The Engadget Interview: Steve Heiner, General Manager, Digital SLR Systems, Nikon
by Peter Rojas 
posted May 9th 2005 at 2:11PM
Let's start with the big picture. In the age of film, Nikon was always known as the class of camera manufacturers. How has Nikon been faring now that we're transitioning to the digital age? Nikon has had a line of SLR cameras for many, many years. Even before we started making SLR cameras, we were making world-class Nikkor optics. Our reputation has been built over the years as much on our lenses as on our camera bodies. We take a great deal of pride in that.
Twenty years ago, when I first joined the company, I got a peek at some of our first digital products. Back then, Nikon was the first to introduce the NP1000, a film transmitter designed for photojournalists at newspapers. You could web process a C41 or a black-and-white negative and scan it using this device, and it had a modem built in so you could transmit the photograph.
In the '90s we introduced a series of cameras with a moniker E at the beginning, E2S, E3. Those were cameras really
designed for industrial purposes. They were large, bulky and very expensive but were very high quality for that
time.
In 1999 we introduced the D1 camera and took the market by storm because no one by that date had produced a digital
camera that was the same size form factor as our previous 35mm cameras at a price level below $6,000. We introduced
that at about $5,500, and most other digital cameras were well over $10,000 at that point.
As the years have progressed, we've seen a succession of professional digital models, including a sub-$2,000 camera,
which came out in late 2001. It was designed for enthusiast photographers, amateurs and hobbyists.
We introduced the D70 over a year ago, and it's been a tremendous success. Won 2004 Camera of the Year at Pop Photo
and won numerous other awards and was accepted wildly in the marketplace because its price point for the body was just
under $1,000. We then paired it with a very high-quality 18-70mm lens.
In the digital age and a new generation of kids who aren't familiar with the Nikon brand, aren't the digital
camera manufacturers essentially coming off the same starting line?
Essentially. Even though they can't possibly appreciate the history of a company like Nikon going clear back to 1917
when we started making lenses, what matters most to that customer is the lens. Not to denigrate the importance of the
camera body, but the old principle of garbage in, garbage out always applies, especially in photography. The quality of
the optics, the clarity of the image, the simplicity of the camera's operation has got to be a major factor for anyone
considering an SLR.
Our goal, from the design side of the company over in Japan, is to make that transition from a digital point-and-shoot
camera to an SLR as easy as possible. We try to make these technologies — like our advanced multipattern or metrics
metering system and the autofocus operation and all of the processing that takes place in the camera — as fast and as
invisible as possible to the end consumer so that they're focused on getting the best image results.
This may be the year in which a majority of cameras sold will be digital rather than film—
Certainly digital SLRs over film SLRs. The popularity of digital overall has lunged ahead of film sales.
What have been some of the ramifications of that for your industry? Kodak, for instance, has had to reinvent
itself.
Well, we've been doing digital photography for quite some time. We see, based on sales figures, that the demand out
there in the marketplace is definitely for digital. There's no question that digital is fast replacing film as the
camera of choice for most consumers.
Do you have an internal business unit devoted entirely to digital SLR cameras?
The majority of departments within this company are, for the most part, digitally oriented. We still sell quite a
number of film SLRs, and there's still a considerable segment of the market who prefers to shoot film. But most
departments in this company have long become digital-centric. ...
Our digital SLRs take not only our latest dedicated DX lenses, designed specifically for the sensor we use in our
digital cameras, but we also have a full line of regular Nikkor lenses that were designed for our digital cameras as
well as our film cameras. So, we all sit in the same building, we all meet together, but there's no doubt that digital
is the way things are going.
Another internal change, of course, is that you now have to write software for your products. How difficult is
it for a hardware manufacturer to be producing software?
Actually, it's not, because Nikon has been real proactive about being in the software business. Even before our first
digital cameras, we had digital film scanners that required special software designed by Nikon engineers. Every time we
introduce a new camera, the software has to be compatible with all our previous cameras. So we're doing quite well in
the software business.
In the past two years we introduced a new browser and basic editing software called Picture Project. Plus, we have a
very capable image browser and thumbnail program called Nikon View and we have Capture software, which is designed to
be an integral part of our digital SLR systems.
Macworld carried a story earlier this year saying the world is essentially divided into three kinds of digital
cameras: compact point-and-shoot cameras; advanced amateur cameras that are a little bigger and offer more optical zoom
power without interchangeable lenses; and professional SLR cameras. Would you agree?
I would, though they're not divided so much by the camera's controls or features so much as they are by the lifestyle
they appeal to. We have Coolpix cameras that shoot an amazing photograph for their size and weight and price, and the
person who buys that camera is just as interested in high quality as a person who buys a higher-level camera. It's just
that their lifestyle dictates that this be an easy, affordable camera they can slip into a coat pocket.
