Nikon’s imaging business strategy and roadmap till 2021

There is no doubt that the worldwide consumer camera business is in decline. Demand for standalone dedicated cameras is very different from a decade ago when everyone had to buy a digital camera if they wanted to take a picture. I myself am surprised at the extent of the decline, as even the photography business is affected. In this time and age where everyone has a camera (the mobile phone) and instant gratification drives the “just shoot, post it, forget” image-recording discipline of everyone but the minority, the demand for photography skills that can produce images worthy of being passed down to future generations or being shown in history books is also in decline. Consider the widespread reports of news agencies cutting their photography staff. Around me, I lost track of when pictures in local news media started becoming so unbearably pedestrian and unimaginative.

Nikon, with a large portion of its business in photography equipment, has been feeling the decline at an increasingly painful rate, and publicly acknowledges this is the future they are facing (page 6 of the slides). I am interested in how they plan to approach this problem from two perspectives. One, as a business person studying a business challenge. Two, as a hobbyist user of Nikon photographic equipment. On 9 May 2019, Nikon presented their management plan for FY 2019 to FY 2021. Let us take a look though the presentation slides to see what are their plans for the imaging business division.

Brief review of Fotospeed Photo Smooth Pearl 290 paper

I started printing photographs myself regularly from mid-2018. Mind you, I am not producing large exhibition prints or photographs for commercial purposes. I print for personal and family use. Because of this, my use case and budget is quite different compared to established photographers running a business. While those print makers may be looking at large prints created by expensive pigment inkjet printers, this print maker here (i.e. me) is looking at 4R (10 x 15 cm) prints with an occasional A4 print created by a simple 4-colour CMYK printer. (With luck I may be able to upgrade to a 6-colour CMYK + LC + LM printer in another year. 😛 )

A review of mobile phone camera quality today (2019)

2017 China Suzhou.
Reflections in Panmen Scenic Area.

I wrote a while ago that I only just started experimenting with mobile phone photography. In fact, with a new arrival to the family, the rate at which mobile phone pictures are sent to me for printing has increased exponentially. I am also juggling a day job and parental duties. Hence almost every picture I am taking with my dedicated camera is that of the little one and family, with little spare time to engage in other photographic genres. Hence most non-family images are now taken with a mobile phone camera, during those short moments of time when I was actually engaged in other day-to-day activities without my dedicated camera gear by my side.

I have never owned a flagship mobile phone. Prior to March 2019, I was using phone models among the phone manufacturers’ budget range. (*) As expected, that means a budget camera module. The coma is bad. The flare is bad. The CAs are bad. The dynamic range is bad. The image acuity is bad. However as DigitalRev’s “cheap camera challenge” series demonstrates, we are our biggest obstacle. It is possible to create compelling images with budget tools. What is important is to have determination and artistic drive.

Beginner’s guide to printing photographs – part 4

We are coming to the end of our 4-part beginner’s guide to printing photographs. Part 1 introduced us to the complications and costs involved in printing and provides us an introduction to photo printers. Part 2 introduced colour management, the confusion of printer-paper profiles, and gives some suggestions for users choosing between Epson and Canon printers. Part 3 provided additional information about the different types of photographic papers available and the various factors you have to consider while choosing a paper. If all that confusion has not dissuaded you from trying to print your own photos, welcome to part 4, where we finally summarise all the required steps that lead to us sending a print to the printer.

Beginner’s guide to printing photographs – part 3

In part 1 of this series, we gave a first introduction to the complexities, costs and basic fundamentals involved in printing your own photographs. In part 2, we introduced you to the complications of colour management for printer-paper profiles and tried to help you decide whether to choose an Epson or Canon printer. In part 3 now, we will discuss different photographic paper types. The information in this part may have a slight effect on your choice of printers, or not. 😛

Beginner’s guide to printing photographs – Part 2

In part one of this series, I made an introduction to printing your own photographs, explained why you might want to do it, gave some tips on what printers to not buy, and gave readers a first glimpse into the complexity of choosing a printer. In this follow-up post, I will give some recommendations for choosing between an Epson or a Canon inkjet printer for printing novices who wish to start printing their own photographs.

Beginner’s guide to printing photographs – Part 1

Why print?

You have been enjoying your photographic hobby for a while. Eventually, you reach an epiphany – your pictures in the digital space scream for a place in the physical world! You want to share physical photographs with relatives and friends that they are proud to put on display or use as a cover for a diary or scrapbook. Or you want to decorate your home with your own work. Or you want to create your own physical album to record your precious memories, tangible and easy to look at and pass down to a next of kin. Or you simply realized that printing is really the next step in your photographic journey. After all, although your pictures may look good on a fancy colour-calibrated monitor,  the real test of quality is to see how your work actually measures up in physical form!

Update: A long haitus and discontinuing my domain

I have been obviously very quiet this year. That is because I now have the additional responsibilities of being a father. 😀 To add to that, my responsibilities as a husband also increased as I spend more time my wife, who understandably needs more support during such an intense turning point of her life. ^^;

In view of the changes in my life, my approach to a hobby has also changed. As much as I enjoy visual art, it is not my livelihood. Regrettably, I make more money not doing photography – now wouldn’t it be nice if I do? Anyway, it is what it is, and perhaps it is for the best. Someone once mentioned to me, “when your hobby becomes your work, you may have to start looking for another hobby.” 

Photokina 2018 Is Depressing

2018. Singapore. Troubled man on the street.

There have been many announcements in the past day by the various camera equipment manufacturers. Looking through all of them, I can’t help but feel depressed. It seems that everyone is going to be selling stuff that are too big, too heavy, and too expensive. I not only can’t afford most of this stuff, I don’t want to carry them when I actually want to go out and take some pictures for leisure. And these camera companies are wondering why people don’t want to buy their over-expensive, over-weight, over-sized products and rather use a mobile phone to take pictures. 😐

Starting With Mobile Phone Photography

2018. Singapore. No parking for motorcycles, but this isn’t one.

Yes, I am incredibly late to the world of mobile phone photography. I never thought much about it because the camera unit on the mobile phones I have owned over the years have never been known to be particularly competent. My start to mobile phone photography involvement was totally accidental. You know the usual story: I saw something really interesting and I did not have my camera with me. Besides, I don’t care much about the pixel quality of random street photography anyway. It is more about the moment than picture quality (Though having both would be ideal). So out came the phone from my pocket and I snapped away. And then I just thought, “Hmmm I should do this more often.”