Originally posted by biz-engineer I could have written it differently: I am glad that it is still possible to buy a high res. digital FF still camera for less than 2K (USD/EUR). If I consider ILC system cost, they've risen way about of the non-professional budget for electronics.
I think it's playing out like this:
1. Most people use cellphones for photography.
2. ILC manufacturers go luxury/high-end to cater to the "real" photographers who still want a camera, trying to push $1k buyers to $2k, $3k, $4k+
3. Companies drive more and more people to cell phones because there are fewer and fewer people who can afford a high-end camera
4. Eventually many ILC companies go out of business because there are only so many Leica customers
The camera industry is like if the auto industry decided that they can't compete with (insert something else here... scooters? Trains? It doesn't matter), so they're all going to move to the BMW, Land Rover, Aston Martin model. Only so many people can afford a BMW*, much less an Aston. That's kind of what's happening with domestic US sedans/coupes - few people want what they see as a rental car sedan from companies that made crap in the 1980s and 1990s, so they buy German and Japanese cars. US manufacturers give up and just make pickups and crossovers/SUVs. Tastes will eventually change, SUVs and monster trucks will become My Parents' Stodgy Vehicle and once again US manufacturers will be on the precipice because that's all they make.
* Oohhh... I just came up with a solution to the camera industry's woes. Get banks to approve eight or nine year loans for people with shaky credit to buy cameras, even if they depreciate to 50% of their value in a couple years. That's been a godsend for auto companies.