So you have professional cameras, compact cameras and right in the middle are what other companies tend to call
prosumer cameras. We tend to shy away from that word, but they're more advanced, more full-featured than typical
compact cameras. And for people who want a digital SLR, we now offer two models under $1,000.
One of those would be the 6.1 megapixel
Nikon D70 (pictured at right), which some have billed as a strong competitor to the Canon Rebel.
The D70 is the best-selling SLR camera we've had, by far. The goal of keeping a camera at a price point where it can
be had by as many people as possible was always in the designer's mind. Unlike some camera manufacturers, we weren't
interested in stripping down a camera to reach that price point. It was built to retain the most amount of
capability.
The D70, unlike the Rebel, affords people the opportunity to grow much more, because there are many more menu settings
and manual controls and options that are available to a photographer as their interest in photography grows, where
other manufacturers — and I daresay the Rebel specifically — are limiting in their manual control capabilities.
The D70 is powerful and yet simple to operate. A photographer can take advantage not only of aperture and shutter
speed but also those more complicated settings like in-camera sharpening and tone compensation and color mode, which
are all automatically set.
You released the D70S (pictured at left) just
last week. How does it differ?
It has a larger LCD (2 inches). It has a more refined auto-focus system so it can acquire the primary subject a little
faster. It has improved focus tracking, so if you're autofocusing something that's moving, all of the sensors can
concert with one another and track the subject better.
In addition, some of the feedback we got from customers was that the D70 has a small optional ML-L3 infrared remote
trigger, a push-button you can use to trigger the camera. Many advanced amateurs and hobbyists had commented that it
was difficult to use when shooting close-up photography on a tripod, for example, because the sensor is on the front of
the camera. so we included a remote port on the left side of the camera so you can plug in an optional electrical cable
release with a locking switch.
It now shoots with a higher-yield battery, which now can shoot as many as 2,500 images on a single charge, which is
pretty amazing. The menu design has changed; it offers a different color scheme and a slightly larger font so it's
easier to see, especially in bright light.
And the cost is $899 for the body, and $300 for an 18- to 70-mm lens kit?
Right.
Do only Nikon lenses work with the Nikon SLRs?
Well, there are aftermarket lenses out there, but for someone who's interested in getting the highest quality
photographs you can capture, we highly recommend Nikkor lenses. It's also worth noting that the digital SLRs will
accept the lenses used on Nikon's F-mount cameras going back to 1959.
The D70 and your SLRs take a compact flash card. But why did Nikon decide to go with SD cards rather than CF
cards for your entry-level digital SLRs?
Not only to keep the body smaller and lighter, but also because of the popularity of SD cards. The D50 will take SD as
well.
You're rolling out the D50 (pictured at
right) next month for $899, and that's being targeted as a family camera, right?
The D50 is similar to the D70 but has simplified the process of taking images even more so. There's a child mode,
because we recognize that a good number of users of this camera at this price point will be family users, people who
want to capture everything from birthday parties to pictures of the kids playing soccer.
One of my favorite features in the D70 has been expanded even more in the D50, and it's fairly unique in the industry.
We've built into many of our cameras a help menu to help the user with a full-featured, easy-to-understand menu. It
will show you a description on the menu of exactly the setting you're about to set, so as you use the camera you can
learn as you go.
The lenses that will paired with it will provide the first-time SLR user with a great deal of picture-taking power,
frankly. It's paired with an 18- to 55-mm kit lens and an optional 55- to 200mm lens, so within those two lenses you'll
have coverage from 18 to 200mm.
Why would people want to move up from low- or mid-level digital cameras to a digital SLR?
One of the inherent difficulties with a compact digital camera where you're really surrendering all of the control to
the automated systems in the camera is that it tends to slow down the reaction time. In many situations that's not
necessarily a detriment. But in certain instances, trying to capture that decisive moment, that expression or peak of
action, sometimes it's difficult to do with a compact camera.
In a digital SLR camera, the response is much quicker, and it prepares for the next shot, and the shot after that,
much faster. In addition, you get a wider selection of lenses and speed lights and other attachments. For someone who
likes photography a lot will very quickly reach the limit of what a compact camera can do.
Sony's Cyber-shot is
one of the best-selling digital cameras in the world. How did camera manufacturers like Nikon, Canon and Konica Minolta
let an outsider like Sony come in and let that happen?
Well, Sony obviously has a great name that's ubiquitous and omnipresent in so many facets of this electronic life.
