In talking to dealers in the past 24 hours, there seems to be a general impression that the Z5 isn't generating as many sales as they would expect. If so, Nikon only has themselves to blame.
Nikon wants to convince the D70/D90/D7xxx and D6xx type of user to migrate to mirrorless with the Z5. There are a lot of those folk out there, and it shouldn't be all that hard to get them to make the move. That's because the camera (and lens) itself is fine, almost exactly what most of that group would want.
So why wasn't there a stampede to the dealers? Here's my analysis:
- Nikon played things tight to their vest, making sure there weren't any leaks, and then making the announcement via Internet-only press release.
- Said press release didn't actually go out to US folk on the NikonUSA press release list (still haven't received it ;~).
- There was no event, there was also no back-and-forth that would answer questions that might come up. Mostly silence from Nikon's end. Nikon has just proven they haven't mastered Zoom (or probably Microsoft Teams, given Nikon's Windows preference).
- The price was a little on the high side to expectation, given the Canon RP is just US$1000. People will wait until NikonUSA decides to get into the discounting game again.
- Moreover, there is a discount in play (the "FTZ is US$50 when ordered with a Z camera" one), but it's not available on most of the Web sites like B&H at the moment (even NikonUSA's ;~), so the price looks like US$1650 for Z5+FTZ when the Z6+FTZ is promoted as US$1850.
I could go on, but I think you get my gist.
Frankly, Nikon needs someone to come in and teach them that marketing and sales support is super important, not an expense you cut when your profitability is at risk. Nikon needs to go to Marketing Boot Camp again, they seem to have missed many of the lessons.
I gave Canon very high marks for their recent R5/R6 announcement. I give Nikon equally low marks for their Z5 announcement.
Thing is, once the reviews start appearing and Nikon eventually resorts to discounting again, the Z5 will sell just fine. But pre-orders? At the moment the Z5 isn't garnering a lot of them. (Which reminds me, NPS Priority Purchase is open for the Z5 and the teleconverters. NPS members should know what to do about that, and should have received an email from NikonUSA.)
