The DLSR will probably die

The Computational Photographer wrote The DSLR will probably die. Are mirrorless the future of large standalone cameras?.

Let’s see why I think the reflex design is doomed, even though it has dominated serious photography for decades.

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The DSLR has to die because the mirror is too high a cost for its diminishing benefits. The mirror adds to the complexity of the camera and its manufacturing, it makes the camera bigger, and it introduces challenges for lens design. And its advantages don’t extend to video, which is an increasingly important usage case.

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Furthermore, the mirror in DSLR severely constrains the design of lenses, by preventing lens elements to be placed near the sensor.

This goes in the same way as what I wrote in September in The future is mirrorless. The reflex design was addressing a constraint to be able provide a through-the-lens view which is now provided using the current sensor technology.

Pentax K-1 full frame DSLR

FINALLY, Pentax (Ricoh) announce a full frame DSLR.

Petapixel announcement:

Pentax is finally in the full frame DSLR game. Ricoh today announced the new Pentax K-1, a camera that it claims “offers innovations not available in any other DSLR.”

Not sure about the “first in a DSLR” gimmicks though, nothing ground breaking from this camera except that it takes K-Mount — a decade later. As mentioned on twitter by @lamlux, the innovation is HDR on knob….

WEX photographic hands-on review:

On paper, the K-1 continues the long-held Pentax tradition of delivering an excellent and well-rounded feature set at a reasonable price — very reasonable when you consider the asking prices of similar models at launch.

We’ll see.