When Sony makes a camera that appeals to people who buy that brand of product, it will always have some level of
penetration. I daresay there are a lot of people who are used to buying home electronics and don't necessarily
recognize Nikon's name. We want to change that and let people know we've been in the photographic business for almost
90 years. We're not just trying something new here.
Adobe has been trying to get camera manufacturers to adopt the license- and royalty-free DNG or Digital
Negative standard. Is Nikon considering that?
Saurabh Wahi, MWW Group (PR representative): Actually, let me jump in real quick. Let's save that
question for another discussion because we just want to talk about digital SLR cameras now. Is that OK with you,
JD?
Well, it's not OK, because if you don't address some of these issues, our readers are going to rip into you.
So it's for your own good to get in front of these topics that have been swirling around the past two
weeks.
Wahi: I understand. But at this point, we have put out an advisory, and we want to forward that
advisory over to you, but beyond that we have no further information. So I hope that's fine.
I don't know why Steve wouldn't be able to talk in general terms about these issues.
Wahi: There's so much information out there right now, we want to make sure we can come back with
specific information that can help people, and we are in the process of putting that together.
There was a report in CNET on April 21 about the encryption being broken on the white balance metadata for RAW
files in the Nikon Capture application, does Nikon plan to take any action against the programmer who broke your
encryption code?
Wahi: Again, whatever information that we have available right now is available in the advisory, and
I can make sure I can send that out to you.
Could we just talk about the business decision of Nikon encrypting its white balance metadata in the
RAW files?
Wahi: Again, the advisory contains all the information that we have available to give to you, and
we'll send that out to you.
I'd like to know what you would say to your customers who are hopping mad about this.
Wahi: The advisory contains all the information and as soon as we finish this interview I'll send you
that.
Steve, talk to me briefly about FoveOn, a 5-year-old technology coming out of Silicon Valley that sounds like one of
the most promising, revolutionary developments in the history of cameras and optics. And yet, virtually nothing has
been done in the camera industry. Why is that?
Steve Heiner: From what I understand, it does take a very precise manufacturing process to ensure
high quality, and I know this technology has been out there for some time, and
FoveOn has offered it to many companies. I can't speak to our designers' technical
reaction to it or to our business sense of it, but suffice to say our engineers are always looking at new technologies
that come down the pike. I can't really address why that particular type of sensor type hasn't been widely adopted.
Tell me about the long-range outlook for Nikon and the industry. Will our cameras get smaller, faster, smarter,
cheaper?
That's always the $64,000 question. Everyone wants a more efficient workflow, a more efficient camera,
they want it smaller and lighter, but there's a point of diminishing returns. Many pros recognize that sometimes the
smaller camera doesn't perform as well as one that is more stable in the hand. So our designers are trying to strike
the right balance between performance and ergonomic comfort. Building a smaller camera isn't always the answer.
There's also a point of diminishing returns with higher resolution. We've gotten into the double-digit megapixel
range, many photographers can't imagine needing a whole lot more. What you're going to see is a refinement of more
fundamental elements of camera design, that being image processing, efficiency of operation, speed, improvement in new
optical designs, things like that. I don't think the megapixel wars will necessarily yield the best possible
cameras.
Elsewhere, we're already into our second generation of wi-fi transmission, which is an exciting prospect. We're able
to transmit images directly to a server or computer, and the amount of interest in that has taken off in the pro
market.
By newspaper and magazine photographers?
Yeah. We originally expected wire service and newspaper photographers and people on deadline would find
it most appealing, and they certainly do. Now we're finding wedding photographers who use it as part of their service.
They have the ability to be shooting in one part of a venue and transmitting images to a computer via 802.11g connected
to an LCD projector so that people can see the photographs in nearly real time, which is pretty
neat.
J.D. Lasica's new book about the digital media revolution has just been released: Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation (Wiley & Sons).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bollocks Mate @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Spoken like such a typical PR person, with an intermediary to guide him as well, so he doesn't give anything away other than what everybody knows already.
They can't say Yay or Nay about anything, they can't tell us anything about what they're really thinking about or planning to do.
I mean enough self-stroking! Why can't they ever let us in on just a little more? They may find that they get a lot more respect if they tell us things beyond what we had hoped!
edd:e @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Yikes. So they spout their PR praise over their new products (D50/D70), take a jab at Canon and Sony, and when a tough question comes out they bail? Pretty low.
Very good interview nonetheless. Good job Engadget!
