Many of the professionals in the newspaper and magazine business I am in contact with in New York have weathered the storm waiting and waiting for N to respond to 1d, 1dmk2, 20d, and 1dsmk2.
Now that D2x is finally here they are once again limited by Nikon Capture and this embarassing response to Adobe. Many disgrunted professionals are fuming. I hear it from professional after professional. They are happy with the D2x but the way Nikon is handling PR is embarassing and juvenile.
What does Nikon need to do to appear professional in handling these sort of situations?
What PR firm do you recommend Nikon seek professional advice from?
Who is handling their PR and what is the kind of thinking they are using. Their message is always not right.
I explained the situation to a good friend in the PR industry and she shook her head after hearing the whole story. Her opinion was that Nikon's response, whether justified or not, had a negative impact on the company. Nikon is not in a position to create static especially after the bad blood created by LBCAST chip and Nikon talking down to the professionals, she said.
Now Nikon is dictating what SOFTWARE professionals should use?
What does Nikon need to do to turn this negative sentiment around?
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I think a big part of Nikon's problem is that they don't seem to listen to their customers. Before I retired from the corporate world, 'customer feedback' was a big deal. Even at the small division of a Fortune 50 company I worked for, we were required to hire a well respected opinion survey firm who interviewed our customers, our employees, and our suppliers - as well as industry professionals in general. As a member of the Division's management team, we had the firm come in and present the findings. Our General Manager took the results very seriously and assigned management team members to investigate serious negative findings and propose corrective action. These actions got intro the budget process and real work (not just BS) was expended to fix those things which needed fixing.
I have never seen a survey from Nikon asking me about their products or service. In fact, it is very difficult to input anything to Nikon, except through their support staff, and I usually get what seem to be canned answers.
I'm afraid this is what happens when engineers manage a company at the highest levels.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
All of Nikons stuff works well whether camera's or software, but their software isn't universal to the photographic industry.
I just asume that Photoshop is universal and so do the majority, though I am trying other brands to see if I like them.
The worlflow should be easy but it isn't very.
They should fix the problem.
Bill.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
... I've been banned from various forums for highlighting Nikon’s responses to professionals going back to 1999/2000 when Nikon pulled the technical forums as news of the disastrous D1 was emerging.
Nikon then set the pattern that they would follow for the next five years to the present day.
Denying everything, stating impossibilities are facts (firmware update, remember that Nikon once officially said it was technically impossible and were supported by none other than Thom Hogan in this assessment, while all the time technicians in electronics were telling us it was possible and eventually the D100 firmware and the cracking of the 300D firmware made blatant liars out of those statements).
History shows that they released product as issued to reviewers as “ pre-production” including all the faults that the reviewers found, focus difficulties or high noise or whatever, “pre-production is what you bought.
After the release of the blind Coolpix 950, Phil Askey, editor of DPreview changed the way he reports faults in his reviews. In this particular instance Phil was aware of the focus problem with the 950 and alerted Nikon to it but he did not expect Nikon to release the camera with the fault ~ and so on and so on, I could fill volumes.
Recently I was being won over by the glowing D2x reviews but now I see it’s just the same old Nikon as they always were and I am now resigned to buying a third Canon camera and selling my remaining Nikon stuff.
So it’s very difficult for me to say how Nikon could improve their image, in a popularity report on DPreview Nikon are 5th and 7th in popularity, I think they could start by making what loyal customers have been asking for, making them immediately and bundling the accessories too ~ they need to give customers a gift (and I don’t mean the D2h) ~ I got loads of little gifts from Nikon in the past and yes they made me feel warm towards Nikon.
In my case I had an unnecessary uphill struggle with Nikon Digital and took a serious financial loss buying in a Canon system to do my work, I’m not alone so some compensation could make a new beginning. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
[ QUOTE ]
... I've been banned from various forums for highlighting Nikon’s responses to professionals going back to 1999/2000 when Nikon pulled the technical forums as news of the disastrous D1 was emerging.
Nikon then set the pattern that they would follow for the next five years to the present day.
Denying everything, stating impossibilities are facts (firmware update, remember that Nikon once officially said it was technically impossible and were supported by none other than Thom Hogan in this assessment, while all the time technicians in electronics were telling us it was possible and eventually the D100 firmware and the cracking of the 300D firmware made blatant liars out of those statements).
