Bigger is Better

An article examining where the industry is headed written five years ago by Sareesh Sudhakaran is still pertinent in regards to a statement I made in my previous post where I insisted that hybrid cameras should be able to shoot great video as well as stills.

He writes:

After 2007, roughly from the time the Canon 5D Mark II became a legend, there is a strong correlation between the number of still camera models and video camera models released every year. The correlation is greater than 0.9. This tells us, in no uncertain terms, that the future of stills and video is intertwined.

Further on, he says:

Integration of video and stills just because it’s possible in a CMOS sensor. If you integrate them, then the sensors become cheaper to manufacture. The result? Expect all future cameras to shoot both stills and video, and we’ll no longer have separate industries at least as far as hardware is concerned.

Which is precisely what has happened. Partly as a result of cheaper sensors, we now have several very capable full frame mirrorless cameras that shoot 4K video, all packed with more tech than anyone could have imagined only five years ago. So in a sense, Blackmagic’s Pocket 4K is a gigantic leap backward in time, with its lack of AF-C, small crop sensor, no weather sealing, no EVF, no tilting LCD screen, no IBIS, no magnesium alloy body, exceptionally poor battery life and a noteworthy inability to shoot stills.

Concerning full frame mirrorless, Sony has led the way, the others sheepishly follow. As a matter of fact, the growth of large format cinema – according to Jon Fauer, the biggest change in the industry since the advent of talkies – is partly attributable to the insane popularity of Sony’s a7 series.