Paul Wilson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
That was some of the worst business communication I've ever read. The interviewees should have known the encryption question was going to come up and had at least something prepared. Nikon really needs to fire their whole PR staff.
nemi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
One aspect of the article I found funny, apart form the lawyer / RAW-image fiasco that Nikon has got it's self firmly stuck in, is that when asked why Nikon is good, it is because they have been making cameras for over 90 years, yet when asked why Sony cameras are so popular he fails to mention that by partnering with Carl Zeiss, they have the benefit of optics experience spanning back to 1846 (nearly 150 years) ! hehehe.
http://www.zeiss.de/C12567A100537AB9/Inhalt-Frame/274A2A2E3AD11863C1256C2200473FBD
Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Oh, I should mention that we did cover their "advisory" a couple of weeks back. Mainly lots of PR doublespeak:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000877041132/
Eric Jacobsen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
what a bunch of tools.
not enough to make me turn down one of their cameras, but enough to make me take a good long look at the competitors and really think it over.
jeepers @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
This is why I love engadget. You guys asked them the question everyone has on their mind and you pushed them for an answer. The fact that they wouldn't respond to these questions speaks volumes about their attitude towards Nikon customers. Great job exposing these corporate losers.
Kim Laughton @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
It's interesting to see in these interviews that some people just use it as an opportunity to do a little advertising, and others genuinely respond to the questions. I bet most readers have a higher opinion of the latter.
Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Saurabh Wahi is a tool. He didn't try at all to answer the question. His focus was on pushing Engadget to whore for Nikon. Wow. Saurabh Wahi and Nikon have one message to customers: do what we want or f*** off.
Great interview, Peter. It's good to see someone pushing to get answers.
Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
They really missed the boat on the white-balance encryption. They should have admitted they were wrong, corrected the issue via a firmware fix, and promised to never ever do it again.
Instead, they spouted a bunch of lies about how it protects the integrity of the pictures and then pointed everyone to an SDK of dubious value.
Screw them, I'm never buying anything from Nikon ever again.
Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
The funny thing is that the MWW Group has this hypnotic flash thing on their website that flashes "Straight Talk", "Real Answers", "Tangible Results".
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
What a bunch of tools.
Alan A. Reiter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Hi Peter,
I realize there are LOTS of issues when interviewing Nikon but it would have been interesting to know what Nikon thinks about camera phones -- that are outselling film and digital cameras combined -- from a competitive standpoint.
Alan A. Reiter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Gulp...I automatically typed "Hi Peter" when I should have typed "Hi J.D." Sorry, J.D.
JD Lasica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Hey Alan, you're right, that was one of the questions I wanted to get to but time ran out. I should have asked it earlier.
Will do so with the next camera or camera-phone manufacturer. thanks...
NikonUser @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
This is *not* about Nikon trying to screw people over, in spite of the previous poster's opinions.
What is happening here, for those who are perceptive enough, is that there are serious cultural differences becoming manifest; the Nikon management people are proceeding very carefully, as Nipponese companies do, by consensus. This takes time, and westerners seem to have problems with that...
Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
You know, as someone who does interviews in the professional coffee world, I just see so much wrong in this one - I'd almost rather not read it. JD did an admirable job trying to get to the root of what many Nikon owners want to know. But there's some serious problems.
1. I don't personally ever like doing email or msn chat interviews (based on the first part of this interview, I'll assume that the Nikon guy had plenty of time to cherrypick his responses).
2. I simply won't publish articles that come off as a promo piece for a company. And I bristle when I read something like this: "Even though they cant possibly appreciate the history of a company like Nikon going clear back to 1917 when we started making lenses"... as if Steve has been with Nikon since 1917. Corpspeak sux. Leave it to Fox News and their soundbites.
3. When I conduct interviews, I won't accept anyone other than the interviewee involved in the process. No PR hacks. I know it's next to impossible to achieve that with a "play it safe" company like Nikon, but again, I simply wouldn't have done the interview.
Look at the sit-downs with Gates that Engadget has done. I mean, Bill G. knows how to handle himself in these things (way to go for geeks!), but he does the speaking. If he doesn't want to discuss something, he shuts it down, but the interview comes off way more personal, and Bill G. is 'connecting' with the engadget audience.
This guy, Steve Heiner? His interview is one part promotional brochure for Nikon, and two parts PR Hack trying to prevent any fires from starting.
You know what the result is Nikon? It makes me even happier as a pro photographer that I went away from my Nikon kit (2 bodies, five lenses, all film) to Canon a year or so ago. You don't speak to your customers - you speak down to them. Learn from it.
JD and Engadget crew - this is by no means a slight against you folks and what you write - just some food for thought as to what should be publishable or not. In a way, I guess I am glad it was published - it made me think worse of Nikon, seeing how they handled you as an interviewer and your audience.
Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
"What is happening here, for those who are perceptive enough, is that there are serious cultural differences becoming manifest; the Nikon management people are proceeding very carefully, as Nipponese companies do, by consensus. This takes time, and westerners seem to have problems with that..."
Tell it to Canon - who are also Japanese, and neither do they encrypt their photographers' photos, nor do they spout PR crap like this.
I interviewed for jobs a few months back with both Nikon and Canon (didn't get the Nikon one, could have had the Canon one but took another offer first), and my impression of them both is that Canon is actually more tightly controlled here by the Japanese side than Nikon is. Canon actually re-locates their Japanese staff to manage out of the Long Island HQ here as they come up through the ranks, and I actually had to interview with two Japanese managers for the job I was applying to. At Nikon, I didn't see a single Japanese person even on staff while I was there, and everyone I interviewed with was American.
Doesn't mean the parent company isn't making decisions from afar in Nikon's case, but they're clearly not as "hands-on" as they are at Canon. So I really think the excuse you're trying to make for Nikon here - that they're hamstrung by their Japanese roots while other companies aren't - is not valid. Other Japanese camera manufacturers have proven an uncanny ability to *not* piss off their customers, and to compete quickly and effectively - what makes Nikon so different?
They're different because they're different, not because they're Japanese. They're just trying to be a bully right now and it's not going to work. They think they're operating from a position of strength but in digital, they are not the 800 pound gorilla that they are in pro film gear. All they're doing is pushing more business Canon's way.
Steve Davey @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Hopeless pr waffle - and the interviewer should have ceased the interview when the PR geek piped up. If they aren't going to answer your questions you should refuse to ask any more! Otherwise you are just playing up to their silly game.
Kudos though for printing the intervention. That was very telling.
Steve
Stanley Krute @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
PR Guy wins some kind of tap-dancing award.
Nikon shoots self in foot, since they're the ones instructing the PR Guy.
Nikon: GREAT cameras and lenses, terrible decision RE white-balance encryption and non-documentation of NEF format.
-- stan
Cullen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
carl zeiss lenses? big fucing deal, the images that go through them end up over staurated, every single time. and they use meory sticks. nikon just doesnt know how to market, apprently...because that coudlve easily been avoided.
if nikon is reading this, i need a digital camera, but now i DONT need a digital nikon. nicely done. ill look at that samsung you guys had on here :x
Benny @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Thanks Nikon, for disenfranchising your supporting ranks. I've been proud to shoot Nikon for the last 12 years, and the way that you've handled the entire debacle is sickening if not disgusting. You get a single digit up and it's certainly not the thumb from me. Nikon, get your head out of your *ss and see if you can salvage the cluster-f*** you've created. Maybe then you can concentrate on winning back everyone you've alienated.
Kerry @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
I'm very disappointed with Nikon's stance. They've had enough time to sort this thing out and fix it. They need to either remove the encryption or stand by it. That way, their customers will know and can plan with that in mind. The stealth encryption and now the stonewalling is getting very old.
Dean @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Wow. What I hear Nikon saying is "our products are so much better than the competition that we can do what we want and need not explain". They are wrong and their arrogance will cost them is sales and reputation.
Joe Clay @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
I've never been more proud that I chose to be a Canon user long ago. Thanks Nikon! For a while I considered you on par with Canon. Now I realize that even though I already liked Canon's products more, Canon's ability to actually care about its customers and not use PR hacks is apparently unparalleled when compared to Nikon.
agni @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Well, it looks like Nikon didn't take the bait. Almost looked to me as if the first part of the interview was just a feeler for the second part, white balance encryption. Too bad it didn't work, because that would've been the only interesting part of the interview.
I would've loved to know what their approach was; Canon marketing is so straightforward and makes sense from a business standpoint - make products first, cameras second. Nikon, on the other hand, seems very confused and often looks as if they have idealistic engineers and not-so-savvy marketing guys working dysfunctionally.
Luka Strnisa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Not just nikon:
"This is not a new problem. Phase One, Sony, Foveon, and Canon all apply some form of encryption to their RAW files. Dcraw decodes them all -- you can easily find decryption code by searching for the ^ operator.
Compression is not encryption. Phase One and Sony do encryption only. Kodak does compression only. Canon, Nikon, and Foveon compress the image data and encrypt some of the metadata."
source:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042701davecoffininterview.asp
Raymond Dang @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
As a Nikon user I think it's stupid encrypting the white balance in RAW files, but let's keep in mind that they're only doing it on two extremely high end models. From everyone's reaction you'd think that every camera they make from the lowest Coolpix to the highest DSLR has encrypted RAW.
