Nikon To Discontinue Most Film Cameras and Related Accessories

[OllyB]

Just read this on another site and thought some might find it of interest. I can, however, find nothing on the Nikon site so trying to establish its validity........

January 11, 2006 — According to an announcement issued by Nikon UK, the company intends to concentrate its efforts on digital cameras and accessories, and plans to discontinue production of most film cameras, manual focus lenses and related accessories.

The statement says, "Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large-format cameras and enlarging lenses, with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they are out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses, and related accessories." The statement adds that Nikon UK anticipates that the discontinued products will remain in retail distribution until summer, 2006.

All is not lost for 35mm photographers, however. The statement indicates, "In recognition of Nikon's commitment to professional photographers we will continue to manufacture and sell the F6, our flagship model, as well as a number of manual interchangeable lenses. Sales of the manual FM10 will also be continued outside Europe." Nikon UK included a list of interchangeable lenses that will remain in the line: Nikkor 20mm f/2.8, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, Nikkor 28mm f/2.8, Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, Nikkor 50mm f/1.2, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8, and PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D.

 

[Dave Parker]

I posted the link to this article yesterday morning, in fact there was quite a long thread about it.

Dave

 

[David H. Bebbington]

Well, not quite. They are keeping the F6, presumably thinking that is enough to cover the market. Although it is a pretty big range gap between an F6 and an FM10!

You are right about the F6 remaining available - in Europe, apparently, that will be the ONLY film Nikon SLR available. Quite why there is no room for the FM3a, I don't know.

 

[sanderx1]

All is not lost for 35mm photographers, however. The statement indicates, "In recognition of Nikon's commitment to professional photographers we will continue to manufacture and sell the F6, our flagship model, as well as a number of manual interchangeable lenses. Sales of the manual FM10 will also be continued outside Europe." Nikon UK included a list of interchangeable lenses that will remain in the line: Nikkor 20mm f/2.8, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, Nikkor 28mm f/2.8, Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, Nikkor 50mm f/1.2, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8, and PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D.

To add insult to injury, they don't actually make a manual focus 105mm f/2.8 mikro-nikkor. The manual focus 105mm lens is the 105mm/f2.5 which is not mikro-nikkor. This is really pathetic.

 

[Dave Parker]

David,

Not a big relief, but they did say the FM10 will stay in the line.

Dave

 

[johnnywalker]

Interesting, not a zoom in the bunch.
Would have thought the FM3a would be a candidate for keeping.

 

[Lee Shively]

I guess Nikon is trying to make up for the loss of so many pro shooters to Canon when everyone went to autofocus. They were too conservative at the time and didn't foresee the popularity of autofocus so Canon got a jump on them. Now they intend to embrace the technology and forge ahead as a digital only company. It's not good for us film shooters but it probably is good for Nikon's future.

 

[Dave Parker]

Many of the pro shooters I know, switched to Canon, not due to the autofocus issue, but due to the fact that Nikon was failing to meet their needs on some items, in one very stupid incident I remember in the store, one of our prominent wildlife photographers wanted to purchase a AF extension tube to work with birding and Nikon told him to get another teleconverter and take the lens elements out of it...it took him all of about 15 minutes to bring all of his gear to the store and told us to sell it and he ordered a complete Canon film replacement system to the tune of about 50K in expenditures....

Dave

 

[Ziggy]

I just purchased a FM3a before Christmas, glad I did, but I thought Nikon would continue supporting film users for quite some time to come.

I guess thats business, go where the big bucks are, and not care about your customers.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

David,

Not a big relief, but they did say the FM10 will stay in the line.

Dave

True, but only outside Europe - not good for us Brits!

 

[ajuk]

Super shocked, and more shocked that it is Nikon that are doing it and not Canon or Minolta, I thought Nikon where in for the duration.
I had herd they were going to ditch some models and have a smaller line, one rumour I had herd was that they would ditch the F80 and F100 and replace it with one model that sits between the two.
I also thought they would bring out that new film model this year to get some of the sales that are bing eaten up by the hugh amounts of second hand gear back.
I also would have thought they would keep a few Manual lenses going for students ETC and LF lenses, well I thought that they can be used digitally.

 

[df cardwell]

Umm, let's see now. Manual lenses sales are... minimal in an autofocus world ?

Would any of us buy a new F manual lens... when we can go to eBay and get one mint for 25% of new ? Get real.

Zeiss is introducing their lenses in F mount, certainly with Nikon's support. How's the timing on this ?

And Nikon get's what ?

Production capacity ? Engineering capacity ?

To do what ?

Develop optics for the digital cameras that keep their doors open ?

Nah, too logical.

Introduce a new mount to support digital properly ?

Nah...

Nikon is a very small company with a big reputation. They have to manage their resources just like us. Large format lenses and EL glass has always been made in batches. It's probably obvious that running another batch of 50/2.8 enlarging lenses will never sell, so stop making them. Goodness knows how long it will take to sell out their current supply.

