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  1. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -Carl Sagan
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  2. Member hech54's Avatar
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    And people laugh at Ken Rockwell.
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  3. Nonsense. Small format devices such as cell phones or tablets cannot accommodate large lenses and sensors, and large lenses and sensors are the only way to get the best possible resolution from a camera. Just as small speakers cannot ever match the sound of large speakers, small lenses can never approach the quality of large lenses.

    Just as most people are perfectly happy with the sound quality of MP3s, people may be satisfied with the quality of photos taken with cellphones and tablets, however professionals and enthusiasts will never go that route.
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  4. Originally Posted by hech54 View Post

    And people laugh at Ken Rockwell.
    ...and so they should.
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    I have no negative or positive feelings about DSLRs and as a disclaimer I do not own one by choice. The fact is that they are way overkill for the photography needs of the vast majority of human beings. If they die, eh. If they live, I'm still not going to buy one. I actually have a digital camera. It's not a DSLR but it meets my needs very well. I'm not surprised that they are dying as, again, most consumers don't need or want them and they don't want to pay what they cost. I suspect that something that meets the needs of enthusiasts will probably arise, but as time goes on, "serious" photography is going to become something done by fewer and fewer people. I'm sure of that.
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  6. I intended to buy a DSLR but a relative suggested trying a superzoom. I did. It's "Good Enough" for me, and a lot easier to lug about the planet than the film SLR kit that I used for decades.
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  7. Member hech54's Avatar
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    I've had film SLRs and rangefinders all of my life.....went "Digital" SLR with a Nikon D70 and now a Nikon D90. My pocket cameras have all been Canons. Although my D90 does video I always grab my Canon portable if I need video.....or my iPod Touch.
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  8. Makers brought this on themselves, releasing expensive dumb-down products that do only one thing, or two (video, photo snaps). You buy one product only to find out that next year this camera/camcorder will have another feature you really liked to have but cannot flash latest firmware on it. Remember HV20, 30, 40 ? . You cannot make camcorder/DSLR , those expensive product to even record to friendly codec. You have to go whatever they decided on. H.264 and btw. go and buy new computer with , because there is going to be never 50Mbit mpeg2 on it for example how about RAW video Because why are you buying these? Because of lens ans chip.

    Those smartphones, tablets are like toys, you can have neverending fun with it. New app, new fun. So why to spent $500 and more for big object that you cannot even place in your pocket. Processors make those pictures or video look pretty, people are "literally" buying into this. I mean, nothing wrong buying toys.
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  9. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    We can go on about how expensive they are, always were, heavy, that the pro will buy them only, that cell phones aren't as good in quality but the average consumer doesn't care, yaddi, yaddi, ya.

    This is all quite obvious, valid, and fact.

    However, the REAL reason they are dying out is simply this: It's just not as cool to carry around a camera as it used to be. In fact, today it looks lame to Joe Consumer. That's why.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  10. Member zoobie's Avatar
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    Mfgs want to make cell phone video much higher quality because news is being documented.

    I think the average consumer would rather just use his cell phone to shoot video and stills conveniently.

    I read a Chicago paper fired it's photographers and told the reporters to just take a cell phone snapshot.
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  11. Like everything else in todays world, there is no viable midrange in cameras: you're either happy with your "free bonus" cellphone camera and couldn't tell the difference if you tried, or you're an enthusiast/pro who is willing to lay out the big cash. The D4, D600, D800, 5dIII and Leicas are doing just fine, hell even medium format rigs that cost as much as a Mercedes are selling better than ever. Its the entry level-midrange consumer stuff thats rotting on the shelves (Compact Point and Shoots, Rebels, 60D, D3200, D5200). As nauseating as it is for us middle-age types to accept, it really is the damned phones more than anything else- loads of Canikon behavioral research into the under-30 demo indicates they don't value the actual photo as much as the act of sharing it, so bigger sensors-better lenses-better image quality have no allure. No matter how hard they try, camera mfrs can't compete with a pocket smartphone: even if they built a Galaxy SIII into a D5200, no one would want to carry it. Shoot it, share it, and forget about is the consumer culture now.

    A solid core of dedicated hobbyists and pros stays roughly level, but downturns and shakeups in the casual market go in cycles and affect Nikon much more than Canon: Nikon is always two paychecks away from disaster and couldn't design a popular consumer camera if they had a gun to their heads. The plastic-fantastic Canon AE-1 nearly wiped out every other brand in the late '70s, then the cheap auto-load-AF compacts decimated the film SLR market, then Minolta's AF SLR system took over what was left of that until Canikon caught up with them with EOS etc. Its always something: but none of these brands will ever recapture the peak years they had between 1970-1980, when SLRs were ubiquitous jewelry and everyone on campus thought they'd be the next Diane Arbus.

