Alpha line (1 Viewer)

Alpha line nikon

I am not much of a Nikon fan and haven't followed them thru the years but it doesn't appear that they have a current alpha model now and haven't for quite sometime. What is their current thinking or....like the Camera brand, ....they are just hurting all around?

Hi,

yes, it seems the EDG is only available in limited numbers which are still in the channels... it never was a great seller despite its obvious optical and mechanical merits, so maybe the Monarch HG is their new top model.

Joachim

The EDG, one of the finest binocs on the planet, is living proof that Nikon can screw up anything they touch. I predict they'll leave the sport optics market entirely, as they have with their riflescopes. They've been clueless for a long time.

jgraider said:

The EDG, one of the finest binocs on the planet, is living proof that Nikon can screw up anything they touch. I predict they'll leave the sport optics market entirely, as they have with their riflescopes. They've been clueless for a long time.

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They may also be leaving the Camera line too..... Not sure in which direction they are moving in

Hello,

I have owned two Nikon binoculars and then moved on to other binoculars but I never tried the EDG line. Perhaps their maintaining so many binoculars at different price points muddied their marketing: EDG, Monarchs, Prostaff, Aculon, Extremes, SE, etc. Branding is an important part of marketing. I gather that Nikon lost or never attained much of a market in Europe, when global marketing is is the order of the day.

For sure, Zeiss and Leica went down market but not as far down as Nikon.

Stay safe,
Arthur

Their Nikon mid range glass is still better than the Zeiss Terror models, and I would think they sold a lot more. I still enjoy the SE models in 8X32, 10X42 and 12X50 still providing great views.

Andy W.

dries1 said:

Their Nikon mid range glass is still better than the Zeiss Terror models, and I would think they sold a lot more. I still enjoy the SE models in 8X32, 10X42 and 12X50 still providing great views.

Andy W.

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Andy,

The small typo in your post (Zeiss Terror) made me smile, but if I were a sniper or a hunter I would consider that line.

Regarding Nikon, we shouldn't forget the WX's = the "binos of the century" that are still produced by Nikon in very limited numbers (as far as I know). It remains to be seen if Nikon will benefit from producing the WX in any way.

Peter

dries1 said:

Their Nikon mid range glass is still better than the Zeiss Terror models, and I would think they sold a lot more. I still enjoy the SE models in 8X32, 10X42 and 12X50 still providing great views.

Andy W.

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Hello Andy,

I just visited the web site of a well known American vendor and none of those is listed, nor is any EDG model listed, not even as a special order.

Some years, ago, another vendor told me that hunters were his best customers in that they were most likely to buy the top of the line glasses. Bird watchers were more numerous but less likely to buy the most expensive binoculars. I think that Gijs said his best sales, in volume, were to those going on safari, even those who did not carry a rifle. Per unit profit drives those manufacturers, to the delight of vendors.

Stay safe,
Arthur :hi:

We all know the EDG is not produced by Nikon, I have those models in my arsenal, as I have the original HG and SE models. So I still enjoy the best that Nikon has made in the past, even the new HG Monarch in 8X42. I still use the FL models, primarily the larger aperture models >42mm.
In the US hunters tend to buy low to mid level glass, I would think birders do as well. As Lee has said, the majority of visitors to this site do not buy or likely own premium glass.

Andy W.

Nikon's strategy with sport optics has seemed somewhat muddled but the Monarch line is obviously very successful and widely available. I don't expect the company to vanish anytime soon. Their camera business is hurting now but so is everyone's, with the rise of smartphones. We have their current Z6 mirrorless cameras and think very highly of them. (Fuji is a much quirkier brand IMO.) The amateur market for serious cameras may eventually be reduced to those who need longer focal lengths for wildlife etc. Which segues back to binos: the SE line were nice (though not right for me) but discontinued years ago, perhaps a cautionary tale for any other manufacturer contemplating a retro porro. I'm sorry to say I never tried an EDG... and am also wondering whether the WX ultimately leads anywhere. It's frustrating to see a company capable of great things not doing them.

What is the rumored WX?

All camera / optic companies have suffered, yes....But take a minute and think about this. Canon and Nikon were the big camera and lens (Olympus has recently bit the dust) companies. For bins and scopes you had Swarovski, Zeiss, Nikon and Leica.

Canon has used it camera intuition and technology and is now making binoculars that have IS, So they have capitalized as a camera and binocular company and gotten ahead of the curve.

Swarovski recently came out with the Digital Guide Monocular as they capitalized on their bin/scope tech and have added bird ID/ Camera tech etc...

Zeiss....well, they are well into optics for just about anything so their company is so branched out they are multi-dimensional. But in regards to our birding world, they shifted from strictly high-end bins/scopes and broadened their base to include mid to low end ...so a shift they have made to grab a market share from the lower ends unlike Swaro.

Leica....well, it is Leica. High End....they have a niche in the camera world and binocular world that is 'all theirs'.... No one has that high end advertising feel like a Leica. So why change as no real competition.

