Kodak high-end discounts and discontinuations - Whazzup?
By
Dave Etchells
(Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 16:36 EST)
A little speculation on Kodak's SLR plans...
Kodak has just made a couple of announcements that suggest something is afoot in their high-end camera lineup. First, they recently announced that they would be discontinuing their "Pro Back" for Hassleblad and other medium-format camera bodies. Now, they've just announced a $1,000 "off invoice" discount on their Pro 14n SLR. - To take advantage of this discount, download the form from the Kodak website, fill it out, and present it to the dealer when you purchase a 14n, and the dealer will deduct the $1,000 directly. (Offer good between 1/19/04 and 3/31/04.)
Interesting...
Since I've not yet received any information about new cameras from Kodak under NDA, I'm free to put 2 and 2 together, and speculate as follows: It's no secret that the Pro 14n's disappointing image quality was largely the result of noise in the CMOS sensors they used. Kodak makes great CCD sensors of their own. The Pro Back used Kodak's CCD sensors. So... Why not kill off the slow-selling Pro Back, and use the resulting sensor production capacity to revamp Kodak's offerings in the red-hot D-SLR market, in the form of a greatly improved sensor in the 14n body?
Hmmm... It seems like a fair bet that something's afoot, it'll be worth watching to see what Kodak announces at the upcoming PMA show!
(Thanks to correspondent Peter Burian for calling our attention to the two Kodak announcements mentioned above!)
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