My brief suggestion (next story) that Nikon take the D3s sensor and make a small, light mirrorless camera from it along with a handful of new small primes provoked a lot of emailing from my readers. Manufacturers need to hear responses like these:
- "I will pay whatever Nikon dare to charge for such a body. Actually, I will buy two."
- "If Nikon could act quicker than an improved Leica M9 surfaces, I would buy one in a heart beat." (And the writer was assuming MF only.)
- "To Mr. Kobayashi, would I buy a digital Bessa? I definitely would. To Mr. Kimura, would I buy a digital FM3a? Hell yes!"
- "If they produce it and get it right, I'll buy it in a heartbeat."
- "I'd buy a small mirrorless Nikon with D3 sensor if I can use my 28mm and 50mm lenses...I might even buy two."
- "Count me in. If I can afford, I may also buy two."
- "I'd also buy two in a heartbeat. I'll order and pay for them right now. Then I'll happily wait for delivery three years from now."
- "Sign me up."
And they need to stop making snap judgements like these:
- "In 2006 at PMA I was having a chat with a Nikon VP. I mentioned over dinner how they would make a killing if they only released a digital FM2 (small, even monochrome). He looked at me and said 'how many millions will you buy, because you'll be the only one.'"
As I discovered over three years ago through surveys, there's strong demand amongst the serious photographer for a small, light, mostly (or all) manual, but highly competent in image quality FX camera. Unfortunately, the traditional camera makers have transformed (possibly temporarily) into mass market product makers. That means that they'll prioritize a product that sells in large quantities at normal margins (think D7000 or lower) over a product that sells in low quantities at high margins (think D3x).
In Nikon's case, they're now selling more cameras by far than ever before (true, 10 million of them are Coolpix, but they never sold 10 million compact 35mm film cameras in a year that I know of). That's a dangerous addiction, and one that is changing the company in both good and bad ways. Leica's resurgence is directly related to the Canon/Nikon/Sony(Minolta) shift towards volume. That's exactly how these things play out in tech: as the big volume game narrows to a few viable competitors, niche players emerge (re-emerge) as viable.
It strikes me that a small, all-manual, F-mount camera from a new player is not only possible, but a relatively easy design problem. At some point, if Nikon doesn't do it, someone with a modestly deep pocket will. (For those who try to read too much into that: I don't have a deep pocket; I'm not even sure I have a pocket.) Given all the success that Cosina has had with the Voigtlander lenses, I'm surprised they haven't attempted this themselves. They've got all the pieces.