The DSLR is obsolete? Oh.

[unpopular]

So its probably not wise to ditch my DSLR right now.

Well. The a700 is my second favorite camera after the Contax RX (which is vastly superior to any camera I've used). But I haven't touched it since I got the XE-1.

Mind you, any more I shoot full manual under stop-down metering, so AF isn't terribly important. Oddly, though, the XE-1 encourages me to shoot in aperture priority whereas on a DSLR I shot everything full manual.

It's nice to have always-on DOF preview, even if a bit laggy stopped down.

 

[gsgary]

I think one of the biggest advantages that DSLRs have today are the huge selection of lenses, anything you can think of. With mirrorless there is only a small selection and cheap they are not. Sure you can adapt them to mirrorless cameras but I rather not use an adapter.

I can fit more lenses on my A7 than you can on you Nikon and every Leica lens will work

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[gsgary]

Once they make batteries that are small and can take a 1000 shots, that would be a major improvement.

Once they have smaller and more powerful batteries then DSLRs can get respectively smaller too.
And I want a clear BIG EVF .. sitting in the middle or left.

I don't know about anyone else, but I really like having a optical viewfinder. EVFs are okay and they will only get better but like you...it needs to be BIG and CLEAR and NO DELAY.

Just like my Leica mirrorless [emoji3]

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[nerwin]

Not everyone can afford a Lecia gary.

 

[astroNikon]

Once they make batteries that are small and can take a 1000 shots, that would be a major improvement.

Once they have smaller and more powerful batteries then DSLRs can get respectively smaller too.
And I want a clear BIG EVF .. sitting in the middle or left.

I don't know about anyone else, but I really like having a optical viewfinder. EVFs are okay and they will only get better but like you...it needs to be BIG and CLEAR and NO DELAY.

Just like my Leica mirrorless [emoji3]

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Yeah but aren't those considered obsolete and too expensive for the common folk?

 

[Braineack]

My hotel in Florence was next to a Leica store. I only ever saw one customer in there over 4 days.


DSC02000 by The Braineack, on Flickr

Maybe people actually prefer LCD displays and AF-modules...

 

[chuasam]

Not everyone can afford a Lecia gary.

is that the Chinese version of Leica *LOL*
I would hazard to say that fewer people desire a Leica than people who can afford it.

 

[bribrius]

This is What the History of Camera Sales Looks Like with Smartphones Included

gonna drop like a rock

If you say so. Funny thing though, when I sold my D7100 on Ebay it had 35 watchers and sold in less than an hour, for over $600.

Last lens I bid on had over 40 bids on it before I finally won the auction. I don't see much of anything in the DSLR realm selling at rock bottom, give away prices.. which, I mean you think it would if the DSLR were truly yesterday's news and all anybody wanted now was a cell phone camera. Nope, seems like there are still a ton of folks out there who are interested in purchasing DSLR's, lenses and such for them.

I guess the actual public hasn't gotten the memo yet.. or something. I still get daily questions from people on facebook asking me about DSLR's.. and everyone of them already has a cell phone with a built in camera. It's just ... bizarre I guess.

i still think it was a phase. DSLRs were more expensive they dropped in prices same time photography picked up as a huge enthusiasts market (film was harder digital helped this). So for a decade we had a huge upshift in dslr sales and site like this one for example were started. The question is has its run its course. AS the average consumer may nolonger find the novelty of it which is a large portion of camera sales to the average consumers. In practicality i went down to the lake yesterday with the kids and dog (i live by a lake) and yes i brought my dslr as the light would be getting low along with three lenses but in reality i would dump it in a heartbeat just for the headache of carrying it if the technology was there to replace it. Soon i believe it will be. You really think i want to throw sticks in the water for the dog to fetch and hang out with the kids by the lake or on the lake carrying a dslr bag? Hell no i avoid it like the plague. And the best shots are the ones that are unexpected you might come across when you arent lugging around your dslr anyway.

 

[bribrius]

it almost goes against common sense as well. Since the cameras inception it has been through a evolution of becoming more portable user friendly adaptable, smaller. By the nature of the evolution of the camera i cant see why the dslr would survive. The goal has always been to make them smaller, more easily capable of carrying and user friendly.. Carrying around a dslr and lenses, not. It's backwards technology not forward technology. Forward technology is taking the same quality photo without carrying lenses in a camera a quarter the size that may even make phone calls and double as your organizer.

 

[robbins.photo]

if the technology was there to replace it. Soon i believe it will be.

And this is pretty much the crux of the whole thing - at the moment, the technology doesn't exist to replace it. Will it soon? Eh, who knows. But until then the DSLR will remain.

Then of course once you do see units out on the market that can replace a DSLR, well even then you won't necessarily see a huge tidal shift. I'm quite happy with the size and weight of my current equipment, given the fact that replacements that could match them in the mirrorless realm would be WAY more than I would ever consider spending on my hobby.

Even when they do eventually get to the point where they make replacements in the mirrorless realm that I can afford, I'm probably still not going to be in a rush to switch. I prefer something larger that I can manipulate easily - smaller for me is not always better, in fact it often becomes a nightmare quickly with repeated use.

The other point of course will be will whatever new system the come up with use my current lenses? If not, total deal breaker for me and a lot of other folks out there right from the get go, and no I don't want to spend a small fortune on some kind of adapter to get AF working so that I can mount a dinky little camera on the end of a 70-200 F/2.8 or 400mm/500mm/600mm lens of some sort so the whole system is off balance and terribly unweildy. So yup, no interest for me there either. So really what it boils down to for me is I'll consider switching, maybe, at some point, when it can actually replace what I already have.

Until then it makes zero sense for me, and a lot of other folks, and at this stage I don't even recommend people buy them as their primary system other than in very limited circumstances, because lets face it - there's zero guarantee that the stuff available now will even be supported next year, or 3 years from now, etc.

For the folks that really like/want a smaller system and are willing to deal with all of that, great. But it's not anywhere near the stage where it will replace DSLR for some of us, much less all of us.

 

[astroNikon]

I'm waiting for the mirrorless camera that is a replacement eyeball. Then you can take pics just by blinking.

oh wait .... Mission Impossible-style contact lenses that can take pictures and scan data are a step closer to reality as scientists develop LED soft lenses

 

[Braineack]

It would be pretty cool to be able to capture the DR of what your eye actually sees one day

 

[unpopular]

Carrying around a dslr

I think that interchangeable lenses will stay around for a while. The only lens technology that would realistically replace it would be a medium with configurable index of refraction continuously in one axis. This is within the scope of possibility. Imagine someday a "lens" is some kind of medium which changes it's refractive index according to an electric signal. Instead of buying physical lenses, you'd download them. Optical characteristics could be tuned according to working distance and aperture - even aperture shape could be custom taylored to fit the lens design or bokeh quality desired.

 

[bribrius]

Carrying around a dslr

I think that interchangeable lenses will stay around for a while. The only lens technology that would realistically replace it would be a medium with configurable index of refraction continuously in one axis. This is within the scope of possibility. Imagine someday a "lens" is some kind of medium which changes it's refractive index according to an electric signal. Instead of buying physical lenses, you'd download them. Optical characteristics could be tuned according to working distance and aperture - even aperture shape could be custom taylored to fit the lens design or bokeh quality desired.

That would be Sweet. NO more lenses yay!!

 

[unpopular]

@bribrius They're already doing it with thin lenses and fresnels. They're essentially 2D lenses that can change their IOR to bend light at a to different degrees in from the center to edge. If you could somehow stack these one behind another in an array you could get any type of compound lens assembly.