Kodak dumps it's DSLRs!

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0505/05053104kodakslrdisc.asp

Translated; There's much more profit in all-plastic
point and shoot junk.
-Rich

 

If the sensor had been decent, they could have given Canon and Nikon a run,
but even their samples on their website weren't that great.

http://download.kodak.com/professio...ampleImages/brideInLibrary/brideInLibrary.jpg

http://download.kodak.com/professional/products/cameras/proSLRc/sampleImages/model/model.jpg

http://download.kodak.com/professional/products/cameras/proSLRc/sampleImages/portrait/portrait.jpg

 

I like the double speak: "Kodak was keen to stress that this does not
mark the end of Kodak digital SLR's but that they wished to concentrate
on market segments which are more profitable."

Now, let's all hope that K-M are not next.

 

"cheap" appeals to the largest market share
"value" (quality for a given price) appeals to a lesser market share
"quality" appeals to the smallest market share

The market gets what it demands...if the quality of an item is disturbing,
don't buy it and some company will eventually fill the niche. Of course,
PART of the reason the market is demanding so many "cheap" goods is
due to manufacturers shipping jobs (i.e., income sources) overseas...it is
a downward spiral...at least until management jobs get shipped overseas.

Even when a country is capable of producing quality goods (like China),
it is still mostly the "cheap" stuff that comes over here. The Chinese
(manufacturers) complain that our importers don't want to buy quality
and the consumers (here) complain about the quality...but keep buying
so it keeps on coming. Too many shopaholics here for a healthy market.
If it doesn't meet your needs, don't buy it!

George
(climbing off soapbox)

 

That's one possible translation. Here are two others:

We're supplying chips to <insert vendor's name here> for their DSLR, and
we signed a non-competition agreement.

We're part of the Four Thirds consortium, and we're about to announce
our new 4/3 DSLR.

Which of these is true will emerge in time.

 

Part of the problem might have been aesthetics, too: their dSLR looked as
if it were designed by Mr. Potatohead.

 

Interesting tactic; Going from pro to downmarket and still staying
with DSLRs.
-Rich

 

If I used the latter advice I wouldn't buy anything. The Chinese
manufacturers are right, more people want cheap than they want quality, more
cheap shit is made, the stores don't have room for the quality stuff, so the
quality stuff disappears. It's hard to find basic household and gardening
utensils that are made like they were 30 years ago.

Greg

 

The blade on my Craftsman dandelion-digger broke off. I took it back
to Sears for replacement under the "Lifetime guarantee", as I did last
time that happened (five years each tool)(makes you wonder). Wonder of
wonders: They don't have them any more. "I suppose we could give you a
good price on (insert inappropriate tool here)". After all these
years, Sears went over to the dark side, and changed "Your life" to
"Life of the product", just like all the rest.

I hear the Earth is slowing in its rotation on axis, too.

The end is near.

 

I was looking for a GOOD coffee grinder. All most stores had were the cheap
plastic "grinders" that work like a blender. Finally found a store that
sold a kitchenaide -real- grinder and it was only like 3X as much as the
garbage cheapo ones, was all metal and glass and actually grinds the
coffee. Sure I could have saved $70 and got the cheap one, this good one
should last the rest of my life. I bet they sell 100 cheap ones to every
good one though.

 

Jeez, so cynical. Kodak as 0% market share, and the noisiest D-SLRs on
the market (except perhaps for Sigma).

So first KM, and now Kodak. Who's next to exit the D-SLR business,
Olympus, Pentax, or Sigma?

 

Actually it isn't hard, but such utensils are now a high-priced
specialty item, rather than being a normal item that everyone buys. You
see this happening in one product type after another. Bicycles are
another example, you can still by good stuff, but it's $2000, instead of
$400, because the quantities are much lower, since most people are
buying the junk that the bicycle manufacturers churn out by the
boatload, in China.

 

Hi Steven,

KM? Do you habe info they left? Although it would not surprise me when
they would try to stop the bleeding any time (same for Oly)

Regards

Benedikt

 

I can't believe Kodak couldn't make money selling $5000 DSLRs.
-Rich

 

You have to sell more than ten to make up for the development cost!

Eventually the bean counters at Olympus, Pentax, and Sigma, are going to
prevail, and convince top management that continuous negative ROI's are
not part of a long term business plan. It takes longer for this to
happen in Japan, than in the U.S.. It's be one thing if the market share
of any of these players was in the double digits, but they are splitting
2-5% of the total available market. Maybe Sony will pick up one of them.

 

When did K-M exit the DSLR business?