Yes, I did see the other thread started with the same Bloomberg article, but it was posted with a tunnel-vision focus on a silly mistake made by the journalist, and the thrust of the article, too scary for some here on CR, was totally ignored.
As was the mention in the final paragraph of Japan's Emperor banishing mirrors from his presence:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-super-fast-cameras-are-winning-over-the-pros
"If Sony succeeds in making
mirrorless cameras the industry standard, expect press conferences to become a lot quieter without the shh-cluck shutter sounds made by DSLRs. That's already made them popular among pro photographers at golf tournaments and courtrooms. The scuttlebutt among shooters in Japan is that noisy cameras will be banned from Emperor Akihito's abdication ceremony in April, which effectively means only Sony Alphas could be allowed in the room. An imperial endorsement, if there ever was one."
I know, "The Death of dSLR's" has been clickbait for years, but how many companies and how many technologies can continue competing for the dwindling pool of photographers with the money, love of great image capturing, talent, and lack of self-consciousness to carry around a heavy backpack while friends, family, and everybody else have a smartphone in their pockets? Printing isn't very popular anymore, so if an image has the quality to display nicely on screen, how many people will see any need for what a FF camera can do?
On the other hand, giant 4k screens for slideshows may save dSLR yet.
I'm very happy to hear the 400mm f/2.8 has been updated. Most members already know that the current generation of Big Whites does great with tele-extenders, so the new version will likely play well with EF-X adapters.
Professional images will always be in demand, but the market for the gear may never return to its peak of 10-12 years ago. In fact it may dwindle to the size of professional cinematic gear. But look at the cost of such gear and the relatively small quantity produced. Who will be paying for amazing sports photos in the coming years? The stills-photographers on the sidelines are going to be competing not only against each other but against increasingly high quality frame grabs from digital video--for an incredibly shrinking pool of sports-news outlets. And with the participants of conflict having smartphones which capture viewpoint action with adequate IQ, how many war photographers can make a living, can compete with the many available images from the participants?
I would also add that predicting the future of a technology based on today's stock market is crazier even than my speculations.
. Cheers!
