The Last Days of the DSLR

I have already written how I have converted to mirrorless.  It is nice when others are realizing the same thing.  A recent article on this is featured on Gizmodo called “The Last Days of the DSLR”.  But, one of the points of this article misses the mark.  The author seems to get excited by Sony's new entry – the A7.

“The final step for mirrorless hegemony is tackling the high end. Sony will soon ship its milestone A7 series, two compact mirrorless bodies with full-frame sensors, the lynchpin of top-tier camera bodies and the harbingers of the DSLR's doom. They are, simply put, the best of both worlds.”

There is a big problem with full frame 35mm cameras, SLR or Mirrorless – the size and weight of the lenses.  Physics is physics.  Just because the body is smaller and lighter does not help with the lenses.  It is a step in the right direction.  You have a small camera with really big lenses.  With the advance in technology, the full frame 35mm sensor is no longer necessary for low noise, high resolution photography.

To me the real advance in mirrorless cameras is small, light weight camera bodies with small, light weight lenses.  By reducing the sensor size from the still full frame 35mm to the four thirds sensor, Panasonic and Olympus have been able to make a smaller and lighter over all camera.  The 35mm motion picture frame size has been a standard for over a 100 years and the Micro Four Thirds sensor is almost as big.  Still full frame was invented out of the motion picture size by turning the film sideways from vertical to horizontal.  With M43rd's, we are just now going back to the original size.

I will put Panasonic's GH3 against any other manufacture's “Top Tier” camera.  Please read my article, 21st Century Camera?  Last night at our camera club, Tim Synder who is a GH3 photographer, was named the Photographer of the Year.  Still most of the club is C or N.  Mirrorless is here to stay.

Here is the original article at Gizmodo.