disruptive innovation - mamiya and digital imaging
DESCRIPTION
What happened to Mamiya in the shift from analogue to digital imaging.TRANSCRIPT
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Mamiya and the Digital Revolution
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Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and
speaks about disruptive innovation and technological change.
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Along with Hasselblad,
Pentax, Contax, Bronica and some other companies,
Mamiya used to be a dominant player
in the medium format segment of
the camera industry.
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The medium format segment is comprised of those cameras which use 6*6, 6*4,5 and 6*7 cm film. The segment
has always been very small in relation to the camera industry, only about 1-3
percent of all cameras sold have been medium format cameras. It has always been a niche market for professional
photographer.
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On September 1, 2006, the Mamiya camera business was
sold to Cosmo Digital and formed a new company, Mamiya Digital Imaging.
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The shift to digital imaging
had created a
lot of problems
for the company.
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Let’s go back in time and take a look at what
happened to Mamiya.
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Mamiya emerged after the second world war as a low cost alternative to Rollei. The
Mamiya camera was not as small or smooth, but it was reasonably cheap and unlike Rollei had interchangeable lenses.
Over the years, Mamiya kept improving
their products and emerged as a formidable competitor to Hasselblad, for instance in the segment for wedding photography.
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Over the years, thousands of wedding memories have been captured by Mamiya cameras.
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It was actually in Mamiya’s
segment that digital imaging
started to prosper in the early 1990s.
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Some of the first digital
imaging technology came from
Leaf Systems.
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Leaf produced digital backs, which could be attached to Hasselblad
cameras instead of film.
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It looked like this.
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Yes, big and bulky.
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But the business utility was great. Many film photos were digitized
sooner or later anyway. With a digital back, one
step in the production of photos could be removed.
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The first digital backs were expensive and had a moderate
performance. The first one by Leaf had 4 Megapixels and Kodak launched one with 6 Mpixels.
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But the performance was good enough for some applications.
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Press and Studio photographers loved it and NASA was very
interested in the Kodak sensor.
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Digital imaging had
other attributes
which made it attractive.
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An infinite amount of
photos could be taken and
then be replicated,
manipulated and sent, at a very low cost.
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So the business utility
of a digital back which cost maybe
30 000 dollars was still big.
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And the image quality was
Good Enough, as long as the photos were not enlarged.
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Despite the fact that digital imaging actually had a high
business utility in these early days, none of the established
medium format firms succeeded in developing their
own digital backs.
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Instead, many companies were created around the idea to develop digital backs for
established medium format players.
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Leaf…
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Imacon…
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Sinar…
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Kodak also developed
some digital backs…
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Phase One…
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During the 1990s, these companies kept selling digital
backs which could be attached to medium format
cameras.
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The analogue medium format was still healthy, though the segment kept shrinking due to the improved performance
of smaller cameras.
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The next big thing in this segment was autofocus.
Mamiya, Hasselblad, Contax and the others sought to
develop this new feature in the late 1990s.
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Mamiya introduced autofocus in the
645 AF 4.5×6 SLR in 1999.
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Having done so before Hasselblad, the company
obtained an increased market share on this shrinking market.
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Together with back manufacturers, Mamiya was able to deliver a digital system at an early point. However, this did by
no means guarantee the long term survival of the company.
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The Nikon D1 launched 1999 was the first true alternative for most
photographers who wanted digital cameras. It was mortal to many of
the old camera firms…
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The digital SLR cameras from Canon and Nikon were cheaper,
lighter and good enough.
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These companies invested massively in R&D and generated
cheaper and more advanced models at a furious pace.
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Within a few years, Hasselblad and Mamiya lost the entire wedding photography segment to Canon.
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Thus, the medium format segment shrank even further
with the shift to digital imaging and this put Mamiya in
some great trouble.
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Collaborating with Leaf and providing great but very expensive products was
simply not enough.
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However, Mamiya went further in this direction – in 2004 the
company announced the Mamiya ZD and the
Mamiya ZD digital back.
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These products were severely delayed. It is very hard for a
small company with shrinking revenues to develop new
products, especially in such a competitive market.
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The Mamiya ZD was not launched until early 2006 and by then, the SLR models from Canon and Nikon had reached
a performance level which implied that few customers demanded an expensive, fantastic but big camera.
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Thus, the efforts which were put into these products did
not result in improved financial results.
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The situation became desperate and Mamiya
announced in early 2006 that the camera division
was for sale.
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Mamiya had up until this point been regarded as a survivor
since competitors like Bronica and Contax had already
left the industry.
Things change rapidly in an industry which has become
digital…
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Mamiya was bought by Cosmo digital imaging, an IT company.
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The idea was to combine software skills with Mamiyas skills in imaging and thereby
regain lost ground.
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New lenses were launched in 2006 and Mamiya initiated a close collaboration with the
Danish digital back manufacturer Phase One.
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The previous collaboration with Leaf resulted in the launch of
the DL28 in late 2008.
Priced at 15 000 USD, the camera offered improved
autofocus and a better integration with the
digital back of 28 Megapixels.
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This sounds promising, given that the price of medium format
cameras has been a critical issue before, this camera may
help Mamiya to recover.
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The collaboration with Phase One resulted in the
Mamiya 645, which was also launched under the Phase One brand.
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Just recently, in March 2009, Phase One announced that the company will invest in Mamiya.
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“We are committed to providing open, upgradable medium format camera systems,
so that pro photographers can enjoy the maximum flexibility and versatility at an
attractive cost of ownership”
// Henrik O. Håkonsson, President, Phase One.
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“Furthering our relationship with Mamiya Digital Imaging that we initiated in 2006, we continue to design a broad
range of new cameras, digital backs and lenses that will offer the world’s
leading photographers greater choice and satisfaction.”
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Together, Phase One and Mamiya Digital Imaging own all competencies required
for developing superior, innovative medium format camera systems. Our
combined expertise comprises digitalization, camera fine mechanics,
optics design and production and broad ranges of software and firmware
capabilities.”
// Toshio Midorikawa, President of Mamiya Digital Imaging.
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“This investment by Phase One enables us to better optimize our
complementary capabilities to the benefit of our customers. And as a
result of our close collaboration, new products are just around the corner. We plan to introduce both new leaf
shutter lenses and even more super lightweight focal plane shutter lenses in 2009. We aim to offer the world’s
widest range of medium format lenses for Mamiya and Phase One.”
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Whether this will help Mamiya out of their trouble remains to be
seen. For sure, this is a step in the right direction. However, the SLR cameras from Canon and Nikon are getting better each year and the medium format
market keeps shrinking…
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This story is a bit puzzling – there was a financial logic in developing digital backs long before the real shift to
digital imaging, yet still Mamiya never captured this market but instead left it to companies like Leaf, Imacon, Phase
One and Jenoptik.
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Why?
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The main reason is probably that Mamiya had a competence base which was related to precise mechanics and
optics, not electronics. Therefore, the company did not have and failed to develop the capabilities needed to launch digital backs themselves.
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By looking inside a product you get an idea what the company and its knowledge are really all about.
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With the shift to digital imaging, much of Mamiya’s competence base lost its
value and thus, the company encountered great problems.
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Sources
The online photographer The British Journal of Photography Digital Photography Review
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