The Japan News:
Canon announced Wednesday it would end sales of its EOS-1v, the last remaining model of film camera that the company has sold in Japan. The company’s film cameras, which symbolize Canon’s old-time roots, will come to the end of their 80-year history.
As Robert Walter put it, this is a sign of the times. To me, this is a domino that is connected to other film cameras, then, eventually, to DSLR cameras as smart phone cameras gain in capability, shrink the market for larger/bulkier cameras.
Not sounding a death knell for DSLRs, just watching the market shrink, squeezing out competitors, triggering consolidation until we just have a one or two players left in the DSLR space.
As is, last year 85% of all photos were taken using smartphones, with only 10.3% taken using traditional digital cameras. If that trend continues, watch for the next domino to fall. Will the next generation know the Nikon/Kodak/Leica brands?
The percentages are driven more by the sheer number of photos taken by people these days than anything else. The SLR market has always been relatively niche. If anything the massive growth in photography can be used by camera manufacturers to encourage those who find a love for the art to invest in dedicated equipment.
The business question is how self-supporting the professional/prosumer camera market is without the support of mass market cameras (which are going the way of the dinosaur).
Were file SLRs ever really dominant? I used one, but there sure were a ton of point-and-shoot cameras. The Canon AE-1 is probably the best selling SLR of all time and the entire A-series sold about 11 million units worldwide over 8 years.
100% correct David. The fact that people, who would likely never have taken many photos in the past, are now taking 50 photos a day with their phones is heavily skewing the numbers.
How many photos/videos that we see in media (advertising, blogging, YouTubers, etc.) are taken with a smart phone vs a mirrorless or DLSR? I’d wager the numbers look drastically different.
I take photos with my iPhone all the time, but it can’t come remotely close to doing what my 5DMKIV can do, not even close. Off camera lighting, lens selection, etc. are a HUGE part of photography, areas where smartphones are still miles behind. We’re a long, long way from smart phones replacing purpose built professional cameras which are the cameras Dave refers to. They’re more or less good enough to replace cheap point and shoots, but even then still they can’t match what they can do.
The best camera is the one you have with you.
Though I have a really decent Canon 6D with the 100mm f2.8 L Macro lens which still aren’t too old, I can’t imagine lugging it around anywhere these days when I ALWAYS have my Apple iPhone 7+ in my pocket.
I love the nicely high-res images and video I can get with it.
I also love Apple’s ecosystem and my 2TB of iCloud storage, to which my images get uploaded automatically.
I definitely don’t miss film, which was always a finicky, fragile, kinda silly medium with so many inherent limitations.
I got into digital early with that funky little Kodak piece of junk.
Though I often dreampt of a Canon 1 or 5D-something, the expense put it clearly out of reach, as I knew it would sit around most of the time and start getting outmoded immediately.
My next iPhone will probably be revealed this Fall. Can’t wait to see what Apple comes up with next!
The quote “the best camera is the one you have with you…” was a great line from a good book, and in any given moment it’s certainly true when it essentially amounts to “any camera is better than no camera” when you really want to get a shot.
Yet, I’m confused by your post. A 6D with a fast 100mm macro lens isn’t something you happen to carry around with you all the time like a phone. It would never be something you just happen to always have on you. Yet you seem to be saying even if you’re going out specifically to shoot macro photos (for work, for hobby, etc.), you’d take your iPhone instead as it’s “good enough” and easier to carry?
On no planet, not at this time, would a macro photographer consider the iPhone (8 or X) good enough to replace a DLSR with a good macro lens. The photos are worlds apart in quality, and yes, even today, quality still matters with photos.
That.
I don’t think count of “real camera” photos is likely down much; it’s that everyone always has a camera now, and the marginal cost of a shot is zero.
(I say “much” because phone cameras are now so good they can replace a real camera.
I haven’t bothered with my micro-4/3 camera in ages, and I haven’t touched any of my film cameras in even longer.
It takes something really compelling to make me use anything other than my iPhone to take a picture.)