Consumer DSLRs "dead in 5 years"

[ScreensPro]

Android is not as good as iOS anyway. I can't think of one thing it does better that I really need on my smartphone.

 

If you like a locked system where Apple dictate to you what you can use, then sure...

 

If you like to customise your phone, delete apps you never use, have live wallpapers, have a file structure when you plug your phone into your computer, share things with more than just email/facebook/twitter, change keyboards, use any audio software you want (not just itunes) etc etc etc

 

iOS is closed, Android is open. I know which I prefer.

 

You know that you can use a custom rom to increase the bitrate on the Galaxy Note III's 4K video stream? Good luck doing that with Apple.

 

Android will have a HUGE future in the indie filmmaking world, as camera companies further use it for their OS.

[ike007]

time runs.

japan sinks.

walk around london now everyone is snappy snapping or iphone samsung video ing.

nikon will get a panasonic connection at some stage if it does not go under or is asset stripped sooner.

the elephant in the room alas and know body talks about is cancer from fukishima.

you see the spent fuel pools are on a broken roof enough radiation to kill everyone in japan and dose the rest of us.

maybe the world should talk rather than ignore the fukishima equation.

ge of america helped japan build nukes on fault lines not clever unless like david attenborough,prince phillip and bill gates that humans are a plague on the earth.

camera only digital device will become like a film camera for the hipster pixel peepers only.

maybe lovely fuji should make us a radiation heavy metal foot tester with the usual superb build quality.

And you pulled this out of your... hat?

reading some blogs  reporting the finding of some anti nuclear expert? Are you ready to migrate to Mars since we have already lost the "north emisphere" BS?

 

Outside of the locked down 20km zone of Fukushima, there is ZERO radiation. Embassies from around the world conduct daily indipendent tests of radiation on water and air on the major cities of japan the the results are "non detectable" level of radiation.

 

Sure there is a big problem in Fukushima, yet is a catastrophe only for those living in the area.

It will take time but they will fix it, as they fixed Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

 

Japan sinking... sure.

The culture may not be to everybody liking, but come over here and see the most flourishing and advanced civilization of the planet.

Despite the problem of "aging population", which is the problem that all evolved countries of the world have anyway, this is the most efficient and safe place to live in the world.

 

I'm not Japanese BTW.

[Husah]

Android is not as good as iOS anyway. I can't think of one thing it does better that I really need on my smartphone.

 

Doesn't look like you have any clue about Android. It does tons of things better than IOS.  It's far more customizable, flexible, and powerful

 

IOS 7 actually is a copy of Android. 

 

http://youtu.be/KKyJjh37v6Q

 

 

The rip off is the the other way .. 

[Husah]

If you like a locked system where Apple dictate to you what you can use, then sure...

 

If you like to customise your phone, delete apps you never use, have live wallpapers, have a file structure when you plug your phone into your computer, share things with more than just email/facebook/twitter, change keyboards, use any audio software you want (not just itunes) etc etc etc

 

 

IOS doesn't even have a file system. No directories. See my last video linked above, the last 5 minutes, 

[jgharding]

My friends always ask me about cameras. Usually I recommended the RX100, as it it does everything they need and is tiny.

 

In the middle ground, basically pro stuff is crossing over and getting cheaper, so we'll be where home audio is with video in not too long, 5 years?

 

But yeah, most people who buy DSLRs just don't use em, so they won't buy another.

 

This happened with budget microphones. Every home recordist who wanted a 100 pound mic bought one. Most don't bother with a second, causing issues for budget manufacturers.

[Andrew Reid]

If you like a locked system where Apple dictate to you what you can use, then sure...

 

Dictation or quality control? Have you seen the quality of the App Store vs your average Android one?

 

I am hardly not having free reign when it comes to how I use my iPhone or what apps are available to put on it. What's missing exactly, due to it being a closed system?

[Yonhyu Yosha]

I think Film cameras will back on business.  Just like in 70's 80's and 90's....like the new Nikon DF using FF.  I think many camera companies will start to innovate on retro style look cameras in digital version.  Since we don't have pocketable FF compact yet.  Although current technology allows recently APS-C sized compacts are available, such as GR, Nikon coolpix A.  More APS-C sized compacts will be smaller, and someday there will be Full Frame compact cameras as well.  Sony A7, Nikon DF is just beginning.  

 

I assume most everyone thinks, electronic products are obsolete.  such as tv's, cameras, cars, all these electronic products are useless after few years.  Once you consume on something you want to buy, it will last for few years.  and then you consider upgrade/or throw away that old gadgets.  So my guess is that film cameras will be back with newer technology.  

[ScreensPro]

I am hardly not having free reign when it comes to how I use my iPhone or what apps are available to put on it. What's missing exactly, due to it being a closed system?

 

I just explained to you. If you are happy for Apple to dictate to you how your phone looks and works, great! Also which apps have to stay, like "Stocks", hahah!

 

You clearly love iOS.... So do I. I'm an app dev making money from both systems...

 

Android is just better for customisation, tweaking etc.... It's like Magic Lantern and very, very innovative.

