vrijdag 14 mei 2010

A compact tragedy

On DSLR's, mirror-less and why we never got an advanced large sensor fixed zoom lens compact.

Long before the the new breed of mirror-less interchangeable lens cameras came on the scene people were asking for advanced compact camera's with larger sensors. Well known Nikon follower Thom Hogan has been a long time proponent of the industry finally delivering what many advance shooters want and what is in fact technically possible.

The reason why the large camera manufacturers refused to offer an advanced compact with a large sensor providing good image quality was obvious, no point in giving their customers an incentive not to buy their more expensive DSLR's along with even more lucrative system components like lenses, flashes etc. The roughly 1/1.7'' Sensor size was allowed to be just big enough to make the camera attractive for a DSLR owner as a supplement, but not good enough to really make a substantial number view it as a viable alternative to a DSLR system.

It's kinda tragic then that now that we finally we get more compact camera's with larger sensor in the shape of the new mirror-less designs, that again the manufacturers desire to sell high margin items means that we are forced to buy interchangeable lens lenses with them of which most will absolutely prohibit the camera from being anywhere near pocket-able.

So their we have it the changes for an advanced pocket-able compact camera with a fixed zoom lens have become even more slim and our only chance is a manufacturer that doesn't have a large stake in either DSLR's or mirror-less camera's or by some stroke of luck find it in their heart to offer the enthusiast shooter the large sensor compact they have been waiting for for years.