Hiroshi Takashina, Managing Director, Nikon India
Nikon has a strong foothold in contributing towards the community as well as the photographer community. Mathew Thottungal speaks with Hiroshi Takashina, Managing Director of Nikon India, to gain an insight into the company’s plan.
What are some of the innovative products to be showcased by Nikon India at the venue and what events are in store to draw crowds to the stall?
Nikon India will showcase recently launched products such as D7000 and D3100 with an entire range on display, supported by a unique concept of Nikon School aimed at promoting photography culture. The D7000 is a high-quality, mid-class D-SLR that will respond to user demands for a variety of latest camera technologies and functions, enabling high-quality, highdefinition shooting, including the best low-light ability never seen before in DX format. D3100 has a helpful New Guide mode that makes capturing beautiful images easy and features the ability to shoot full HD recording with auto focus.
COOLPIX range of compact cameras have had a remarkable run in recent years in the Indian market and more specifically during the last festive season. On the D-SLR front, the two notable launches have been the entry level D3100 and the mid-end D7000. However, the HD movie feature is a overwhelming favorite with photo enthusiasts, how do you hope to highlight the strength of this feature at Photofair’11, while focusing on wedding photographers.
During this exhibition we will have planned a variety of activities highlighting the key features of our recently announced products like D7000 and D3100. To showcase the beauty of HD movie function in more detail, we will be conducting separate sessions under Nikon School. During the sessions, live demonstrations shall be conducted by experts, thus bringing out this feature more comprehensively to our target audience. Apart from this, we plan to take the platform of Nikon School, pan India shortly inorder to support the photography community and empower them to take photography to a next level.
The incorporation of High Definition video applications require a new generation of memory cards and the proposed joint venture with SanDisk, Nikon, and Sony is a welcome addition to standardize the format. What does the future look like according to you.
With the advent of introduction of new technologies like High defi nition video application, it is really important to standardize the formats in order support these new advancements. The proposed set of industry standards for the development of next-gen high speed memory cards is a big leap towards catering to the rising demands of the photography community while passing on the benefi t to end consumers. Looking at the futuristic picture, this step is certainly a contribution towards the community, as the proposed new card specifi cation is set to surpass the performance and storage capabilities of every existing memory cards.
After taking over the mantle from Tanaka san, what has been some of your innovative strategies, apart from the introduction of the professional photographer services in India, and how do you hope to take the Nikon brand forward in the country.
As we have aways been saying, keeping in view the broader objective of contributing to photography culture in this beautiful nation, we have started Nikon School, an initiative to support the photographers by providing tips, expert guidance and insights about photography. The initiative has been rolled out from our head office based in Gurgaon, while plans are in place to take it to other metro cities shortly. Apart from this, the recently introduced Nikon Professional Services offers a special service directed towards the select full time professional photographers across the globe. As a member, one can avail a host of exclusive privileges. To name a few, NPS would cover priority service, fi rst hand experience of newly launched products, special support during national or international events like Common Wealth Games, Asian Football Confederation, FIFA World cup etc., facility to avail back up equipment in case of any emergency and many more. In order to further strengthen our service facilities across this huge nation, adding to the existing 19 authorized service centres, we have introduced Nikon collection centres, an initiative taken by Nikon India to cater to the wider base of Nikon customers by fl oating Camera Collection Points across locations, especially the non-metro areas. These services have been started in Bhopal, Noida & Mangalore and towards the end of this business year, we intend to take the number to 20.
We have already attained a leadership position in the D-SLR segment, while in the compact segment we aim to achieve the 20 percent market share by the end of this fiscal year.
Mathew Thottungal
