With the flurry of non-SLR, interchangeable lens camera introductions over the past year or so, there's been much talk that they're the future of photography and might even (gasp!) eventually replace the SLR. I think that's rather premature, to be honest, particularly since there are an awful lot of inherent design niggles that need to be overcome before some aspects of operation - speed in particular - are up to snuff. As with even the best compacts, running the AF, metering, white balance and viewfinder feeds off the sensor slows things down to a crawl. Cameras for capturing action they most certainly aren't. At least, not yet.
But two of the EVIL players, Panasonic and now Sony, have quietly announced the parallel development of dedicated video cameras using the same sensor size and lens mount as their new mirrorless still cameras. In the stills world these announcements don't seem to have created much fuss, possibly because many photographers are still playing with the built-in video on their new dSLRs. But I think this marks a watershed in video development (and potentially steals RED's thunder to boot).
If the new cameras are reasonably priced - and nothing so far indicates that they won't be - it'll be the first time that video cameras with large sensors (and therefore decent depth of field control) have been widely available. Throw in the compatibility with the new EVIL stills lenses, and you can begin to see the appeal. At a stroke, much of the depth of field control and angle of view options that until now have been the preserve of big budget Hollywood movies will be available to just about anyone. It's nothing short of revolutionary.
RED, of course, has been promising much the same for the past few years. But we're still waiting. I wouldn't put my money on RED beating Sony or Panasonic to production.
You could argue that the same features - depth of field control and interchangeable lenses - have been available for a couple of years on several dSLRs. But an SLR is an ergonomic nightmare as a video capture device, and there are real limitations in optimising a sensor for both still and video capture. The new breed of big sensor video cameras will be designed for video but with all the advantages of a larger pixel pitch and longer focal length lenses.
I think it's a hugely exciting development... and I'm primarily a stills guy. Anyone want to buy a little-used Canon XL1?
*Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens
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