Originally posted by Ivan The conversation is interesting. As I see, the transition to mirrorless systems was obvious about five to six years ago. But large companies didn’t want to admit it because of the large fleet of optics. Canon and Nikon jumped into the last car. I think so). I still remember More recently, there has been talk that mirrorless systems are toys. And here canon says it will produce if there is demand. There is no reason for generations here. This is business, competition. The struggle will be for professionals. Bet on them. For large companies. And the owners of 18 megapixel sensors or eos5m2-3 are not interested in anyone.
Business and competition comes from demand. Generation z won't buy Canon, Nikon, Pentax, entry level cameras as millennials did 4-6 years ago. They rather invest 1300$ in a smartphone for casual shooting and vlogging. With the Samsung S20 that has 108mp and 100x zoom, entry level APS-C cameras are not interesting to them anymore. And this is a big problem for Canon and Nikon. I see a last attempt of Canon with the new announced Rebel T8i to attract the instagramers with vertical video which seems trending in 2020 for microstock business also. But, when mirrorless cameras comes with things that for gen z are interesting, such eye af, animal af, cloud transfer of images, etc. and with Youtube influencers promoting mirrorless more and more, companies has to go where the demand is. I think that for big companies Nokia is still the best example of what it can happen if you don't adapt.
Canon and Nikon did a smart thing at first by not investing huge amount of money in mirrorless. If you ask me, Sony probably still has to recover some of the huge investment they did, including for the aggresive marketing. Canon and Nikon weren't so smart when comes to timing of entering in the mirrorless market. They should have enter in this market when A7 II, A7R II and A6000 became popular. I don't know about Nikon, but Canon seems more serious in terms of listening what market wants. 1Dx Mark III blows for the first time D6 in terms of specs, the announced R5 looks excelent on paper and also serious competition to Sony who slowed down a little (see A9 vs. A9 II), the RF lenses looks also excelent...
I'm very interested to see what Canon, Pentax, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, not to mention Olympus will do for the gen z and for the ones that are no longer interested in entry level APS-C cameras which are/were a huge market, especially for Canon and Nikon.
I'm looking at the teens I go out with from time to time to shoot portraits (16-20 years old) and I look also at my nephew (11 years old) and when they have to choose between my 5D Mark IV and EOS R, my 5D is ignored with all my attempts to make it look good. They don't have headaches from EVFs because they grew up with technology (3D glasses, virtual reality, smartphones) and they are attracted to features, even if they don't need them. Mirrorless looks more tech oriented and this is what they want...
So, as a personal opnion, generation z will dictate the market in the next 5 years. By market I mean the one which seems very important to Canon, Nikon and Sony: the entry level market. PRO photographers will adapt and the rest will still have lots of second hand gear to choose from 10-15 years from now.