Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

[bakubo]

Yesterday I saw a cute, young woman (early 20s) looking at and handling a Pentax K-01. Then about 5 minutes later another cute, young woman (early 20s) stopped and played with the Pentax Q.

In Japan years ago in camera stores women usually would be looking at the p&s cameras. Later mostly the little digicams. These days I much more often see women, almost always young women, looking at DSLRs and other non-digicam cameras. Last week I saw a young woman spending a long time playing with the Fuji X-Pro1.

I saw the first Canon G1X outside a store a couple of days ago. A young woman had it hanging from her neck.

Of course, most women (most men too, I guess) these days use the camera in their keitai (mobile phone). Smartphones are all the rage now so they are everywhere. But, more and more young women are interested in photography. I already mentioned all the photo magazines aimed at women these days.

[bakubo]

I saw someone with a NEX yesterday. He has a red NEX 3 with kit lens. I would sometimes see Japanese tourists in Hawaii with a NEX, but it is the first time to see someone in Japan with one.



So far the only time I have spotted an Alpha in Japan is in 2009 in Kyoto. A French woman had an A200 hanging from her shoulder with what appeared to be the 55-200mm lens, but she had a white Olympus m4/3 with kit lens in her hand and was taking photos with it.

[bfitzgerald]

I saw a NEX the other day seen a few micro 4/3 ones around too. But not in huge numbers..
DSLR still dominates where I am.

[Dr. Harout]

I saw a NEX the other day seen a few micro 4/3 ones around too. But not in huge numbers..
DSLR still dominates where I am.

Where I live (my house) SLT dominates...
(sorry, couldn't resist...)

[bfitzgerald]

I have not seen any SLT's as of yet I'm sure they are about.
From being around in the past I have seen A200's, A350's and a few A700's in use. I would make a stab at suggesting that general time frame was the most successful for Alpha. Saw a lot of A200's around even I got one (now sold though) I remember back then Sony gave some fairly impressive market share numbers for Alpha in Europe.
I suspect that's dropped though over time

[Greg Beetham]

There is a few TV channels here that play late nite movies, quite a few are Korean, a fair few are Japanese chop-sui Samurai ones, there are even some grand scale Chinese movies with thousands in the battlefield scenes, but they all are quite entertaining even though some are a bit corny with over acting. But I have noticed a trend with any scenes that has a camera in the movie, say a cop in a scene with a camera, often there is no brand name on the front of the prism housing like there used to be, when that happened the first time I wondered about it until I saw that the movie was SONY entertainment in the credits and obviously the camera was the wrong brand so somehow they were able to edit out the brand name.
Last night I was watching a movie (Korean I think) where a girl (who was a recluse) had a camera with a long lens, an unknown big black long lens that could zoom in to about 300X (unbelievable) she was spying on a man marooned on an Island in the middle of the river, (he tried to commit suicide by jumping off the bridge but failed), but anyway there were numerous shots of the camera from in front with her looking through the viewfinder and on the front of the prism was SONY, I think the model was an A350, that would have to be the first time I’ve ever seen a Sony DSLR in a movie I think
Greg

[bakubo]

This afternoon while I was climbing the stairs out of the subway there was a young guy (early 20s) with a Asahi Pentax Spotmatic and 50mm lens hanging off of a strap. For the last few years I occasionally see a young man or woman carrying an old, silver, manual focus camera from the late 60s or 70s and always with a 50mm lens. They usually have the strap around their neck and then with one arm through it so that it hangs sort of on the side and just slightly in front. Usually a Pentax, Nikon, or Canon. Haven't seen anyone with my first SLR in the early '70s, the Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL though:



Anyway, as I was watching him climb the stairs right above me I started to wonder if he had a battery in the camera. Don't need one since it is all mechanical, but the meter wouldn't work and that wouldn't be much of a loss. Then I started wondering if he had film in it. My next thought, strictly musing, was wondering if the young people with these old film cameras even use them to take photos? They may just be a fashion accessory for them. You can buy them cheap and they certainly have the vintage look that some people go for. Anyway, no idea, just wondering.

[Greg Beetham]

I think you are correct Henry, it’s the retro look I think, or maybe the foreign correspondent on some secret dangerous mission look, I doubt that they actually use the camera, I could be wrong of course, but there is only one way to find out, or maybe two come to think of it, you could follow one around and see if he/her actually takes a photo anywhere…or ask for a look at the camera and twirl the rewind knob backwards too see if there is any tension there. No tension = no film = foreign correspondent mind trip, with film = real foreign correspondent caught in a time warp and knows stuff about teletype machines, Morse code, shorthand, and probably has a notebook somewhere with actual paper pages.
Greg
Ps love that camera, I wonder if the parts are interchangeable with the ones in my SRT, did they all look so similar back then?

[Dusty]

A few years ago one of the local camera shops was looking for old mechanical film camera for photography students. The instructors then wanted them to set everything, not let the camera take the picture for them.

I'll bet these days they just teach Photoshop!

Dusty

[Greg Beetham]

I don't think learning or teaching the basics was all that difficult, what made it difficult were the limitations of the equipment, very noticeable when flash fill was involved, what with the rudimentary counterweighted meter, no TTL or OTF, measure the distance or rely on the flash sensor, 1/60sec sync being locked into one ISO and juggling f22 sometimes and then needing a flash that was powerful enough to singe eyebrows…Ah those were the good old days...thank goodness they are gone.
Greg

[bakubo]

On Sunday I was with friends hiking in the mountains west of Tokyo and I saw this woman using a Sony DSLR. She was taking a photo of some flowers on a tree. Clearly she seems to not quite have a firm understanding of the point of a tripod yet. I think she thinks it is just something serious photographers must burden themselves with and therefore, dagnabbit, she's going to carry the *?&$!% thing around so no one can say she's not a serious photographer too.

[mvanrheenen]

[bakubo]

The new list just came out:

http://www.dslrphoto.com/dslr/space.php ... g&view=all

[Dusty]

The A55 is 65 and the A77 is 80. At there are a few NEX cameras up there for Sony.

I feel like a Studebaker owner watching the new Fords and GMs roll of the assembly line and wondering where my new model is.

Maybe soon we can start a Sony DSLR collectors club as the brand goes slowly extinct.

Dusty

[bakubo]

This afternoon while I was climbing the stairs out of the subway there was a young guy (early 20s) with a Asahi Pentax Spotmatic and 50mm lens hanging off of a strap. For the last few years I occasionally see a young man or woman carrying an old, silver, manual focus camera from the late 60s or 70s and always with a 50mm lens. They usually have the strap around their neck and then with one arm through it so that it hangs sort of on the side and just slightly in front. Usually a Pentax, Nikon, or Canon.

Anyway, as I was watching him climb the stairs right above me I started to wonder if he had a battery in the camera. Don't need one since it is all mechanical, but the meter wouldn't work and that wouldn't be much of a loss. Then I started wondering if he had film in it. My next thought, strictly musing, was wondering if the young people with these old film cameras even use them to take photos? They may just be a fashion accessory for them. You can buy them cheap and they certainly have the vintage look that some people go for. Anyway, no idea, just wondering.

Today in a bookstore I was thumbing through a magazine and came across this:



I was right. It is now stylish to walk around with an old film camera. I still don't know how much they use them though. Some of the people I have seen with them look more trendy and often even younger than the ones in these photos.