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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Tariffs....

B

Brian Timmons

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While a great aspect of this is political, I'm posting this thread not as a political
discussion but with the intent to discuss the effect this will have on our craft, livelihoods, and
the world as we know it and what can be done to make it through.

I wonder if some of these recent price cuts are being announced in anticipation of
the considerable price increases the tariffs will bring.

I always felt the 2020s might be a bit of a hell ride and the last 5 years lived down
to that, yet there have been developments that ultimately resulted in things working out
albeit differently than planned.

Perhaps this tariff situation might help drive filmmaking communities (and in general) together
to form loose and/or official cooperative economic strategies to adapt and move forward.

Will be interesting to see how this goes.

Sometimes even popcorn films can have nuggets of great wisdom.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA
 
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Brian Timmons said:
I'm not endorsing anything illegal but one wonders if grey and black markets might see a resurgence.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA
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Of course. It happens in almost all countries with high tariffs. Tourists and frequent travelers will carry cameras without the box and sell for 10% profit, which will be still cheaper than retail with box and warranties that gonna be 30% more expensive.
 
One aspect I’ll be curious about is how prices for “Made in the USA” products change. Our supply chains are often now global, so I imagine that a camera assembled in California, say, is made from pieces that all individually are going to cost 10-40% more. Are there domestic sources for many of these electronic parts?
 
Without going too deep, a great deal of "products", not just cameras, feature components from all over the world. Some more significant in relationship to the cost of manufacturing than not. This will also be part of the determination if it will have a notable increase on the product price or not.

The more complicated part is a lot of companies don't own multi-million dollar and occasionally multi-billion dollar facilities to physically manufacturer some of these components. And this changes the face of OEM products or components as well. This is where the larger questions are to be had as there may not be a local equivalent to those vendors or not something that can be easily reconsidered as it will take years to build new facilities or finding new vendors. In which case, yep, you'll be seeing the price increases, which we just saw a major wave of this past month.

Some companies will be able to eat some of these costs in margins, but again, depending on how severe those tariffs have on the core components, it may have a significant impact on final pricing as well as perceived value. And from communicating with companies, since most walk a fine line, they will be increasing prices to maintain the expected profits, overhead, and operating costs. All of this while they try to find new ways to make what they do.

I'll slightly hint that sometimes things are made of components from multiple regions and tariffs may impact more than say a simple 25% price increase. Largest I've seen was an increase of 65% so far, but it's because the parts come from various places. That company is scrambling for new vendors, but they can't exactly chop off their main income and not make products during this time.

All of this will have an impact on sales, the company's survival, and whatever path they have in the future. For our industry, it may look a little different by the end of the year. Some big players are having a very, very difficult time right now.
 
Maybe I'm naive, but Nikon could make high end cameras in the USA, thanks to Red. I mean, they could hypothetically make a medium format system. Of course the sensors are Japanese but the cameras will be American made. It can make sense. Look how expensive Phase One cameras are.
 
Not to be political :ROFLMAO: but tarifs are a way to get money for the next war (be it Ai robotics or bombs) without taxing the rich. I don't believe in the "only USA made makes jobs" theory. If you want an autarkic authoritarian country (like North Korea) you probably would adopt this policy, but not for job cration.
 
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Karim D. Ghantous said:
Maybe I'm naive, but Nikon could make high end cameras in the USA, thanks to Red. I mean, they could hypothetically make a medium format system. Of course the sensors are Japanese but the cameras will be American made. It can make sense. Look how expensive Phase One cameras are.
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This market is too small to relocate manufacturing to one of the most expensive countries in the world for manufacturing. For camera makers it would make more sense to reprioritize the US and focus on Asia/Europe.
 
Patrick Tresch said:
Not to be political :ROFLMAO: but tarifs are a way to get money for the next war (be it Ai robotics or bombs) without taxing the rich. I don't believe in the "only USA made makes jobs" theory. If you want an autarkic authoritarian country (like North Korea) you probably would adopt this policy, but not for job cration.
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I think that you and I would find some things we agree on, if we were to have a discussion—but we’re walking a delicate line in trying to keep this convo civil!
 
Afshin said:
This market is too small to relocate manufacturing to one of the most expensive countries in the world for manufacturing. For camera makers it would make more sense to reprioritize the US and focus on Asia/Europe.
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You are not wrong... But, would a camera like a Phase One truly cost more if it were made in America? The current ones are made in Denmark, I think.
 
Karim D. Ghantous said:
You are not wrong... But, would a camera like a Phase One truly cost more if it were made in America? The current ones are made in Denmark, I think.
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For the high end/luxury part of the market there is even less incentive to relocate, cause they're targeting customers who are already in "if you have to ask you can't afford it" category, so they swallow the price increase by tariffs. But in regard to cost of manufacturing, yes it will be costlier to make in the US, even before tariffs on Japanese/Taiwanese components. Is there any better example than RED itself?
 
Afshin said:
Is there any better example than RED itself?
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Red cameras have always been very reasonably priced. The cynical part of me wonders if Red would be even more popular if their prices were much higher.

"If you think the Alexa is expensive, wait until you see the price of the V-Raptor."
"Ooooh, fan-cy. I will buy one when I win the lottery, but for now, I guess I'll have to rent it."
 
Perhaps we might start using the forums and social media to organize large scale group buys.
Essentially a virtual buyers club to take the sting off of some of these jack up prices.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA
 
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