Sad picture of a passing era
Australian IT, Australia
APRIL 18, 2006
MINOLTA, Fuji and Nikon are some of the most legendary names in photography.
Minolta scored the world’s first successful auto-focus, single-lens reflex camera; Fuji invented 1600-speed film, once the industry’s fastest; and Nikon’s F-series made the 35mm camera the picture-taking workhorse for the past half-century.
These companies are now abandoning part of the business that made them famous.
In the past 10 years, camera makers have fought to adapt to the digital revolution, and recent retreats by leading brands show how the industry has turned upside-down.
Since interlopers such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have capitalised on their hi-tech know-how, traditional camera makers and their black scrolls of film may soon join 19th-century daguerreotypes as museum-shelf curios.
In the past few years, digital cameras have transformed from cutting-edge novelties to mainstream must-haves and with the market set to plateau, more players are chasing fewer opportunities and the old guard is losing out.
“It’s inevitable that many of the camera manufacturers in the market today will be either bought up or go out of business,” said Ed Lee, an analyst with US-based market research group InfoTrends.
More than three-quarters of all cameras sold today are digital, and digital images are expected to account for 90 per cent of all professionally taken photos by 2010, compared with 70 per cent now, according to US market research group InfoTrends.
Camera buffs were stunned in January when Konica Minolta Holdings, which began in 1873, announced it was quitting the camera business altogether and selling its digital assets to rival Sony.
Nikon announced in the same month that it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Fuji Photo Film, which plans to cut 5000 jobs, announced last month that it will spend almost $US8.5 million ($11.66 million) to diversify into pharmaceuticals.
Germany’s AgfaPhoto, Europe’s biggest filmmaker couldn’t adapt, and is bankrupt and liquidated.
Eastman Kodak chairman and chief executive Antonio Perez, who is leading through a four-year digital remake, has warned that the pioneer of point-and-shoot photography is “at the worst possible place” after a $US1.03 billion third-quarter loss.
Although Kodak is the third-biggest digital camera maker, it was slow to shift its focus to digital, quitting the black-and-white paper business only last year.
Some big names, such as Kodak, Nikon and Olympus, farm out manufacturing digital cameras to hi-tech companies with expertise.
Sanyo Electric, Taiwan’s Premier Image Technology and Altek Corp are among the ghost makers.
One key exception is Canon, which has invested heavily in digital technology. Canon shipped about 12.6 million digital cameras in 2004 to lead the world with a 17 per cent market share, according to US market researching company IDC.
Canon has used marketing to make sure consumers do not forget its name amid the onslaught of digital newcomers, and as a result its camera division accounted for only 35 per cent of the company’s overall sales last year, but 42 per cent of total operating profit.
That performance has helped Canon notch up six straight years of record earnings.
Global shipments of digital cameras are expected to peak at 92.7million units this year, before starting to decline because of market saturation, IDC analysts say.
Traditional camera makers such as Nikon are hoping to keep a toehold in high-end digital single-lens reflex cameras, which are favoured by professionals, use interchangeable lenses and tend to have higher profit margins.
But newcomers such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which makes Panasonic products, are already unveiling their own SLRs.
AP
The Australian
April 18th, 2006
James Cameron: Lights, Digital Camera, NAB
The famed director will keynote the Digital Cinema Summit on Sunday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters show.
By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb.com
Apr 17, 2006 09:18 AM
In one week all eyes will turn toward the Las Vegas Convention Center to see the latest media gadgets and tools at the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show.
Multimedia has exploded in the past year with telecommunications carriers and set-top box companies offering options, such as software from Sling Media that can turn mobile phones into televisions or Apple Computer selling TV episodes for $1.99 each on iTunes Music Store to view on iPods.
NAB attracts movie makers, content producers, broadcasters, engineers, and telecommunication carrier that are rushing to lay claim in Internet protocol television (IPTV) and streaming media to mobile devices and cellular phones.
On Sunday, James Cameron takes the stage to keynote the Digital Cinema Summit. Cameron, known for directing “Titanic,” “The Terminator,” “The Abyss,” and “Aliens” also will join cinematographer and inventor Vince Pace, and producer Jon Landau, to talk about three-dimensional (3D) digital movies.
Digital media will affect companies throughout the entertainment supply chain, from production to consumer. Earlier this month, six major studios began selling, rather than renting, full-length feature movies on the Internet through Movielink LLC and CinemaNow Inc. Universal Studios stepped in with “Brokeback Mountain” and Sony Pictures began selling “Fun With Dick and Jane.”
The broadcast industry also expects the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pull the plug on analog signals by 2009, moving high-definition (HD) products onto center stage at this year’s NAB conference.
A recent discussion with executives at NVIDIA Corp. highlights new graphics cards the company will demonstrate at NAB. The cards are meant for new workstations Hewlett-Packard & Co and Dell Inc. intends to deliver soon.
The graphics cards will enable HD broadcast networks to create “stunning graphics and flashy transitions in real time” and will give television viewers “a new experience,” said Julien Zanchi, NVIDIA product manager for professional solutions. “A few years ago any graphics card could do the job, but now with HD it’s more difficult to implement the processes into PCs.” Thomson’s Grass Valley will demonstrate applications that support multi-authoring and distribution formats, as the entertainment industry transitions toward a complete digital supply chain relying on bits and bytes.
Sony Electronics Inc. and other top camera manufactures will return to capture the attention of show-floor attendees by demonstrating HD cameras, such as Sony’s 4K-digital projector with 4096 X 2160 pixel resolution, said spokesman Tom Di Nome.
Internet companies have also found a place at NAB. Executives from CustomFlix Labs Inc., a wholly owned Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary, will offer new ways to self-publish and distribute DVDs on-demand. CustomFlix in March announced an agreement with Withoutabox Inc., a community of independent moviemakers, to provide more cost-efficient ways for independent filmmakers to create and fulfill industry screener and retail DVDs.
Software and services are making an appearance, too. Axia Audio, a division of Telos Systems, will launch software applications for IP-Audio networks at NAB. iProFiler, a multi-channel audio archiving and logging program works with Axia IP-Audio networks to capture and store up to 16-stereo audio channels, or 32-mono channels, of time-stamped MP3s without audio cards.
Quantel Ltd., focused on content delivery and digital cinema products and services, will launch workflow software, as more companies in the entertainment industry take a cue from enterprises to improve collaboration in their digital supply chain. ZoneMagic lets users collaborate on projects whether they’re in the same floor in a building, next door or across towns, countries and continents.
April 18th, 2006