Sydney, Barangaroo from East Balmain, evening. Panasonic Lumix fZ1000.2 |
There has, over the last 40 years or so been a series of major changes to the way most people make photographs.
Film gave way to digital capture with digital cameras
gaining widespread acceptance from the beginning of the 21st
Century. But only ten years later smartphones with built-in cameras began to
supplant compact digital cameras in the consumer market.
The camera market peaked in 2011 when 121million cameras
were sold across the world, most of them digital compacts.
In 2022 a total of 8 million cameras were sold, most of them
being interchangeable lens types. Only 2 million were fixed lens types.
There were 1.2 Billion smartphones sold in 2022. This was
actually fewer than at the peak of sales in 2018.
So for every camera sold in 2022 there were 150 smartphones.
This represents one of the most rapid and dramatic market upheavals due to
technological change that has ever happened.
In only eleven years ordinary consumers switched almost entirely from
the compact camera as their chosen device for making photos to a smartphone.
The response from camera makers has been to go upmarket. To
effectively abandon the low end and concentrate on high priced professional and
prosumer mirrorless interchangeable lens models
(MILC). This appears to have halted the decline in both unit numbers and
profits at least for the time being.
But MILCs present camera buyers, even enthusiasts, with
several problems.
First, the very thing which defines an ILC, namely the
system’s reliance on changing lenses, is
both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that we can have wide angle,
telephoto, macro, prime and zoom lenses. The curse is that they are necessary.
The one thing nobody likes about interchangeable lens
cameras is having to change lenses or carry two or more bodies, each with a
different lens mounted.
Other less than desirable characteristics of ILCs include
high cost, bulky dimensions, complex controls, non-intuitive operation and poor
connectivity.
I actually think camera makers might be painting themselves
into a corner with their current push for upmarket MILCs. Many of these cameras
even now have a specification level far above that which most photographers
might reasonably need.
The latest top tier MILCs have more resolving power and
speed than most users, even professionals, can actually utilise. Next year’s
models will have even more. To what purpose ?
Panasonic Lumix FZ1000.2 Not too big, not too small, just right. |
The main desirable features of a smartphone for photography are point-and-shoot ease of operation, compact dimensions, ease of transport, always-with-me-convenience and excellent connectivity. Smart phone makers sell these things by the BILLIONS. Camera makers, pay attention or be consigned to irrelevance.
As photographic devices, smartphones lack a superzoom lens,
eye level viewfinder, fully articulated monitor and user-directed control over
operation.
I think there is an ongoing market for compact digital
cameras provided they have something special, like the Fujifilm X100V, Ricoh
GR3 and Leica Q series.
They would be much more appealing however if they had smartphone
level connectivity.
This brings me to the main theme of my post which is bridge
cameras.
This camera type has a set of desirable photographic
features possessed by no other. A well designed and implemented bridge cam can
be a proper camera, with a shape, design and controls similar to a midrange
high quality ILC. It has a fixed superzoom lens which enables wide angle,
macro, normal, tele and supertele work without ever having to change lenses. It
has very good image quality further improved by post processing AI which would
optimally be included in the image processor inside the camera just as it is in
a smartphone.
The bridge cam does have an eye level viewfinder over the
lens axis and can have a fully articulated monitor.
I think that camera makers have taken their corporate eyes
off the ball with respect to bridge cams. They have certainly stopped upgrading
any of them and discontinued several.
I think that bridge cams could be saviours of the camera
industry.
My prescription for a desirable bridge cam which could
appeal to amateur, enthusiast, expert and professional users alike brings together the desirable capabilities of
each of the photographic device types with the following specifications:
1. Body/lens package about the size of the existing Panasonic
Lumix FZ1000.2 or my hypothetical Canon EOS G10 shown here as a mockup. I have
used the FZ1000/1000.2 and the Canon EOS R10 cameras quite extensively. I have
average sized adult hands. I find this size large enough to be comfortable to
hold and operate but small enough to be light, compact and easy to carry in a
bag or in the hand. If a 15.9mm sensor size is used the lens can be a compact
24-600mm f2.8-5.6 (full frame
equivalent) or 24/25-400mm f2.8-4, both versatile focal length ranges able to manage
the great majority of photographic challenges.
2. This camera would have two operating modes
In Smart Mode the camera works like a smartphone using
Snapdragon or similar internal processor and highly automated operation with
the user having access only to zoom control and capture actuation. Submodes are
stills and video. This mode provides smartphone connectivity and ability to
share and distribute photos.
In Creative Mode the camera works like cameras now do, with
full user control of all operational parameters and Raw output. Submodes for
stills and video.
Summary
It is clear that bridge camera development has stalled with
camera makers directing R&D to MILCs. They might say that bridge camera
sales have fallen so why would they direct funds to develop them further. I
suspect this is really a case of writing your own history. If they fail to
update bridge cams with the latest autofocus and processor technology then of
course buyers will not find this camera type attractive. But these cameras continue
to sell despite near-complete neglect by the makers.
Posts on this blog about bridge cameras have been by far the
most viewed for many years.
I think that if camera makers took careful aim at an
increasingly discerning buyer’s market with a well conceived and executed
bridge cam, not a half baked excuse for one like the Canon SX70, they might be
well rewarded by appreciative buyers.
And if they merged smartphone and camera technologies and
communication capabilities into the one device there might be rather a lot of
those buyers.
That would be an incredible camera, and no doubt a huge seller.
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