Initial Impressions of the Nikon’s Marketing of the Nikon Z System
Get Nikon Z at B&H Photo.
I’ve got a bone to pick with Nikon marketing: stop wrecking Nikon’s chances of succeeding!At the outset I am disappointed in how unexciting the Nikon Z7 looks on the face of it, unless Nikon has hidden all the good stuff behind a boring messaging. Update: I’m much happier when I read the specifications and PDFs—the good stuff that the marketing message belied.
Any active mind has to start asking questions like how is the Nikon Z “unlike any before it” and how is it “mirrorless reinvented” and what exactly is “revolutionary” about the Z mount. I have no issue with making such claims so long as there is at least one substantiating example. Or even whether “lightweight mirrorless” is more or less heavy than the Sony A7R III. Failure to ask these and many more questions before issuing the press release is no-productive—because doing so would fix the problems in the messaging. Any marketing person worth his/her salt would start with the cool stuff, not claim to have it. Puffery = loss of credibility.
For my part, Nikon is now on the defensive in proving that its new Z system has any merit at all, so bad is its selling pitch. Update: the Nikon Z system brochure is far better, so I retract that comment.
I care about the functionality. So how does “Nikon mirrorless” sell me? “We’re good because we are Nikon” is not an argument. It’s what children and today’s college students say, lacking any personal value, or rational argument. Wow.
Fact check me on this, but aren’t all the top features called out by Nikon now unremarkable? There is no 6K or 8K or even 4K 60p video. The resolution is the same as the D850 which is scarcely more than Sony has had for years. The frame rate is solid but unremarkable. How exactly does the Z7 capture “more light”? OMG WTF.
Fortunately the Nikon Z7 looks excellently solid, if a little disappointing in not breaking new ground in the industry—mainly it breaks new and hopefully fertile ground for Nikon. See Thom Hogan’s thoughts on needing a “feeder line”.
More than mirrorless. Nikon mirrorless.
Our vision has always been to create cameras and lenses that capture more light. More light means more detail. More speed. More possibilities. The Z 7 brings that vision to life (and then some). Combining the advantages of a lightweight mirrorless design, a revolutionary new full-frame lens mount and matched lenses, a Nikon designed 45.7MP image sensor and seamless integration with Nikon’s DSLR system—including the NIKKOR lenses you love—the Z 7 is a camera unlike any before it. And yet, it’s unmistakably a Nikon. This is mirrorless reinvented.
45.7 megapixels | FX format | 9 FPS | ISO 64-25600 | 4K UHD 3840 X 2160 at 30/25/24p
