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Manufacturers. Don't get me started! Well, maybe a little. The saying goes that "The Internet changes everything", and to some extent it's true. But try telling that to some of the large Japanese manufacturers. Epson is a good example. They release products in Europe ahead of North America and then when reviews appear online and questions start to be asked their U.S. office plays dumb. New printer. What new printer? They then ship essentially the same product but with quite different accessories, and a different product number. Most memorable is the fiasco of not including the Gray Balancer that ships with the European Photo Stylus 2100 with the North American 2200 model. Back before the Internet (say, prior to 1995) no one would be the wiser. An American might buy a UK photo magazine months later, read about the difference, shrug and think that these were two different products. Not anymore, and Epson just doesn't get it. Not to pick only on that estimable printer manufacturer. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their advances in photographic inkjet printing technology. There are other examples. Mamiya is one already mentioned, for assuming that consumers still can't figure out the huge price differential being charged for the same product in different countries. Click. Ahh, so that's what the price is in the U.K. Pentax is another, but for different reasons. They make two excellent medium format cameras, the 645 Nii and the 67ii. There is a huge installed base of lenses, especially for the 67, which has been around for some 30 years. But almost alone among medium format makers they are being sidelined by digital. Most medium format makers have models with interchangeable backs. This means that digital backs can be used, and they increasingly are by professionals. The economics of professional photography demand this, if nothing else. But the Pentax 67 can't take any backs, and the ones on the Pentax 645 are inserts, not full backs. Unless Pentax addresses this situation soon they will be marginalized in the medium format arena as photographers increasingly move to digital. There may be nothing they can do with the 67 format, but certainly they can bring out a body that accepts digital backs and that uses the array of autofocus and prior lenses for their 645 system. If they don't, and soon, legions of photographers with investments in Pentax MF systems will start to abandon them. Then there's Leica. Dear old Leica, maker of arguably some of the finest (and needless to say, most expensive) 35mm photographic lenses ever made. There's no way that they have the financial wherewithal to develop a digital camera that can utilize them themselves. But, they've recently partnered with Matsushita (Panasonic), and Leica branded lenses are showing up on Panasonic digicams, and Leica is OEMing these under their own brand. Matsushita also makes advanced imaging chips. In fact the chip in one of the major high-end DSLRs from another major camera manufacturer is from them. So, how about taking Panasonic's chip technology and manufacturing capabilities and marrying these with a some high-end Leica glass? That would put Leica back on the map and would give them something worthwhile to do other than produce green lizard-skin covered M6's for the Japanese collector market.
