The Nikon D850 is quite the beast of a camera. It holds a massive 45.7-megapixel full-frame sensor that can record 4k video and create 8k time-lapses. It can shoot at a blazing fast seven frames per second and has an enormous 51 image buffer when shooting 14-bit raw images. The focus speed is insanely fast, deadly accurate, and offers 153 focus points with 130% more frame coverage than the older Nikon D810. The only problem with such an amazing monster of a camera is that Nikon thinks it’s too much for women to handle.
I know what you are thinking. No way Nikon would ever make such a claim. It seems absurd that only men could handle the D850. I myself can think of a large number of women photographers that would be more than capable of producing spectacular images with any camera, let alone this camera. But when Nikon created a team of 32 professional photographers to be the faces of the Nikon D850, they didn't choose a single woman photographer.
When building a list of 32 photographers, you basically have to go out of your way to not include a single woman. The problem here though is not just with Nikon, but instead with the entire photo industry. Brand ambassadors are filled with mostly men and entire conferences are filled with only male speakers. It would seem that the majority of photographers are men or maybe it's just too hard to find a woman that's not busy cooking and cleaning.
Or is it feasible that the D850 is in fact for men only and Nikon plans to release a pink and sparkly D850w for women to use?
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193 Comments
I would challenge you to show me a single example of a similar professional conference that has a majority women. I have not seen it happen, and that is the problem. This single example, while not ideal from a marketing or representation perspective (perhaps Nikon would benefit from the feedback of a wider swath of their users) could be considered a statistical anomaly. However, taken as a whole (the ratio of women to men for Nikons US ambassadors is less than 1/3, for example), then there isn't a different logical conclusion than to say that either women are less able than men at professional photography (in which case we will just disagree) OR that there is an inherent bias in the opportunities for women to get a place at this level of photography.
REAL LIFE CONFERENCE in Canada.
https://www.reallifeconference.com/
yes, but that is a conference specifically for women. I'm talking about a similar professional conference or testing arena.
isn't it so sad that that doesn't exist? women have to start and run their own kickass conference to ensure they are properly represented in the industry?
Bob and Lisa are perfect examples of subversive misogynists and gaslighters. You see, if a woman gets sexually assaulted, they are the first people to tell you that you should have taken basic precautions and that non-directly it is somehow your fault. You should have known better, you should not have put yourself in a dangerous situation, you should have not gotten so drunk so you didn't have control of yourself. Classic victim-blaming. And then, they're the kind of people to turn around and say well not all men are rapists!
Taking basic precautions and having logical fears about men--the most violent demographic in the world, statistically( be triggered all you want, its a fact), let alone sexist, makes you "over reacting".
But once you get assaulted or harassed surely there is something you could have done to improve your situation?
You can't win with people who have no logic nor common sense. You are both knee deep in rape culture and I would laugh heartily at your ignorance if it wasn't so sad and scary.
well at least they didn't take the group shot with an iPhone.
The snarky backlash in this comment thread is further evidence that this problem is deeply embedded in our culture, and that many men feel threatened by shifting demographics in the workplace. What's disappointing is that despite their reputation for being artistically inclined and inquisitive people, it would seem that photographers are not blessed with any greater sensitivity or self-awareness with respect to these issues than the layperson.
Why didn't they? Why didnt they choose a few women to test it out? I'm reading a bunch of comments saying this is bs and nonsense, but it's a legit question. Being on the marketing team is not the same as being part of these chosen few and the deflection is insulting. Is it coincidence the majorty of this comes from men? Why would you not want to see some variation of photographers? Might even learn about one you weren't previously aware of. I hope, as a user, Nikon has an answer.
I think an article on white male fragility may be called for. In an industry that already struggles with ego and lack of ability to take critique without it being taken as a personal attack, it is time to start a real dialogue about how toxic this industry is and exclusionary to women and people of color.
ALL of the big businesses that sell to photographers needs to get a Chief Diversity Officer on board to combat this. Bonus, it will increase sales and has great PR optics. win/win
HONESTLY! I mean -- what exactly is the threat to men when another man points out inequality? Why do these dudes get more bent out of shape by an ARTICLE about sexism than sexism itself? How can anyone look at a group of 32 male photographers and not see that it's a wee bit off-balance? It boggles the mind. And it's CERTAINLY not unique to Nikon. Google "100 best new photographers" and notice how hard it is to find women included....unless it's a list of "women photographers." Sidenote: you never see an article like "100 best male photographer today." Why? BECAUSE IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING. And that's irritating. The industry has been changing for the 18 years I've been a photographer. There are SO many women in photography now. Why is this so hard to understand??
