You would think that we were in a situation where mirrorless cameras were flying off the shelves in the midst of a camera buying boom. The fact that we are in the exact opposite situation seems to have no impact on camera manufacturers. They are still churning out 'new' models, 'updates' to current models and planning all sorts of ambitious projects, completely ignoring the fact that more and more people find their smartphones sufficient for their needs. It seems that they are tripping over each other to compete for our pounds, dollars and euros, when it's pretty obvious that there are fewer and fewer of us who are interested in stand alone cameras. And just what are they going to do when an ageing generation of photography hobbyists thins out due to the natural process of life and death?
Fuji are releasing the X-T4, Olympus the E-M1 Mark three and Canon are talking up an EOS-R5. Nikon I'm sure will be announcing more Z type mirrorless camera and Panasonic and Sony are continuously adding to their respective product lines. To me some of these releases are pretty close to what came before and in real terms offer only minor improvements.
Now as someone who has just sold a lot of mirrorless cameras and bought both film and digital SLR's you might think that I'm no particularly bothered about that and you would be right. But nobody benefits if camera manufacturers make wrong decisions and go out of business. One of the reasons for these seemingly crazy business decisions is the photographic internet. I've always thought that camera makers take too much notice of it. They still seem to take notice of the so-called 'reviewers' and 'influencers', for no obvious reason since all these people are interested in is monetising their ego driven content.
The mirrorless 'revolution' is a case in point. There is no reason on earth why mirrorless and DSLR cameras should not exist side by side. The are advantages and disadvantages to each. However it seems that Nikon and Canon, the kings of the DSLR are now going full tilt into mirrorless. The reasons for this escape me. These days there are no savings on weight and size by using mirrorless, certainly at the top end. The Panasonic S1H is over 100g heavier than my Nikon 850 DSLR and those L Mount lenses are huge and heavy. OK the S1H is better at video in terms of use, but how many camera buyers actually spend all of their time shooting video? Plus the very idea of mirrorless means that the drain on the batteries is way more than a DSLR. With two batteries in my D850 + grip I can get around 3500 shots before having to change or charge a battery. With the same setup on the S1H I would get 800 shots. One reason why professional photographers still use their DSLR's.
As I've written before I strongly believe that the decline in stand alone camera sales is contributed to by several factors.
- The development in Smartphone technology. (Obviously)
- Making mirrorless cameras too complicated and difficult to operate, to satisfy peoples demands on the photographic internet, who are NOT representative of the people who might still buy stand alone cameras.
- The fact that most 'reviews' are usually negative and only interested in making money for the people who produce them.
- Too many unnecessary and minor updates that reduces the S/H value of the cameras we buy.
- Ridiculous hyping up of 'new' features that use technobabble to make customers think that they are getting more than they actually are.
- The 'killing off' of DSLR's for no good reason. A camera is a camera and it's the results that count.
- Too much nastiness and a ridiculous form of brand loyalty, more akin to supporting a football team.
- The losing of a younger market who see the owning and using of stand along cameras as an old persons enthusiasm. Mainly male, mostly well heeled, mostly retired (or approaching that)
The only hope for any kind of future for these stand alone cameras is that they are still selling better than the days of film. But for how much longer? Smartphones and social media have democratised photography and created an audience for it, but camera manufacturers have largely ignored that. Why on earth we don't have cameras that allow instant uploading to the web mystifies me. Most of the apps. that offer some form of this still require a camera AND a smartphone and are usually pretty complicated and prone to going wrong.
The only way to get people to buy stand alone cameras and avoid this 'road to the bottom' is to take what smartphones have given us and make what we achieve better. There will always be enthusiast photographers interested in wildlife, landscape and portraiture and there should be a natural progression from smartphone photography to the pleasure and possibilities that an interchangeable lens stand alone camera system can offer. Camera manufacturers seem reluctant to make more of the benefits of stand alone cameras, because Artificial intelligence in smartphones is just that, artificial.
Now whether companies will lengthen their product cycles, add internet connectivity and make their cameras far easier to use and cheaper, is open to question. My suspicion is that they will continue fighting each other for an increasingly diminishing market share until one or all of them go out of business. And that's not only a shame, but part of a dumbing down process that ultimately benefits no one.
