I don't see enough pricing power to support adding $500 for inflation -- at least not on a permanent basis. I don't think the market has that kind of sustainable pricing power in these economic circumstances. I think that the demographic that is able to tolerate a gratuitous $500 markup is going to be limited to professionals and hard-core enthusiasts with ample discretionary budgets. Today the middle class comprises a shrinking demographic.
Nikon has well defined price gaps across it's model lines that Nikon is going to have to live within to remain competitive in the marketplace. Technology is inherently deflationary and prices are supposed to fall, not rise, over time -- or new features/enhancements are supposed to be added at the same price point. I don't see a lot of future pricing power when the economy is weak, where entry level mid-resolution cameras already cost $2500 and a full-featured high-res camera already costs $3500 to $5500. Irrespective of the high level of enthusiasm that we have over the new features in these cameras, it's important to remember that we are hard core enthusiasts and those of us who have money burning a hole in our pockets as we romanticize about the next body release don't represent a wide demographic in the marketplace.
A mid-level camera needs to have mid-level pricing. An enthusiast-grade camera needs to be priced to be 'affordable' for enthusiast consumers. As consumer spending budgets become constrained due to inflation the companies that manufacturer expensive discretionary items are going to have a rough time raising prices.
To extract the most possible revenue from the market Nikon uses S-tiered pricing, and that's working well for them. They mark-up the camera price by $500 when the camera is first released, extracting the novelty premium from the hard-core enthusiasts who cannot wait to obtain the latest and greatest new cameras. Once those sales at that price level have been maxed-out and sales slow down, Nikon will lower the price to a new tier until the camera has sold to everyone at that price point. They use the descending tier pricing model in order to extract the maximum amount of revenue over the product's life cycle, then they start all over again with the replacement model. Looking at the NikonUSA web site: with the advent of the Z6iii at $2500, the Z6ii has been marked down to $1500, which is cheaper than the Z6 at $1700.
Pricing tiers aside, I think that Nikon probably has long term plans for a Z6, Z7 and Z8 in their lineup, just like they had long term plans for the D6x0, D7x0 and D8x0 cameras. I don't see them eliminating the Z7 series. The 6 series will be the mid-res performance camera, the 7 will be the high-res basic camera, and the 8 will be the high res full-featured camera. Not everyone is willing to pay what it costs for the 8 series, and there's good reason for Nikon to maintain an intermediate step between the 6 and the 8.
My vote: Z7iii Alive... but medium format keeps looking better all the time.
Jun 18, 2024 at 12:04 PM
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