The Wall Street Journal (via Engadget) reports: “Myoung Sup Han, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business at Samsung Electronics, and uncovered an interesting fact: the company is in the process of converting production lines at its main camera plant in China. Lines that once produced fixed-lens cameras will instead turn out compact system cameras, as the company aims to expand its presence in the more profitable mirrorless market.“
I guess this is a good move from Samsung because the smartphone market is eating up the compact camera sales. I hope Samsung can release some great stuff at Photokina. Unlike Canon/Sony/Nikon they have nothing to loose by releasing super featured cameras for a decent price!
15 Responses
Compact cams are dead because of “smart” phones. I don’t know why Samsung would bother with cameras at all?!? They are doing well with their TVs and tablets and phones.
Samsung mirroless aren’t bad at all, there are things to improve of course(like with Oly, Pany, Sony, Nikon, Pentax, etc.) But I think they are going in the right direction.
They are building a nice lens roadmap,their camera has APS-C sensor and hot shoe (for those who want to use radio triggers or external flash) the only thing for me they are missing is Peaking Focusing.
If the camera integration via wifi with Samsung mobile phones and other gadgets works like advertised it could be really well.
With the logic you propose:
Sony should stop doing cameras because they are a Playstation and TV company (they bought Konica Minolta a few years ago to enter de digital camera market it isn’t like they are a traditional camera maker). Yet they are doing pretty well with the NEX
Any chance they are manufacturing for other brands? I thought they build compact cams for some of the big boys as an outsourced manufacturer.
Samsung has done with TV, tablet and phones: became market leaders. If they decide for mirrorless, they will do the same there. The only question is how long it will take.
They have a lot to learn on the sensor – processor side.
My un-initated guess is three years.
What can go wrong for Samsung? It may be that APS-C sensor size may become obsolete. m43 Oly EM-5 is definately on par with the larger format. m43 has the size and weight advantage not least regarding lenses.
APS-C will be sqeezed from the larger FF format as well if we see FF (Nikon D600) at $1500.
(D800 also make a “m43” cchallenge towards MF cameras. Almost the same IQ as Leica S2 – at a fraction of the cost + lighter and smaller!)
Way to go Samsung! Although, with their position in the mobile phone market, it is understandable they are giving up on compact cameras. They just need to transfer their P&S know how into mobile phones and speed up NX system R&D.
not to be picky, but i just hate seeing this spelling error :):
“Unlike Canon/Sony/Nikon they have nothing to loose by releasing super featured cameras for a decent price!”
loose = opposite of tight
lose = opposite of win
Your Decent Price = No Profit for them.
The camera business is too competitive to charge excess prices.
The compact camera business is too competitive. The interchangeable lens system prices seem to have an upward trend.
I hope they will still make the successor to the EX1 like they promised.
Now they just need to find someone who will actually buy their cameras lol.
Nikon will become Kodak with his Nikon 1.
Samsung can get someone else in China to manufacture their compact cameras and put their name on it – others do this already.