Originally posted by Trickortreat Instant film and cameras had a boom last few years
---------- Post added 01-31-19 at 09:29 AM ----------
This is why i was puzzled by K1. Does that camera relly have a place in the modern market?
Is the market shrinking from the bottom up or across the board? The commercial market is still there. It would ebb and flow with the economy, with bumps with technological improvements. People don't replace commercial tools until they need to. The K1 sits there at a very good price capability point.
Serious professional or amateur photographers will buy serious equipment, and have an excellent selection to choose from. I think the high end equipment market is saturated, as all manufacturers moved upmarket as the bottom of the market disappeared.
A phone and even mirrorless cannot do what I need my camera to do. That is the case for many serious amateurs and even more professionals. But there aren't very many of people like me.
I'm seeing quite a bit of commentary on mirrorless where people are finding that they have to spend quite a bit of money to replace what they have in their DSLR and end up with not really any advantage. The viewfinder technology that was defined by the SLR mechanism ends up being a very difficult and very expensive thing to replace.
I suspect the forecast downturn is a factor of the worldwide economy and the complete disappearance of the low end camera market.
And frankly, right now, the rational thing to do is sit on what you have. The equipment people are using is unbelievably capable, very reliable, tough. People can not buy for two years and it would make no change in the photos that they produce.
The idea that a $2-5k device needs replacement every year is ridiculous.
I suspect there are lots of manufacturers looking at what Ricoh did with the K1 -> Mark II to see if it would make any sense at all. I hope it was profitable for them.
A poorly implemented mirrorless is the answer to a question no one has asked. I think Canon and Nikon are going to find this out.
A Q with a microphone plug, wide zoom and sensor stabilization in video would sell as a vlogging camera.