After recent announcements from FUJI and other companies as well, I see a tendency of some camera makers investing a lot of recources in creating a small professional camera, and there is a an obvious market demand for this. I have a feeling that these big cameras ala D700, D3s, 7D, 5D mark II etc. in three years, maybe later, are going to disappear from the market, and photographers will shoot weddings, serious photojournalism... with cameras ala recent Fuji X100... Of course, Nikon, Canon for obvious reasons don't want that to happen, but even they are big players they will be hard pressed by Fuji, Olympus Panasonic, Samsung, Sony to change the concept of digital pro camera... when exactly this is going to happen? I don't know... maybe not any time soon or at all??? What do you guys think about the future of DSLR cameras???...
Ahahahaha!
Yeah, yeah, didn't we also hear this, like - 3 years ago as well?
dslr's are never completely going away. Because -
1. There will always be someone who wants the absolute best picture quality they can get, and dslr's with a larger sensor and more room for higher quality glass will always be better than cameras that are smaller. Improvements that make one better will make the other better as well, no matter how good smaller cameras get the bigger ones will always be better.
For average people we've already crossed the line where compact cameras take "good enough" pictures for decent lighting. Perhaps one day they'll even take "good enough" pictures for regular night indoor lighting. But there continue to be the professionals, who want the best image quality they can get.
2. Obviously smaller sensor cameras can't get that "blurry background" look easily like a large sensor can.
3. Regarding the new "small body" cameras, as soon as you put a lens with any kind of zoom on, the camera gets much, much bigger.
4. Physically larger lenses are sometimes needed to get the "best" image quality. And really, when your lens is 8 inches long, who cares if the camera is 1 inch deep, 2 inches deep, or 4 inches deep?
5. A larger camera body (to a point) is more ergonomic, and if you're shooting pictures all day a lightweight but physically comfortable camera is still going to be preferred.
Other reasons that might be solvable but we don't have yet -
1. dslr's still enjoy a noticeable advantage in autofocus speed over anything else. The micro 4/3rds still have some lag. And from my understanding, a mirror is currently needed to get the better autofocus performance.
2. Even with a good live view implementation, the lcd update lag makes it hard track fast moving subjects (like a bird flying) difficult compared to a viewfinder where there's not lag. And viewfinder still currently wins in bright light visibility - lcd's have gotten a lot better, but they're still not perfect.
3. Lightweight lenses - just in weight alone, lenses with any sort of zoom or premium image quality still weigh quite a bit. What's the point in having a 1/10th of a pound camera if the lens still weighs 0.5 pounds? It also makes the camera harder to hold if the camera weighs significantly less than the lens. So you might as well have some weight in the camera.
As long as the premium lenses are relatively large and heavy, dslr's will have no competition from the smaller cameras. If you have to bring a large, heavy lens, might as well get the ergonomics and better balance of a larger camera body as well.
