Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony_Gamble  But there are not enough of us to make it worthwhile making the camera of our dreams.
When a friend asks you which camera to buy, and you tell him/her, is not the first thing they ask 'how much does it cost'. |
I think this familiar assumption is at least debatable. There are quite a few "niche" p&s products out there, and I think that tells us camera makers aren't averse to servicing smaller markets. A couple examples off the top of my head:
- Ricoh GR Digital
- Ricoh Caplio 500G
- Sigma DP1
- anything Leica makes
Some camera manufacturers are, by definition, niche producers, and some are niche producers due to market share. Most of these niche producers have no prayer of dramatically changing their market position, yet they soldier on. Unfortunately, they mainly seem to produce products that compare unfavorably to mainstream products in their fundamental characteristics, even when they compare favorably in particular ways.
Is there a way to reach these people and give them a good by-the-neck shaking?
As a side note, I've a festering suspicion that the supply of electronics available to most would-be p&s camera makers is somewhat limited, which would be an explanation for why we have reams of products that are so undifferentiated. I have zero industry knowledge to support my hypothesis other than observing how many hundreds of p&s cameras share similar specs and similar shortcomings. I also note that the two p&s companies that seem to consistently come out tops in the fundamental image quality and camera performance are the two that have complete vertical control over their electronics (most critically, they engineer and produce their own sensors): Canon and Fujifilm. But even they market a lot of disappointing p&s cameras, and I would call out Canon as amongst the least imaginative about product design.
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