KM Glassman wrote:
> I understand that the Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro is really a Nikon 200
> body, which uses Nikon lenses, but the camera has a Fuji sensor.
> How is it that Nikon shares everything with Fujifilm, but then has
> to go to Sony for a sensor for their camera?
The relationships between Japanese companies is complex and interwoven. This is partly due to the fact that many of these companies have both divisions that produce parts and manufacturing equipment as well as divisions that produce consumer equipment. In the case of Nikon, for example, their semiconductor equipment division provides the equipment to Sony that is used by Sony to produce sensors, and has for perhaps two decades now. A lot of the Sony sensors that Nikon uses have tweaks that apparently originated from the Nikon semiconductor division. Sony Semiconductor very early on made the decision to be a supplier of sensors to others while Fujifilm initially decided against that route. (That's quite ironic, actually. Sony was feeding competitors to its early lead in the digital camera business, while Fujifilm, which had backed away from the camera business in film suddenly decided not to try to be the supplier to camera companies but instead get heavily into the camera business. Exact opposite strategies to what you'd expect from previous history.)
As for Nikon bodies being supplied to others, Nikon has done that for years, most notably to Kodak (and later Fujifilm). Historically, Nikon appears to be taking the same approach as Sony: their products are available to those that wish to buy them. In the case of camera bodies, it increases the number of cameras that have Nikon mounts on them, and thus the after market for Nikkor lenses.
You'll find that the cross licensing and parts supplies amongst the Japanese companies is highly intertwined. Even more so than the above suggests. Pentax, too, is a parts supplier, for example. About the only go-it-alone company is Canon (and even they use third-party sensors and cross license a lot of technology on some of their products).
--
Thom Hogan
editor, Nikon DSLR Report
author, Complete Guides: D40/D40x, D50, D70s, D80, D100, D200, D1 series, D2 series
www.bythom.com
