Kim Reynolds, writing on motortrend.com, said:
Mazda readily confesses that for the past quarter century it’s been the world’s unlikeliest caretaker of the DNA of the classic British sports car. Whereas Volkswagen and BMW have appropriated the factories and planning rooms of Bentley and Rolls-Royce, Mazda has been preserving the vital formula for an entire genre of British automotive history. Sort of a sports car seed vault in Hiroshima. That contains a single seed.
Wow. Nailed that right down. Nice writing.
A lot of new photographic models have been introduced in the past few days, and this morning a peculiar thought popped into my head: was there a point in the '50s or '60s in American when the public began to realize that "new models" really weren't? The history of model changes is fascinating if you really look into it. Henry Ford, for instance, thought the Model T was the perfect peoples' car, and he intended to keep making them into perpetuity. He had some justification for that: the Model T was produced for 19 years, and at one point three of every four cars on American roads was a Tin Lizzy. So entrenched was Ford's "this is it" mindset that when Model T sales finally dwindled to a trickle, Ford went several years without selling much of anything, because it wasn't prepared to bring a newer car to market. Ford essentially paved the way for its own competitors—first by failing to update its main model, which allowed competitors a toehold, and then by failing to bring a new model to market, which allowed its competitors to gain market share. The Ford-Chevy wars started all the way back then, but Ford itself was in some ways Chevy's biggest enabler in the beginning.
Cut to the 1950s, and marketers had learned that new models engendered excitement, free publicity, and automatic sales. For a number of years—I'm not enough of an automotive historian to pin it down any better than that—new models were announced annually, to great fanfare and public excitement. (Marketing tricks we take for granted, and see right through, were novelties then.) Of course, it didn't take the public too long to realize that many "new" models weren't strictly new—they just featured a few cosmetic changes, some freshening of the sheet metal, maybe new colors.
having trouble keeping them in stock
The new Canon 5DS, with its groundbreaking 50-megapixel sensor, is a real advancement. The Nikon D750, which is probably the camera of greatest interest to advanced photographers (both pro and enthusiast) right now, is also a genuinely new model. Both, of course, build on the traditions of each company's past models, and each company's past (the D750 to the landmark D700 digital SLR and, before that, the F100 film SLR). But are all the "Mark II" refreshes we see trotted out really new models? Or, while admittedly flagging new features in most cases (or, in some cases, fixes), is some percentage of their purpose just to add a little artificial marketing fizz? I'm going to have to look in to the case of the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (yes, they really did make that nomenclature longer! Funny.)
Think what you like about Mazda's "British-sports-car seed-vault," Mazda gets new Miata/MX-5 model introductions about right. New models do come along, but only when needed—and then, when they do arrive, they're actually new—and it's legitimately an occasion. There have been four Miatas in 25 years. Each one is considerably different and distinct from the others, each one is a genuine advancement, yet each one builds on the basic idea and embraces the model's long traditions—both its own, and that of its antecedents. New models are introduced not gratuitously, but when it makes sense to do so.
Personally I hope we're entering an era when camera model introductions will slow down some. I hope the D750 is in production for a good long time, so it can benefit from sensible refinements but stay familiar. The churn is fun (and profitable for people like—ahem—photography bloggers), but it would be okay for the camera market to mature a bit. And for new camera intros to become more Miata-like.
By the way, I looked in vain for the name of the photographer at the linked motortrend.com article. Maybe I just overlooked it, but I couldn't find it. S/he did a good job, though, whoever s/he is. I think I'll write to them and ask.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Moose: "The 'Mark' part seems unneeded, but the 'II' of the new E-M5 Mark II seems to me justified.
"Heavily redesigned body that every reviewer seems to find better made and ergonomically improved.
"Better VF; not new to Oly, but new to the M5.
"Articulated LCD with higher rez. I missed articulation from my 60D, G11, etc. when I went Micro 4/3. A tilt screen is fine for ordinary landscape format shots, but useless for verticals, reaching out to shot around obstacles, and so on.
"Significantly improved IBIS, especially for Macro.
"While the 40 MB HD mode may sound gimmicky or unnecessary to some, I think it's going to be a really big deal for many. It's not just HD. Beyond the shots needed just for higher rez, it moves the sensor to take four shots with the sensor moved one pixel in different directions, so as to have all three colors sensed at each pixel location.
"This means it's the first camera without a Foveon sensor (which has its own problems with metamerism) to avoid the problems with Bayer arrays. The test shots on ImagingResource are astonishing, revealing more clear detail in complex subjects with repeating patterns, fabric and screen printed labels, for example, than a Nikon D810. How much detail moiré has been obscuring in such subjects really surprised me. The DPReview preview shows very clearly the difference in moiré in a test pattern.
"The samples mentioned above are 40 MB JPEGs. What I don't know yet is what kind of detail the 64 MB RAW files will have when expertly processed. The JPEGs have some sharpening halos that limit them compared to the D810 on small, high pixel level contrast subjects, which should be avoidable working from RAW.
"The truer color and lack of moiré will be a BIG deal for product photographers, as one example.
"Clearly it's an awkward feature to use; the IBIS system is not available for its conventional purpose, it takes 3–4 seconds to take one shot, so a tripod and a static subject are required, but the benefits will be worth it for some work.
"And just for me, who still, after 2 1/2 years, can't easily operate the on/off switch on my E-M5 without fumbling and/or looking, it's been moved where it was on my OM bodies. Not as good as the Panny GX7, but still, a blessing."
Peter: "Turned out that the engine Alfa Romeo wanted to mount in the new roadster wouldn't fit in their version of the new Miata/MX-5. So the Italians have decided not to bring their version of the car as the new Fiat Barchetta.
"Fun fact: the previous Barchetta was developed as an answer to the very first Miata/MX-5. Alfa Romeo will develop a new roadster using their own platform."
