Nikon has eaten into Canon’s lead the digital SLR space, according to numbers released by IDC, which were then turned into this pretty graph by CNET. Canon SLRs accounted for 42.7 of the market in 2007 compared with Nikon’s 40 percent. One year earlier, Canon enjoyed a healthier lead, with 46.7 percent of the market to Nikon’s 33 percent. Hard numbers, Canon sold 3.18 million SLRs last year to Nikon’s 2.98 million.
And? So what?
Again, I don’t own stock in either company, so it doesn’t really matter to me one way or another, but I can think of a few reasons why the numbers behaved that way. One, the D3 and D300 are truly great SLRs. So I’m told. Not being a photographer, really, I can only go by what people who actually know that they’re talking about said. I remember speaking with my photojournalism professor last fall (she works for the AP) and she was genuinely impressed by the D3’s specs. (Lest we forget that FC Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o uses Nikon, too.) What did Canon come out with last year? Nothing that immediately comes to mind, that’s for sure.
CNET also points out that SLRs as a whole grew last year, outpacing point-and-shoots. Reason being, says an IDC analyst, is that folks are looking for more camera for their buck as they get tired of using crappy (relatively speaking) point-and-shoots. Y’all already know my opinion on that debate.
I’m a long-time Nikon user, but I think Nikon’s gaining more ground in the pro-sumer SLR space than in the professional realm.
I picked up a D300 last year, but it was a piece of junk and I had to get it replaced. A LOT of people are complaining about the D300 being completely unusable due to electrical issues and are returning them.
http://www.notebooks.com/2008/01/22/d300-false-low-battery-warningsworthless-dslrthanks-a-lot-nikon/
You must be one of the only people I have heard complaining about the D300 - It is a stunning camera and takes beautiful photographs
I agree, it does take stunning pictures, but it’s a sad fact that there are a lot of us D300 owners who’ve faced a false dead battery problem that makes the D300 unusable. Just check out the story/video/comments on the link I provided in the above comment.
There are very similar stories on all of the digital photog forums.
My second D300 has performed flawlessly.
havent used D300 myself..but havent heard of the problem either. seen some people shooting with it,one even in the monsoon rain of the tropics. no body complained. guess u got one of those ‘very rare’ bad copies.
We need to see another report after Canon makes their latest release. I’m still completely happy with the rebel xti.
We bought a D300 the first day. We are still discovering great new features. The image quality is so much better that it takes less than 1/3 the time to edit them for presentation. The auto focus gets it right the first time every time and goes directly to in-focus. It is fast. The screen is fabulous and truely allows checking results in the field. Live view is also great and in conjunction with an HDTV makes some staged photography far easier to get it right. In my family we also have two D70, a D40, a D50x and some point and shoots including Canon. The D70 had remained the choice when creative controls were needed, and the D50x for either light weight or better resolution, but now the D300 is always the first choice.
I think there is something wrong with these numbers. Canon & Nikon had about 80% of the DSLR market in 2007, and were ranked # 1 & #2. The CNET article you reference states the graph and numbers are for SLR cameras, no mention is made of DSLR bodies, however Sony does not have SLRs.
To add to the confusion, the CNET article ranks Kodak and Samsung higher than Nikon. I think the author of the article mixed up the companies in the legend, and possibly the DSLR and Point & Shoot numbers.
DougJ is right about the mix up in the graph. It looks like total digital cameras, not just DSLRs.
However, Sony DOES have SLRs as well. They purchased Konica-Minolta’s camera assets back in 2006 and continue to make DSLR cameras using the Minolta mount.
Trust me lots of people complained about these problems for months after the D300 launched. A lot of us got replacement units, Nikon issued a firmware update to address it and other people are others are rigging their Nikons to get around these issues.