.
I am making the observation that the "new" DSLR systems that we all
bought in the 2000's are now "old" and the owners ready for a totally
"new shiny". Fujifilm seems to be the one that is capturing the hearts
of the buyers.
This brings up the question about Canon and Nikon, but especially
Canon. If Canon is now the "Dad's Oldsmobile" system, what can Canon
due to stop the bleeding and be the new kid on the block again? How
does Canon prevent being the next "Blackberry"?
Anyway, this is just my observation that this list is embracing the
X-series of cameras like we did the Canon 20D ten years ago and the
F100 twenty years ago. I may be wrong, but I haven't seen this much
uniformity of camera system migration on this list since those two
cameras.
One thing for sure. If this is the case, I won't be left behind a
third time. I've got an X-body in my B&W cart just waiting.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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