Nikon representation in NZ

Forums › Digital Imaging › Nikon representation in NZ - what next?

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#153606 2-Oct-2014 16:41

In case it is of interest to anyone, the distributor for Nikon in NZ, T A Macallister, have wound up their imaging division and will no longer be representing Nikon here.

Rumour has it that they were not making enough coin from the job so told Nikon that they could no longer carry on.

As of this moment, no announcements have been made as to what representation will be in future. The scuttlebut amongst us professional photographers is that one of the following is likely:

1) Nikon will abandon NZ altogether

2) CR Kennedy will take it on

3) Lacklands will take it on

4) Nikon Australia will open an office in Auckland and deal with it from there

This is mostly I believe a factor of the market penetration Canon have as well as the newcomers.

A well known photographic retailer I know whose business is very much orientated toward pro shooters told me yesterday that they now sell more Sony gear in a month than Canon and Nikon combined...!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1145789 2-Oct-2014 16:49

That's a shame, they did a good job. Nikon can't leave NZ unsupported, they'll have to appoint a service agent at least.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1145811 2-Oct-2014 17:21

timmmay: That's a shame, they did a good job. Nikon can't leave NZ unsupported, they'll have to appoint a service agent at least.

Oh they sure can if they want to - just tell everyone to send it to Australia.

Several watch brands (Breitling for example) do just that.

Hopefully they won't do that of course!

Personally I am now giving very serious consideration to jumping ship to the Sony A7 system now that the A7s is released.

It offers Nikon D4s-beating full frame high ISO ability at half the weight and a third of the cost, still in a magnesium alloy weather sealed body. Plus it shoots 4K video if that floats your boat. It's 'only' 12 Mp but then again so is my Nikon D3s.

Since I am not a sports photographer I have to say that the appeal of lugging chumping great DSLR's around is losing it's appeal as I get older!!

Batman

Mad Scientist
29761 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1145850 2-Oct-2014 18:08

darn ... i was ogling at the d750 ... need. 2. save. some. coin.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1145854 2-Oct-2014 18:15

Nikon did the same in Aus a few years ago - dropped their local agent in favour of Nikon Aust. doing the distribution. When margins are being squeezed "middle-men" won't survive unless they add value/sales. The writing will have been on the wall a long time.
The market for interchangeable lens cameras is declining, however it's premature to say that people are dumping Canon/Nikon - AFAIK they still enjoy 75% share of a declining market.
Sony are losing many billions, their camera division is tiny, it wouldn't surprise me if they sell it.

gzt

17111 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1145876 2-Oct-2014 18:50

TA Mac were excellent as a service agent.

alasta

6703 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#1146149 2-Oct-2014 22:45

Wow, this is a bit of a shock.

I believe that Olympus wound up their relationship with their third party distributor a few years ago in favour of supplying NZ from Australia. I would think this is the most likely scenario for Nikon.

For a while now I have been considering moving from my Nikon DSLR gear to a mirrorless alternative but it's a longer term thing given the cost involved.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1146153 2-Oct-2014 22:58

alasta:

For a while now I have been considering moving from my Nikon DSLR gear to a mirrorless alternative but it's a longer term thing given the cost involved.

Nikon will come up with mirrorless apsc/full-frame bodies. They are biding their time on this - IMO a wise move. The advantages/disadvantages of both (mirrorless and slr) are being wildly overstated on internet forums.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1147011 3-Oct-2014 22:59

Fred99:
alasta:

For a while now I have been considering moving from my Nikon DSLR gear to a mirrorless alternative but it's a longer term thing given the cost involved.

Nikon will come up with mirrorless apsc/full-frame bodies. They are biding their time on this - IMO a wise move. The advantages/disadvantages of both (mirrorless and slr) are being wildly overstated on internet forums.

As a professional photographer, I have to say that the vast majority of what gets spouted on internet photo forums is the worst kind of uninformed drivel. It typifies the old adage 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'!

Mirrorless is an interesting development - one which Nikon and Canon MUST adopt soon I think.

The new Sony A7s has better high ISO performance than the Nikon D4s and costs $5,000 less. Now, the D4s has the advantage in some other areas (AF speed, battery life etc) but both are weather sealed magnesium alloy bodies etc. and I suspect that the number of buyers for a camera body at $8500 in NZ is low. Progear in Auckland have sold more Sony cameras to professional customers in the last few months than Canon and Nikon combined, they told me.

The A7s is certainly piquing my interest for my documentary image projects: a full 2 body kit would weigh 50% of my Nikon setup, cost less to replace and produce better quality files in most cases. Most importantly I would get shots that the Nikons miss - and that is important when doing client work.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1147098 4-Oct-2014 10:32

Geektastic:
Fred99:
alasta:

For a while now I have been considering moving from my Nikon DSLR gear to a mirrorless alternative but it's a longer term thing given the cost involved.

Nikon will come up with mirrorless apsc/full-frame bodies. They are biding their time on this - IMO a wise move. The advantages/disadvantages of both (mirrorless and slr) are being wildly overstated on internet forums.

As a professional photographer, I have to say that the vast majority of what gets spouted on internet photo forums is the worst kind of uninformed drivel. It typifies the old adage 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'!

