I don’t just shoot with older cameras. I also use a Fujifilm X-T5 for travel and a Canon EOS R8 for video and product photography. I also review many of the latest cameras, so I have plenty of context for comparing the performance of older used models. For regular everyday stills photography, I think so little has changed or advanced over the past ten years that most beginners and enthusiasts, even many professionals, will be perfectly happy with most of the mid-high-end cameras from the past decade.
Opinion
This is where I offer thoughts on developments in photography and video, some of the context behind news stories and industry events, and how these might impact photographers.
The Ricoh GR III looks expensive, limited and dated, so why would you want one?
By now the whole world knows about the Fujifilm X100 VI and its hipster following, but who knows about the Ricoh GR III? In many ways this camera is even more extraordinary, but while the images it captures are just as impressive, the image it presents is not. It looks old-fashioned, limited and expensive. So why does a small core of enthusiasts still rave about it?
Has the jump to 40MP really worked for Fujifilm?
Does there come a point when lens optics can no longer keep up with sensor resolution, and has Fujifilm’s 40MP sensor reached that point. Optical properties are not as scalable as you might imagine. You might be able to miniaturize sensors apparently ad infinitum, but lenses have very definite limits to their resolving power and their resistance to diffraction.
Bridge cameras are back! Panasonic revives this classic all-in-one concept for 2024
Panasonic has clearly seen the potential of a bridge camera revival, and I think it’s right. Often much-derided in their time, bridge cameras could be making a comeback. And in this social-obsessed, post-resolution content creation universe, the timing might just be perfect. Years ago, bridge cameras were a serious market segment, and maybe it could all happen again.
Nikon’s retro revival is great to see, but it burned its boats with lenses
The Nikon Z fc offers beginners and vloggers a charming old-school camera look with thoroughly modern tech inside, while the new Nikon Z f delivers the same retro charm in an altogether better-made full frame model. So what’s the problem?
Film simulations don’t go far enough
Fujifilm makes a big deal about its cameras’ built in film simulations. You can recreate the look of Velvia, Provia, Astia, ACROS and a host of other famous film emulsions, we’re told. Yeah, right.
Has Black Friday backfired for the camera industry?
Perhaps not just for the camera industry, but this is the one I know best and where I can best see what has been happening. I have spent some years at the front line of camera journalism and the heavily orchestrated sales bonanzas of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and to a lesser extent Amazon Prime Day.
The myth of megapixels and print sizes
A question I constantly get, and I constantly see being asked online, is ‘how big a print can I get from this camera or that camera?’ Any printing expert can work this out with a pocket calculator and I’ll show you how. The trouble is, it’s wrong. Not because the figures don’t add up, but because we’re looking at this the wrong way.
It took the Fujifilm X-H2 to make me realize how good the X-H1 was
I reviewed the Fujifilm X-H1 for Digital Camera World back in 2018. I loved it but I was cautious about the specs because it seemed a modest gain over the X-T2 at the time. Now, in 2023, I realise just how good the X-H1 was. And that is after using the later X-H2 and X-H2S.
I think the Sony A9 III is a one-in-a-thousand camera, and not in a good way
My argument is that the Sony A9 III fixes problems only one photographer in a thousand has – if that. It is, perhaps, a ‘halo’ camera that will impress a thousand times more armchair experts than actual photographers.