It’s no secret that the past year has been difficult for Nikon. We’ve mainly heard about their financial troubles, layoffs, gear delays, and most recently about the killing of the DX lineup. On the other hand, the company’s been pretty quiet when it comes to new announcements. However, the company has now spoken, convincing fans that there’s plenty of new gear coming up.
Nikon seems to be killing off its DX DSLR body and lens lineup
Well, this wasn’t much of a surprise, really. With the expected announcement of the Nikon Z30 and DX-format Z mount lenses already a thing, it was only a matter of time before Nikon started killing off their DSLR gear. Well, that and the fact the rumours of it happening started almost two years ago.
Now, though, that disappearance seems to be becoming official, with the AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens (the typical entry-level kit lens) listed as discontinued on the Nikon website and virtually all of their DX-format DSLRs being out of stock, at least in some camera combinations if not completely.
What’s the future of cameras and what’s coming in 2021?
With Sony’s recent release of their new $6,499 flagship Sony A1, as well as the ridiculously low-priced $5,999 Fuji GFX 100S medium format camera, 2021 has already given us some pretty impressive camera tech. And those were just in the first month.
There’s a lot of uncertainty out there in what the competition might do for the rest of the year – and a lot of rumours – but what actually makes sense? What do other cameras have to have in order to really compete with what else is on the market now? This video from Dan Watson takes a more objective look at where each of the manufacturers stand and the most logical course of action each manufacturer might pursue.
Japan’s top-selling DSLR in 2020 was the Nikon D5600 – Wait, what?
The rankings for 2020 are in from BCN, which collects sales data from across its platforms, and it looks like the most popular DSLR sold in Japan throughout the course of 2020 is the Nikon D5600. Don’t get too happy just yet, though, Nikon fanboys and girls. Canon still managed to grab 7 of the remaining 9 spots in the top 10.
Production of the Canon EOS 5DS & 5DSR has stopped, report claims
According to a report on Canon Rumors, production of the high-resolution Canon DSLRs, the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DSR has ended. There’s been no confirmation from Canon yet, and it’s still listed as a current model on both the Canon USA and Canon Japan websites, and a stop in production doesn’t necessarily mean “Discontinued” just yet, but Canon Rumors says they’ve heard this from multiple sources now.
The Nikon D610 and D810 are officially listed as discontinued
According to the Nikon Japan website, both the Nikon D610 and Nikon D810 DSLRs have now been officially moved over to the discontinued list. Rumours of the D610 not seeing a replacement model go back as far as last December, and with it being added to the discontinued list now without a new model being announced, it looks like this is the end of the line for the D6x0 series bodies.
The Nikon D810 has also been discontinued, which isn’t much of a surprise. While the D810 is still a pretty formidable camera, many have switched the D850 or the Z7 (essentially a mirrorless continuation of that line), so dropping it is pretty logical in this case.
Canon explains why RF mount lenses are better than EF mount ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-swouJ4qS4
The pursuit of ultimate optical clarity has been the goal of lens manufacturers for decades. When you look back on the lenses of old, they have vignetting, sharpness issues, weird bokeh, chromatic aberration and all kinds of “problems” (some people refer to this as “character” and is exactly the reason why they like those old lenses).
But Canon’s RF mount takes a step closer to that optical precision that they strive for. In this four-and-a-half-minute video, Canon explains why the RF mount is such a big deal, and what makes it so much better than the EF mount used in their DSLRs.
Ricoh thinks photographers will start switching from mirrorless back to DSLRs within 1-2 years
Imaging Resource recently published their interview with Ricoh execs at the CP+ trade show in Tokyo. They spoke about Ricoh’s plans for Pentax. But in amongst the conversation was Ricoh’s thoughts on the whole mirrorless vs DSLR debate. And, apparently, they think that the people who have switched to mirrorless will switch back to DSLRs within a couple of years.
My journey from DSLR to mirrorless cameras as a photojournalist
It started with a phone call from the picture editor of one of country’s best selling newspapers asking me to catch a flight that evening to Amsterdam to accompany a journalist for a story first thing the next morning.
I was warned to be very discrete as the story could be very sensitive to some people. It involved a Dutch trawler that was registered in the UK under a flag of convenience that enabled it to use up 25% of the UK fishing quota by just one “industrialized” super trawler. The owners may not have liked the presence of English journalists hence the need for discretion.
If your camera were a human, who would it be? Sony pokes a little fun at DSLRs in their latest commercial
To show off the features of the Sony RX100 IV camera, Sony Thailand has produced an amusing three minute video imagining your camera as if it were a human in order to make their points on the RX100 IV’s advantages over a big, bulky, scary DSLR.
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