7Artisans will soon officially release this new AF 27mm F2.8 Z lens. No info on pricing yet…

Nikon published the financial report for the full fiscal year 2023. The company as a whole had a great year and that’s what they write about the Imaging Division:

In the Imaging Products Business, revenue grew on increased sales volumes of mirrorless cameras and interchangeable lenses.

Revenue: Up ¥52.6B YoY (Up ¥4.7B vs. previous forecast)

• DCIL market expanding mainly in China.
• Nikon’s new products (Z 8 and Z f) are selling well.
• Nikon advanced its shift to mirrorless cameras and interchangeable
  lenses.
• Revenue substantially grew YoY as sales volumes of mirrorless cameras and interchangeable lenses grew and ASP rose. The weaker yen also helped.
• Revenue beat the previous forecast due to changes in product mix and the weaker yen.

Operating Profit: Up ¥4.3B YoY
(Up ¥2.5B vs. previous forecast)

• Operating profit grew YoY as the effects of revenue growth outweighed increased parts procurement prices and sales promotion costs.
• Operating profit beat the previous forecast because of increased revenue.

And this is their forecast:

Revenue: Up ¥20.3B YoY

• The overall DCIL market remains stable. The mid/high-end model market is expected to expand.
• We continue to focus on mid/high-end models and expect sales volume and revenue to grow.
• We acquired US cinema camera manufacturer RED in April 2024.
• We aim to expand the fast-growing professional digital cinema market.

Operating Profit: Down ¥2.5B YoY

• Operating profit to decline on cost increases including RED acquisition-related expenses and R&D

Image by FDtimes

In an interview released by FDtimes the new RED Ceo Oishi he confirmed that in the future we will get Z-mount RED cameras:

We would like to introduce RED cameras with a Z Mount as one of the options in the future. It will be in addition to the RF mount currently offered, but it could take a couple of years.

Interestingly they do not plan to phase out the Canon mount:

We’re not going to take away people’s Canon mounts, because that would be unfair to the customer.

And yes, they are considering making Z-mount lenses too:

Our current Z lens series has been designed for higher resolution and precise image reproduction. In the future, we would like to take these different approaches into consideration for an additional cinema lens lineup if we have a chance. We do understand the market requirements.

Dpreview had a chat with all major manufacturers and asked them about their most important products in the past 25 years.

Nikon:
Nikon Z9: Because it’s a landmark in technology, pointing to the capabilities made possible by its parallel readout sensor.

This is what other manufacturers said:

Fujifilm:
Finepix X100: That was the first camera when we stepped up from selling point-and-shoot, entry-level compact cameras. This was our first attempt to do that, using the APS-C-sized sensor. X100 was a huge success, which gave us confidence. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have the X100,” he says Fujifilm’s “If that failed, we would have been in a very difficult position.”

Sony:
Sony RX1: The [Cyber-shot DSC-] RX1 is the beginning of our photography culture. Before that, we had launched RX100 series but still inside the world of Cyber-shot, kind of. RX1 is definitely a different world compared with our previous circumstances. That was a very memorable development period.”
Sony G Master lenses: From these G Master lenses, our technology improvement accelerated and our customers also changed. Customers rated our product highly and that’s become a very big motivation for our designers and our engineers. This generated a very positive momentum from this point onward.

Tamron:
Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD: That was a new concept because it was a fast lens, but we changed the focal length from 24mm to 28mm, and users accepted this concept. We knew that if we had a unique concept and we could let users know what that concept was, then people would understand. After that, we started to change, and we started developing unique lenses.”

Sigma:
Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art: If we’d failed with the launch of the 35mm F1.4, Sigma may not have survived until today. It was very fortunate that the customer received it very well and we could survive in the industry.
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art: After we launched the lens, we realized that videographers and cinematographers really loved that lens. So with the introduction of this lens, we started getting interested in joining the cine lens business, so I love these two lenses.

OM System:
Olympus Camedia C-2000 Zoom: The change from film to digital left a big impression for me.

Canon:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel: It played a very important role in shifting [the market] from film to the digital DSLR,” says Go Tokura: “Since 2003, Canon has sold more than 1 million of them.

Panasonic:
Lumix DMC-G1: It was the first camera of its kind. Fifteen years ago, no professional photographer used mirrorless, but now almost all professional photographers use mirrorless.