Reality check. How many NEW, from a camera shop lenses ( cameras ) have we bought lately ?

Are we all just a bunch of haters ?

Then hammer Nikon for going digital. They should have closed the doors, fired the engineers and workers, and burned the factories instead.

Film forever !

.

 

[sanderx1]

Interesting, not a zoom in the bunch.
Would have thought the FM3a would be a candidate for keeping.

Nikon has not made any manual focus zooms in years, so of course they are not announcing that any of them would be continued ;-) OK, so "manual focus" went missing in the repost to APUG by OllyB, but it is there in the Nikon PR. All other manual focus lens except those listed are now discontinued. Odd they didn't discontinue some of the low end kitlens that mostly were sold with the now-discontinued film bodies.

 

[Dave Parker]

I happen to agree with DF, I know I have not purchased a "brand new" item from a photography store for quite a while now, there is just to much available on the pre-owned market that is priced at levels I can afford, and we have to remember, a pre-owned item sold does nothing to support the manufacture of new items by any company.

Dave

 

[df cardwell]

Reminds me of the famous letter sent to Henry Ford back in the early '30s by Clyde Barrow ( as in Bonnie and Clyde ). He praised the Ford V8, and said ( in as many words ) that it was his favorite get-away car. "I steal one whenever I can !".

The letter is on display at the Ford Museum. I don't think it really helped sales, though.

Nikon is my favorite. It's all I buy on eBay.

yep. Well, not quite.

 

[edz]

I happen to agree with DF, I know I have not purchased a "brand new" item

But a lot of us have.. like ground glass from some guy in the U.S. named Dave...

 

[Dave Parker]

Yes Edz,

and I thank all of you, but we do happen to be talking about a different business here, with different price points and such, I don't have a full industrial manufacturing facility to support with employees and rent and such, Nikon does, in fact I find it funny alot of times when my screens show up on the used market, they sell for MORE than what I sell them for new..

And really, I would be surprised to see that amount of people who actually purchase NEW items now a days, especially lenses, you summed up up in your post before this one, it is my favorite on ebay, are you only purchasing new on ebay? or do you look for that mint lens being sold pre-owned?


Dave

 

[sanderx1]

I happen to agree with DF, I know I have not purchased a "brand new" item from a photography store for quite a while now, there is just to much available on the pre-owned market that is priced at levels I can afford, and we have to remember, a pre-owned item sold does nothing to support the manufacture of new items by any company.

Dave

However, Nikon sold over 1.1 million SLR lens in the period of 1 april - 30 september 2005 and forecasts sales of over a million more by the end of their fiscal year in march. That is also considerably more lens sold than cameras, so existing camera owners buying more lens remains an important market.

Oh, and Nikon is not "a small company".

 

[Dave Parker]

Oh, and Nikon is not "a small company".

I did not say Nikon was a small company...their numbers, to us may be impressive, unfortunately to the bean counters who run the company, they must not be all that impressive especially when you consider that they really don't make that much profit on them, I know when I worked at the local shop here, making $25-50 on a camera was about the norm, when you consider the number of photorgaphers, 1.1 million cameras is really not all that good...I am not siding with or against Nikon and am sorry to see them cease production of many of their great film photography items.

Dave

 

[Ara Ghajanian]

I, myself, have not bought anything new since I bought an Mamiya RB67 outfit back in 1991. Actually, that's the first and only camera I ever bought new. A few years ago, I traded it for a used Blad.

The used market is huge and getting huger (is that a word?). Nikon is literally competing with itself on eBay and other used markets. I say it's their fault for not dropping prices. Capitalism, get used to it.
Ara

 

[Ole]

Reality check. How many NEW, from a camera shop lenses ( cameras ) have we bought lately ?

I've bought ...

One.

A Zenitar fisheye...

 

[ras351]

I've bought a couple of new LF lenses over the past couple of years. I've found the secondhand LF lens market in Australia is somewhat limited and especially when it comes to Nikon lenses I can often import them new for less than they're being sold for secondhand here. I haven't had much luck with the auction sites. The writing has been on the wall for a while but it's still disappointing.

Roger.

 

[ShawnKielty]

Nikon discontinues production of large format lenses.

This is what I thought was of real interest here http://www.nikon.co.uk/press_room/releases/show.aspx?rid=201 :

As a result of the new strategy Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006.

My 35mm has been obsolete for a while, but my 4x5 is still pretty useful.

s

 

[Sanjay Sen]

This is what I thought was of real interest here http://www.nikon.co.uk/press_room/releases/show.aspx?rid=201 :

As a result of the new strategy Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006.

All this has already been posted by Dave (satinsnow) and there is a thread at (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[ajuk]

Would any of us buy a new F manual lens... when we can go to eBay and get one mint for 25% of new ? Get real.

Well that is why I thought a new film body would make sence, at this moment people can get the latest model for beans, and there are lots of people who always want the latest model. New model comes ot, oops you can only get it new, So do you think they decided a new model would not reverse this or could it still be in the pipeline?