March 26
The Market Change. While commenting on the Imaging-Resource forum about the seemingly conflicting predictions from various Japanese camera company executives about sales trends, it struck me that it was pretty simple to show everything in one chart. Article on sansmirror.com
March 25
5 Things Mirrorless Users Should be Doing but Aren't. Not that mirrorless users are any worse than DSLR users, but I keep running into a few things that most mirrorless users are simply not doing, but they should be. Article on sansmirror.com
Is There a Preferred RAW Converter? Short answer: yes, but it varies with the camera you're using. Article on sansmirror.com
What Would Thom Do? (2019 Edition). From time to time I post articles about camera product management from both my perspective as an analyst of the camera market and as a former product manager. DSLRs are at a critical stage right now as we transition to mirrorless. Planners in Tokyo have been dealing with this for a few years now, and I'm sure that both Canon and Nikon have clear ideas on how they move forward. Article on dslrbodies.com
March 21
Recommended Mac Hardware. Updated for latest March 2019 Apple Announcements. Note also: coincident with the March 2019 announcements Apple has repriced some of their upgrade options (RAM and SSD primarily) a bit lower with many models. So be sure to recheck pricing on any option you were considering. Article on dslrbodies.com
March 19
Nikon 35mm f/1.8 S (Z mount) Lens Review. The 35mm f/1.8 was the first prime lens Nikon delivered for the Z cameras. As such, many looked at it as a harbinger of lenses to come, as Nikon also promised f/1.8 primes at 20mm, 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm. Article on sansmirror.com
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 S (Z mount) Lens Review. The 50mm f/1.8 S is the second in Nikon's prime lens offerings for the Z system. Surprisingly, it's pretty much the same size as the 35mm f/1.8 S (in this case 3.4" x 3", or 86.5 x 76mm). Article on sansmirror.com
March 18
Chasing Gains. My article last week about whether ISO is fake or not brought up a lot of discussion points. But there's one in particular I want to talk about today, because it plays into many of those discussions. Article on dslrbodies.com
March 14
The Next Full Frame Cameras. That headline got your attention, didn't it? ;~) Article on sansmirror.com
March 11
The Blanks in the Canon RF Lens Lineup. We don't really have a lens roadmap from Canon like we do for most of the other companies. The lenses we know about so far give us this picture by focal length. Article on sansmirror.com
The Blanks in the Nikon Z Lens Lineup. Nikon's roadmap for Z mount lenses keeps getting small adjustments. At the moment, Nikon is showing charts with three unidentified lenses to be released in 2020, eight in 2021. The operative question is what do we want those lenses to be, and what are they likely to be? Article on sansmirror.com
The Photographer Creates the Image. The camera makers have fixed your problems. But have you fixed any, yourself? I'm old enough to say that I started in the do-it-all-yourself world when it comes to photography. Manual exposure (no built-in camera meter, either), manual focus, manual frame advance, and keep it steady yourself. Article on sansmirror.com
The State of Camera Sales. It's that time of year again. The Japanese camera companies are all wrapping up their fiscal years (other than Canon, who's in their first fiscal quarter), and CIPA has published their deeper look at the industry numbers for 2018 as well as their forecast for 2019. Article on dslrbodies.com
If I Were to Switch. Let me work you through a thought experiment and show you how to correctly evaluate whether it's worth it to switch to another system or not. Article on dslrbodies.com
March 4
Is ISO Fake? A recent YouTube post by a well-known camera commentator provoked a lot of debate on the Web, but it's not new debate. For quite some time the term ISO has been argued over. What exactly is it, and do we need to pay attention to it? Article on dslrbodies.com
CP+ Wrap Up, Mirrorless. The mirrorless related products (plus a few compacts) that were introduced prior to and during the CP+ show in Japan, with an emphasis on trying to point out the current state of the market. Article on sansmirror.com
CP+ Wrap Up, DSLR. The DSLR related products that were introduced prior to and during the CP+ show in Japan, with an emphasis on trying to understand where Canon, Nikon, and Pentax currently are at. Article on dslrbodies.com