Some quotes from a recent AP interview with Dirk Jesper, Product Manager for Professional Products and Product Planning at Nikon Europe (quick recap: the tsunami did not stop the D400, Nikon 1 is still alive, the Samsung deal was a “hoax”):
I can’t say anything about future products as you know, but yes I can confirm that the year will be busy.
AP: Why have we waited so long for a successor to the D300S? Did the tsunami disaster back in 2011 prevail Nikon launching a D400?
DJ: No, absolutely not. The tsunami was a terrible catastrophe. It had impact of course on our production, but the development of cameras happens somewhere else. It hit our production sites in the Sendai district and as you may remember we had some delivery problems in certain segments after that period, but we have fully recovered and it never had a negative impact on our development.AP: Nikon has persisted with the Nikon 1-system for a long time. Will Nikon actively look to develop the Nikon 1-system in the future?
DJ: We keep on with the Nikon 1 system because the whole concept behind the Nikon 1 system was to have a high performance, easy to use camera. Actually the market responded very well to that. Our intention was never to reach in to the DSLR and say the Nikon 1 should never be a replacement for a DSLR.AP: Before Christmas, there was much press speculation that Nikon had bought Samsung’s NX camera business. Are you able to give us a reaction to the many media reports about this?
DJ: As you learn from the media and also from official feedback that was a hoax. There was never anybody really talking about it.
