Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]These are fun http://www.bythom.com/2004predictions.htm and include "Leica's digital back for their SLR doesn't make it to customers in 2004. It'll show up in prototype form at Photokina and be much talked about, but it'll appear to be too little and potentially even later...That won't stop Leica from producing it or their existing customers from buying it. But Leica will be hurting big time financially by the time it appears. And exactly how they're going to attract new customers moving forward will be suspect, as they're behind in the digital image quality race." and The new Nikon F6 "The third new Nikon DSLR will shake up the industry. Last year I predicted the appearance of parts of the F6 (the autofocus system ended up in the D2h). Well, this year I'm going further, saying it will appear fully. Essentially, the F6 will be like a medium format camera in 35mm size. The main component will simply be a light-proof box with lens mount, shutter, and mirror mechanism. Perhaps that part will also have a power supply in it. But everything else (and perhaps the power supply) will be modular. You'll have your choice of bolt-on film or digital backs and your choice of viewfinders. Backs and viewfinders can be interchanged mid-roll/mid-card. I'll go further and point out that Nikon will use the Olympics in Greece to launch this hybrid. If I had to guess at price...." (prototypes of this have been played with elsewehere...) and "At least two traditional camera companies fold (perhaps they get acquired instead). Will it be Mamiya, Pentax, Minolta/Konica, Leica, Hasselblad (though the name might live on via their Japanese partner), Rollei, Bronica, or Horseman?... ..Agfa (and perhaps Konica) closes or sells their film plants. Markets with negative growth aren't the ones you want to be in. Perhaps the Icahn-produced Kodak film spinout will buy them ;~). Oh, didn't I mention that? If Kodak doesn't produce the results that Wall Street wants to see in the next six months (and they won't), Carl Icahn and company, who've been buying up Kodak stock, will move to split Kodak into chemical, film, digital, and medical businesses and/or sell portions of the business..." and see how he did with 2003: http://www.bythom.com/2003predictions.htm - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html