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Nikon bought Samsung NX mirrorless tech. End of Samsung NX (?)


Pavel Mašek
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As a guy who shoots stills on Nikon for a living, I can unequivocally say that if Nikon releases an NX1 with no other changes than to fit it with an F mount, I will be down to the store that day. As much as I like my speedbooster on my GH4, it's still nothing more than a stopgap to let me use my Nikon glass with my GH4. If Panasonic made lenses with a look that I like as much as Nikon's, I'd sell all my adaptors and go native. The difference in weight is completely immaterial, knowing that I can mount any of my lenses and it being 100% reliable is by far more important.

Maybe Nikon can keep the NX mount for consumer versions of that camera. But if Nikon is releasing a professional line of mirrorless cameras, F-mount or bust!

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No, what I am saying is that an APS-C sensor is best mounted with an APS-C lens. Not sure why that is hard to understand. And in any case, if you have a high pixel density sensor you want to have a lens designed specifically for that sensor size and not some other sensor size. Sticking a speed booster in the optical path degrades lens performance. If you want maximum performance from your lens you are going to use an appropriate lens, not some lens designed for something else with a gadget stuck in-between.

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

Never imagined Nikon has the kind of money to aqcuire such an expensive collision. It does haa amazing potential. 

Most obvious examples are giving their DSLR lines the Samsung processor, video, sensor technology, as in a D7300 with 4K nikon video, 28mp BSI sensor, 120p, etc. 

There's also potential of a new mirrorless line but a farther speculation. Nikon is a DSLR company and they clearly say mirrorless is suited for 1" size and bigger defeats the purpose. People changetheie minds though. 

Very exciting news if true. 

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I would love that D7300, Ebrahim. Flat picture profile & codec are very nice on the Nikon cameras.

One observation...

Did anyone notice the excitement go up a notch with the mention of the word "Nikon"?

It just goes to show the power of branding and gives you a clue as to why Samsung sold so few NX1s.

That spec of D7300 would break the internet. People would sell the mum for one.

In fact it already exists with the NX1 and you don't have to put up with a flappy mirror in the way, only the Samsung logo tarnishing it.

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jacoblewis This is directly from nikonrumors.com:

"I have also received email tips on this topic but never found them reliable enough to publish them online. Several readers have asked me about my opinion on all this, so here it is - I have no reason to believe any of this is true. Here are my reasons:

  1. Questionable sources/lack of reliable info: I would think that if this is true, I would have received multiple reports from reliable sources by now.
  2. I don't think Samsung can provide any tech know-how to Nikon except access to sensors (Sony recently purchased Toshiba, Nikon has used Sony and Toshiba sensors in the past). Samsung will not completely get rid of their sensor division, because they need it for their mobile devices.
  3. I believe Nikon is going for a full frame mirrorless camera solution, the Samsung NX will not be of any help to Nikon unless Samsung has already developed a full frame mirrorless camera (there are rumors about that as well). Spending money to acquire just another APC-S mirrorless system after Sony and Leica already have full frame solutions is questionable to say the least.
  4. If Nikon has acquired Samsung's camera division, Samsung would not be publicly announcing that they are pulling out of different markets.
  5. Nikon is a Japanese company, Samsung is a Korean company - a possible integration will be difficult for many reasons.
  6. Nikon and Samsung are publicly traded companies, if something  really happened, there would be press releases from both sides. There are no leaks/rumors on that level of negotiations between companies of that size.
  7. Adding a new NX mount to the current Nikon lineup doesn't make any sense.
  8. Nikon will not gain a big user base - Samsung users are loyal, but they are not many of them.
  9. Nikon is very conservative and proud company with a big heritage- I just don't see them aggressively buying another camera division and spending huge amount of cash on a system that basically did not go anywhere (the NX1 is still one of the best overall mirrorless cameras out there).  I believe Nikon is thinking/believing that they are doing just fine and they have the full potential to develop anything they want if there is need for it.
  10. Somebody has been spreading false/made-up reports/rumors in the past few months and several websites have fallen for it by reporting it online as news coming from a "new source". I know for fact that those are 100% fabricated stories by the same individual(s). I would be very careful with anything you've seen online in the past few months. CanonRumors also reported on that few weeks ago."