History shows that they released product as issued to reviewers as “ pre-production” including all the faults that the reviewers found, focus difficulties or high noise or whatever, “pre-production is what you bought.
After the release of the blind Coolpix 950, Phil Askey, editor of DPreview changed the way he reports faults in his reviews. In this particular instance Phil was aware of the focus problem with the 950 and alerted Nikon to it but he did not expect Nikon to release the camera with the fault ~ and so on and so on, I could fill volumes.
Recently I was being won over by the glowing D2x reviews but now I see it’s just the same old Nikon as they always were and I am now resigned to buying a third Canon camera and selling my remaining Nikon stuff.
So it’s very difficult for me to say how Nikon could improve their image, in a popularity report on DPreview Nikon are 5th and 7th in popularity, I think they could start by making what loyal customers have been asking for, making them immediately and bundling the accessories too ~ they need to give customers a gift (and I don’t mean the D2h) ~ I got loads of little gifts from Nikon in the past and yes they made me feel warm towards Nikon.
In my case I had an unnecessary uphill struggle with Nikon Digital and took a serious financial loss buying in a Canon system to do my work, I’m not alone so some compensation could make a new beginning. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
[/ QUOTE ]
I really don't understand the point you are trying to make here, since pretty much all of the complaints you have listed above also apply equally to Canon.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I really don't understand the point you are trying to make here, since pretty much all of the complaints you have listed above also apply equally to Canon.
[/ QUOTE ]
... I was not a Canon user until two years ago. My personal history of Canon is restricted to this time. In that time I have had very professional dealings with Canon UK whereas Nikon UK failed to fix my Nikon problems.
IMO I see a vastly different approach in attitude from Canon v Nikon on many levels.
As a Nikon user I watched Canon fix problems and bring new product to market at a very fast pace which was exactly what was needed in a changing and fast moving professional market.
I saw the 1D released with major problems from Canon which stymied my planned move to them, but then I saw they released four firmware updates that cured the problems. I was more than impressed, then my D100 needed a firmware update and Nikon wanted me to send it to the UK at a cost of approx €200 insured shipping ~ for a firmware update?
Yes sir, I saw a huge difference in approach and what swayed me was not that the product was poor at launch but the response to it by the manufacturer.
With my blind CP950 fixed by a firmware release from Nikon over the (then new) Internet I was there’s for life, I thought they were the most progressive and most energetic company in the world and I was delighted. Since that time however, Nikon’s responses changed considerable. They entered a conspiracy and cover-up mode with the launch of the D1 and they seem to be mad at us, their customers, for not buying it.
On the contrary the 1D initially launched with fatal flaws by Canon has gone on to garnish a very well respected reputation for itself over it’s build quality, weather proof reliability and ruggedness. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
With the newspaper shooters I've spoken with, it's not just about the camera bodies being a step or two behind...it's the other things that have been going on with Nikon. None of them really care (yet) about the white balance issue since they mostly shoot jpeg. What does make them mad is service problems. Every single Nikon shooter I know has at least a couple of Nikon service horror stories...recent ones, not pre-computer switch problems. Another issue is sparse availability of new products and accesories...like the chronic intermittent availability of D2H battery compartment doors and LCD covers.
Of course Noise is a HUGE issue for newspaper shooters. They shoot ISO1600 as a matter of course. With the way budget cycles work at big newspapers, many of the shooters only recently (past six months) received new D2H bodies. With no way to upgrade the cameras to the lower noise D2Hs, they really feel left out in the cold by Nikon. Again because of budget cycles, they know that they will probably be stuck shooting with the noisy D2H, so they really feel cheated.
The real exodus will happen with the next budget cycle. Most shooters I've talked to say that their departments are already planning for the switch to Canon. Many departments have already bought one Canon kit for a senior staffer to get the process started. As equipment breaks, they are swapping it out with Canon gear as they can afford it. They are not buying any new Nikon gear if they can help it. From their perspective, they don't care if the D2X or D2Hs bodies are awesome...the other issues have totally soured them on the brand. If the D2Hs was perfect, they'd still have to deal with Nikon service, and they still run the risk of Nikon coming out with an 8MP D3Hs in six months totally devaluing their D2Hs's.
It's very hard to rebuild trust when you have demolished it so effectively with a couple of years of really poor product planning and execution. Pros don't forget.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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