On the other hand you have Nikon who was 'positioned' better then just about any of the big companies as they had their hand in high tech cameras + bins/ scopes. But they simply failed to move forward. Nikon had no vision of the future other then to muddle along and while yes, they produce super optics....they didn't stay with the times. So the times are now over-running them.

IMO........

The Canon IS product line is a niche market, and miniscule, much like the alpha market

Leica and Zeiss sport optics are hurting for sales, and have been lagging for a couple of years now. Swaro owns this segment and at least for the forseeable future that will continue.

Vortex will eventually run Nikon Sport Optics outa town. They've already taken a huge piece of the sport optics market from everyone. Vortex knows how to treat it's customers, and learned it from Leupold.

lmans66 said:

What is the rumored WX?

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I hope you're joking, but just in case:
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/binoculars/wx-10x50-if.html

Unless someone with inside info chimes in, it's going to be hard to do much more than speculate about how Nikon's sport optics division is actually doing, or what its strategy might be. Nikon made binoculars earlier than they did cameras/lenses, and their history in this area rivals anyone's. That said, it seems to me that Nikon has likely had more success competing in the mid to upper mid range, eg. with its 8x30 A and E series binoculars and now with the Monarchs, than at the very top end. Focusing their undoubted expertise on the sub-alpha (Monarch HG) and below categories, which almost certainly sell in much greater numbers, may very well make better business sense than competing in the crowded and competitive alpha market. I certainly felt the Monarch HG 10x42 I tried was a very capable birding binocular and, although the view through the EDG was superior in a number of aesthetic respects, I'd be hard pressed to say that the latter was truly superior at the basic job of bird identification and observation, and certainly not in proportion to the price differential between the two.

Regarding the EDGs themselves compared to other alphas: though a superb and well-executed product deserving to be ranked in the top tier, which I would use with great pleasure if one were available, my own feeling is that I was going to buy an alpha for myself and could afford only one, I would personally rather have the sharpness to the very edge of the Swarovision, the wide field of the Zeiss SF, or maybe the deep saturated colours of the Noctivid etc. The EDG range has great qualities (glare resistance etc. as noted by Tobias), and with preferences in binoculars being so individual, I could not quibble with those for whom the EDG is their favourite. I readily admit that my appreciation of top-tier binoculars may not be refined enough to appreciate its finer points. But there is something I just like better about the other alphas compared to the image I see through the EDG, excellent though it is. They each have something that immediately grabs you and wows you, whereas the qualities of the EDG, while of considerable merit in themselves, are probably more subtle and not as immediately apparent.

lmans66 said:

They may also be leaving the Camera line too..... Not sure in which direction they are moving in

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That really would be a shame. I've never been let down by any Nikon camera in the field and I have had many Nikons, mechanical, electronic, MF and AF, 35mm and digital DX and FX. OK, the innovative JFET-LBCAST sensor was a known issue with the D2H but it was instantly and immediately replaced free when it eventually did fail.

I can put up with their binocular wanderings as long as they are making such good cameras!

Tom

What went wrong with their camera business?

Sebzwo said:

What went wrong with their camera business?

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Same as with every manufacturer, the smart phone is killing them.

The bread and butter has been pocket cameras not exotic SLRs and high end mirrorless. How many pocket cameras are being sold in the last few years do you think?

On a related note, how many GPS receivers are being sold?
Calculators?
Video cameras?
Road atlas?
Watches?
Voice recorders?
Star charts?

And that's just off the top of my head based on the few apps I have.

Even tablets and desk tops have taken a hit.

Kevin Conville said:

Same as with every manufacturer, the smart phone is killing them.

The bread and butter has been pocket cameras not exotic SLRs and high end mirrorless. How many pocket cameras are being sold in the last few years do you think?

On a related note, how many GPS receivers are being sold?
Calculators?
Video cameras?
Road atlas?
Watches?
Voice recorders?
Star charts?

And that's just off the top of my head based on the few apps I have.

Even tablets and desk tops have taken a hit.

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So true....'da phone, da phone'..... right or wrong it has incapsulated all products it seems but not perfectly. I still prefer a paper map to visually see more, (although I like the directions on the phone for confusing drives), ....I still like my old calculator, and still use my point and shoot.

But yes, da phone, da phone...

dries1 said:

We all know the EDG is not produced by Nikon, I have those models in my arsenal, as I have the original HG and SE models. So I still enjoy the best that Nikon has made in the past, even the new HG Monarch in 8X42. I still use the FL models, primarily the larger aperture models >42mm.
In the US hunters tend to buy low to mid level glass, I would think birders do as well. As Lee has said, the majority of visitors to this site do not buy or likely own premium glass.

Andy W.

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Andy:
The EDG was made by Nikon in house, not sure where you got the information that everyone knows it was made by others. It was made in Japan, like the EII, Premier and SE models.
Also the WX is made in house. There is a Nikon relationship with Kamakura, but you don't know all the details.
I don't think anyone on here knows that.

Jerry

Jerry, I was waiting for someone to notice, I should have said that the EDG is not produced anymore....

Andy W.