Yesterday, Nikon announced a slew of compact cameras but conspicuous in its absence was the much anticipated and heavily rumoured compact system, or mirrorless, camera.
Nikon is yet to enter the mirrorless market, with many of its biggest competitors, including Sony, Panasonic and Olympus, performing well in the market with their respective compact systems.
Disappointing the rumour mill by refraining from launching its own model, we spoke to Nikon UK's James Loader, Product Manager for Consumer Products about the reasons why Nikon isn't currently in the market, and whether or not we may see something from the company in the coming months.
"We're watching the market, much the same as everyone else is, we'd be foolish to ignore what's happening," he said. "However, I would say that the Coolpix P7100 meets the needs of SLR users that want something more compact, or for those users that want to step up."
Market domination
Talking about the reasons why Nikon is currently absent from the CSC market, Loader said, "With our DSLRs we are already close to number one in the market, we have been attacking Canon really hard lately. Neither us or Canon are in the CSC market, but we still dominate the industry. I believe we have something for everyone at the moment."
Of course, there have also been numerous rumours that Canon would be unveiling its own mirrorless model at some point, with Masaya Maeda, Canon's camera division head, confirming to Reuters back in July that the company are considering the technical aspects.
If arch-rival Canon was to launch something in this market, it would be easy to assume that Nikon would be keen to follow suit. "We wouldn't have a knee jerk reaction like that if Canon was to do it," Loader explained. "We have to be very careful about making our own decisions, and consider what would be best for our customers."
Although the press and rumour sites undeniably like to speculate about the possibility of a Nikon mirrorless, according to Loader, customers aren't really asking for it. "When we were at Focus [an imaging trade show held annually at the NEC] last year, it didn't get asked for. It's really only the press that constantly want to know," he said.
The current line-up of compact models in Nikon's range, will be the complete line-up until at least Christmas, if not February, says Loader. However, it's not clear whether or not a CSC would sit somewhere else in their range, perhaps more likely to be alligned with the DSLR line-up.
Keep following TechRadar for more on any upcoming Nikon mirrorless models.
