Bipod

Take a look at the steep decline in digital camera sales over the last 10 years.
Yet instead of fewer lens mounts, we've got more than ever (thanks to mirrorless).
Let's see how much we can fragment the market!

It's likely that one of the major Japanese camera manufactures will either go
bankrupt or exit the camera business in the near future.

Sure hope you don't own $20,000 worth of lens for a proprietary lens
mount of a camera line that suddenly isn't made anymore. But hey,
you can always replace all your lenses and cameras -- that's good for
the industry.

Some "where'd they go?" camera manufactuers: Adox, Agfa, Ansco,
Bell&Howell, Carl Broun, Bronica, Contax, Coronet, Graflex, Ilford,
Konica, Konica Minolta, Kosina, Minolta, Miranda, Pentacon (Praktika),
Polaroid, Tessina, Vivitar, Voightlander, Wallensack, Yashica, Zeiss.

In some cases, the company is still around (in some form) but doesn't make
cameras, in other cases the company is defunt (though the name may still
exist as a licensed "zombie brand" for cheap junk from China). (And here's
honorable mention for Ritz Camera Centers retail store chain, and to legendary
Eastman Kodak--the Incredible Shrinking Company.)

Unless sales of digital cameras grow very rapidly very soon, at least one major
Japanese manufacturer will be joining the above list.

gwilliams6

Zeiss is coming back with a fullframe mirrorless rangefinder-type Interchangeable lens camera (like Leica has now). Most of the remaining companies are diversified and do not need to live or die by their camera sales anymore.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

No offence taken. Just so I make myself clear: What happens if I own a Canon body and I want a certain Nikon lense that meets my needs better than any Canon or independent lens? If there is no Metabones adapter, I have to buy a Nikon camera with that lens to use it.

But if I see a Panasonic or independant lens that meets my needs better than my Olympus 4/3rds lenses, I just go buy it and use it. And if I decide I need a second body in the future for my "sudden interest" in video, I just go out and buy my Panasonic body and use all my lenses on it. And if I am a brand manufacturer and I want to still sell lenses, they had better be the best. Otherwise, I sell no lenses.

Canon, Nikon, and Sony could have done the same but didn't. It will affect the independant manufacturers the least since they will just buy the rights to the mount designs and make lenses. But maybe not the lens I want.

Call me greedy, but I like and want all my equipment to work with all the equipment available. Right now that is 100+ lenses. If FF had come out with a common mount, maybe I would have reason to consider going to FF's extra size, weight, and cost. I will wait and see how well the common mount manufacturer's equipment plays together.

Shutterbug57

Go LF, problem solved.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

You're right about LF, but I already have it with 4/3rds also. The only piece of Olympus equipment not universal is the TC-14 1.4X teleconveter. It was designed with a protruding front element and can only be used with the Olympus 40-150 f2.8 Pro and the 300 f4 Pro IS. All other Olympus and Panasonic 4/3rds equipment is universally interchangeable. The non-micro lenses do require an adapter, but all my Olympus lens' functions work with no noticeable slowing down. Yes, there are some specialized lens functions that don't crossover between Olympus and Panasonic, but all basic lens functions do. I can't count the number of times I have heard right here on this site how much an Olympus body owner loves his Panasonic 100-400 lens and how well it shoots. I have even considered going that route myself.

User ID

I'm ready to ditch my Canon bodies, but not my fave EF
lenses. An adapter on a Sony a7-II is my preferred body
for using those EF lenses.

And as to the m4/3 situation, thaz a very wonderful but
nearly unheard-of fluke in the world of interchangeable
lenses for small and medium size cameras. I use both
brands of bodies and lenses. I think the fact that they
have to compete with each other for the same pool of
customers, even AFTER the initial purchase decision by
each buyer, helps keep a lid on prices, which is exactly
WHY most brands do NOT similarly cooperate. All other
brands are loathe to keep a lid on prices. I suspect that
Lumix and Olympus did so to promote an unorthodox
format and dispel customers' doubts about its future.
IOW a public acceptance of the odd format was more
important to them than monopolistic pricing.


