Thom once again on Nikon's neglect of DX...

I agree that the missing DX gear is intentional.  It seems obvious to me that they have a higher margin with FX cameras and lenses.  It wasn't all that long ago that they only sold film cameras and 2 or 3 Pro level DSLR's.

I've been wondering if they've decided that the margins for DX gear, at least the high end gear, isn't high enough for them to fool with for much longer.  Would they be happy just going back to being what they were, prior to 2004, when the consumer DSLR boom came to Nikon?  I certainly don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were.  Maybe they're satisfied with just 2 Pro DSLR bodies and then dabbling in the various consumer markets.

But, is it irrational behavior?  From our perspective, certainly it is.  But, the elephant in the room is that Canon is doing exactly the same thing, AFAICT.  So, is this the infamous Japanese collusion at its finest?  Can it be that both have top notch marketing departments that can see into the future far better than we can and that the future they see is much different than we can envision?

We tend to think that the high end DX cameras definitely have a place in the mix. As far as we know, both the d300 and d700 were high selling, high profit items for Nikon, with the same for their Canon counterparts.  A huge chunk of the d300 market is/was sports, wildlife, etc, which is the same for the Canon high end APS-C.

But now, at least at this very point in time, both Canon and Nikon don't seem to care about that market segment.  Thom Hogan has stated, more than once, that Nikon doesn't "see" the sports/wildlife market segment.  I don't see how that could be possible and said as much to Thom, but given the evidence, it certainly appears that he is right.

So, to where do we move on? Especially if Canon doesn't do anything special with the 7d, what choices do we have?  Well, if you read the FX forum, the obvious answer to that question is the d800, and to a lesser extent, the d600.   I can recall reading, with amazement, a post from a fellow that was shooting soccer or something with the d800 and IIRC, he was gushing over how much better it was than his d300, better AF, better colors, better this and that.  I wonder why I can't get that same golden feeling with my d800, when I try to shoot high speed action with it.

Kerry

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