Originally, I was slated to write an article telling Nikon photographers to stop worrying about what others say about them on social media. And that they should focus more on making actual good photographs instead of the camera brand nationalism that the marketing big-wigs make us endure. But when I really thought about it, Nikon sometimes does some really stupid things for being such a smart and enduring company. What I’m talking about this time is how they’re possibly going to hurt their business by going after Viltrox.
Yesterday, we reported on how Nikon is going to most likely go after Viltrox for making lenses for the camera system without licensing. This has been a tale as old as autofocus cameras pretty much are. Brands like them and Canon go after third parties because they find that it hurts their own sales.
With that in mind, the Japanese camera and lens manufacturers refuse to learn the lesson that consumers have been trying to tell them since the start. To reiterate what I said in my article Chinese Lenses Aren’t Cheap, We’re Just Used to Overpaying, we don’t need to buy the Japanese products. For years, the camera brands used to take pride in that something was made in Japan. But more often than not, many of those products aren’t made in Japan. These days, a whole lot is made in China, Thailand, or somewhere else.
China has proven it: so what if a product is made in Japan?
So here’s a very novel idea: instead of charging a massive amount of money, why not charge a price that rivals the third-party manufacturers? That isn’t a race to the bottom — instead, I’d make a strong argument that going after content creators instead of sticking to helping photographers is a race to the bottom. More and more folks are disconnecting, so much so that this year might actually be the year that Phoblographer launches a print magazine again.
This idea wouldn’t work in Japan because Sigma and Tamron make most of the lenses for so many brands. I was a guest on the Lensrentals podcast where we spoke about this a lot. Nikon, in fact, has three or so lenses that are literally just copies of Tamron lenses. Other brands have done the same thing, too. So, essentially, it’s the Japanese manufacturers keeping the others out.
For the past few years, I’ve been personally buying more and more into the Nikon ecosystem. I own the Nikon Zf, several Nikon lenses that I bought, and a few third-party lenses that are a mix of offerings that brands let us keep (and we declare) and lenses that I bought used. But if the camera system weren’t so open in the first place, I wouldn’t have wanted to buy into it.
As it is, I didn’t have to buy any lenses for the Nikon Z system because I own so many lenses for the Sony E mount. I could easily use a Megadep adapter, and I can use a Techart adapter to make my Leica M-mount glass autofocus, too.
Obviously, this means that I buy fewer Nikon lenses beyond the three I’ve already purchased. But at the same time, Nikon has zero interest in making the kind of lenses that I want.
So after I’ve already paid for the product, shouldn’t I have the right to do what I want to with it? I understand if Nikon doesn’t want to repair it for free. But I should be allowed to use whatever lenses I want on the camera that I paid for.
This is the bigger problem with the camera world in general. I really just wish that everyone used a universal lens mount and a universal flash mount. If that were the case, then the brands would actually have to innovate and make better products for the entirety of the photography industry. Instead, everyone had a 50mm f1.8 — one is super cheap, two have weather resistance, another is an in-between price option, etc.
Nikon sued RED and ended up buying them. I truly now wonder if Nikon will try to do this to Viltrox.
Here’s some more advice, Nikon: worry more about what Trump is doing to the world economy with tariffs than blaming the Chinese for doing exactly what the Japanese have been doing for years.