John Hicks
Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England
It will be sad if Nikon finally call it a day
Yea, like Rolls Royce is going to start reproducing the VW bug, after all VW sold millions, RR not so many.
The last I heard was that Nikon sends representatives to make sure the production of their products meet Nikon specs. They have a reputation to protect so that the production is closely watched. Yes, labor in Japan is expensive the average salary in Japan is about 150% of the US and housing is out of sight hence typically three generations live in a house. I lived there for 7 years and soon realized that I could not purchase a camera there because there were too many middlemen in Japan. Although I lived there, I ordered my camera and equipment from New York and received them in Japan for considerably less that purchasing in Japan.
CHG_CANON Posted this a long long time ago!
jjtotten ... A day late and a dollar short! Actually it might be a year or two late.
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There is little use in pinning for the good-old German and Japaneses film cameras that lasted a lifetime, built like brick outhouses, and the kinda stuff you hand down to your grandchildren. Nikon F, Rolleiflex, Leica M, Linhof, Graflex, Mamiya, and many others are all relics of the past. Some are still in service, and others are collector's items.
Face it, folks, today's cameras are somewhat disposable. They are nearly obsolete when they are still in the box. Even if the built-in obsolescence is not in the physical construction, it's in the software/ firmware, the discontinuance of parts, repair services, and support, and in the everchanging improvements and breakthroughs in the entire platform of modern photography.
So, at this point in time, I really don't worry, even if my latest purchased camera is marked "Made in New Zealand by the Ants". I hear they have some bigass ants down there- smart ones, and there are more of them than people! Y'all think China or the world is overpopulated- there are around 20 quadrillion ants on the globe.
Almost 2 years after Paul post the original post I wonder if Nikon has completed the transition to Thailand? That is the D6 is still on their line up but do they still make them? Are they making them in Thailand? or are they still making them in Japan?
Bill_de wrote:
Does it matter?
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If it doesn't matter then the first post doesn't matter either. So if it doesn't matter to you don't read or post.
The issue about camera, lens and photo accessory production isn't as much about the country of production as the quality of the design and the factory's ability to manufacture to that specification.
Canon was very big in China. Most companies have left China for a variety of reasons, just like they left Japan. The only true concern is the quality and durability of the final product. All this Canon-Sony-Nikon, etc. competitive garbage is.... garbage. (Otherwise known as "get a life"). Don't fall into a rabbit hole that you just dug! And, don't pay much attention to someone who seems forever fixated on this topic!
If you think where your high-end digital camera was manufactured is unimportant, it likely means it wasn't in Japan.
CHG_CANON wrote:
If you think where your high-end digital camera was manufactured is unimportant, it likely means it wasn't in Japan.
Out of the camera companies from Japan Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, Pentax only Canon still make most of their cameras in Japan and yet they still make good profit. So the argument that today you have to move production out of Japan to make profit isn't true.
Reopening a 3-year old thread is a great way to get abused.
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