 

Whoever wrote that has some misconceptions about cameras and business.

A modern camera consists of two parts, traditional hardware (the body, lens, etc) and a computer (the sensor, processor and associated logic). Nikon has extensive expertise in the former and not so much the latter. It is not their thing. Samsung on the other hand is a leader in the silicon part of the camera, so they have a lot to offer Nikon. It is not just the sensor, it is also the processor (Samsung has what is probably the most advanced camera processor around) as well as all the other bits. Without the lens a camera is just a box that encloses the electronics, and electronics is Samsung's strength, not Nikon's. A collaboration between the two companies would see Nikon focusing on the hardware and Samsung on the computer - the two companies would complement each others weaknesses and produce a product much stronger than either individually could make. This is what synergy is all about. The direction of development of modern cameras is all about electronics, and that is the strength of companies like Sony and Samsung. It is the reason why Nikon and Canon are falling behind, they simply do not have the expertise and experience to compete effectively in that particular field relative to the others.

On the business side, Nikon would not acquire the division itself, instead they would acquire rights to the assets of the division. Since Samsung would no longer have any assets in the division, they would not have anything to sell and that is why they pulled out of the markets in question. Far from being surprising, it is exactly what you would expect them to do. It would not be a situation where you changed the name on the building and just carried on as usual.

Nikon and Samsung would not be integrating anything. They would be collaborating, Nikon would be designing the body and Samsung would be designing the electronics. Samsung does this all the time with foreign companies, including Japanese ones - there would be no problem now because there hasn't been one in the past.

A press release won't happen until the companies are ready to announce products. Leaks will still happen, publically traded or not. It is not supposed to, but it happens.

The Samsung user base may be small relative to other manufacturers but it is still a big number that represents a sizeable chunk of cash and has value. I would think that it is in neither companies interests to alienate that base for no reason, so there will probably be some sort of transition mechanism put in place.

Lastly, if this collaboration is indeed true, it is highly unlikely that it just started now. In all likelihood it was in place before the NX1 even hit the market, but stuff is only happening now because Nikon are about to execute on the fruits of that collaboration and are exercising their options. If so, I think you will find that Nikon has had significant input into the development of the NX1 and S lenses (but probably not the NX500).

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Mirrorless Rumours is going all in... They say full frame is already developed by Samsung and now ready for Nikon.....

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/yes-we-can-confirm-samsung-developed-a-reayd-to-launch-full-frame-mirrorless-camera-now-owned-by-nikon/

Very interesting, what the source says about the FF Samsung sensor.

Now I just hope Nikon will not mess up the video mode!

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You'd hope that a deal of this size would also bring with it the technicians, software engineers etc. So unless they purposefully cripple the video, it seems very promising. They could even improve on it... I've always found Nikon's video modes have a certain natural aesthetic to them.

Glad some positive news seems to be coming out of what was seemingly a sad tale.... And you can bet your house that Canon are taking note of all this!

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This is crazy - better to wait on CES. 

But who can believe Samsung now - just check this post from September http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2015/09/23/rumor-busted-samsung-is-not-exiting-the-camera-business-at-least-not-the-on . There was also official statement... :-)

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Haha, this is gonna drag on for a while!

They really should be saying who this "official" source is though and the context of the email back and forth. An "official source" could be a sales rep who has no idea and has just answered no to the question "Are media reports true that Nikon is allegedly buying Samsung's NX technology"?

A healthy dose of scepticism is required.

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Imo, if there is any 'deal' among Nik and Sam it's the other way around. Sam is much more powerful and could 'acquire' the right of using Nikon name on its cameras to be released in Europe and USA. That'd be exciting.

agreed,  but all this would mean is the price of all the nx series would go way up, just for sake of the badge.

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