Viewpoint
The DSLR’s days are numbered. That was the overwhelming message from Photokina 2018
If you had asked me three months ago if I thought mirrorless cameras would kill the DSLR I’d probably have said, ‘not for the foreseeable future’. Despite the growth in popularity of mirrorless systems the DSLR has remained the camera of choice for most serious photographers. But now, I’m not so sure.
Until now Canon and Nikon have dabbled in mirrorless in a half-hearted way, but their dominance of the full-frame DSLR market is so total that they have seemed content to watch from the battlements of their castles while everyone below fought over the scraps, with their lightweight, smaller-sensor alternatives. But when Sony took the mirrorless concept full frame and began selling Alpha 7s by the bucketload, alarm bells started ringing at Canon and Nikon HQ and, it now transpires, elsewhere else. Perhaps the high- end DSLR wasn’t invincible after all. Plans were hatched, and the words ‘Photokina 2018’ were written on the calendars of R&D labs all over Japan. For fans of anniversaries it seemed a prophetic date, coming ten years after Panasonic first introduced the mirrorless camera concept at Photokina 2008.
The full-frame mirrorless systems that Nikon and Canon have just launched had been long-anticipated, but the results of their labours exceeded many people’s expectations. Bursting with cutting- edge technology and supported by some mouth-watering lenses, make no mistake these cameras are DSLR killers. Meanwhile Panasonic – who started the mirrorless ball rolling and came to the show with a ‘told-you-so’ face – surprised everyone by revealing that it too was going full frame, in alliance with Sigma and Leica.
No one who visited Photokina 2018 would have been left in any doubt that the future of the serious camera is mirrorless, and full frame (or bigger). You only had to look at the hordes of people queuing on the Canon stand, day after day, to get their hands on an EOS R, or jostling to press their faces up against the display cabinets containing the forthcoming Lumix S1 and S1R, to see that this is what the people want.
Sony has had this sector pretty much to itself for five years but suddenly there are now six camera manufacturers involved in it, so you can bet that Canon and Nikon will now be focusing the majority of their resources on building the biggest full-frame mirrorless systems they can, as quickly as possible. This will inevitably mean less focus on DSLRs.
So what about the remaining brands? Fujifilm has one foot either side of full frame with its successful APS- C based X-series and its medium-format mirrorless system, which it has cleverly dubbed ‘Super full-frame’. Its new, more affordable GFX 50R isn’t that much more of a financial stretch than Nikon’s Z 7, putting medium-format digital within reach of more people than ever before. Olympus hasn’t revealed its hand but I believe there is still a big audience for this small, lightweight, system with its enticing range of tiny, high- quality lenses. As for Pentax – well that’s a conversation for another time.