Nikon tops SLR customer satisfaction survey

Update 11:25 a.m. PDT: Some folks seem confused about what exactly J.D. Power and Associates is measuring, so I've added some more detail about the study and about Sony's rating.

Well, this news isn't going to go over well at Canon.

According to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates, Nikon is the clear leader in customer satisfaction among digital SLR (single-lens reflex) customers in the United States. Adding insult to injury, SLR newcomer Sony came in second.

A new customer satisfaction gives Nikon SLRs the lead.

(Credit: J.D. Power and Associates)

The survey doesn't measure product quality, but rather how happy more than 7,500 buyers are. Consequently, an $800 camera could get a higher score than a higher-quality $1,600 camera from a rival, as long as customers are happier with their purchase.

Nikon scored 822 out of a possible 1,000 on a rank of how well its cameras measured up with the qualities consumers find important.

"It dominates in digital SLRs," Steve Kirkeby, executive director of telecomunciations and technology at J.D. Power, said in an interview.

Sony scored 793. Sony's score is notable, Kirkeby added. "Their takeover of Konica-Minolta's camera line is most impressive, considering that mergers or changes of this type generally dampen satisfaction for some period of time due to uncertainty on the part of the consumer," he said.

At 788, third place went to Canon--the top seller of digital cameras in general and of SLRs specifically--followed closely by Pentax at 787 and Olympus at 783. The survey didn't rank Panasonic, another new entrant, or Samsung, which today sells Pentax SLRs under its own brand.

SLR cameras, expensive but high-performance models, are at the center of a fiercely competitive and increasingly crowded marketplace. Canon is the top seller worldwide, with Nikon in second place.

The scale is weighted to favor the factors customers find more important, so image quality has a bigger influence on overall score than camera style, for example. And customer satisfaction has an import influence over future purchases: 36 percent of camera buyers ask for others' recommendations, so happy camera users are good advertising.

"Satisfaction leads to intention to recommend," Kirkeby said. "Intention to recommend--word of mouth--is something sought by camera buyers."

The most important satisfaction factors for SLR owners are, in terms of their relative weighting, picture quality at 39 percent; overall performance at 26 percent; ease of operation at 22 percent; and appearance and styling at 13 percent.

The dominant performance subfactors are autofocus, followed by low-light performance, according to the study.

Compact camera satisfaction factors
The study also measured three broad classes of compact cameras: ultraslim models that are less than 1-inch thick; basic point-and-shoot models with an average price below $230, and premium point-and-shoot models that are fancier with an average price above $230.

Casio, one of the electronics companies that has jumped into the camera market, led the ultraslim pack with a score of 802 for its Exilim Zoom line. Here, Canon was a close second at 796 for its PowerShot SD line. Next came Kodak's V series at 787, Sony DSC-T at 782 and Olympus Stylus at 781. Most of the next were close behind, but two series--Samsung S and Nikon Coolpix L--were a big notch below the pack at 728 and 725, respectively.

For basic point-and-shoots, Fujifilm's Finepix F series was tops at 749, followed by Kodak's Z series at 744 and Canon's A series at 739.

In the premium point-and-shoot category, Canon wins hands down, with a score of 829 that's head and shoulders above the next, Panasonic's DMC-FZ series at 785 and a number of others. The other Canon PowerShot lines--A, G and S--ended up in sixth, seventh and eighth places.

[doconn7]

This is a joke right!

Give me a break!!! J.D. Powers who give a **** about anything they
say!
You may as well have asked people who never used a camera to do
this survey. I think they were just amused by the pretty colors and
that was the extent of the whole survey!

[Bikinchris]

J.D. Powers

Lets see who cares(not your words) about J.D. Powers:
Corporations
Investors
People doing research on product reliablility in the area of automobiles and electronics.
J.D. Powers is a powerful research firm that is trusted by the above listed people. You know, the ones that matter. They do research only with the owners of the listed equipment.
But I am sure if your favorite brand was listed as the best, you probably would send a link of this page to everyone you know.

[zonebubba]

Pretty colors?

Pretty colors on a DSLR? Now THERE'S an informed opinion (not). I'm a D200 owner- if they'd have called me I'd rave on and on- it's a fantastic camera

[hhs2112]

Agreed, Powers is a joke...

These clowns will put there "Satisfaction Ratings" on ANYTHING in order to sell those surveys to any company with enough cash to pay Powers' ridiculous rates.

In my opinion, anyone who puts more than an iota of weight into surveys like this is nuts. Corporate America LOVES these things because they can get a survey to "prove" anything they want and can then proceed to market that "proof" to the (generally) brain-dead public who accepts it as "fact".

Check out Powers' website, there's more selling going on there than at ebay...

[gbwells]

insult to injury?

the only significant number here is the lead nikon has over the competition. the rest of the major players are so bunched up that the difference is negligible. 6/1000 is such a small difference that it really means next to nothing, particularly when you figure the number of people JD Power talked to compared to the total number of owners. it's certainly within statistical variation.

[Shankland]

reporter responds: Sony is dangerously close

You're right that the difference between Sony and Canon isn't much. But the fact that Sony is anywhere near Canon at all has got to be worrisome. In addition, takeovers such as Sony's acquisition of Konica-Minolta's SLR business usually dampen satisfaction, according to J.D. Power.