Raymond Dang @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
And let's also keep in mind that EVERY camera maker encrypts or encodes their RAW data to some degree or another. If this wasn't the case then Canon and all the rest should have adopted Adobe's DNG format by now.
Charles Bandes @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
I am so disappointed that Nikon blew this opportunity to come clean on their plans - they come off as somewhere between clueless or covering something up. Both are really bad news for Nikon pros such as myself - my D2x camera is crippled by the inability to properly process raw files in Photoshop. It pains me to say, but I would advise avoiding the D70s and D50 until this issue has been resolved. There are plenty of non-encrypted, excellent cameras out there, many even support Nikon lenses.
mickster @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
To Jeff #15:
Here's Canon's reaction to the same type of question (well before Nikon and they do encrypt parts of their files too):
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/canonplans.html
Giles @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
I'll be getting the Canon 350D, or maybe the 20D. Nikon really know how to alienate.
mickster @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Sorry-meant Jeff #17 in above post.
Stanley Krute @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Raymond Dang wrote:
> EVERY camera maker encrypts or
> encodes their RAW data to some degree
Yes.
It is a matter of degree.
At this point in time, Nikon's white balance
encryption is just the most egregious instance
of a camera manufacturer encumbering the photographer's property the captured image.
But you're right; none of the camera makers has fully documented their RAW file formats. ALL
of them need to do so, for ALL models that produce RAW files.
I think it's important for Engadget to ask
a representative of EACH dSLR manufacturer
the same questions asked of Mr. Heiner. It's
important for we who purchase these companies'
products to know the answers, and to know how each company intends to serve its customers needs.
-- stan
John G @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Interesting post from Eamon Hickey......
Steve Heiner is General Manager of Digital SLRs at Nikon Inc. -- i.e. Nikon U.S.A. Engadget should have made this clear, and they should have known that he could not, and would not, make policy statements for the company as a whole, in the same way that the Brazilian subsidiary of, say, Microsoft could not answer high level questions about policy decisions at Microsoft, which, obviously, are made in Redmond, Washington, not Sao Paolo.
Steve Heiner works for a foreign subsidiary of the parent company. It is that parent company -- Nikon Corporation in Japan -- that makes decisions about Nikon camera technology and about broad, company-wide policy.
Obviously, I don't blame Engadget for asking the questions they asked, but nobody, including them, should be surprised that they didn't get any answers.
This is what the PR rep was getting at -- the only official statement Nikon U.S.A. has been authorized to make, so far, on the issue of WB encryption is the advisory that was issued a week or two ago. It's that simple. If you want to know what Nikon will do in the future regarding file formats, you have to ask the people who will make the decision, and they are all in Japan, and most of them don't speak a word of English. (And, of course, they're not going to tell you anyway.) I doubt whether that PR rep enjoys the fact that the advisory that Nikon issued is all they are authorized to say at this point -- I would guess he is fully well aware how lame it is -- but he's doing his job as the PR rep for Nikon's subsidiary in the U.S.
Those folks at the parent company may ask Steve what he thinks they should do -- just as they will ask Steve's counterparts at Nikon U.K., Nikon GMBH (Germany), Nikon Europe, Nikon Canada, etc. -- but they will make their decision, and then they'll tell him what it is and instruct him to carry it out. At that point, he'll be able to make an official comment. That's how multi-national companies work.
Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
I understand that a company rep has to paint his products in a positive light...but telling me that I "can't possibly appreciate" his company's history is not a good way to win me over.
And let me get this straight...the Digital Rebel has a crippled feature set, and yet the D50 is "user-friendly." Isn't that an interesting perspective? Not that it matters, since there is no way I would buy a DSLR that can't use CF cards.
Peter Headland @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
It's a waste of time interviewing these people. All you got was the marketing pitch. No information that can't be gleaned from their sales brochures.
Mind you, they have the pitch well-developed:
- "Pixel count is not the most important thing" = "Canon has higher pixel counts than us"
- The way he rubbished the old DRebel while carefully failing to mention the fact that the new Rebel XT exists - much less acknowledge that it has manual control over all settings and is the real comptitor to the D70 - was really smooth.
As others have said, corporate-speak is just insulting to customers. To my mind, this is an American phenomenon, the evil offspring of political correctness - everything you say has to be so bland it is meaningless.
Marc Hedlund @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
John G, the question for me is, why in the world did Nikon agree to do the interview in the first place, if they were completely unwilling to address the RAW issue? Any PR person who would agree to an Engadget interview without searching for 'Nikon' on Engadget, and noting the coverage of that issue here, doesn't seem very competent to me. They should very well have known what they were getting into, and have been prepared to address the issue *somehow*.
