5 ms·

The bigger story of course is that phones came along and ate everyone's lunch. I don't know a single person who desires to lug around a body and lens, no matter

The bigger story of course is that phones came along and ate everyone's lunch. I don't know a single person who desires to lug around a body and lens, no matter how compact, anymore. (Have you seen what the top-of-the-line iPhone can do? It's amazing.) I say this as someone who used to own five figures worth of Canon glass. The whole industry feels like it is dying to me. The professional segment will always be there but the consumer and, increasingly, "prosumer" markets are history.

bombcar 4y ago
The loss of the prosumer market is the one that will hurt the most - professionals can support a smallish group of companies/models, but prosumers buy way more camera than they need.
- hyperbovine 4y ago
  Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real" pictures was to buy about $5000 worth of equipment. It worked well and made a lot of money for a long time... but also completely took all the fun out of photography imo. People were more likely to sit around arguing on online forums about "bokeh" and f-stops than go out and actually shoot pictures. Now suddenly everyone has an amazing camera sitting in their pocket, everyone is a photographer, picture taking has increased, what, ten-thousand fold? Photography is fun again ... and they are not even in the conversation. You reap what you sow.
FpUser 4y ago
When I am on nature I see boatloads of people with pro looking cameras. For example Tomson part here in Toronto is choke full of those.
positus 4y ago
I use two Nikon N90x bodies with AF-D lenses and occasionally shoot 4x5 as well. I develop and scan the negatives myself and make traditional prints in a darkroom. The only thing I really use my iPhone (13) camera for is for taking visual notes of things I need to refer to later. It's convenient, but the small sensor of a cell phone cannot replicate the look and feel of a large format film camera. Most professionals have moved on though, for sure. It is going to be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
cypress66 4y ago
I don't know. My 10 year old dslr has much more detail than an iPhone. IPhones photos basically can't be cropped. Even uncropped, when I see a photo at almost full screen size on my 27" monitor, it looks pretty crappy. Of course you can argue for social media it doesn't matter. But that's another point. And for things such as YouTube it's incredibly noticeable when a video is properly filmed vs using a phone (see Mkbhd "secret" iPhone recorded videos)
kenneth 4y ago
It's easy to think so. And I did for a while. I was on Canon DSLRs and eventually as iphones got better I stopped using the setup. For a few years I was back to fully mobile photographer. Now recently picked up a Sony full frame mirror less and it's been amazing rediscovering what you can do with a better camera. I don't take it everywhere, but I do make the effort to bring it out with two primes when I know photo opportunities will present themselves. Can you tell what shots are what camera? https://instagram.com/kballenegger https://instagram.com/kballenegger
ska 4y ago
> Have you seen what the top-of-the-line iPhone can do? It's amazing It's amazing what it can do with such a small lens and sensor, but doesn't stack up well to pro gear really, or even all but the worst prosumer gear. It mostly doesn't matter, I suspect. After all the best camera is the one you have with you, and phones are always there...
fleddr 4y ago
The industry is not dying, it's returning to its former prosumer/pro territory, and in that section it's very much surviving. Prosumer may even be thriving.

bombcar 4y ago

The loss of the prosumer market is the one that will hurt the most - professionals can support a smallish group of companies/models, but prosumers buy way more camera than they need.

hyperbovine 4y ago
Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real" pictures was to buy about $5000 worth of equipment. It worked well and made a lot of money for a long time... but also completely took all the fun out of photography imo. People were more likely to sit around arguing on online forums about "bokeh" and f-stops than go out and actually shoot pictures. Now suddenly everyone has an amazing camera sitting in their pocket, everyone is a photographer, picture taking has increased, what, ten-thousand fold? Photography is fun again ... and they are not even in the conversation. You reap what you sow.

FpUser 4y ago

When I am on nature I see boatloads of people with pro looking cameras. For example Tomson part here in Toronto is choke full of those.

positus 4y ago

I use two Nikon N90x bodies with AF-D lenses and occasionally shoot 4x5 as well. I develop and scan the negatives myself and make traditional prints in a darkroom. The only thing I really use my iPhone (13) camera for is for taking visual notes of things I need to refer to later. It's convenient, but the small sensor of a cell phone cannot replicate the look and feel of a large format film camera. Most professionals have moved on though, for sure. It is going to be interesting to see how things continue to develop.

cypress66 4y ago

I don't know. My 10 year old dslr has much more detail than an iPhone. IPhones photos basically can't be cropped. Even uncropped, when I see a photo at almost full screen size on my 27" monitor, it looks pretty crappy. Of course you can argue for social media it doesn't matter. But that's another point. And for things such as YouTube it's incredibly noticeable when a video is properly filmed vs using a phone (see Mkbhd "secret" iPhone recorded videos)

kenneth 4y ago

It's easy to think so. And I did for a while. I was on Canon DSLRs and eventually as iphones got better I stopped using the setup. For a few years I was back to fully mobile photographer. Now recently picked up a Sony full frame mirror less and it's been amazing rediscovering what you can do with a better camera. I don't take it everywhere, but I do make the effort to bring it out with two primes when I know photo opportunities will present themselves. Can you tell what shots are what camera? https://instagram.com/kballenegger https://instagram.com/kballenegger

ska 4y ago

> Have you seen what the top-of-the-line iPhone can do? It's amazing It's amazing what it can do with such a small lens and sensor, but doesn't stack up well to pro gear really, or even all but the worst prosumer gear. It mostly doesn't matter, I suspect. After all the best camera is the one you have with you, and phones are always there...

fleddr 4y ago

The industry is not dying, it's returning to its former prosumer/pro territory, and in that section it's very much surviving. Prosumer may even be thriving.