> > 1) The numbers somebody posted said that in the last couple of years all > > the companies had sold something like 1.5 to 2 million DSLRs total, most > > of them to pros. Look at the pro photojournalists at any major event and > > you will see a lot of DSLRs (and no film ones). I do see D100s and > > digital rebels in my beat where rich parents who are sort of serious > > about photography buy them to photograph their children. Then they go and > > put Tamron 28-200 lenses on them... > > no, most of them Digital Rebels. it is the single largest selling DSLR model > by a comfortably margin.
Those numbers suggest that Nikon sold roughly 200,000 DSLRs, none of them digital rebel class. At least locally, more guys seem to have EOS1Ds and 10Ds. That would suggest that pro and semi-pro DSLRs still account for a substantial chunk of the sales. It still amazes me that Nikon thinks it can sell most of a million D70s this year at $1000 each. A $1000 film camera is still much more capable, and a D70-caliber film camera is only a couple hundred dollars. > > My point is that the average shooter probably bought a K1000 years ago and > > STILL HAS IT. They still work as well as they ever did. > > There are a lot more people in the K1000 market niche than > > the LX market niche, and those folks are not going to run out and buy a > > $1350 DSLR. They're going to get a digital P&S. Remember that P&S was > > really lousy until fairly recently, so anybody mildly serious got an SLR. > > This is no longer the case. > > having it is irrelevant if it's not being used, even if in perfect operating > condition. the only people in the all manual low end market niche are people > in photography classes and most of them are strapped enough for cash or > planning to upgrade to a real camera after the requirements are met that > they will buy used for the semester or two they have to have one. A lot of casual photographers are probably in NO market niche, because they don't intend to replace whatever film camera they have until it breaks. When I'm out and about, I don't see the majority of casual photographers using this year's model, although recently I would say that a majority of them have AF SLRs. Canon is not selling all those film rebels (the best selling camera in the world) to photo students. Perhaps all the people buying K1000s used are photo students or collectors, but there is still a very large market for cheap new film SLRs. > the older cameras require operating systems and peripheral hardware that are > hard to get. there was a column on buying used Pro DSLRs like the DCS520. > the advice was that most of them were not worth buying because they were > worn out. only if you get very lucky will there be one that will have enough > residual physical life to be worth buying. In general, it seems like poor economy to buy a used pro DSLR because they are used hard and likely to be used up, and because at least right now the older models are pretty limited in capability. This might also be said of pro film SLRs, and there is no shortage of those on the used market, and there was even before DSLRs came along. Standardization of peripherals and such has increased, although the ability to get an older DSLR repaired has not. DJE