Yes there are many, many women in photography now 'in the US'. In all my photo courses and seminars I was in the minority. None of this is relevant though as it has nothing to do with Nikon or Canon selecting their representatives in another region which is in most ways still extremely backwards when it comes to gender equality. You just can't apply the same expectations and ridicule a company for what is likely a reflection of the industry rather than as a result of their selection process. I'd say a more valid question is why are there likely so few pro female photographers using Nikon to choose from? Nikon seems to do better than other manufacturers in the US/EU so a) Nikon marketing managers are particularly sexist in Asia or b) there just aren't that many.
As a corrollary, when I hired staff for my team in NY/Chicago I always had a decent number of female applicants and overall the better candidates tended to be women. When I moved to London, I got virtually no applications from women for similar roles at the same company. In checking across the industry this was actually normal. I ended up hiring all men in the end. Was I biased? Not at all, yet had I needed to create a PowerPoint sheet of all the hires, in the context of this Nikon brouhaha I would likely be labelled sexist, which was not been the case. A shame yes, but I'm not in a position to change this pattern and in this case neither is Nikon.
Yes let's be sexist and racist in one comment all whilst complaining about sexism within the industry. It's comments like these which puts me off your arguments completely. But it's ok to be sexist and racist when it suits your cause, right Katrina?
One female ambassador? Come on..the whole thing is blatant sexism...great stuff Nikon..wake up..
After reading all the mysoginistic comments here, without doubt I can say: I hate the internet...
When will Nikon, Sony, Fuji, & Sony get with the program? What will it take for women to be recognized in this industry?
The portraits of the ambassadors are terrible. So many ambassadors for what?
REALLY Nikon????? I have been a Nikon user since 1981, I could have bought at least 2 more houses with the amount I have spent on Nikon gear and I KNOW MANY WOMEN that are the same as me. AWARD winning WOMEN Nikon users. Can SOMEONE at Nikon explain this to me?
Representation matters. Period. It is a disservice to everyone to not include equal representation. This was blatant exclusivity. And Nikon's reasoning was a slap in the face. It was their responsibility to get this right. I want to see all women, with a majority of women of color, in the next panel of creative professionals.
Yikes! Really goes to show how much farther things need to go in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
and all over the world...the comment section alone shows why so many need to take a gender equality class. Women face this level of ignorance and flat out condescending attitudes constantly. Hearing the thoughts of men who dismiss equality is almost to the point of boring if it wasn't so demeaning and tragic.
Katrina, your comments are the ones oozing with ignorance. You do realise that you are the one with a flat out condescending attitude right? You look at the world through the lens of what group you think people should belong to and then judge them for belonging to that group. I feel sorry for brainwashed people such as yourself who seem to think that gender equality classes are a good idea. The sad thing is that you think that because you are on a certain side that it entitles you to act a certain way but you are acting worse than the people that you oppose.
Well, what gender equality class does is make sure everyone is as dumb and angry as third wave feminists.
I met great female professional photographers with pro style cameras. And some of them I believe are better shooters than most who are on that board. However, pro photographers are not the mass of the market, enthusiasts are.
The point is, I get asked about gear questions a lot from my ethnic community. Most Asian girls I know, ruled out full-size DSLR as an option even when money is not a problem. They much prefer cameras like EOS6D and A7 series for size and weight reasons even when they demanding a full frame camera. These girls see a camera as a tool instead of the interesting object by itself. Meanwhile, men tend to get the bigger models, and they are much geekier and care more about specs. Therefore market D850 towards men in that market is more affection. This point can be proved by the overwhelming number of dudes who follows iRental's gear review on social media.
Lastly, if wasn't for this stupid article, I wouldn't even know about which gender shot what.
All social justice warriors should unite to tear this crap Nikon sexist company down. Then there will be nothing but Canon to dominate. That would be great for competition.
What a clickbait article.
Nikon Asia dose not represent the whole of nikon.
I see a mix of male and female photographers on the U.S website.
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/nikon-ambassadors/index.pa…
Yes, Asian countries are more male centric. We all knew that.
What did Nikon say when you phoned them up and asked them to explain the marketing campaign?
I am so pleased this is being discussed! I wrote 'An open letter to Nikon' earlier today:
http://www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk/blog/an-open-letter-to-nikon/
I am yet to hear back from them.......
That was Nikon Asia.
