Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Mallett
I'm not.much of an expert on what advantage there is between Mirrorless and a mirror shutter so I'm not sure of the impact this will have.
However it seems from various sources that the Canon 7D Mk ii will be.the last of that particular line and that an enhance 80d will replace it. This is because Canon has decided to concentrate on Mirrorless cameras in the future for its semi pro and pro cameras.
Any thoughts on this from the forum?
I have an original 7D which has been excellent.
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Mirrorless has become very popular and Canon (and Nikon) have now joined the party with virtually Pro level Full Frame sensor offerings. A full range of lenses dedicated to the new bodies will be following to take advantage of the potential for smaller sizes rather than using existing lenses with adapters.
The camera bodies without mirrors are smaller and lighter and better suited to video use. However the development of in sensor focusing capabilities has been a requirement to be able to begin to compete with SLRs for fast and accurate focus. That plus usable screens and better Live View.
For most photographic uses the manufacturers, led by Sony, seem to feel confident they have caught up far enough to satisfy the needs of enough photographers to make mirrorless the future market battleground - albeit a shrinking market.
In part this may be because they think they can convert some phone users into advanced camera converts (at a price) by giving them something that works like a phone and offers much the same instant communications for sharing the results of their creativity.
So the main objective is - like for like in terms of what the camera is intended for - smaller, lighter, simpler and therefore in theory less expensive or more profitable. Providing one does not need long lenses.
If one does need long lenses then the size and weight benefit is compromised anyway. Not sure about performance but I would imagine that the relatively slow long lens would not help the focusing cause in any way - unless it was a dedicated lens and they had come up with some clever way of getting the lens to boost the 'brightness' of the scene to assist focusing. However I am speculating on that. I have yet to go looking for reviews of recent mirrorless bodies when used with long lenses.
In general, for action shooting, few if any mirrorless bodies released in previous years seem to have been considered as candidates for action shooters other than those having very high frame rates to play with. (Simply because they have very high frame rates... not because of the focus performance.)
There have been some suggestions that follow focus capability has been improving with some of the most recent releases but maybe not up to Reflex level yet.
The manufacturers will probably be happy that perhaps only about 10% of camera sales result in regular usage (other than for smart phones where I would guess that most users probably take at least a few snaps every year.)
It's not easy to predict which way to move.
The newer formats will likely work best with their own dedicated lenses.
If one is buying for reduced size and weight (not always a good thing when shooting action though useful for carrying stuff around) and therefore facing the prospect of changing the whole 'system', brand loyalty may be expendable.
And if video is important then Sony and Panasonic and possibly Fuji seem to have the edge - mostly if one is looking for 4k video and has the budget to buy the camera batteries, memory cards, processing hardware and storage capacity to support the creation of 4k content at volumes that would make the choice of system important.
With another Olympics year coming up in 2020 the main manufacturers will be in the process of final development of their next flagship products so the existing technologies will start to trickle down through new releases ever faster one might expect. So this year may well result in a somewhat clearer view of what the near future (up to 4 years ahead) will be bringing to the main stream.
I think the 7D line way well disappear - especially if Canon can persuade people that the mirrorless offerings are good enough for the needs of the non-pro user shooting some sports (or wildlife action) who might have been the main target for the body. And in that respect 'lighter' may be a significant attraction for most potential buyers.