    Things will settle down in a year or so. By then, Samsung and Apple will have ripped off Nokia's innovative 41 MP cell camera, and the death throes of the digital compact will end. Nikon shot itself in the foot, arm and face with its idiotic "1" system that nobody on earth asked for or wants: that inept move killed their balance sheets this year leaving them extremely vulnerable to the decline in under-$1000 DSLRs. Canon barely did any better with their lame EOS-M, but Canon is diversified in other businesses and they learn much faster from mistakes than Nikon does. Both of them were too late acknowledging the growing popularity of mirrorless models from Olympus, Panasonic and Fuji: these are the cameras that sneakily took over from midrange DSLRs. They're doing gangbusters, even perennial "also-ran" Sony finally got a clue and started repackaging the Nikon D600 & D800 sensors in a mirrorless A7 / A7R body thats selling as fast as they can make them.

    In five years it may be true that we won't be able to buy a sub-$1299 DSLR. But hardly anyone will want one: more people than ever will be happy with their phones instead, hobbyists will opt for mirrorless EVIL cameras, and the high-end high-speed pro DSLRs will still thrive. Average prices will likely go up as the market shifts more upscale when the below-$800 stuff disappears altogether.
    Last edited by orsetto; 7th Dec 2013 at 02:27.
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  12. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    I'm sure it won't die completely. They'll be the prosumer edition for the sports photographer and the like. Other than that it might be gone from the open market but not if there is still a segment that will use it.
    Donatello - The Shredder? Michelangelo - Maybe all that hardware is for making coleslaw?
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  13. Master of Time & Space Capmaster's Avatar
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    DSLR's may be dead in 5 years...
    Not a very accurate prediction, IMHO.

    They said the same thing about point & shoot cameras disappearing when cell phone cameras debuted.

    Anyone seen where I parked my hovercraft?
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    Nothing beats a good old "analog" glass lens array.
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  15. Look guys, DSLR's won't die completely as there will be some professionals that will still use them. Just the masses of people will not see a need as they will be carrying their phones around and those phones will have better and better optics for photos and videos. My old Sony film camera was made obsolete by the digital cameras (yes, you can probably find one person that still uses those old cameras but none in the general public.)

    Capmaster... article in Wall Street Journal says point and shoot camera shipments down 42% in first 6 months of 2013. That's gotta be hurting the camera manufacturers.

    Budwzr..All that analog glass I had purchased for my Sony film camera just sits in the closet gathering dust. Nobody wants to buy it but I paid good money for that stuff.
    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -Carl Sagan
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    I'm not buying. From my perspective the point-and-shoot and very low end DSLRs will get hit hard, but DSLRs will stay around for a long time.

    Advances in cellphone cameras mean that their quality, and especially convenience, has improved a lot. You always have your cellphone on you, the quality of the photos is now "good enough" for many web uses such as twitter and Facebook, and the narrower quality gap means that there's not much point in buying/carrying a point and shoot as well. It's als made very low-end DSLRs less relevant.

    However, at the pro and serious amateur end of the market, it's still going to be a long time before cellphones will be a serious rival to DSLRs for quality, flexibility, and expandability. Much, much longer than 5 years in my opinion.
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  17. What do you guys mean by DSLR? Specifically the "reflex" (a mirror that deflects the picture to the viewfinder or film/sensor? Or just a camera that supports big, interchangealbe glass? I don't view reflex as necessary since that could be replaced by a high resolution display showing the live digital view. But there is no substitute for big glass when it comes to low light situations (ask any astronomer). And no substitute for replaceable lenses when it comes to versatility. So DSL"R" may go away, but high end digital cameras with large interchangeable lenses will remain.
    Last edited by jagabo; 29th Dec 2013 at 09:33.
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    Astronomy is not the only use for big glass. I used them with microscopes as part of my degree. When you need to further process the images to extract information/count cells the resolution and optics become important.
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  19. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jagabo
    ...ask any astronomer...
    Where would I find one? If there were enough of them, they could make such (non-cell phone) cameras cool again! Heck, if I knew one, he/she'd be my coolest friend!
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  20. loster..they are using Smartphones for Microscopes in schools now. A simple modification does it. Here's the link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b2f_1382125886

    Maybe just a few years and you can use your smart phone as a telescope too.
    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -Carl Sagan
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    Cool thanks for the link. Not close to the setup I used but for quick stuff way out in the field it could be good.
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  22. Originally Posted by TreeTops View Post
    Maybe just a few years and you can use your smart phone as a telescope too.
    The light gathering ability of a 1/4 inch cell phone lens doesn't compare to that of a 10 meter mirror.
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  23. bought my daughter a panasonic TZ40 for xmas, and it shoots better photos, and way better 1080/50p avchd video than many DSLR cameras do, and thats saying something.

    there are many many smaller compact zooms and interchangeable lens cameras coming out now for very decent prices that are now eating a big hole in the consumer DSLR market, so it would not surprise me if we saw more of a demise of the DSLR camera for the consumer market.
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