Digital camera market slashed!

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 Post subject: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:29 pm 
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What a weird world these days.

Growing up when film SLRs rarely changed and were designed to last many years, the wacky consumerism stopped the film market and have almost killed it with digital everything. Now the digital market is about to feel the pain as Olympus is out of the DSLR market, Nikon is slashing prices on all their digital cameras due to a huge drop in their market share and even Canon is looking at slicing prices to survive.

Why? Because of smartphones. It seems the market now is hugely that of casual snaps for instant sharing on social networks, texts, and other electronic communication.

Who will survive?

http://www.inquisitr.com/962516/smartph ... sh-prices/

It appears the rapid evolution is going to phones with cameras that will compete in the future with cameras that are highly sophisticated communication devices including phones. Dare we see a Leica Apple product?

I bet we will.


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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:36 pm 
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Indeed... As smartphones get better and better lenses and capabilities, the days of the average P&S seem numbered. Though there will always be a market for more advanced "prosumer" and "enthusiast" cameras, not to mention robust DSLRs for professional work... Their slice of the pie is ever-shrinking. Most people, honestly, don't want or need a "real" camera. They want to use their phone, which is always with them, simple to use and not a separate device. They can post to social media and share with their friends with a click of a virtual button.

"The times, they are a changin'" as the saying goes.

Personally, I hope Canon does slash prices... I want a cheap 5D Mark IV. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 1:28 pm 
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If the iPhone5s camera is an indicator of where at least Apple is going, then I'd say a large segment of the consumer camera market is being dumbed down, and that could take years to recover from.

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:37 pm 
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Well, to their credit, it has features that "most people" need/want. Photos, video, panorama, flash, HDR, filters and even a 120fps slo-mo mode. There's still room for third-party "advanced" camera apps, but the field is narrowing. These same users wouldn't know an aperture from a shutter speed. Yes, definitely a dumbing down of sorts... But that's evident in P&S cameras too with their "sports" and "night" auto modes, etc. Throw in auto focus, image stabilization, yada yada - and even a monkey could take pictures.

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:42 am 
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dalethorn wrote:
If the iPhone5s camera is an indicator of where at least Apple is going, then I'd say a large segment of the consumer camera market is being dumbed down, and that could take years to recover from.


Quite the contrary. The P&S segment's demise is being shepherded in by powerful smartphones with optics and computational capabilities accompanied by large, ultra- high resolution displays that allow for PP software manipulation of images a (larger P&S) camera often can't match. Far from 'dumbed-down', it is as the adage goes, 'your best camera is the one you have with you'.

If anything, the Flickr-Getty Image alliance shows that the pressure is on the paid professional who now competes with amateurs whose lighter, very capable equipment that is always carried along and ready for a serendipitous moment.

The Leica-fication of the market, is evident in the compact but amazing Sony RX-1, (imperfect as it is with the VF wart on top) and the M3-inspired Fujifilm offerings. These are harbingers of an end to the 1-2 kg DSLR bodies for all but a few specialized users.

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Last edited by Shetland on Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:56 am 
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Shetland wrote:
dalethorn wrote:
If the iPhone5s camera is an indicator of where at least Apple is going, then I'd say a large segment of the consumer camera market is being dumbed down, and that could take years to recover from.


Quite the contrary. The P&S segment's demise is being shepherded in by powerful smartphones with optics and computational capabilities accompanied by large, ultra- high resolution displays that allow for PP software manipulation of images a (larger P&S) camera often can't match. Far from 'dumbed-down', it is as the adage goes, 'your best camera is the one you have with you'.
The Leica-fication of the market, as evident in the compact but amazing Sony RX-1, (imperfect as it is with the VF wart on top) and the M3-inspired Fujifilm offerings. These are harbingers of an end to the 1-2 kg DSLR bodies for all but a few specialized users.


My point was about the new noise reduction of the iPhone5s, which heavily smears details in low light. The iPhone5 images are much, much better, and users being generally unaware of what's going on will be lulled into complacency (i.e. dumbed down). I've been running comparisons in various degrees of light, and the results are consistent.

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:59 am 
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You're a practiced eye and I get your point but these limitations too will pass as the tech improves rapidly

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:06 am 
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Shetland wrote:
You're a practiced eye and I get your point but these limitations too will pass as the tech improves rapidly


I doubt if that's true. Nikon went from having good P&S pocket zooms to their latest dumbed down superzoom pocket camera, the S9500. No options for turning down NR, 18 mp on a 1/2.33 sensor, heavy smearing in daylight even. Since this is reality with Nikon's leading camera for mom & pop, why would Apple improve instead of continuing to get worse just like Nikon?

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:21 am 
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Perhaps in their view, why plow in the investment if you anticipate the market in rapid descent? Best save the capital for the next steps. Pure speculation but in short order, I can foresee Apple offering a smart phone with a version that includes a better (?larger)sensor and Leica/Schneider/Zeiss/Canon/Nikon optical packages; ones optimized for these devises just as Sony has done.

Something is afoot here; Nikon hasn't followed up the D4 with a high Rez sensor and Canon's best tops out at 24MP.

They all get where this is going and one should expect these guys to go whole-hog into smaller formats so the limitations you've found on the iPhone won't be there of long. I live in NY City and it's awash with visitors form all corners of God's earth. I watch the trends and what I see most often being shot are smart phones and iPads primarily, with smaller Canon DSLRs and the likes of Fujifilm iterations. The pro DSLRs are growing fewer and fewer by the month.

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Last edited by Shetland on Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Digital camera market slashed!
Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:33 am 
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Shetland wrote:
Perhaps in their view, why plow in the investment if you anticipate the market in rapid descent? Best save the capital for the next steps. Pure speculation but in short order, I can foresee Apple offering a smart phone with a version that includes a better sensor and Leica/Schneider/Zeiss/Canon/Nikon optical packages; ones optimized for these devises just as Sony has done. Something is afoot here; Nikon hasn't followed up the D4 with a high Rez sensor and Canon's best tops out at 24. They all get where this is going and one should expect these guys to go whole-hog into smaller formats and the limitations you've found on the iPhone won't be there of long.


What is particularly disturbing to me about these discussions is how the iPhone5s has been so heavily promoted by Apple as a superior camera, how so many 'house' reviewers have extolled its virtues, then when an independent reviewer like me gets in there and posts the real stuff, so many people jump to the defense of the indefensible. It's a bad camera - a bad system, and I'd appreciate a critical analysis of it.

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