This year we had about two dozen new cameras (of all types) introduced. The Internet (and the camera makers) insists that the latest and greatest is what you need.
That might not be true.
Take Sony, for example. As I write this—caution, holiday sales may distort things briefly—you can buy three different A7R models (Mark IIIa, IV, and V). US$2000, US$3000, and US$3500, respectively. If you're buying a new body for travel/landscape work, some of the new stuff and changes to video are probably minimally useful to you, if at all. Even 61mp (IV and V) versus 42mp (IIIa) is probably a questionable benefit for most people, as the 42mp will print perfectly fine to 26.5" while the 61mp is only going to get you to 31.7". Heck, a 24mp Zf will get you well past that (40.3") with Pixel shift shooting (97.5mp). Double heck, the venerable Nikon D850 (45mp) is currently US$2200, and well known as a travel/landscape camera.
Just in full frame, we still have older cameras still commonly available at some dealers as new:
- Canon RF — R5, R6, RP
- Canon EF — 5D Mark IV, 6D Mark II, 1DX Mark II, 1DX Mark III
- Nikon Z — Z6II, Z7II
- Nikon F — D780, D850, D6 (plus some gray market lingerers: D600, D750, D810)
- Panasonic S — S1, S1H, S1R, S5
- Sony FE — A7 Mark III, A7C, A7R Mark IIIa, A7R Mark IV, A9 Mark II
Most of the older mirrorless options are what I call hanging chad inventory, meaning that the camera itself may be out of production, but inventory is still slowly working its way through distribution and/or sitting on dealer shelves. The Canon and Nikon DSLRs are likely on last call.
Thing is, most of those earlier products can be obtained at significant discount to the newer model, so you have to carefully ask yourself just how much you need the changes in the newer model. Be truthful to yourself. If you use your camera only a couple times a year, the answer is probably you don't need the "latest and greatest."
I started writing the following about 15 years ago: "if you can't get good-looking prints out of the largest desktop inkjet printer from any current camera, it isn't the camera that's the problem." That's not only still true, but it's more true than before. Indeed, it's become one of the key differentiators between using your smartphone and a dedicated camera. That's because today I'd also write "if you can't get a good-looking phone-screen-filling image from your smartphone, it isn't the smartphone's camera that's at fault." Pushing a smartphone image to a 24" print can reveal issues, though. Moreover, you might not have enough reach for some subjects (sports, wildlife), or enough dynamic range for others when you try to output larger.
Be reasonable when thinking about this. If all you're doing is pushing social media images, and they're not of distant birds or athletes, you might not need a new camera.
The way many people get into "gotta have the latest" has to do with what they explain as "future proofing." In other words, by buying the latest and greatest option today, they won't have to do so again anytime soon. This is where tech really starts to get problematic for many. Think about your computer, for instance. Is it "fast and capable enough" for the Web surfing, email, and minimal word processing you do? Is it fast enough to process a single image reasonably quickly? Well, then you don't need a new Apple Silicon Mac, your Intel-based one is probably still quite competent for what you're doing. That's why, by the way, Apple is selling all their latest products with "Apple Intelligence." Your older phone, tablet, or computer just won't be able to do those "intelligent" things. At least not in the ways that Apple is integrating AI.
Same thing happens with cameras. Only there's a sneaky bit here. If you're on an older 24mp DSLR and upgrade to a 45mp mirrorless with Pre-release capture, you may have gone with tinkering with a single, smaller image to having to deal with hundreds of larger ones. Oops, you need to upgrade your computer.
Buying at the front edge of tech has a domino impact: buying one new widget tends to make you buy other widgets necessary to get everything that the new widget can do. Moreover, buying at the front edge of technology almost always has a learning curve (cliff) you'll need to climb. I'm cool with that, as I've been somewhere slightly beyond that front edge for 50 years now. But are you?
Again, if you're taking your camera out to do some casual work two, three times a year, you probably don't need to be buying the latest and greatest. Save some money, buy a generation back, and use that money for trips on which to use your new camera, lenses you don't have, or on getting your significant other something cool, too.
Me, I have to deal with cameras and products that aren't even released yet. It's what I do. It's something I enjoy. But I'm the odd fish in the aquarium (and like to jump from the one I'm in to a bigger one nearby just for the fun of it). You, on the other hand, need to figure out if that's really where you want to be, and why. You have other options, and if you're in the buying mood this holiday season, you should seriously consider the older gear as well as the new.