Mirrorless is an interesting development - one which Nikon and Canon MUST adopt soon I think.

The new Sony A7s has better high ISO performance than the Nikon D4s and costs $5,000 less. Now, the D4s has the advantage in some other areas (AF speed, battery life etc) but both are weather sealed magnesium alloy bodies etc. and I suspect that the number of buyers for a camera body at $8500 in NZ is low. Progear in Auckland have sold more Sony cameras to professional customers in the last few months than Canon and Nikon combined, they told me.

The A7s is certainly piquing my interest for my documentary image projects: a full 2 body kit would weigh 50% of my Nikon setup, cost less to replace and produce better quality files in most cases. Most importantly I would get shots that the Nikons miss - and that is important when doing client work.

Horses for courses. You don't need to pay anything like $8500 for a weather sealed full format DSLR - unless you also "need" the high frame rates. In that case the "weight penalty" vs a mirrorless model of the same format also mainly disappears into insignificance unless you only carry one or two very light lenses.
IMO the "revolution" is mainly over - what was once gobsmacking and compelling has become routine. Efficiency of sensors has plateaued, the camera makers are resorting to gimmicks.
It's getting worse on forums like DP Review. Half the posts on there are by "new owners" of xyz model who've "upgraded" or have been "upsold" into expensive sophisticated camera bodies, when they don't understand the very basics. The other half of the posts seem to be by gearheads, using photos of their cat/dog, brick walls, or back yard "landscape" to "prove" why they needed to pay $5k for a lens.
Every camera made seems to have too many or too few megapixels, the sensor size is either too large or too small, the format too elongated or too square, they are made using too much magnesium or too much plastic, have too many buttons and levers or too few etc etc ad nauseum.

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1147104 4-Oct-2014 10:39

The new D750 looks pretty nice though. I still use two D700s, Nikon finally gave us a viable upgrade path. I'm not doing much photography at the moment otherwise I'd jump on a couple... though the D700s are still awesome and going strong.

I mostly use my little Sony RX100 these days.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1147105 4-Oct-2014 10:41

timmmay: The new D750 looks pretty nice though. I still use two D700s, Nikon finally gave us a viable upgrade path. I'm not doing much photography at the moment otherwise I'd jump on a couple... though the D700s are still awesome and going strong.

I mostly use my little Sony RX100 these days.

The 750's are still listed as unavailable and no price in NZ AFAICT. Meanwhile, US customers have been shooting them for almost 2 months...! ;-)

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1147108 4-Oct-2014 11:01

I bought half of my Nikon kit from the US. I got the other half from NZ once Nikon decided to make prices more reasonable, for a while NZ was almost double the US.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1147124 4-Oct-2014 12:04

Geektastic:
timmmay: The new D750 looks pretty nice though. I still use two D700s, Nikon finally gave us a viable upgrade path. I'm not doing much photography at the moment otherwise I'd jump on a couple... though the D700s are still awesome and going strong.

I mostly use my little Sony RX100 these days.

The 750's are still listed as unavailable and no price in NZ AFAICT. Meanwhile, US customers have been shooting them for almost 2 months...! ;-)

No - for about 2 weeks is closer - you're perhaps thinking of the D810. The D750 was only "announced" in the US 3 weeks ago.

If Nikon's distribution channel is changing, then that may explain why there's a delay here. Anyway list price will be high-ish - $3.2k I expect, D810 list price is over $4500. It is still a lot of coin (IMO) for the "one stop" FX advantage over half-frame APS-C.

Photo and Video (Chch) has for a while listed various Nikkor lenses at more competitive prices - but "Indent" (IOW not ex local stock held by the agent). This wasn't limited to uber-expensive telephotos etc - but quite standard lenses. An example Nikon AF-S 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 G ED indent = $745. That's a better price than from B&H New York.

My guess is that TA Mac's haven't "relinquished" the agency, but have been squeezed out by price margin pressure. If product becomes "Indent" to remain competitive, then there's no added value from the local agent - they're just clipping the ticket. However Nikon don't seem to have a registered office in NZ - yet.

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1147610 5-Oct-2014 14:52

Fred99:
...Photo and Video (Chch) has for a while listed various Nikkor lenses at more competitive prices - but "Indent" (IOW not ex local stock held by the agent). ...

What does "indent" and "IOW" mean please? Parallel imported?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1147668 5-Oct-2014 17:11

grolschie:
Fred99:
...Photo and Video (Chch) has for a while listed various Nikkor lenses at more competitive prices - but "Indent" (IOW not ex local stock held by the agent). ...

What does "indent" and "IOW" mean please? Parallel imported?

IOW - "In Other Words".

"Indent" is (was?) "special order" (usually from overseas) as opposed to ex-stock. I doubt Photo and Video would do parallel importing. However, as this wording had been used on their price lists for a while - something may have been up with at least one major retailer, Nikon, and TA Mac. before the announcement.
Photo and Video are a good, well established photo store - no doubt getting hammered on price by both parallel import businesses, and private imports via the web locally.
I note they have the following comment on their site:
"Due to a change in NZ Nikon distribution, some items are unavailable for a short time, please contact us for availability prior to ordering."

1 | 2 | 3 | 4