No matter what brand of camera you shoot or which company you support, Nikon’s Z6 & Z7 announcements yesterday is basically Nikon admitting “Yes, ok, the mirrorless revolution is here”. It signals a great turning point in photography.
Yes, mirrorless has been around for a while, but with Nikon and Canon, really the only two “old guard” camera companies left, and with both either having announced or getting ready to announce mirrorless cameras, it kind of makes it official – in a relationship status “Facebook official” sort of way.
Although other companies such as Fujifilm, Panasonic, Olympus and even Sigma have been making mirrorless cameras for a few years now, it’s really Sony who’s led the charge. First by swapping out the mirror for a semi-transparent piece of glass, then by removing it completely, and finally by giving the majority of photographers what they actually need in a camera.
The video above from photographer Ed Gregory highlights the series of events pretty well. Ed describes the journey of Sony’s mirrorless cameras in a pretty unbiased way, simply stating the facts and his opinion on them.
Ed primarily shoots Nikon, so he’s not just some Sony fanboy crapping on the competition. In fact, this video is quite the opposite. He’s actually thanking Sony for forcing the competition to finally wake up and start giving customers what they want instead of just what the manufacturers want to shovel down our throats.
He likens Sony’s mirrorless journey to that which Apple took upon the return of Steve Jobs. They switched gears and started to tackle the wider market. Listening to consumers, giving them what they wanted, and giving them things they didn’t even know they wanted. It allowed them to challenge Microsoft, and smartphones would likely be nowhere near the level they’re at today if not for Apple.
Sony has kind of done the same thing for mirrorless.
No matter who started things, or which company’s camera beats this other camera on this or that feature, ultimately it’s a great thing for us, the consumers. Let the manufacturers battle it out to try and outdo each other. Let the fanboys have their moment for a few months each time a new camera is announced – although, do feel free to block them if they get super annoying.
So, don’t hate on Nikon for only putting a single XQD card slot in the Z6 and Z7 cameras. Sony went two whole generations with only a single SD card slot, and it didn’t do them any harm. And don’t hate on Sony for not offering 10Bit 4:2:2 video, either.
Whatever you shoot, just get out there and keep shooting. Don’t tell us how much better your gear is than the other guys. Make photographs and show us.