Gordon68 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Foveon does look interesting, but I thought CCD was better than CMOS.
I wonder what would happen if CCD cameras created 1 pixels worth of colour from the 3 RGB sensors, rather than all this computer colour guessing interpolation stuff?
nunatak @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
it was interesting hearing from Steve Heiner. too bad his handler forbade him from discussing the issue that really haunts Nikon right now.
imo, Saurabh Wahi is stalling for time. nikon hasn't yet made a decision on how to proceed with the WB issue. if they go after Dave Coffin or Bibble, they will be demonized--and if they don't they will be forfeiting their copyright protections. i suspect every press announcement will be distracted by the WB issue until nikon figures how to back out gracefully.
in light of this, perhaps nikon's new slogan should be:
"nikon--we steal the heart from your image"
Andrew Rodney @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Nikon should fire all these boneheaded PR people. They sounds like fools. First they put out a press piece on a web site saying you dont need Photoshop. Stupid. Then they encrypt the white balance. Heres a company going into a tail spin. Ask a group of pro photographers (myself included) 15 years ago who shot with Nikon film cameras and the vast majority would raise their hands. Today, its a different story. And Nikon is doing its best to alienate its users by not supporting .DNG let alone not encrypting their (I mean my) data. No wonder Canon is kicking their butts.
ken straiton @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
These Nikon reps did a very good job of promoting Canon professional digital slr's. !No encryption!
Danny Shaw @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Nikon should KEEP these PR people!
Signed,
the Canon PR Staff.
Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Cop out!
See below.
There was a report in CNET on April 21 about the encryption being broken on the white balance metadata for RAW files in the Nikon Capture application, does Nikon plan to take any action against the programmer who broke your encryption code?
Wahi: Again, whatever information that we have available right now is available in the advisory, and I can make sure I can send that out to you.
Could we just talk about the business decision of Nikon encrypting its white balance metadata in the RAW files?
Wahi: Again, the advisory contains all the information that we have available to give to you, and well send that out to you.
Id like to know what you would say to your customers who are hopping mad about this.
Wahi: The advisory contains all the information and as soon as we finish this interview Ill send you that.
StopTheBS @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
"he could not, and would not, make policy statements for the company as a whole"
The point is he should have had a prepared statement at the very least. The fact that neither of them would discuss it at this point demonstrates that Nikon once again is not yet able to deal with, nor understand the reality of why it is losing its standing in the professional world.
"Those folks at the parent company may ask Steve what he thinks they should do -- just as they will ask Steve's counterparts at Nikon U.K., Nikon GMBH (Germany), Nikon Europe, Nikon Canada, etc. -- but they will make their decision, and then they'll tell him what it is and instruct him to carry it out. At that point, he'll be able to make an official comment. That's how multi-national companies work."
Steve and his counterparts are not Nikon's customer base. Nikon's customers is who Nikon should be listening to. Multi-national companies that work this way against the wishes of their customers, and try to avoid addressing issues that demand clarity and honesty will piss people off. Period. Nikon may not be able to acknowledge that they are screwing this up, but no one can deny people are pissed. Pissed off people have stopped buying products from companies they are pissed off at since long before 1917.
Personaly I think Steve gave good fair answers (except for allowing himself to be silenced by the PR person). Nikon continues dealing with the free world like we are all still living behind the Iron Curtain and risks being left with a very lonely and much smaller market.
StopTheBS @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
One more point, this whole issue revolves around freedom and openess. Nikon's behaviour sugests a closed, no questions asked, authoritarian corporate philosphy. I am a creative person. I do not respect restrictions, evasive responses, and do as your told solutions to my work from a company that I depend on to create my images.
Eamon Hickey @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
To StopTheBS:
It's probably not a good idea for me to add anything further on this (I cover these companies daily as a journalist and really should keep my opinions to myself), but since my posting from a different forum (and from a specific context) is being commented on, I guess I'll chime in:
>"The point is he should have had a prepared statement at the very least."
But they made themselves crystal clear on this: the only statement they have, at this point, is the advisory they referenced. Saurabh Wahi stated this unambiguously several times. That advisory is their statement for now. It's all there is. I doubt whether he or Steve is happy about that (full disclosure: I know them both; Steve is a 15-year friend of mine). I would guess -- I haven't talked to either of them -- that they are aching to say something more complete and better, but they need information and authorization from Tokyo and that, apparently, has not been given. So they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. This really isn't an uncommon phenomenon. Note that I'm not saying that it's a good thing; just a fairly common one.
So we're all just going to have to wait until Nikon Japan comes up with a plan to address this whole thing, if they ever do. And if there are any scoops on the Nikon end of this story, it will probably be a Japanese journalist who gets them.
