Industry News: AP Photographers will only shoot with Sony gear going forward

unfocused

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Imagine if the news was "AP Photographers will only shoot with Canon gear going forward" CR servers will go down, now that this is Sony "It is no big deal" It is a big deal people. This is why people like me were saying Canon needs to innovate, get in to mirrorless space fast enough and should lead the pack interms of technology. The Canon Defence Forces on the Internet called us Sony Fanboys. I for one not a fan Boy of any company. Canon makes extraordinary lenses and great bodies just work. The Sony cameras I have has to be reboted once in a while during a shoot (very rarely though), Suddenly will say there are no images on the card when there are a few hundred images. There is always some nuances with Sony and then the ergonomics and then the touch sceen which Sony never seems to get it right but for auto focus, image quality, value for money, etc Sony has surpassed Canon a while back. With R5 I thought Canon woke up but guess what it is difficult to get rid of the old habbits.
I think you are confusing "it's not a big deal from a financial perspective" and "it's a big deal from a marketing perspective." Most people who would agree that it is a big deal for marketing purposes. But, in terms of the actual number of cameras and lenses being sold, it's not a big deal because the crash of the photojournalism market is a decades-long phenomenon that makes the crash of point-and-shoot cameras look like small potatoes.
 
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Bert63

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Mine is still on order from ABT. Got a note from B&H today saying that they still didn’t have a clue as to when they were going to be delivered.

The note I got was as a result of me signing up to be notified when stock became available. It was an automated response - I got the same notification on the 100-500L. They come every two weeks.

I haven't received any kind of order update that pertained to my specific pre-order. Have you?
 
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That's certainly your prerogative. However if they are all now suddenly required to switch to Sony, there may be some fairly new and unused equipment they need to get rid of.
assuming its priced accordingly, why not? hefty difference in buying something thats got a fair few miles on it and buying something thats flat out broken, if they are dumping old equipment well they were still using it until that point ;)
 
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We should probably acknowledge that most if not all modern ILC are "good enough" for most things.

Sony has a bit of a headstart as they now have all photo and videogear on a single mount. Canon will have to follow (rip 5DV).

Bottom line is that this is good news. Sony is now officially a serious camera manufacturer and CaNikon need to continue innovating. Expect more new cool stuff.
 
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It is a big deal in terms of marketing. There are many more "citizen journalists" active now with their own websites and blogs. They buy cameras, and they help feed the marketing machine.

This was a smart move by Sony and probably worked out quite nicely for AP too. I doubt Canon marketing-execs are saying "not a big deal." Hopefully they are working on other opportunities that can help promote Canon in this extremely competitive and complex business environment. For those of us who do appreciate Canon and have bought in, competition is important, but a healthy, prosperous company is essential.

That may play with Amateur gear heads, but pros by and large don’t care which gear they use as long as it captures the photo they intended. That said, I wonder if the photo credit on AP images will now include a mention of Sony.... “Image by AP Photographer Joe Blow using a Sony XYZ”....
 
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Pros are happy to use whatever works - they're generally entirely brand agnostic, and will shoot with whatever they're given as long as it's up to the job.

He was hardly going to say "we thought they were crap", was he?

;)

All this means is that Sony have given AP a good deal - probably something of a loss leader, for the publicity.
Very good analysis.

Deals like these will be very important moving forward as the camera hardware market is shrinking year after year for the past 10+ years.
 
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jam05

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Yeah yeah...

If it was a Canon-exclusive deal this forum would be alight with how it showed Canon's dominance in professional imaging etx
Because it's basically not relevant in 2020. There are very few newspapers in print. AP isn't exactly what is once was a few decades ago. Images on TV come primarily from the average consumer than staffed photojournalist anyhow. Images from sporting venues on the other hand aren't dominated by AP. People don't wait for AP images anymore.
 
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YuengLinger

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That may play with Amateur gear heads, but pros by and large don’t care which gear they use as long as it captures the photo they intended...

Which market is bigger? "Amateur gear heads" or "pros"? When Sony markets their cameras to vloggers and "citizen journalists," having a little blurb which states, "Official gear of the Associated Press" becomes a part of the branding and, for some consumers, the cachet. That's it. Why does Gator Ade like to be called an "official sports drink" of certain leagues? Or Nike to be associated with leagues and individuals?

If a photographer buys a Sony and goes out and takes a million photos, but only shares them with a few friends and family members, there is only negligible word of mouth advertising. But if a vlogger with even a relatively small following mentions using Sony gear, many more eyes are now seeing the brand. We can speculate all we want about how many extra sales this will generate, but Sony has already determined, likely using resources we don't have, that extra sales will indeed be worthwhile.

Again, this was a smooth marketing move by Sony. More power to them for making it.
 
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jam05

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Don't know if one sees a great deal of AP images everywhere in today's landscape. There are more Getty images if anything. News outlets simply don't wait on AP with 24 hours new coverage. Every since CNN came to the forefront the AP is basically irrelevant in the current state of journalism
 
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jam05

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Mar 12, 2019
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It is a big deal in terms of marketing. There are many more "citizen journalists" active now with their own websites and blogs. They buy cameras, and they help feed the marketing machine.

This was a smart move by Sony and probably worked out quite nicely for AP too. I doubt Canon marketing-execs are saying "not a big deal." Hopefully they are working on other opportunities that can help promote Canon in this extremely competitive and complex business environment. For those of us who do appreciate Canon and have bought in, competition is important, but a healthy, prosperous company is essential.
The independent doesn't care about AP anymore. They faded long ago with the advent of the 24 hour news coverage.
 
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We should probably acknowledge that most if not all modern ILC are "good enough" for most things.

Sony has a bit of a headstart as they now have all photo and videogear on a single mount. Canon will have to follow (rip 5DV).

I'm sure that's why they did not cripple the R5 or R6. The new paradigm says the camera should also be equally as strong as a videocamera.
 
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