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Smart phones are killing camera sales
#11
I wasn't going to say anything, but we're all friends here, right?

 

I'm looking forward to being a vulture.  When people start dumping their gear for their precious smart phones, I'll hopefully cash in on some real bargains!  Tired of carrying those L lenses around?  I could probably use a couple!

#12
Quote:I wasn't going to say anything, but we're all friends here, right?

 

I'm looking forward to being a vulture.  When people start dumping their gear for their precious smart phones, I'll hopefully cash in on some real bargains!  Tired of carrying those L lenses around?  I could probably use a couple!
 

I'm already hoarding Sony and Minolta's great A-Mount lenses Big Grin
#13
Quote:I'm already hoarding Sony and Minolta's great A-Mount lenses Big Grin
 

Absolutely.  You know, I jumped into the Canon camp, and it seems a good fit.  But there are some real bargains out their for all of us!

 

Time is on my side, yes it is.

Time is on my side, yes it is.

'Cause I got the DSLR, the kind that you need.

You'll come runnin' back (I knew you would one day),

You'll come runnin' back (Baby I told you before),

You'll come runnin' back to me.
#14
Quote:Who wants to have a 5D Classic today?
 

Actually I am using mine with the same joy as when I bought

it nine years ago. And I'm still satisfied with the results.

 

Anyhow ... that doesn't help to bring up camera sales either.

 

Rainer
#15
Exactly. Go and buy a couple of new bodies!  Big Grin

 

There simply is not that much innovation on cameras as the manufacturers want to make us believe. Especially in terms of ergonomics, usabilty - a phone with a decent camera has it's advantages and is most of the time with the owner. Quickly out, quickly switched on, usually with touchscreen focus and exposure adjustment - that alone is not so easy to find in any dedicated camera.

 

I think, for the environment it's a good thing not to throw these devices away each one or two years. I also think, if the manufacturers could focus on sustainable products - firmware upgrades, sensor exchanges, LCD against touchscreen exchanges - it would help them more than throwing out a new model (new name / number with two more features  Rolleyes ) each 3 months.
#16
Forget about modular bodies to exchange features as you go along, even lenses and sometimes the lens systems are designed to be obsolete, disposable products these days. Especially the mirrorless ones.

#17
Could you explain a bit the part 

Quote: 

 

Especially the mirrorless ones.
?

 

One big strength of Fuji mirrorless is firmware upgrades - and not only one or two to fix bugs and mistakes. Since I bought my first X-E2, they delivered updates up to current version 4.01 which gave me an electronic shutter, more focus-points, better manual focus and a lot more stuff I normally would expect to need to pay for. Fuji is of all camera manufacturers I know and tried the one with a real big sustainability.

 

X-T1, although no longer in production got version 5.01. The same goes for their lenses - ever heard of a lens firmware upgrade you could do - except of rather new Sigma and the new Tamrons? I think it has a reason that PhaseOne delivers backs and bodies separately, it's all about investment.

 

That also will be the big strength of their "medium format" GFX 50S. As there already rumors about M and L models (with bigger/higher MP sensors) I'm pretty sure, that buying the first version today won't let you down in terms of functionality for the next half decade.

 

opposite of that: for each bloody Nikon body a separate battery grip - is that necessary? That's only about making more money, nothing else.

#18
Well in every single day I take pictures with my phone, not a single picture is worth printing and athough I print every   week, but why do I still use my mobile camera ? mostly for having on me a record of my patients x ray, and wound and skin condition, I won't carry a DSLR and shoot RAW in my clinic, for each its use, i am not dropping my DSLR for a mobile, with early years digital photography and film era decline, almost everyone shifted digital and bought a compact or a DSLR, however with phone camera era those who don't really care about image quality are happy with their smartphones, pictures taken are almost never printed, the rest aren't affected.

In my opinion if we compare to the 80s we have a big increase in camera use and sale especially SLRs, it's only those who take nothing but snapshots that have been forced to get compacts in the early digital era that moved to phones the rest are unaffected
#19
I would protest, if a doctor takes a picture of me with his private cellphone - just saying  Wink But here in Switzerland with all this secrecies... :ph34r:

 

In my phone there's a camera with something like 0.3 MP, horrible lens, awful interface. But if I one day (far away) decide a smartphone is something useful*, I would take care it has a decent camera - and i'm afraid, not every of them would fit that criteria. It all depends: Bright sunshine gives me on an iPod Touch with 5MP printable pictures. There's HDR and panorama for very quick stitches.

 

* I admit I hate the idea my phone to be smarter than me. And talking to a lot servers...

#20
Quote:Could you explain a bit the part 

?

 
 

I did not mean the lack of/existence of firmware updates and continious support by that. 

 

Most (if pretty much not all) of the native mirrorless lenses depend entirely on electronics to work. If you don't connect them, they can't even focus. You can't change the aperture, you can't even open the aperture wide open. So all these lenses will eventually break down and they'll have to be thrown away as parts won't be available and repairs won't be feasible. A serious lot of them don't even have optical adjustments inside.

 

What is more, most of those lenses are also either planned poorly or planned too well so that the company can/will release a new version in a few years to make the old one obselete and mostly worthless. Fuji's 35/1.4 is an example of that. It is optically alright (although not perfect) but the focusing is so slow, pretty much everyone who loves that lens will jump on the new one if it comes out. I get the fact that technology advances in time but come on, that focusing performance was poor even when the lens came out.

 

Same goes for pretty much every lens Sony made in the past years. If you release a 24/1.8 for APS-C which is mediocre for its price range and a 35/2.8 for FF just a few years later which is smaller, focuses faster, sharper, AND cheaper; nobody will want the 24/1.8 and the one you have will not be worth much anymore. Especially since you can't even get lenses designed for that system as the APS-C mirrorless is not Sony's focus anymore. 

 

They also add a lot of "why didn't you implement this on the previous version" features like a sudden IBIS, focus hold buttons, aperture dials etc. If you like those features on the new lenses, why would you buy an older design of them which doesn't have the feature? Why doesn't the 55/1.8 have an aperture ring and a focus hold button? Design-wise, it's already obsolote in their ecosystem even though it's one of the best lenses at that focal length made by anyone. And there is no true replacement for that lens either. 

 

Newest Nikon lenses don't even work on their bodies from a couple of years ago. Actually the whole F Mount is hilarously and horribly non-compatible within itself so that's nothing new but come on, there are people still using D90s which don't work with the newest lenses anymore. It actually didn't even work with older lenses, when I think about it. Couldn't even meter the light with AI-S lenses.

 

Sigma designed their first generation ART lenses so poorly that no matter what you do, you don't get consistent AF with their 50mm and 35mm lenses. Reported a thousand times by various people and won't be fixed unless they release a new version and sell you that. Who will buy the old one that can't even focus properly? I'm fine with getting an older version for cheap if it's not as sharp or maybe focuses slightly slower but can't focus reliably? Naah, I'll pass.

 

A lot of people said many times, you invest in lenses. Is that really the case anymore? How many of the lenses we have will be in working condition in 10 years? I'm not keeping my hopes high for my mirrorless gear. Even if they end up surviving, nobody will want to buy them.

 

If you want to compare this to traditional AF lenses, I have quite a few 80's Minolta AF lenses that I use on a weekly basis. Same goes for most of the Canon lenses released in the 90's. I'm not even mentioning the all-manual mechanical gear that I have.

  


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