<story><title>Olympus quits camera business after 84 years</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53165293</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ISL</author><text>To me, the big monoculture risk is Sony&amp;#x27;s image-sensor fab. As I understand it, Sony, Fuji, Nikon and many others all rely upon the output of one company&amp;#x27;s manufacturing process.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a good reason for it -- they appear to make the very best sensors (edit: in terms of dynamic range and noise) in the commercial-camera market.  Canon makes their own sensors, which are good in absolute but not relative terms, which appears to hold them back in performance. I don&amp;#x27;t know if it is patent-related or process-related.&lt;p&gt;While I use Canon imaging systems, I don&amp;#x27;t see the choice to use other brands as better or worse. Each manufacturer&amp;#x27;s line has strengths and weaknesses; you pick the best tool for the job. Essentially every camera and optical system on the market, in absolute terms, is a wonderful instrument for imaging.&lt;p&gt;This reality is intensely freeing -- it means you can focus more on the image and less on the instrumentation. &amp;quot;f&amp;#x2F;8 and be there&amp;quot; is still wonderful advice.</text></item><item><author>akersten</author><text>Sad to see them go - photography&amp;#x27;s such a great hobby and having competition in the space is healthy. There&amp;#x27;s a few brands out there still, but there is a noticable stigma in the professional community around equipment that isn&amp;#x27;t Canon. If you&amp;#x27;re not using L-glass, it feels like you get the same kind of judgement that Android users experience when they show up with green texts in iMessage.&lt;p&gt;As a matter of principle, I&amp;#x27;ve been buying exclusively Nikon for almost my entire time in the hobby. I always saw Canon as a large conglomerate who tacked on photography as another arm of their company, where to me Nikon feels more focused on optics as a primary business line. Honestly, I should almost start buying more Pentax gear.&lt;p&gt;I worry we&amp;#x27;re slowly approaching a monoculture in photography, but it&amp;#x27;s hard to convince folks outside of the hobby to care.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bayindirh</author><text>Sony&amp;#x27;s image sensor fab business is a bit different.&lt;p&gt;First of all, there&amp;#x27;s two companies: Semiconductor and Imaging. Sony opens some of their technologies to other customers by transferring Imaging unit&amp;#x27;s patents to Semi and allows them for re-licensing. So, not everyone is using the same sensor even if they are coming out from the same fab.&lt;p&gt;Second, there&amp;#x27;s customer tailored sensor business. Sony can provide a customer a baseline to start and, customer can customize this sensor according to their needs and got it produced for themselves.&lt;p&gt;Lastly, there&amp;#x27;s strict division between customers in semiconductor side. So Sony Imaging can&amp;#x27;t access to specs and design of other customers&amp;#x27; sensors.&lt;p&gt;How it works in real life?&lt;p&gt;- Sony A7 series use Sony&amp;#x27;s sensors with all their secrets at their disposal but, not with Nikon&amp;#x27;s and Fuji&amp;#x27;s secret sauces.&lt;p&gt;- Nikon orders customized, &amp;quot;Designed by Nikon&amp;quot; sensors to Sony Semi. Sony Imaging cannot access them (unless they buy and disassemble a Nikon Z).&lt;p&gt;- Same for Fuji. They have less rolling shutter in XT-4 for example, and it&amp;#x27;s again built by Sony, for Fuji. No, Sony Imaging can&amp;#x27;t play with them.&lt;p&gt;- Canon R5&amp;#x27;s sensor is &amp;quot;Designed by Canon&amp;quot;. I&amp;#x27;m not sure they are producing it. Sony or Tower Jazz maybe producing it. I don&amp;#x27;t know.&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, the fab is almost one but, designs are many and diversified and, nobody can see each other&amp;#x27;s design. Like TSMC and Global Foundries.</text></comment>
<story><title>Olympus quits camera business after 84 years</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53165293</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ISL</author><text>To me, the big monoculture risk is Sony&amp;#x27;s image-sensor fab. As I understand it, Sony, Fuji, Nikon and many others all rely upon the output of one company&amp;#x27;s manufacturing process.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a good reason for it -- they appear to make the very best sensors (edit: in terms of dynamic range and noise) in the commercial-camera market.  Canon makes their own sensors, which are good in absolute but not relative terms, which appears to hold them back in performance. I don&amp;#x27;t know if it is patent-related or process-related.&lt;p&gt;While I use Canon imaging systems, I don&amp;#x27;t see the choice to use other brands as better or worse. Each manufacturer&amp;#x27;s line has strengths and weaknesses; you pick the best tool for the job. Essentially every camera and optical system on the market, in absolute terms, is a wonderful instrument for imaging.&lt;p&gt;This reality is intensely freeing -- it means you can focus more on the image and less on the instrumentation. &amp;quot;f&amp;#x2F;8 and be there&amp;quot; is still wonderful advice.</text></item><item><author>akersten</author><text>Sad to see them go - photography&amp;#x27;s such a great hobby and having competition in the space is healthy. There&amp;#x27;s a few brands out there still, but there is a noticable stigma in the professional community around equipment that isn&amp;#x27;t Canon. If you&amp;#x27;re not using L-glass, it feels like you get the same kind of judgement that Android users experience when they show up with green texts in iMessage.&lt;p&gt;As a matter of principle, I&amp;#x27;ve been buying exclusively Nikon for almost my entire time in the hobby. I always saw Canon as a large conglomerate who tacked on photography as another arm of their company, where to me Nikon feels more focused on optics as a primary business line. Honestly, I should almost start buying more Pentax gear.&lt;p&gt;I worry we&amp;#x27;re slowly approaching a monoculture in photography, but it&amp;#x27;s hard to convince folks outside of the hobby to care.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lizknope</author><text>Some of Nikon&amp;#x27;s sensors are probably made by Tower Jazz.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;petapixel.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;towerjazz-hints-that-nikon-is-using-their-sensors-in-the-z50-and-d7500&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;petapixel.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;towerjazz-hints-that-nikon-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nikon has also used Toshiba in the past but probably 80% of Nikon&amp;#x27;s DSLR sensors were made by Sony.</text></comment>