`

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

As has been mentioned several times already, the big asterisk on that statement is the fact that the M42-mount was used by various companies, including Pentax and many of the Former Soviet Union companies.

User ID

Huge difference between m4/3 and M42 [not
to forget L39] is that the m4/3 mount system
is proprietary, both in shape and connectivity,
but a threaded mount is not. No company can
own a generic thread diameter and pitch. Yet,
in a sense, they did try. Fuji, Pentax and some
lesser lights added mutually incompatible little
mechanical enhancements in the final years of
M42. As to L39, Leica and Canon both used it,
with no special permissions. That same pitch
and diameter is also nearly universal for use
with enlarger lenses.


`

Bipod

What we got from having the non-proprietary M42 mount was freedom.
Hard to put a price tag on that.

When I think of everything we gained by going to proprietary bayonet mounts--
full meter coupling, AF, etc.-- I'd trade it all to get that freedom back.

User ID

You could adopt the Pentax K-mount ... original
versions ... or AF film versions ... or AF digital
version. That is or was a widely shared mount.


`

gwilliams6

https://www.sonyrumors.co/sony-will-release-12-more-e-mount-lenses-in-next-two-years/

At Photokina 2018 press event, Sony announced that they will release 12 more native E-mount lenses in next 2 years. The latest Sony E-mount lens is FE 24mm f/1.4 GM Lens (B&H Photo/Amazon/ Adorama/WEX/ParkCamera). And they will also add AI to next Sony cameras, and Eye AF to work on animals.

BebuLamar

I think it's confirmed that the new Panasonic S1 and S1R have L mount. They look nice enough but then about the same as the Canon and Nikon offering in term of look.

gwilliams6

Photokina announcement of two new Lumix S series fullframe mirrorless cameras plus lenses ,due for early 2019 release . On paper they look amazing and far ahead of both Nikon Z-cameras and Canon EOS R camera. Panasonic is going for the pros also with new Worldwide Pro Services. Looks like Sony will wait until Photoworld in October to answer all the new competition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuxXBRLaqyw
LUMIX LIVE ＠ Photokina 2018

Bipod

Good suggestion. In storage I have an MX and two K-1000s,
and about a dozen lenses. But the lenses I have seen are either
Pentax or after-market lens companies: Sigma, Tamron, etc.

The other camera companies that used K-mount are
either out of business or out of the camera business: Almaz,
Chinon, Carena, Cimko. Cosina, Edixa, Exakta Lindenblatt,
Miranda, Porst, Promaster, Quantaray, Sears, Topcon, Vivitar,
Cosina Voigtländer, Zenit. Hard to believe we once had all
those choices.

Samsung is still making cameras, but not DSLRs and so not
K-mount. The "Vivitar" name is still in use but it's a "zombie brand".

The big Japanese cameras companies still to everything they
can to prevent their lenses from inter-operating. They had a
chance to develop and open standard when they went to mirrorless--
all the FFDs are almost the same:
Nikon 1: 17.0 mm
Fujifilm X: 17.7 mm
Canon EF-M: 18.0 mm
Sony E: 18.0 mm

They could have gone to the same FFD, which would make it much e
easier to build adapters, and would have left the door open to deveoping
an industry standard mount in the future. But instead, each company
is pursuing a "winner take all" strategy.

Digital camera global unit shipments by CIPA members sunk from 121.5
million in 2010, to 24.2 million in 2016. 2017 saw very modest growth:
to 25 million.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/digital-camera-shipments-15-years-decline-and-rise-2018-2

There are way too many manufacturers and way too many lens mounts---
and they each just added a mirrorless mount.

If they co-operated, Canon, Sony, Nikon, Samsung, Olympus, Fuji and
Pentax could all survive in a shrinking market: each company wouldn't
have to make a full-line of cameas and lenses, they could specialize.
Instead, it's "business as usual" (just as we saw with Kodak).

Time will tell for whom the bell tolls.