As A Photographer, I Feel Like A Second Class Citizen

As a digital photographer in today's environment, I feel like I no longer count, or at least count very little.  I'm beginning to think I'm a second class photographic citizen.  I feel left behind.  Why?  It seems to me that almost all emphasis in camera development and firmware improvements for the past few years has been geared toward video.  Video already has an entire industry dedicated exclusively to the genre.  Why do they have to also take over our still photography industry?

My questions are, "Just how many buyers of interchangeable lens digital cameras make the purchase primarily for video?"  "What percentage of camera buyers think video is the most important function?"  "How many buyers would not buy a camera if it didn't have sophisticated video capabilities?"  "How many buyers are 'sometimes' users of video but primarily buy a digital camera for still photography use?"  "How many camera buyers make their purchase decisions based upon the still photography capabilities of a camera?"  I would really like to know how many camera purchases are made by still photographers or by videographers.

I have no interest in video.  I know there are a lot of you that feel the same.  But I don't want to infer that no one is interested in video.  Some of you may have a passing interest in video and, once in a while, use the video capabilities of your cameras to make short clips of something interesting.  I'm a photographer and have been for 50 years.  The still image is "the thing."  It is paramount.  It is what I chase.  I get our satisfaction from finding, photographing and then looking at a single captured moment, a slice of the continuum of time.  I love the fact that we can walk by a wall, stop and look at one of my photographs over and over again.  The moving picture has little interest to me when I create my art.  Yet, I'm forced to buy cameras that are more and more oriented toward video.  I have little choice.

We, as photographers, are being forgotten and sacrificed in the name of the increasingly vocal and visual advocates of video.  Our still cameras are solidly now hybrids and those hybrids are slowly but steadily turning into solidly video centric cameras, to our detriment.  Unwanted video features drive up our costs and compromises our cameras' haptics.  We are forced to buy cameras that have major video capabilities and features to the detriment of our desire to make photographs.  We are forced to pay extra for video capabilities and we are forced to have more complicated menu systems because of the video features.  Again, how many people buy interchangeable lens cameras for their video features versus for still photography?

Why is this happening?  My theory is that most of the popular review sites are on You Tube.  What is You Tube?  A video centric medium.  Of course those who review cameras on You Tube are going to care much more about video than, I believe, most of the photographic buying public does in actuality.  Especially for advanced cameras.  Because of this, they have had an undue influence with the camera manufacturers.  The You Tube crowd now seemingly has a disproportionate voice in the ears of camera manufacturers and we still photographers are being left behind.

I would bet that those who casually make videos are much more likely to use their smart phones than a sophisticated interchangeable lens camera.  But those very cameras are being turned into video cameras.

Here are some thoughts:

—Most You Tube digital camera reviews seem to be now skewed to highlight the video features and still photographic features get a lesser mention.

—Reviewers often say a camera is a failure unless it has the latest 4k, 120p 4:2:2 video capabilities, whatever those are.

—Reviewers tell their audiences that a camera is subpar because it doesn't have features such as external microphone and/or headphone jacks.

—The big headlines lately in digital photography is not about more dynamic range, less noise at higher ISOs, but all about overheating when trying to record video.

—You Tube reviewers and their vlogger friends are fully responsible for the dreaded fully articulated, swing all the way around, up, down and forward LCD screen, which most of the photographers I know do not like one bit.  In reality, how many interchangeable lens digital camera users record themselves?  A small number, I would bet, yet, we are forced to deal with a swing out LCD that is almost impossible to use with an L-bracket on a tripod.  Fujifilm created the absolute perfect 3-way tilting LCD screen then went ahead and ruined the X-T4 by putting a fully articulating LCD screen on it.  A sad day for us still photographers.

—If you examine almost all firmware updates in the past few years, most seem to be aimed toward improving video.  Not much has been aimed at still photography.

—Camera manufacturers' research and development efforts seem to be centered around improving video nowadays.  Not much seems to be going toward still photography.

—You can no longer buy a digital camera without video, as far as I can find.

—Already 4K video is now passé.  8K vdeo is all of a sudden the "new, best thing" and, mark my words, you will see more and more cameras come out with 8K video in the next couple of years, with a commensurate higher price tag, despite the fact that there is almost no 4k content available for general viewing.  I hear the video people now complain about how processor intensive and how much memory 4K takes.  Good luck with 8K!

—Beyond IBIS, manufacturers are now adding a digital-based IS system so you can walk  make your video appear as though it is on a gimbal or tripod.  I love the idea of more IBIS capabilities but that digital stabilization feature is not available to still photographers.  Yet, another video based feature we still photographers can't use...  But we're paying for it.

—Today's lenses are being developed and marketed to the video crowd as they can be  silently focused.  Still photographers don't need silent focusing.

—Manufacturers are now developing and selling camera accessories that are video centric, such as microphones, headphones, dead cats.

Thinking about what has been developed for still photographers over the past few years, I think Olympus seems like the only camera manufacturer that has put a lot of emphasis on features designed for still photographers.  Now, we may lose all of that Olympus innovation.  Olympus has included features such as High Resolution imaging, Pro Capture, In-Camera Focus Stacking, In-Camera Perspective Correction, etc., etc.

I don't think the future is bright for us still photographers.  I think we are becoming an afterthought.  Video, in my opinion and due to the proliferation of You Tube based content creators, are slowly taking over the digital photo industry and I predict we will see little in the way of research, development and improvements of additional still photography features and more video features.

I hope I'm wrong.  Rant over.

Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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