Canon IXUS 240 HS
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS
Nikon D800
Samsung DV300F
Olympus OM-D E-M5
Nikon Coolpix P510
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Nikon Coolpix S9300
Olympus Stil Profitable
Olympus have published their financial results for the quarter ended 30 June 2009, which show that the company is still making profits - but a lot less than a year ago. The company’s net earnings after taxes have shrunk to 1.8bn yen from 6.5bn yen in the same period of last year. The imaging business was particularly badly hit by the global economic crisis, as European and North American sales practically halved versus basis. Most of Olympus’ other businesses also saw a decrease in sales, though it was not quite as drastic as that of digital cameras. Domestic sales of diagnostic systems, surgical and endo-therapy appliances as well as infocommunication solutions have enjoyed some modest growth.
Website: Olympus Financial Results
Canon IXUS 240 HS Review
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS Review
Nikon D800 Review
Samsung DV300F Review
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review
Nikon Coolpix P510
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Fujifilm X-Pro1
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
#1 Steelneck
Sounds good, but.. Olympus drop in profit is 72% that is quite massive, now compare that to Nikon.. They had a decline from 23.1 to 12.5, that is is only a drop of 46%.
I do also think that there is more to it than the ongoing crisis. I see that a lot of creative photographers around the world is jumping off the new-and-better technology train and looking for more back to basics. They revert back to analog gear since there are no simple basic and fully manual digital SLR cameras available, for any kind of money. I think this is a kind of early sign of the oncoming postdigital society, where technology more is driven by abstract human feelings than new technological possibilities. Just as the same happened under the last shift from modernism to postmodernism, things got measured by other standards than only technical performance, in that shift the small format camera was born just to take one example. A complete change of mindset.
The same happened in the eighties in wrist watches. Between about -75 and -85 "everybody" should have a digital watch. Anyone wanting a more classical analog wrist watch was completley ridiculed. But after -85 when the revolution in watch technology was complete, things reverted back. Today no one is looked upon as a fool buying analog watch. I think we have a similar shift before us in camera technology today. Not that more analog cameras will be sold, just as analog watches of today is fully electronical under the hood. There is simply a demand to be fulfilled here, a demand that is manifested today as creative photographers using old and simple manual gear. A diverseifying shift where diffent human demands controls development rather than enginers driving demand through marketing.
12:07 pm - Tuesday, August 11, 2009