Regarding the whole buyout story, there is a lot that don’t know and probably cannot know. Among these things are Sony’s intentions. They could include:
1. Acquiring some intellectual property from Tamron.
2. Enlisting Tamron’s manufacturing for Sony products.
3. Trying to buy out and then close a potential competitor.
4. Seeing Tamron as a cross-platform entre to selling to users of other camera brands.
5. Expecting that Tamron will be profitable by selling a less expensive line of lens to budget conscious buyers.
6. Any number of other possibilities.
The concerns mentioned in the thread are potentially real, including the fear that Sony might become so big in the photography gear market that they manage to reduce competition.
Time will tell.
- - -
On a different subject…
Newenglandrocks wrote: old-gregg wrote: gdanmitchell wrote:
I still think that it won’t be a lot longer before a Chinese photographic equipment company “does a Sony on Sony,” equalling their quality and doing so at significantly lower prices.
Hold on. Are you actually rooting for this? Are you aware that the CCP’s official industrial policy openly calls for the forced deindustrialization of the West? Their grip on rare earths is not an accident, it's an implementation of the long term strategy. Are you aware that many Chinese manufacturers operate at a loss by design, with the government closing the liquidity gap through subsidized loans? Are you aware that Chinese companies are instructed to avoid buying Western products whenever possible?
China, by the way, could easily be the underlying reason for this merger. Japanese automakers are already openly calling for government-assisted industry consolidation to defend against the Chinese onslaught. This has nothing to do with competitiveness. Privately funded companies, with obligations to shareholders and operating under strict labor, intellectual-property, and environmental laws, cannot possibly compete with quasi-governmental companies perpetually funded by the state, operating under loose labor laws, stage-assited with industrial espionage, and relaxed environmental restrictions.
100% this. The Chinese government funneled billions into Huawei and they became a formidable competitor by copying innovations made by Western companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco, Juniper and others.
If Huawei was "version 1," "version 2" is the Chinese automakers and consumer imaging companies. Just look at the products from BYD and Insta360, and you'll realize that it is now fast innovation and not merely copying.
I could forsee a Chinese company coming in and offering a fully networked and AI powered offering on PL or L mount and completely upending the interchangeable lens camera market. They start with bodies using Sony sensors and a few features like decent phone integration (check out the Insta360 app if you doubt their software capabilities). Next step - BOOM! - gen 2 use Chinese designed high res 45MP+ global sensors that can AI cull and process your photos (based on learning your LR or C1Pro catalogs) on the primary card slot for $2000 and they offer a competitive 70-200 f/2.8 for $900 to the mix and eventually $4000 400 and 600 primes. It sounds far fetched, but not any harder than what they've already done.
The real question is whether the market is big enough for them to pursue. I would suspect not, but we don't really know.
Since you are replying to his post, which was itself a reply to something I wrote, when this poster asks me, “Hold on, are you actually rooting for this?”…
No. I’m not.
Nnowhere in my original post did I say or suggest that this was a good (or a bad) idea, so, no, I was not “rooting for this.”
Jul 30, 2026 at 04:12 PM
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