In an article over at the Phoblographer executives from leading camera companies seem to be in agreement that mirrorless is where the camera market is moving.
Smart phone cameras have crushed the point and shoot market. The DSLR and mirrorless camera market seem to be holding on. I also wrote yesterday about a rumor that Nikon may be releasing their first full frame mirrorless camera.
You can see that here “Is There A New Nikon Full Frame Mirrorless Camera On The Horizon?”
“The industry and the state of technology is evolving or developing so quickly I frankly cannot guess what will be five years from now. I am not certain if you’d asked me this during January 2014 I could have predicted the state of affairs today, Dec 1, 2014, just one year later.” stated Henry Posner, Director of Corporate Communications at B&H Photo Video Pro Audio in NYC.
Indeed, technology these days moves so fast that we’re not sure anyone would be able to tell. Not many could have expected that a product from Apple introduced around five years ago would have improved to the point where many use it as their main camera every day. Nor did we think that it would spur the creation of an app that allows a new breed of photographers to make a decent living off of shooting photos for advertisers.
However, it is the job of manufacturers to have some sort of foresight into the future and be able to predict how the industry will evolve and technology will progress. But that’s a tough job–and one that is much easier said than done given the viral nature of the internet and social media.
To get an idea of how the industry may change, we talked to the representatives of many leading manufacturers. What they had to say may be quite understandable.
Mirrorless is the Future
In general, manufacturers have the notion that we should all think smaller. In fact, they all are mostly thinking this way to begin with and mainly believe that mirrorless cameras are very much the future in collaboration with mobile technology.
“More people have photo access than ever before…people are relying on imaging for stories, daily life…” stated Sony’s Mark Weir, Senior Manager for Technology in a phone call with the Phoblographer. “Imaging will become a far greater part of people’s lives than any of us can imagine.” Mark even believes that fixed lens cameras also still have a place in the market and that in some ways they have a leg up on interchangeable lens cameras. Instead, he believes that ILC cameras provide a different set of benefits to a different type of consumer.
“Everyone understands how (phones) have transformed people’s habits when it comes to image capture, so camera manufacturers are left with the challenge of creating communication devices that provide benefits to consumers.” He continued to state that many camera manufacturers have been struggling with a way to do that in a compelling way and that this will be a challenge going forward. Indeed, the camera industry overall has taken a hit to the mobile phone market.
Read the rest at Phoblographer
Source: Phoblographer
Image Source: Daniel Voyager
