Article Summary:

Thom Hogan writes in his Nikon blog, byThom, about the future of the DX sensor format. He has designated October to be “DX month” on his blog and will explore the options and trends for DX camera development. Given that DX format cameras are still of great importance to underwater photographers, the information is relevant and is also the basis of a great discussion on the forum. In a separate article entitled the “State of Nikon DX in 2012”, Hogan makes the following observations:

“Overall, here in late 2012 the state of the DX market is this: Nikon is serving the low-end customer decently, the high-end customer much more poorly. This is not something they should want to continue, especially since those high-end customers (D7000, D300s users) are leaking downwards (to m4/3, NEX, X-Pro1).

Some may think I’m tilting at windmills here (Nikon themselves is probably included in that group). After all, Nikon’s sales have never been higher, and they seem to be growing. Sure, and GM sold a lot of cars right up to their collapse, too. Sales are not by themselves an indication of health of a company or that they understand their customers or what to do for them. Sales can be goosed by sales and marketing techniques that ultimately undermine a company’s brand reputation and user base. Other than Nikon’s FX products, all of their cameras seem to be on constant sale here in the US, with instant rebates the norm, and those goosed upwards whenever sales volume lags a bit. So one thing about DX in 2012 is that it’s constantly on sale. To me, that’s a sign of weakness. I believe Nikon needs to shore up DX before the weakness becomes permanent.”