DIXIE DIXON was one of the first to test the D850
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/ideas-and-inspiration/d8…
I saw it when Lanny shared it and it was great!!
Okay, this looks bad. 32/32 is not a good number, somebody should have noticed. 32/32 is not an accurate representation of the people who are A) extremely talented Nikon shooters, and B) interested in playing with the D850.
However, I gotta say something about all these feminist battle cries of outrage about the photography industry as a whole:
As someone who has met hundreds or even thousands of other photographers in real life, (and definitely many thousands online) ...I think it is folly to argue that men and women have an exactly equal level of interest in the geeky (and let's just be honest, the measurebating) ...side of photography. Which is, generally speaking, what goes on at these "exciting new tech toy" type private clubs and events. (I've been to a private "new camera" event before, and it was NOT a Nikon event, and it WAS largely dominated by men.)
YES, women are just as talented and as creative and as men, if not more. But men are generally more into the geeky, numbers stuff. So what? Get over it.
Why can't we just accept that the sexes have SOME biological differences? We do, after all, have different chromosomes. And different body parts.
I'm not saying that Nikon deserves zero backlash for this. They deserve some. But let's be careful to differentiate between feminism, and hopeless attempts at homogenizing the sexes.
yes, please lecture to all us emotional women what feminism is.
Lordy, all you boring victimized men. Keep at it, we are enjoying watching you die on this hill and exposing your ignorance.
HUH? I didn't even look to see where "feminist battle cries" were coming from. Now that I do, it seems pretty 50-50 from men and women. Am I wrong?
My whole point was, there's a biological difference between men and women that leads men to obsess over this type of stuff, and women to think it is, well, boring.
No victimization of men is being alleged. I'm just pointing out that maybe this 32/32 number happened only partly because of sexism, and ALSO partly because of an inherent difference between men and women that is not something that needs to be rectified.
(And don't mistake all this for me trying to imply, "just let men have their fun, honey, you wouldn't understand." That is NOT what I mean. In fact most men dream of meeting a woman who loves gear just as much as he does.)
You must be one miserable woman. Fix the world you will.
You missed a VERY important detail, Matthew. All photographers use CAMERAS to create photos. And the ladies, with our whimsical fairy creative hands, still need to use a freaking CAMERA to create our whimsical creative fairy photos that require absolutely no technical know-how because, you know, our vaginas do all of the thinking for us.
So regardless of your outdated, lopsided view of how technical (read: smart) men are, women still use the same goddamn tools men do. And should be included in the testing.
This is like saying that women needn't be included in the designing of a home because most construction workers are men. Has it never occurred to you that a woman's perspective on something might be essential for completely SEPARATE reasons? Let's assume your assertions are correct. That is, men are technical and women just have creative vaginas that make magical whimsy happen. Even if we take that into consideration, there are a MULTITUDE of reasons to include a variety of testers.
Hi Kari,
I tried to make it clear, but I guess I didn't:
I totally agree with you, that camera usage is just a means to an end, and in that regard women are just as as good as men if not better, when it comes to the final photographs produced.
However, here's the point you missed: I was merely pointing out that, factually, (not my opinion, just an observation of the industry) ...these types of camera "hype-up" groups / activities are largely focused on the geeky side of things, the measurebating.
I did NOT say this was a GOOD thing! In fact I wish this wasn't the case. A bunch of photographers sitting around trying to measure the ISO improvement of a new camera is a pretty crappy way to promote that camera.
In fact I'm downright sick of the boring, sometimes even awful "sample image galleries" that we see from some major publications these days. I know that either myself (or any of the innumerable female photographers I know) could easily produce far more compelling images, if given a chance. Because at the end of the day what matters isn't remembering the exact aperture and focal length of the expensive lens you just bought, what matters is the images you capture with that lens.
Having said that, my point stands: let's not pretend that the sexes have exactly equal interests in every single aspect of the world. Men and women have different toys, different interests, and that's fine. We as a society need to get past that fact, and yes, we need to get over our obsession with geeky and technical stuff when it comes to new cameras. A team of 16 men and 16 women would probably have done a LOT better job of promoting the D850 in a wider variety of photographic genres, absolutely.
BTW, your excessive self-deprecation using the terms "creative vaginas" and "magical whimsy" just makes you appear to be bitter about the issue. I don't mean that as a personal attack, just an observation on the vibe of what you wrote. I do understand that my reference to "feminist battle cries" was kinda disrespectful, though. Fair enough.