 

Sure, they stood on apple's shoulders.... apple stood on other's shoulders (Blackberry and Nokia were already doing apps)... iOS7 takes alot from Win8 and Android.

 

Swings and roundabouts.

[jgharding]

For phones I like a closed system, I just want it to function. 70% of handsets on a new OS so soon after release is something Android will simply never achieve!

 

Back on original subject, didn't Sony pretty much quit beginner SLR in favor of mirrorless?

 

All their entry SLRs are labelled "previous model" on their site...

[OneEyed]

Interesting article.  One thing that I wish were dead today is the DSLR form factor.  Or maybe I'm just wishing that innovations at the DSLR/mirrorless world were reflected in their equivalent videocam offerings too.  

[Andrew Reid]

I think Film cameras will back on business.  Just like in 70's 80's and 90's....like the new Nikon DF using FF.  I think many camera companies will start to innovate on retro style look cameras in digital version.  Since we don't have pocketable FF compact yet.  Although current technology allows recently APS-C sized compacts are available, such as GR, Nikon coolpix A.  More APS-C sized compacts will be smaller, and someday there will be Full Frame compact cameras as well.  Sony A7, Nikon DF is just beginning.  

 

I assume most everyone thinks, electronic products are obsolete.  such as tv's, cameras, cars, all these electronic products are useless after few years.  Once you consume on something you want to buy, it will last for few years.  and then you consider upgrade/or throw away that old gadgets.  So my guess is that film cameras will be back with newer technology.  

 

Maybe in future DSLRs will be back with new technology - after going obsolete? Maybe one day, something will make them relevant again. Right now, I feel we're moving into a new era of camera design.

 

I think the Sony RX1 is pocketable full frame, in terms of jacket, though not so much pants.

[Andrew Reid]

Android is like a PC or Linux, and I switched to OSX and an Apple computer precisely because I was no longer into tweaking stuff and having full control over the OS. I just wanted to get on and edit video.

[Oliver Daniel]

I honestly think Android is inferior to iOS. Not just for features, but for usability and presentation.  :P  :P

[Damphousse]

Maybe in future DSLRs will be back with new technology - after going obsolete? Maybe one day, something will make them relevant again.

 

Obsolete?  Irrelevant?

 

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of pro photo work is done with some type of SLR.  And when I went to New York City recently and walked around on a nice day DSLRs were everywhere.  Just because people aren't going out and buying a new one every year doesn't mean no one uses them.

 

Even in the film days SLRs were specialist tools.  I don't recall anyone on my street growing up that had one other than my dad.  No one called them irrelevant back then... well actually maybe they did.  I would have been too young to know if they did.

 

Really at a certain point people have to admit that a product is pretty much perfect and that's a good thing.  Why upgrade?  What more could really make a digital Rebel better?  36 megapixels?  Well if some iphone guy is happy with 8 megapixels from a tiny sensor they aren't going to rush out and buy a Rebel just because it has 36 megapixels.

[ScreensPro]

Last word on Android... As i've learnt many years ago to not bother arguing with Apple folk (I have an iphone 5 and imac btw).

 

I will take a bet that within 2 years, Andrew will post an article about a camera system using Android OS to achieve crazy specs like raw, 120fps, 4k etc, most likely a Samsung

[Oliver Daniel]

Last word on Android... As i've learnt many years ago to not bother arguing with Apple folk (I have an iphone 5 and imac btw).

 

I will take a bet that within 2 years, Andrew will post an article about a camera system using Android OS to achieve crazy specs like raw, 120fps, 4k etc, most likely a Samsung

 

......which by that time, Blackmagic will have made a 4k raw high speed camera that folds into your pocket (major shipping issues), Canon will release the 5D MkIV with the exact same features as a 550d (it was accidental, machining issues) and Apple will release a top secret gadget that beats the living daylights out of any camera/phone/watch/toothbrush ever!!!

[cantsin]

Android is a copy of iOS. Before iOS, Android did not exist. That isn't to say Android doesn't have any merit, and all software stands on the 'shoulders of giants' to some extent. But it was iOS which set the template for the others to follow. Let's not deny it. And I am not an Apple fanboy, just stating a fact!!

 

Android is not as good as iOS anyway. I can't think of one thing it does better that I really need on my smartphone.

 

It's off topic, but here's a fact check:

Android Inc. was founded in 2003, was acquired by Google in 2005, and first released as a smartphone OS in 2007.

iOS was released with the first iPhone in 2007.

 

For sure, Android copied great parts of the iOS user interface. But conversely, iOS took inspiration from a number of older touchscreen/pen device interfaces, such as the 1990s Magic Cap OS of the company General Magic. Andy Rubin, the architect of Android, was a software engineer with General Magic, later the designer of the Danger Hiptop, a pre-iPhone mobile Internet device popular in the US. And let's not forget the Palm Pilot whose 1997 start screen and calendar app look like straightforward prototypes of the iPhone and Android. - The history of mobile operating systems and user interfaces is as complex as that of PCs (where Apple didn't invent the GUI either, but took the idea from Xerox).

