Inside the plush air-conditioned banquet hall of a five-star hotel in Delhi, it was as if the mid-June heat wave lashing the city outside was nothing but an illusion. The two tech experts from one of the leading still camera makers in the world, Nikon, were holding forth on the rich specifications and unique features of the camera they were launching.
Superior video camera, video frame rates, shoot videos non-stop, in-built N-Log and N-RAW support for high-quality video production, superior low light performance...the features of the new Z6 III rolled off their tongues as if frames in a fast-moving action video. In fact, there was so much emphasis on the video features that one really started to wonder, is this a still camera at all or a snappy new camcorder?
“It’s mostly video nowadays,” Nikon India Managing Director Sajjan Kumar said, while Gurugram-based Jogi Francis, Nikon India’s Assistant Vice President (service & technical support) explained the shift, “The whole world is shifting to videos. As a camera manufacturer, we understand the importance of video, and our designers are now (more) concentrating on video specs.”
Still, camera makers have had quite a tough 21st century – the arrival of cameras on mobile phones virtually obliterated their mass market for instant and digital cameras. Then as mobile manufacturers piled on camera features onto their teeny weeny devices, the original camera guys tried to survive by focusing on the niche, yet lucrative, market for high-end professional cameras, the likes that wedding to wildlife to fashion and advertising photographers use. Not to forget the ardent photography buff who wouldn’t think twice before blowing up a couple of lakh on additional lenses.
Just when they thought they got the formula right, the explosion of social media in general, and the wildfire-like popularity of Instagram’s short video service, Reels in particular (and TikTok in countries where it has still not been banned), had them scurrying back to the drawing boards. The new target audience – those consumers of social media in general, and the short videos on it.
“In India, the arrival of Reels has really revolutionised video,” pointed out Mumbai’s Riaan George, one of the leading lifestyle content creators in the country, who’s big on Instagram and YouTube. “Everything now, content-wise, is now optimised for Reels – music, dance, trends, ‘what’s the next Reel?’ is what content creators are thinking now,” he added.
While in much of the rest of the world, it is the personal hobbyist and family photo-minded individual who’s the primary customer for these high-end cameras, in India, the wedding photography market (closely followed by wildlife photographers) remain the biggest consumers. And, they are not aiming for still pictures anymore.
Hyderabad’s Vijay Eesam, one of India’s leading wedding photographers, puts it in perspective: “When I started in the late 2000s, wedding and candid photography meant still photography. Then around 2016, the trend began for short video formats. For the last two-three years, it is primarily video, video is what all clients want. I see video is going to be even more important by the day as Instagram Reels get more popular.”
Still, camera biggies are all making the pivot. While Leica has tied up with some leading Chinese mobile phone makers for integration, Canon was recently reported to be developing dual lens for Apple Vision Pro. Nikon itself spent about an equivalent of Rs 700 crore recently to snap up RED.com, a company which makes cameras for Hollywood films, signalling the company’s strongest intent yet to explore new areas of growth beyond still photography.