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Pentax Discontinues Its Entire DSLR Lineup (fstoppers.com)

submitted 6 hours ago by RobotToaster@mander.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/58027283

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[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 hour ago

The end of DSLR cameras has been coming for some time. Manufacturers have been slowly phasing out their DSLR lens lineups over the past few years and I don't think Canon or Nikon are making that many DSLRs at this point. At some point it won't make sense for them to keep the lines around and the stock will dry up.

It was clear around the time of the Sony A6000 that mirrorless would usurp the DSLR in the near future, that camera had already matched much of the performance of the high end cameras. Once the lens lineups were fleshed out more and the autofocus was applied to full frame there was little reason to buy into the older systems.

[–] blunderworld@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

I feel like things have been trending this way for a while now. DSLR is a lot clunkier than modern options like mirrorless. I own a decent one, but at this point, I'll usually just shoot with my phone for convenience. Trying to hike or whatever with a big camera and lenses swinging around is a hassle.

[–] BlackVenom@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

What kind of phone? Every phone I've tried, pixel, iPhone, moto... Sucks the moment you look close and zoom is a lie.

[–] blunderworld@lemmy.ca 1 points 21 minutes ago

I have a moto and the photos indeed do suck compared to my DSLR. But I'm a hobbyist, not a professional photographer. If I were taking pictures at an important event or something, yeah, I'd probably pack my DSLR for that. When it comes to day to day pictures, just capturing memories, it's not worth it for me anymore.

I would love to get a mirrorless eventually though, seems like the best of both worlds.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 hour ago

I doubt know what Pixel does for compression but they certainly ruin their photos the second they’re saved. It looks great in the viewer, then even raws look smeary.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Zoom is better than what it used to be and not outright a lie. I still have a dual camera phone (pixel 7, standard camera and superwide), and the picture is reasonable at 2.5x. It's a 50mp sensor that, by default, only takes ~16mp pictures by only using certain sensor cells. Zooming uses a tighter group of those cells while still making a 16mp picture. But yes, zoomed pictures absolutely lose quality as the cropping starts hitting the limits of a tiny piece of do-all glass. My phone goes to 8x. Meanwhile, the flagship phones with an additional mild-zoom cameras bump up the baseline further. Still, only equivalent to like 40-50mm on a DSLR full frame sensor. Not enough for me, not for the price, so I still lug my DSLR around occasionally, as my eye tends to prefer framing with my phone above 3x - or about 50-85mm on a crop sensor.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 minutes ago

Using less of the sensor to take a picture and calling it zoom is a lie. That’s just cropping the picture to be smaller not zooming.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Point and shoot and mirrorless camera are trending again. People realized that it is not about the technical quality of the image, but the experience of actually taking a picture. Cameras don't have algorithmically tailored infinite content scrolling, and that alone is a plus for a lot of people.

At the same time, dedicated cameras still blow phones out of the water the moment you try to see the pictures in anything larger than a 6" screen. People are also starting to explore the fact that taking 5 thousand pictures that you are never going to see, share or enjoy again is dumb. Instead creating dedicated spaces and ocassions where fewer, higher quality, more sentimental value pictures can be appreciated. Phone's are woefully inadequate for that purpose, the shadows are always a mess, values are compressed -even when they are shooting fake RAW- and now a lot of fine detail is AI generated. Which looks awful when shown even on the most modest TV screen.

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago

I'll still shoot birds with my DSLR, but the phone has replaced 90% of my vacation photography

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 14 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Urgh, that site is full AI slop.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Damn, I didn't notice, it was the first half decent looking source I found to post.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 8 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The new cameras are not announced, not spec'd, and not dated. There is no model name, no sensor, no price. What the company is describing is a direction, not a product you can buy.

That was what triggered me.

I'm sure fstoppers used to be a reputable source, so its kinda disappointing.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

What beyond the “x, not y” construction makes this look like AI to you? Because that construction in that context actually makes sense, and LLMs are basing those overused phrasings on things humans originally wrote.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 24 minutes ago

"what the x is y, not z"

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

It is the high density of the x, not y phrasing, and that most of the article is just waffling. I might be wrong, but IMO, that was pure AI slop.

[+] Buffalox@lemmy.world -10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (3 children)

What? Why didn't they do that a decade ago? DSLR is freaking useless with a digital camera. But apparently other brands still have them too? But why use DSLR when you can get a more exact image representation from the sensor? Seems like it's based more on tradition than actual usefulness.

Of course if you make an old retro film camera, the system is still useful. But my guess is that is a very small niche market. It's inferior in every way and more expensive and time consuming.

[–] SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I thought the same until I tried to take some pictures of some dragonflies in flight like I used to on my old DSLR. It's pretty much impossible with how slow the display for the viewfinder is. Was relatively easy with a DSLR.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

You are probably comparing a high end DSLR with a low end digital camera.
There is no reason why there should be noticeable latency on a high end digital camera. In fact the response time can be even shorter than with DSLR that has a mechanical mirror.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 hours ago (4 children)

I've always wondered why people were so adamant about SLRs even in the digital age. Before mirrorless cameras came out, DSLRs were the only digital option with swappable lenses but I've stopped keeping track. Mirrorless cameras have swappable lenses too right? I'm assuming many of them can attach the same ones used with DSLRs.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 14 minutes ago

Yes they can. the technical difference is only in how the viewfinder works.

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 hour ago

There are two types of autofocus systems that cameras use, phase detect and contrast detect. Contrast detect is what all point and shoot style cameras (and early mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras) used where they identified contrast of vertical edges and used that to determine if an image was in focus, this is a slow process as the camera needs to figure out what direction to move the focus and check the image at multiple focus positions to compare until the camera determined it was in focus.

DSLRs have a separate sensor up near the viewfinder that does phase detect autofocus, this is different in that it can determine how far the lens is from being in focus and go directly there which makes it significantly faster which was crucial in many professional applications.

Eventually sensor manufacturers figured out how to integrate a version of phase detect into the pixels of the sensor itself. While these didn't perform as accurately as the separate phase detect arrays in DSLRs, they had an extra trick where they were able to create a hybrid autofocus system that used the phase detect array to get close and then contrast detect to get accurate focus. It was only once this was implemented on mirrorless cameras that the advantages of SLR disappeared.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

For a long time mirrorless cameras had terrible battery life and no phase detect autofocus.

A DSLR doesn't need to keep a screen powered all the time you're looking through it. Improvements in the battery life of MILCs has made that non-issue for most people though.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

Ah, of course! The battery life makes total sense. I'll have to research what phase detect autofocus means, but thanks for answering.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, as long as the camera and lens have same lens mount.

Edit: or an adapter I guess.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Thanks, that's good to know. I wanna get back into photography since the mirrorlesses are so compact now, but being able to keep my lenses was one thing I needed to know about before selling my old DSLR.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 1 points 42 minutes ago (1 children)

Which DSLR do you have?

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 points 26 minutes ago

It's ancient. I have an Eos Kiss X4. I think it's called Rebel ok n North America.

[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 hours ago

The mirrorless lineup from manufacturers has a different mount than their dslrs.

[–] MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

DLSRs are a budget option usually compared to a Mirrorless Camera (what I assume you mean when you say digital)

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago

DLSRs are a budget option usually compared to a Mirrorless Camera

No SLR is the ones with the mirror. DSLR are digital with a mirror. And they are definitely not "budget", they are the high end. Except today on a high end digital camera the mirror is not necessary as you can use the sensor for the viewfinder instead.