 

You might consider iOS more rounded from a user interface point of view. Android is more powerful under the hood because it it is a full Unix operating system with a true filesystem (as opposed to iOS with its per-application databases), full multitasking, multiuser and file permission management. Next to running on smartphones, tablets, media players and smart TVs, Android can even be used as a PC operating system, as camera firmware, on basically any device with any CPU supported by the Linux kernel.

 

As mobile phones and tablets mature and get used as productivity devices, iOS has some software design limitations that sooner or later need to be addressed: most importantly, the lack of a true file system and/or fully featured network storage system that would allow sharing of documents across different apps. Currently, iOS only supports that for pictures and videos in the camera roll, or application-specific data sharing workarounds (via Dropbox or iCloud, depending on the individual application). It's the same limitation that crippled the CP/M home computer operating system in the 1980s. Another severe constraint of iOS is that it doesn't permit alternatives for its core services (such as HTML and Javascript rendering, or the maps API), and Google currently has the edge over Apple in browser and maps technologies. 

 

Aside from interface simplicity, iOS was better usable than Android for a long time because it's leaner and technologically more simple, thus running better on the slow cell phone hardware from 2007-2012. But in the age of mobile quadcore CPUs and GPUs, this has become moot, and the limitations of iOS are starting to become anachronistic. The A7 chips in the new iPad Air are as fast as the Core Duo chips in the first generation Intel Macbooks from 2006. iOS wasn't designed for such powerful hardware, and is beginning to show its age, just like Mac OS 7/8/9 was no longer adequate for PowerMacs in the years before Apple switched to Mac OS X. Unfortunately, iOS 6 has mostly been optical cosmetics, with no real change under the hood.

 

So, to go back on topic: Apple has lately become the Canon of the computer industry - once a leader, now on their way to a producer of mature yet uninnovative products. If Apple had leadership with vision, it should try to technologically merge the iOS and Mac OS platforms in a system that would still be appealingly simple. This has now become purely a question of software engineering; Apple's mobile hardware is already powerful enough to run such a system.

 

(Disclaimer: I'm a completely OS and platform agnostic person, since my combination of jobs and a private life makes me a simultaneous user of iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, Windows and ChromeOS.)

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

Just a guess: I think that Canon could have something under the wraps - always thought that the 70D sensor, with that Dual Pixel AF, makes much more sense in a mirrorless camera than in a DSLR. Maybe the 70D could be kind of a "testing body" - like the RX1 clearly was a step towards the A7/A7r.

 

This new Nikon DF was not spotted by the rumors / leaks, too.

 

Of course, Canon being blind is a very good assumption too. :)

[Matt Clara]

I think the most vulnerable company is Nikon, with the decline of compacts Nikon have nothing else to rely on, what else does Nikon make?

What does Nikon make? Arguably the very finest professional slr cameras available today, just like they did with their first slr. While Nikon will have to change, there's no reason to believe they will be gone five years from now. They aren't Kodak insisting that their product is still 100% viable when clearly it isn't.

[Damphousse]

So, to go back on topic: Apple has lately become the Canon of the computer industry - once a leader, now on their way to a producer of mature yet uninnovative products.

 

Apple is nothing like Canon.  Canon took the lead in consumer DSLRs because it was the CHEAPEST.  Apple came onto the smartphone scene and tricked people into shelling out an obscene amount of money for a smartphone.  Smartphones existed long before apple.  It's just they didn't cost an arm and a leg and require you to have an expensive data plan.

 

Even last time I checked it was a joke.  When I got my Windows Phone for free they were selling some outdated iphone for $199.  I think it was the 4s.  The iphone hand a small screen and no LTE (so useless for internet).  I loved riding in the car with my GF watching streaming movies on Netfilx while she struggled to surf the web on her pricy capped iphone data plan.

 

Canon for years had a price leadership position and was ahead of the pack as far as sensors.  Things have evened out and an argument can be made that others now lead in the consumer sensor areana.  The thing about it is all the cameras are so good nowadays it really doesn't matter.  In the stills world we say you buy a system not a body.  And the canon system is second to none.  It is the most extensive and ubiquitious.

 

Canon and Nikon makes stills cameras the now happen to do video.  Their main market is a bunch of people who either never do video or do it rarely.  Given that what more can Canon really do with it's cameras as far as stills?  I can't think of a single stills feature request I've heard lately that I would rush out and pay for.  Not one.

 

 

 

They aren't Kodak insisting that their product is still 100% viable when clearly it isn't.

 

Just because an airline goes bankrupt doesn't mean flying isn't a viable form of transportation.  Ilford is profitable and I belive the FILM division of Kodak is also profitable.  Not everyone shoots special event photography with iphones and $100 million movies with BMPCCs.

 

The only part of Kodak to post a profit was its Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group, where profits fell by 63% to $34 million, on sales down 12% at $1.5 billion.

 

 

http://www.proprint.com.au/News/294707,kodak-more-details-emerge-behind-fall-into-chapter-11.aspx