At the end of March, it was announced that the camera site DPReview.com would be going offline. The end of DPReview, and the coaches’ reactions to it, is an indication of what seems to be the direction in camera territory. Detached camera use has gone from being an expensive hobby, through being available to the masses, to being a hobby. It is no longer necessary to buy the latest camera to use in a hobby. More and more people are shooting primarily with their smartphones, with the exception of advanced professionals and amateurs.

state of affairs

In any case, the end seems to be in sight for the SLR, as the market is shifting almost entirely to system cameras. This seemed unthinkable to the general public five years ago. Fujio Mitarai, CEO, Canon Corporation He said in 2021 That Canon will not come up with a high-end DSLR camera in the future. Nikon competitor announced last year To stop developing SLR cameras altogether. Sony has also stopped selling DSLRs since that year. In addition, the company said last year that the image quality of SLR cameras will be surpassed by that of smartphones in 2024.

The Canon EOS 90D, a DSLR for advanced amateur photographers, hit the market at the end of 2019, and it likely won’t get a successor, at least not as an SLR. The EOS R7 can be considered an unofficial successor to the 90D, but it is much more expensive. It’s also clear that new models are entering the market less quickly in the amateur DSLR range. There are ten years and ten camera models between the Canon EOS 300D from 2003 and the EOS 700D from 2013. From 2013 to this year, only four models have been released in the range for amateur photographers. The 850D dates back to 2020 and it doesn’t look like it will get a successor. The Canon EOS 1D X Mark III, a professional DSLR, is from 2021 and will not be followed up either. Anyone who wants a new Nikon SLR for less than €1,000 is in luck, according to data from Pricewatch. The D7500, a camera from 2017, can still be bought for over €1,100. Once a leading camera maker, Pentax is launching a successor to the K-3 Mark II in 2021 after seven years: the K-3 Mark III. The upgrades offered by the new model are far from insignificant. The camera has a monochrome sensor. With this, Pentax aims for a niche in the market.

The Micro Four Thirds platform is also becoming less popular. Olympus switched to the OM system at the end of 2021 and has only released one camera since then, a system camera in the high-end category based on Micro Four Thirds. Panasonic also only releases cameras on that platform in the event of dodges and scratches. lens manufacturer Sigma announced at the beginning of this year For not releasing more new lenses for Micro Four Thirds. It seems that we are now in a phase where fewer and fewer new models are being released and the improvements are also getting smaller and smaller.

Conclusion

The technological advancements of smartphones are increasingly affecting consumers.It has become so interesting that many hobbyists drag all their stuff somewhere. In addition to all the physical and practical drawbacks of a separate camera, smartphones have an important asset in terms of software and applications. With a smartphone, everything is taken out of the closet to produce the best possible picture, even if it doesn’t always correspond to reality. Think of the “perfect” selfies with blurred backgrounds. Pictures of the moon are also upgraded, for example, by downloading information from a database, or a face with wrinkles is tightened using software. Smartphones can also shoot in RAW format, but only a minority of people use it. A serious photographer does not want artificial interference in their photos. He shoots his photos in RAW format and then edits them using software such as Adobe Lightroom.

Technological developments in the field of smartphone camera are becoming increasingly important to consumers. The disadvantages in terms of image quality are offset by the advantages of not having to lug around a heavy camera, not having to swap lenses and being able to share photos directly online. The aforementioned artificial intelligence ensures that the end result may not be qualitatively the same, but it is comparable. Of course there are still true amateurs who want to continue developing their photography skills. You can also see this in the forum, where there is still a lot of interaction and where photo meetings are still organized. However, people with knowledge of photography who are used to taking their camera to the zoo or on vacation are increasingly leaving it at home. Time will tell if this trend is still reversible, but judging by the manufacturers’ plans, it doesn’t seem to be the case.