You know what's really sad? Nikon is actually the best when it comes to gender parity. If the author had bothered to look at the industry (which he references) he would see that Nikon has a higher percentage of women in its "ambassador" roles than any other brand. To me that tells me the author didn't do his research and/or just wanted to use the "D850" keyword to get clicks because it's the hot new thing. I hope readers can see past this cheap trick:
Sony - http://imagingambassadors.sony.net/ambassadors/
50 Men
8 Women
14% Women, 86% Men
Canon - http://learn.usa.canon.com/dlc/contributors/explorers.spr
32 Men
8 Women
20% Women, 80% Men
Nikon - http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/nikon-ambassadors/index.pa…
17 Men
7 Women
29% Women, 71% Men
Olympus - http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/visionaries
10 Men
2 Women
20% Women, 80% Men
Oh, to be a man and think that 20% = parity. More like parody. 😏
Writing an article with such an assumption is silly. Was Nikon asked to comment ? Article should be based on facts not speculation.
The fact is....there are 32 men. And no women.
Fact is they were selected from photographers that worked in the Nikon offices in the 8 regions. Maybe there were no women photographers in those office that met the criteria.
maybe all the women were on their periods that day and just way too cranky to want to further their career with this publicity. and I bet Nikon only asked 32 men and they all just happened to say yes.
I expect the men crying that they are actually a minority and deserve our pity to be this dense, but it is a 1 2 punch to have women buy into this line of apologetics.
This simply means the marketing agency determined this particular camera in Asia market is mostly gonna bought by male photographers who work in physically demanding fields, that is all.
LOL!!! Yes. This camera is for all of the lumberjack photographers out there. So many. Good grief. Where do you guys come up with this shit?
If you want to have a discussion, the answer is "reality".
The reality is one who is 5'4 and weight around 100lb (typical Asian women size) is lesser likely to carry a 5lb lens/camera combo as a hobbyist, man or woman. And hobbyist is the largest part of the camera customers.
My experience regarding the Asian camera market:
"Most Asian girls I know, ruled out full-size DSLR as an option even when money is not a problem. They much prefer cameras like EOS6D and A7 series for size and weight reasons even when they demanding a full frame camera. These girls see a camera as a tool instead of the interesting object by itself. Meanwhile, men tend to get the bigger models, and they are much geekier and care more about specs. Therefore market D850 towards men in that market is more affection. This point can be proved by the overwhelming number of dudes who follows iRental's gear review on social media."
How do I have the sample size to mean anything? I am an Asian who grown up around Asians.
Also, I believe men paying way more attention to gear is cross culture, simply look at a D850 post on Fstoppers.com common section and count the male and female commons: https://fstoppers.com/gear/nikon-announces-d850-yes-its-amazing-camera-…
Overall GAS is stupid, and female photographers lesser prone to GAS is a good thing. Nonetheless, a business cash on GAS is smart business.
Here comes the question, why do you have to dig up some shit to be outraged about?
Could it be sexism that's worse in NikonMEA (Middle East and Africa)? I expereinced a guy - just today - from the Middle East who shook every guy in the room's hand but rejected my handshake. I would call the Middle Easterner's view on women very sexist. But could this group of photographers represent that specific region rather than Nikon as a whole? I doubt Nikon USA would exclude women, but who knows...
How about US haaa, grabing directly on p.....?
This simply means the marketing agency determined this particular camera in Asia market is mostly gonna bought by male photographers who work in physically demanding fields, and or their fans. That is all.
Oh, please. A) This is surely an Asian thing. In Asia, they use men to advertise makeup and perfume. B) I looked through the website, there are no Americans on there. I am sure there are many US Nikon Ambassadors (probably much more women than you're seeing on the site now). I wouldn't jump to conclusions so fast.
We are assuming since there are so many women photographers, they should have a 50% representation. But what we don't know, is how many are actually Nikon Pros? I am (and am a woman with the new D850 in my possession), but out of my other Nikon photographers friends (that I have talked about status...most recently last April at a workshop), the only other Nikon Pros were men. I have a lot of woman friends w/Nikons (though the majority are Canon), they just don't qualify for the Pro according to the points system. So out of the pool they have to select, what is the percentage of women photographers. It may very well be only 20%. I don't know and I'm sure most people here don't know. Do we know they didn't approach any woman photographers and invite them to participate? There are just a lot of assumptions when claiming sexism without the underlying facts. But that is the way of the world now, isn't it. At least the social media world. A lot of indignity based on comments!