Taking on number one

Michael Reichman writes:
"... In addition to being a fun perspective on a group of pros at work it's also a sign of the times to note the number of Nikons (black) vs. the number of Canons (white) in the shot. For the past 10 years or so at almost any major sporting event the number of white lenses would almost always outnumber the number of black lenses by a huge margin. So much so that Canon has run magazine ads showing this disparity. But that was then, and this is 2008. At this year's Olympics the number of Nikons in use by pros seems to equal if not surpass the number of Canons. A definite sign of the times."

Yes, indeed. In the seventies and eighties, Nikon was king of the professional camera market. But Canon started making excellent telephoto lenses with fast autofocus and image stabilization, and they won 95% of the market. And now it seems Nikon may be winning it back due to the D3.

I was once at a business seminar, where a marketing guru told us that you "don't take on number one", because you can't win. This shows that it's bullshit. If you can't win against number one, every company which had ever been number one would still be it.

By the way, it also shows that even the most healthy sounding business tactic is not bullet proof. One of the big draws of the Nikon label has always been their backwards compatibility. Your old lenses would fit all new cameras, Nikon promised. But Canon went the other way, and about 20 years ago they made a completely new lens mount, which fitted nothing old. Obviously that was a huge risk, but the technology of the new mount allowed them to make must faster improvement in things like focus speed, compared to Nikon, and they won the market.

And for that matter, in recent years Canon has been betting heavily on the highest resolution of any professional DSLR camera, and it was a great strategy... until Nikon dared to buck that trend, and launched the D3, which with 12 megapixels has a modest resolution, but for the same reason has a wonderful low-light capability, and all the pros really wanted that, it seems. Surprise, surprise. And I'll bet Canon was very surprised, because a year ago, the ten-megapixel Canon 1D III was the low-light king, and I don't think they had counted on being beaten quite so soon. (Also it may have been a factor that this camera has had problems with autofocus in some situations.) But you hear what I'm saying, you're only king so long as you have a head to hold up the crown. :-)

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Update: canonrumors.com is on the same track, and posts this picture. Indeed the black lenses are in a clear majority. (I count about 46 to 36, but I'm sure a bigger geek than I will have a more accurate count.)


Man, Canon must hate these pictures!