Nikon to focus on digital: Digital Photography Review

So Nikon has announced formerly that it’s to focus on digital, dropping production of virtually all its film SLR bodies and manual lenses.

DP review summarises the press release so:

Nikon UK has made an interesting announcement titled ‘Nikon prepares to strengthen digital line-up for 2006’ that signals the beginning of the end of nearly 60 years of Nikon fllm cameras. Nikon Corp has made the decision to ‘focus management resources’ on digital cameras in place of film cameras, and is discontinuing most film camera bodies, manual focus lenses and accessories, and all large format and enlarging lenses. In Europe only the flagship F6 film camera will remain on sale.

This is news and not news, I suppose. On the one hand it’s been clear that the only film game in town was the professional F6 (lovely camera, even if it lacks the simple elegance of the F3); on the other that’s one heck of a game to have! The only modern, pro-specced film camera.

The manual (ie non-autofocus) lenses clearly were coming to an end: the more modern cameras needed the microchip in the lens to set aperture as well as getting distance information to assist with metering. The sadness over the manual lenses is that they feel so lovely: brass, rubber, glass… They have “heft”. They also weigh a lot and don’t focus for you (something I used to dismiss as unnecessary… Age is taking its toll!).

The real gap though is the fast, prime lens: the 50mm f1.4, or the 35mm f2 or even, if we’re being exotic, the 35mm f1.4. Given the multiplying effect of the DX sensors (which multiply the focal length by 1.5x) you’d need to have a 20mm f1.4 lens to get to the esoteric 35mm I mentioned above. I can’t quite conceive of such a beast – I certainly couldn’t carry one!

So the future looks in the medium term to have slow-ish lenses, mainly zooms and increasing amounts of megapixels and digital cleaning of the CCD output to compensate. This is a far cry from the simple, quiet photography of 15 years ago. Now we need a plethora of cables, chargers, batteries, spares etc, as well as a humungous chunk of whirring, flashing metal to take photos. No wonder there’s a renaissance of interest in rangefinder cameras like the Leica M6/M7. Small, quiet, discreet and with a build quality to drool over, these are tools for a more contemplative, involved and considered photography. The compact digital can cover the rest.

Now, it’s time to head over to ebay and pick up some prime lens bargains…

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Bravo for our Dutch friends who have an annual “latte art” competition. Gorblessem.

Thanks to ILikeCameras for the link.

BBC NEWS | Business | Remembering Peter Drucker

This is a lovely piece from Peter Day on the passing of Peter Drucker. You get a flavour of both men’s personalities from this piece.

It also served to introduce me to Day’s “Work in Progress” pieces, an:

exploration of the big trends upheaving the world of work as we steam further into the twenty-first century; and it is a work in progress, influenced and defined by my encounters as I report on trends in business and organisations all over the world

Peter Day covers a lot of ground at the BBC on business, but my favourite is “In Business”. When I think I know about a topic I always learn more, and when I know I know nothing (!) I find the presentation accessible.

Best of all the programme’s available to download (when it’s on air, that is. Check out the “Listen Again” page on the BBC when the new series begins).

Pricing is guesswork – but here’s a ready-reckoner… 🙂

Having been self-employed some years ago, and now working on ‘new business’ activities, one of the hardest aspects of new products or service is the pricing level. A “cost plus” approach isn’t ideal when either the cost is simply your time or when there’s an absolute limit to your earning due to a scarce resource (hours in the day).

Most people initially try and cover the mortgage (ie mortgage x2 /working days available), but the problem arises from success: if you’re fortunate enough to be fully billable then you’ll only ever make 2xmortage!

Anil’s suggestion is an enlightening one:
Anil Dash: Pay By The Hour

If you think this is just for laughs, consider the impact on an existing client when you suggest doubling your rate 🙂

Taking the M out of SME

In the UK it’s an established nostrum that the Government should focus upon the “SME” (Small and Medium-sizes Enterprises) as the engine-room of the economy. While definitions vary, there’s broad acceptance that the definition covers companies from 5 people through to c£250million turnover. Quite a large slice!

Those of us who’ve worked in the SME sector (or who are involved in supporting growth in this area – https://www.bl4london.com
) know that the needs and capabilities of businesses under this definition are by no means uniform nor similar.

This report sets out the 7 characteristics of “M” companies…

Paul Druckman, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants has undertaken a useful, overdue and insightful investigation into the specific characteristics of the “Medium” companies. This clearly articulates their increased sophistication, professionalism and approach as well as the specific support and development requirements. This isn’t to disparage the “S” companies, of course, but rather a belated acknowledgements that increased scale, skills and different behaviours should be addressed specifically, rather than a sort of “non-FTSE-500 catch-all”.

Paul’s 7 characteristics are:

Professional management teams

Enabling cultures

Effective systems

Longer time horizons

Value outside advice

Distribute equity

Diversify customer base

These criteria certainly ‘chime’ as being both sensible and a welcome change from the turnover/size metrics of the past. That they are also behavioural is welcome: it provides a growth path for the “S” companies – they can start ‘behaving’ as “M” companies immediately. Professionalising management, seeking and using external advice, considering longer planning horizons… all of these approaches are valid at £1m turnover as at £100m.

I’d be interested now to see some follow-up research as on whether there’s a correlation between these characteristics and growth…

London 2012 Homepage

So then, IOC, London wins the games. A tense knockout round that could teach RealityTV a lesson or two and then victory by 4 votes.

There’s a certain amusement in the French:British standoff following a week of Chirac’s graceless jibes and muted jingoism celebrating Trafalgar. While too in the Olympics themselves there’s a Silver and Bronze medal for consolation and recognition, the second place is brutally cruel.