Interview with Nikon product planning executive

[Pa]

DPReview has posted a detailed interview with Keiji Oishi, Department Manager of Nikon's UX Planning Dept, Imaging Business Unit. He is quite revealing about Nikon's strategy going forward.

He says they hope to eventually transition to only the Z platform but expect to continue with parallel development for some time.

Read it here.

 

[drr1531]

Nothing new there. But nice to see he didn't beat around the bush. Battery life and EVF lag/blackout are the only real barriers keeping many shooters from the transition. It's just a matter of time. Surely Nikon would like to drop DSLRs. In a shrinking market producing two technologies with significant manufacturing differences is not a good place to be. Mirrorless has a lot less parts needed to make it go. Other things being equal simpler usually equates to cheaper to produce.

 

[Palouse]

It is comforting to finally see a strategy for the long haul.

 

[Pa]

It sounds to me like they are listening to their customers and trying to respond. I was also pleased to hear his commitment to frequent firmware upgrades: "... after I took over product planning, we are planning to schedule firmware updates more frequently. We don’t want that kind of delay [again] between the announcement of firmware and its availability. We want to do regular scheduled firmware updates to keep the products up to date for a long time."

 

[Palouse]

It sounds to me like they are listening to their customers and trying to respond. I was also pleased to hear his commitment to frequent firmware upgrades: "... after I took over product planning, we are planning to schedule firmware updates more frequently. We don’t want that kind of delay [again] between the announcement of firmware and its availability. We want to do regular scheduled firmware updates to keep the products up to date for a long time."

Good. There is a rumored Z6/7 update due next week.

 

[Palouse]

"There are almost no restrictions for the Z mount system, compared to F-mount. The approach to lens design is totally different than for the F-mount system. Our engineers get to enjoy lens design from scratch. They can aim for ultimate image quality."

This was strongly echoed by Nasim Mansurov and Spencer Cox (PhotographyLife) in their video chat last night.

 

[Butlerkid]

"... after I took over product planning, we are planning to schedule firmware updates more frequently. We don’t want that kind of delay [again] between the announcement of firmware and its availability. We want to do regular scheduled firmware updates to keep the products up to date for a long time."

Yes.....I am still waiting for the promised f/w to allow D5's and D850's to use CfExpress cards....

 

[Walter Rowe]

It sounds to me like they are listening to their customers and trying to respond. I was also pleased to hear his commitment to frequent firmware upgrades: "... after I took over product planning, we are planning to schedule firmware updates more frequently. We don’t want that kind of delay [again] between the announcement of firmware and its availability. We want to do regular scheduled firmware updates to keep the products up to date for a long time."

That is very smart thinking and a must in my opinion. Sony and Olympus kill their competitors in firmware and in-camera programming. Olympus in particular has the most advanced capabilities for in-camera processing I have ever seen. In my opinion they don't make enough noise about this. A close personal friend is an Oly shooter and I am constantly amazed at what he is able to make his camera do straight to JPG through in-camera processing.

 

[Maurie]

I’m hanging out for a Z fx 40mm - 45mm f2 (+/-) pancake

 

[Maurie]

Good. There is a rumored Z6/7 update due next week.

Lets hope it improves focus issues

 

[RobCar]

Yes, this interview shows that Nikon is listening to its customers and, very interestingly to me, intends to deliver smaller lens options. Perhaps we'll see the 28 and 40mm compact lenses sooner rather than later.

 

[Palouse]

The one thing I didn't read was how they will be modernizing their marketing and advertising to trumpet their new equipment, direction to new and existing customers. The current "osmosis" method of "I am Nikon" doesn't seem to work.