[duggerdm]

Is it just me?

I agree - these survey results are questionable. Nikon scored 39 points more than the worst in the field - 3.9% out of a 1000. Surveys like this one often require a minimum 5% difference to be considered statistically significant. Its surprising that anyone would publish a report where the differences were so close to - or insignificant. I have various models of non-SLR Nikon, Sony and Cannon cameras, though certainly not a enough to produce a significantly statistically analysis. My wife an I take 20-30,000 pictures a year and some of the pictures are published or professionally used - though we don't make or living as photographers. My personal preference and opinion is that my Cannon models beat both Nikon and Sony models hands down - even though my Cannon models are less expensive. The preferential differences for me are so great between the Cannon and the other brands - its hard for me to imagine that SLR competition results would be different than non-SLR. I know Nikon has made some really fine cameras in past - and especially at the high end, even so I'll always look at Canon first. Finally, is it just me, or do other people find that J. D. Powers and Associates have underwritten a lot of real dog products over the past years? If their camera reviews are as good as their automotive reviews, I think Nikon should sue them. In my opinion and for my own decision making - a JDP recommendation has become a red caution flag for product reviews.

[Shankland]

I think you misunderstand J.D. Power study

They're not rating the merits of various products, they're reporting their survey results of how satisfied customers are with them. You can take issue with study methodology, statistics, etc., but don't knock J.D. Power for endorsing one product or another. This study is measuring customer views, not camera features and quality.

[duggerdm]

"Who cares" - that matters.

I have no ax to grind with JDP. I have never found that the majority of the products they recommend to be equal to the JDP recommnedation from my experience with those products. I take it you work for JDP. You might want to note that
Corporations
Investors
Researchers
don't make the markets in most of the products that JDP recommends - automotive and consumer electronics. Ultimately its what the consumer thinks that determines purchases. Looking at the responses to this article as a non-statistically significant mini-sample of camera users - it would appear that JDP hasn't impressed many informed camera consumers with its opinions. However, keep those JDP recommendations coming - saves me the time to look at those products.

[Shankland]

reporter responds: No, I don't work for J.D. Power

I'm not sure if you're responding to me or to another post (http://news.com.com/5208-13580_3-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=30576&messageID=305008), but if it's me, no, I don't work for J.D. Power. I'm just trying to explain their study.

J.D. Power isn't "recommending" anything in this study. They're reporting customer satisfaction ratings. You can trust their findings or not, agree with the 7,500+ customers they surveyed overall, but nothing in their results J.D. Power recommendation to go buy a particular product.

Here are some more detailed customer ratings that show facets of individual SLR brands--image quality, operation, etc.:

http://www.jdpower.com/electronics/ratings/digital_camera/dslr

Take it or leave it, but label it as customer satisfaction, not J.D. Power purchasing recommendations.

[Travis Ernst]

off the shelf products

This survery covers LOWER END cameras. Get that in your heads
readers... and it is the **consumer feedback** that made this
survery what it is.

I'm looking to buy and who did I call for good information? My
old neighbor a pro photographer. His pro end was Hasselblad
film; but he shot with both Canon and Nikon as well so I knew
he could help me with feedback on both of those lines in asking
a LOT better than the consumer surverys.

He helped me finish my mind up on the Canon vs Nikon
decision. He said they are basicly equals and it's what you are
adapted to using for the button layout. Glass (lens) they are
darn near equals.

When you need info, call the pro photo shops in your area and
ask away. A lot of the time they will be more than happy to help
you, even on the settings you need to set your camera to and
the filter grade you'll need for ND if you want to do time lapse.
The boys at a well known store in the cities by me did. Spent a
good 15 minutes on the phone giving me the F settings and
telling me the ND filter I'd need.

Also, if you can check, the "SourceBook" that some stores print
are good for base data on the cameras and add-ons if you want
the scoop.

[Knowbody49]

Amazing how something like this can evoke so many emotional responses. I'm a pro who worked for Ehrenreich Photo Optical Industries (EPOI) as a teenager, and have been shooting for the last 35 years with lots of film cameras, including Mamiya 645, Zenza Bronica ETSR, Konica and many others.

In the digital realm, I was using Canon but switched to Nikon. I now regularly use a D2Xs and D70s and may upgrade to a D3 in the near future. I have found Nikon to be outstanding, so I'm not at all surprised by the survey results. Nikkor VR lenses are superb and the Nikon camera bodies are the best.

[Knowbody49]

Amazing how something like this can evoke so many emotional responses. I'm a pro who worked for Ehrenreich Photo Optical Industries (EPOI) as a teenager, and have been shooting for the last 35 years with lots of film cameras, including Mamiya 645, Zenza Bronica ETSR, Konica and many others.

In the digital realm, I was using Canon but switched to Nikon. I now regularly use a D2Xs and D70s and may upgrade to a D3 in the near future. I have found Nikon to be outstanding, so I'm not at all surprised by the survey results. Nikkor VR lenses are superb and the Nikon camera bodies are the best.