http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/20 ... e-numbered There is a new MicroOLED viewfinder that supposedly can resolve more detail than the human eye can make out; coupled with a huge contrast ratio it will be amazing. And expensive. ; Of course optical viewfinders are going to be here for quite some time, but companies like Sony have all but said they are no longer making cameras with them. ; As soon as they get the processing power to refresh them as fast as a mirror traveling, the differences between the two will be very little. ; (I'm guessing it will still have issues with dynamic range, but I think there will be a time when you get to choose: human eye view or exposure view in the viewfinder. ; The former meaning that yeah, you can see the highlights toned down and the shadows boosted a bit but don't complain when your picture doesn't look like that!) Manual focusing to me is much easier with an EVF because it helps make the scene 'snap' when you are in focus.
Photography as we know it will cease to exist in about 10 years or so. ; Traditional portrait and wedding shops have had to change their entire business models to suit the current trends. ; The entire concept of photography as art is changing and I am not sure I am totally on board with all of the changes, technological is fine; social not so much. ;
you should check out the moaning and dire predictions going on over at fred miranda's site. a lot of those professionals are going to be gone, or at least as a source of income. there are some so upset with the current quality cameras available to anyone with good money, you'd think they want it made a crime to own a 5dmk2 without a professional photo license. i feel for someone who has spent their life training and striving to be a paid photographer, but technology drives on, you can be on the bus or under the bus. i personally have no wish to do weddings, and i certainly think it's a skill set, it's a very important occasion, or at least the first couple of times you do it, why would a sane person want to cheap out and ask a friend, especially if all you know is what they own, "hey that's a nice camera you have", gear ownership a skilled photographer does not make. but with something like multiple million photos uploaded to flikr in just 1 year, coupled with the quality gear available to average folk such as i, if you want to sell landscapes you just about need to be the second coming of ansel adams. digital has just killed the stock photo market. forget making a living off calendar images, they've dropped to next to nothing for rights sales. the market's flooded with great stuff. me, i personally enjoy cruising through some of the flikr groups, there is some great images on there, and i still love using it to get ideas for trips to places i've never been
Did you read that rant about the woman on Craigslist who thinks that $3k for wedding photos is a complete and total ripoff? It used to be medium format or nothing for wedding photos, and honestly my own are so-so....the outdoors stuff was great, but the reception shots were horrid. ; They couldn't even figure out how to use a filter to adjust for the color temperature shift. ; Either that or the person who printed the shots didn't change settings per print. But I loved the response (other than you don't need to buy equipment for every job). ; There are good wedding photographers and there are lots of horrible ones. ; Just like in many businesses. ; The market will settle down soon enough I think ALTHOUGH it may begin in the same way many government regulations begin....if enough people complain then the states will move to license "paid" photographers in an effort to give consumers "a way to complain" about the bad ones. ; (Don't get me started on CPAs. ; You have to go through a long testing process to get the license, and basically all that license does is allow you to express an opinion on financial statements. ; And if you have ever read the opinion, you will see that said opinion isn't guaranteed, so why even give it????)
i cannot tell you how many threads i saw on another photography site (and not a friendly one either... ; dp******.com) where people would actually state brag that they are being paid to photo a wedding over the weekend then ask in an online forum how to set their camera, how to pose the bride/groom, direct sun or indirect sun, etc. but they are a "pro"; just ask them.
I stay out of the professional ranks intentionally - I love photography too much to find myself hating it. ; ; I do shoot some events and sell some photos, but do not count myself as a pro since I'm not marketing myself for work or out competing for business with other pros. ; All power to the pros - I can sympathize with what they're going through, though the inexorable march of technology eventually creates this quandary in all professions (just ask a financial advisory office like ours about folks going online to do their own $5 trades without any experience, skill, or professional training - and how we get to experience massive market crashes and ridiculous unsustainable rises because of them). ; How about the fact that if you're rich enough, you can buy a street car that can go faster than any professional race car, including Indy car, Formula 1, LeMans, and Nascar? ; Even if you have absolutely no idea how to handle the car at those speeds. Photography will never go away for me - the essence of photography for me is in the capture of light and scene, and I'll continue to enjoy doing it - for me, it's not about whether soccer mom or guy with a phone can capture the same image quality I can with my DSLR...it's about how much I enjoy the process of getting that shot. ; If my shot is no better, or even worse, in 10 years than an unskilled consumer with an iPhone, I'm OK with that - I do it for me, not for anyone else. ; And for now, I still have a general confidence that the artistic side of photography will live on - composition, framing, understanding of light, shadow and angle, controlling depth of field, understanding motion capture - these things can't necessarily be solved through technology, as they are the pure 'art' of the process, reliant on the human brain for the foreseeable future. I don't want some of the new tech - the 'lytro' type camera that will supposedly allow the photographer to focus later rather than when shooting - sort of defeats the entire point of photography for me. ; I don't even like 'correcting' white balance later in post processing - capturing it while shooting for me is what I enjoy most. ; EVFs are an acceptable future tech for me - they don't really spoil the idea of capturing a scene. ; They don't currently work for my needs in their current form, but the future may bring EVFs that truly have the dynamic range sufficient for the human eye, the refresh rate or ability to live feed without interruption while panning, etc that can make them a true replacement for all OVF users. ; Durability, battery life, and a few other things need to evolve too, but I could certainly see a future where cameras use EVFs exclusively - and I'm OK with it as long as they truly replace the entire OVF experience.
especially about the art and personal satisfaction side, i work at it because i want to get better, not to sell anything, i have high quality gear, not because i need it to make a sale, i just happen to be lucky enough to afford good stuff, but i still have to strive to find and capture the image in the scene, and i still take my fair share of dogs, so it'll always be for me about the struggle to do it, to bring what i see to someone elses eyes. i just believe you have to adapt and roll along with the techno punches, or just be one of those sad old folks bemoaning the loss of kodachrome, without ever giving the new technology a fair chance
I just jumped a further two feet into the new tech - I bought a NEX-5N to replace my NEX3 - for a few reasons: I liked the better sensor (the same 16MP sensor I love in my DSLR), the extra controls and programmable buttons, and the ability to use the electronic viewfinder rather than the LCD. ; Still not replacing DSLRs for me, but getting better and better as a second system and at being a suitable replacement when I want or need to travel light.
i'm becoming so convinced of the mirrorless being the future of photography down the way, that i haven't taken a photo in 2012 yet with anything other than the pany. but that's also partly because in april, when karen and i make our anniversary trip to wdw, it's not a trip focused on photography, and she and i both want to travel light each day, the old stick and move day. so i'm working on the learning curve early. and the pany kit with all lenses is the kit of choice for the baseball trips this coming season, so need practice anyway. and great choice on the 5N, lot of good chatter and good flickr streams coming from that camera. i've been hooked to and daily checking the flickr gh2 group just to see what is possible with that camera. see what other folks are doing and trying
My two main cameras don't have a viewfinder now either. ; Although one can add one - if I want to lose my flash. ; Didn't buy one probably because I didn't think I was finished replacing gear yet.
I got the EVF to go with the 5N - mainly to use with the 55-210mm eMount lens, as well as my 135mm and 200mm primes - for me, when shooting with longer lenses, it's just more stable and ergonomic looking through a viewfinder - even an electric one! ; And the OLED EVF on the NEX system is gorgeous as EVFs go. Still got the optical finder for the A580 - not quite ready to do fast action panning with an EVF yet - it can be done, but requires a learning curve, some workaround, and a wee bit of predictive technique whereas an OVF is just natural and instant.
