I've obviously been taking at new cameras being released in the last few years, with lots of new mirrorless models appearing in 2018.
Now, we see a trend that crystalize, we can imagine the untold rationale that camera manufacturers seem to have in mind with regards to new camera system designs.
Let's decode.
1) Smartphone have eaten a significant portion of the camera market, and more of the compact camera and entry level camera segments
2) Most people never print their photos on paper or canvas, even less print larger than about 8x10"
3) The rise of social media for sharing small size pictures and video content, including video blogs of all kinds
So the average camera manufacturer adapts to his market, in 10 points:
1) No need to increase sensor size, people don't print, resolution doesn't matter much except in spec sheet comparisons, since absolute image resolution is not what most customer use, perceive image quality in social media can be lifted by smoothing out noise in camera, e.g the in-built noise reduction in raw file from Pentax (accelerator chip at high ISO), Panasonic S1R (noise reduction at low ISO to make camera look good in DXOmark, photon2photos and DPReview), Canon EOS R5 in-built noise reduction as well.
2) Mirror-less: camera must read sensor fast because exposure metering and auto-focus information is read from the image sensor. Resolution and image quality not the primary concern, noise can be filter via camera processor.
3) Video 4K, 30ips and 120ips if possible (slow motion): again new sensors must be optimized for speed of readout because speed allow things such as un-cropped 4K, or recording video at 120ips for slow motion effects.
4) Image stabilization: tripods are cumbersome and now mostly forbidden in all museum and other places of that kind, and who want to carry a tripod in airplanes & hikes. Easier to snap pictures with camera hand-held, on the go.
5) Connectivity: the trendy customer want to post his small photos on social media for instant sharing with the world, big files aren't welcome, in-camera beautified small JPEGs are ideal, hence the marketing claims about nice JPEG colors, in camera film simulation claimed by Fuji especially for x camera (mass market)
6) Nature & Wildlife photography: Well, if larger pictures are not need because of being shared via internet, perhaps what smartphones CAN'T do is to take quick bursts moving animals in the wild (or even not so wild racing cars or airplanes, or similar). For this, a small sensor with quick burst rate and very good autofocus tracking with a long lens, with some in-camera digital massaging of the files should produce good enough images for posting in social media. Decoded: Pentax new K3 mkIII.
7) Dare to say it: even the professional nude shooter in studio is not interested in high resolution, his web customers of the porn industry will buy 4K images to post in their internet porn sites. Regarding noise in image, he doesn't care because he's projecting lots of light with a bunch of strobes towards his subjects. Eye AF is a must have (also for non-nude people photos). So why would he need more than 4K except for cropping image in post?
8) Product photography: well, since most product pictures are aimed at being posted online, 4K image are more than enough. Why do more?
9) Fashion, press, magazines: paper product are sold less and less, basically A4 (letter size) most of the time. Every fashion show , magazine, newspaper are primarily being read online, for online use 4K images are plenty big enough.
10) Photo prints labs may suffer. Some consolidation here. CEWE buys White Wall to include their higher-priced high-end prints in the offering. Maybe some plans to phase out the low cost silver developments. Inkjet on the rise, silver is legacy. We can hardly find C-print machine by Lamba Durst group website, they seem to have moved to industrial inkjet printing for printing on products in manufacturing plant. Hopefully they still maintain C-print machines for photo labs that still use them. Anyway, it is now possible to buy a professional Inkjet printer to make 44" wide print, for a few thousand $ (Euros) + website to run an online boutique photo lab, no need to invest in a large C-print machine that cost hundred of thousand $ (Euros) just for a start. The inkjet trend also comes with an increasing choice of high-end (read expensive) inkjet papers papers such as Canson inkjet fineart papers, Hahnemuhle inkjet fineart papers, even metallic paper for Inkjet!!!..
The trend is going south for the "Ansel Adams" type of photographers, the digital camera industry doesn't care about the Ansel AdamsS anymore, no enough money to be made there.... This small niche leaking into Ilford market segment seeing a slow rise of demand for film rolls... as well as ebay seeing a number of sell/buy of old used film cameras. It's looking like Ilford getting some more business in recent year (I don't have numbers to prove it, but I feel like Ilford might be getting some revival, they even released a small 35mm film camera with fixed lens recently, interesting...). There have even been some revival of old film brand (I forgot the name..).
Maybe new film cameras on the horizon, reusing some electronics from digital cameras, bundled with film rolls kits and film development services? Why not all-in-one bundle film SLR camera + film rolls + film development service offered by the same company?