I'll also add that I have participated in dozens of conference calls with company executives and their PR reps, and it is not at all uncommon to have the PR rep step in and say, "I'll be glad to send you our official statement on that, but we can't say anything more than what's in that statement." It's also common to have the PR rep and the executive discuss with each other whether they can answer a question. "Can we talk about that? I don't know. We'll have to see if we can get permission and get back to you." These are just everyday occurrences in journalism (although that doesn't make them any less frustrating or, often, counter-productive.)
> "Steve and his counterparts are not Nikon's customer base. Nikon's customers is who Nikon should be listening to."
Well, that's what I meant: Nikon Japan will ask Steve what the U.S. market, and U.S. customers think and want. In this case, they will ask him what the reaction is to this white balance issue, and what he thinks Nikon's response should be. Again, this is how companies work; they have employees whose job it is to find out what the market wants, distill the information, and pass it up the chain of command. Some employees even get to offer their advice (Steve is now one of those.) A few employees actually get to make the decisions; at Nikon, those folks are all in Japan.
All right, now I really am going to shut up.
dooda @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Every instant that Nikon sits on the issue is a turns the knife slowly in the side of Nikon Users. The wealthy ones will jump ship, the poor ones won't because they can't afford it (me) and a couple just won't care. If you were going into the DSLR market right now? I'd say 20D is looking pretty good. I'm surprised that Canon isn't trying to capitalize on this more. If I was Canon I'd be sitting on my ass laughing at the fact that I'm getting more market share and industry good will without having to spend a marketing cent. Nikon needs to tackle this quickly. I'm a Nikon user and I hope that Nikon gets punished for their arrogance. They should kiss my ass as well.
Dean @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Did no-one else notice the little comment about the Nikon Capture software, the software that D70 users at least, have to pay for?
"we have Capture software, which is designed to be an integral part of our digital SLR systems."
If the software is designed to be an integral part of the system, then how can you possibly justify making the end user purchase it on top of the expense of the camera body?
It is definately morally suspect, and possibly legal as well...
1: Hi, I'd like to buy that car.. it runs doesn't it?
2: Yeah, runs like a dream
1: I'll take it then.. *hands over cash*
2: Of course.. if you really want to take advantage of the car, you'll want to buy a steering wheel for it, but the car -does- run without it...
Mr. Fartleberry @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
"Do only Nikon lenses work with the Nikon SLRs?
"Well, there are aftermarket lenses out there, but for someone whos interested in getting the highest quality photographs you can capture, we highly recommend Nikkor lenses. Its also worth noting that the digital SLRs will accept the lenses used on Nikons F-mount cameras going back to 1959."
- Wishful thinking. Try putting a non-AI on the D70 and you run interference with a small tab mechanism. Just another delusion/manifestation of living in the seventies (see below).
- And I've rarely seen anyone praise any of Nikon's midrange zooms below their cherished $1000 plus price point.
- I'll stay out of the the Nikon conceived white point fiasco as I think they've received more bad publicity and lost sales (along with their "encrypted" follow up press release) than they will ever forget.
As a Nikon owner for thirty years, I often think that they need a whole new product and marketing plan. Maybe the rep can explain why there has not even been a "development announcement" on new sub-$5000 lenses for 2 years. I'm afraid Nikon just don't get it and continue to pretend to live in their glory days of the sixties and seventies. Trying to continue to profit from 2-4 year old products (will they ever put the D100 out of its misery?) just shifts purchases over to their competitor.
Argh - don't get me going. It was good of the rep to speak to Engadget, but I don't think they will be doing this again anytime soon.
With or without the PR Tools.
Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:14AM
Eamon,
Your point makes sense -- but it almost seems like you're not putting enough weight on the most important thing you said about PR slimyness: "I'm not saying that it's a good thing; just a fairly common one."
I understand that as a professional journalist, you have to work with these people on a regular basis, so you would not want to be adversarial with them. However, if you consistently encounter PR people who won't say anything except a strict recitation of the "party line," why not push back a little?
The reason Wahi's conduct is shocking to so many people here is because people's day-to-day interactions are far more honest than Wahi's blather. If he didn't know what his superiors wanted, he could have just said that -- for example, "we're still trying to figure that out, and we really don't know what we want to do yet." Attempting to lie to the interviewer by implying the statement would actually answer his questions is dishonest.
It's okay to speak up once in a while, and it's okay to call BS on Wahi and Nikon for trying to have it both ways -- trying to look honest and open, when really they're anything but right now. Peter did a good job of this, and it would be great to see more journalists doing the same thing. Unless people push back a bit, the PR robots will win =)