A Few Thoughts About The New Cameras That Have Been Released Lately

Waiting alone together. (click to enlarge)

It's been a while since I've written about gear.  Since the last time I posted a gear oriented column, several new cameras and lenses have been introduced into the market.  There are new cameras from Canon, Nikon, OMD Systems, Panasonic and Sony.   I have some random thoughts about them, not reviews.  There is plenty of information about each on the internet and YouTube if you want to learn about them in depth.

Canon 

A while back Canon introduced the R5 and R6.  These are high end mirrorless cameras.  More recently they introduced the R3.  Right now, the R3 is Canon's top of the line mirrorless camera but they say an R1 is coming.  The R5 has 45mp while the R6 has 20mp.  The R3 has 24mp.  Canon's nomenclature is that the higher performing and more costly cameras have lower numbers.

I haven't owned or used any Canon digital cameras except for three point-and-shoot cameras that I bought for my wife to use when traveling so I can't honestly comment on how their interchangeable lens cameras feel, image quality, features, etc.  From the number of individuals who buy them, I have to assume everything about them is excellent.  

It seems for me the R5 is the 'sweet spot' camera with its pixel count, size, weight, extraordinary subject detecting auto focus and features.  Cost is a bit high but everything is going up in cost.  No comment on video.  I'm not a video guy.  Everything I've read and seen about the camera has been very positive with the initial comments about it overheating after some period of time when making the highest quality videos.  That doesn't affect me in my photography.

That said, I have a friend who has been a diehard Nikon guy forever and has the means to own several camera systems.  He recently told me the Canon R5 was the best and most capable digital camera he has every used.  Considering those three models, along with everything I know about them, the R5 would be the camera that I would purchase if I wanted a top notch camera for all of types of photography I practice.  The large number of pixels is great for landscape photography, the focusing can be enabled for specific subject tracking, such as birds, animals, people, etc.  It is a nice size and professionally built.  I suspect this will be Canon's most popular camera of the three.  I'm not sure, but I think I read that the R6's 20mp sensor was re-appropriated from the 1DX Mark III.  It is not a new sensor but it is a terrific sensor if 20mp will suit your needs.  (Comment:  I find it interesting that the R6's 20mp sensor is adequate but the Olympus and Panasonic m4/3 20mp sensors are not.  Yes, there is a difference in dynamic range and noise profiles but I'm referring strictly to resolution.  20mp is 20mp no matter what the sensor size is.  Same image resolution.)  Bias alert!

Canon has also introduced some very nice lenses.  My only criticism is that some of the long telephoto primes as well as the long zoom lenses are really slow at the long end.  The standard for years was f5/6.  Almost no lens was slower than f/5.6.  Sigma, Tamron and other independents introduced long telephoto zooms with a maximum aperture (at the long end of the zoom) of f/6.3.  They proved to be of good quality and are much less expensive.  Now, Canon has gone one step farther and introduced a long zoom with a maximum aperture of f/7.1.  The two long telephoto prime lenses they introduced, the 600mm f/8 and the 800mm f/11 are interesting.  Relatively small, lightweight and inexpensive.  I know, with the latest developments, these camera's autofocusing can handle these slow lenses, but there are other downsides that would make me shy away from them.  Maybe I'm just old school.

If you need a couple of state-of-the-art extreme telephoto lenses, Canon just introduced the 800mm f/5.6 and 600mm f/4 lenses last week.  I hope you have a large balance on your credit card as these two lenses are $20,000 and $17,000 US respectively.  

For most of us, the R5 would be the place to land in the current Canon lineup.

Nikon 

Nikon has introduced their long-awaited flagship mirrorless camera, the Z9.  Pronounced "Zed" 9 except in the U.S. where it is the "Zee" 9.  (If the Z9 is the Zed 9, then why isn't the Nikon D6 the "Ded 6"?  Make up your mind world! Be consistent.)  This seems like a terrific camera in every way, including price.  It is priced far below its competition.  The Sony A1 is a $1000 US more and the Canon R3 is $500 US more expensive.  If you want a grip on the Sony, you have to pay even more.  This camera has squarely put Nikon back into the mix for competitive cameras for high end users.  However, the camera is very large.  Very.  Like the R3, the D6, the 1DX cameras, I find it too large for me.  The Z9 has 45mp and can even take photos up to 120 fps, albeit at 11mp.  The truth is all of the above-mentioned cameras have sequential shooting capabilities that most likely exceed the needs of all but a very small percentage of us.  

I love everything this camera can do and, from what I've seen and read, it meets or exceeds the capabilities of its competitors in many ways.  However, like the Canon R3, this is a huge and heavy camera with a built-in grip and a giant battery.  This camera is not aimed at the general photographer, but it will be great for photojournalists, sports photographers and any photographer that needs a fast, huge camera with top of the line capabilities.  It, too, has subject recognition for acquiring focus, but Nikon made the process automatic as well as manual.  The camera can recognize the difference between a person, bird, animal, car, etc., then set the focusing parameters to lock on to those subjects without having to go into the menu to change settings for different subjects.  That kind of feature will only improve and spread as time goes on.

I wouldn't buy this camera.  Why?  Too big, too heavy, too expensive for my needs.  If I ever jump back into full frame digital photography I'm hoping Nikon would put out a Z8 with most of the Z9's capabilities but in a smaller and less expensive package.  As an alternative, a Z7III might serve me well but I don't know how much of the advanced technology would trickle down to the next generation of 45mp Nikon mirrorless camera.

Nikon has also released some very intriguing lenses.  What bothers me is that, not matter the manufacturer, lenses have gotten really, really expensive.  It's hard to find a quality zoom lens from a camera manufacturer for under a $1000 US.  In fact, if you want to get into the kind of high quality lenses we like to use, such as the 14-24mm f/2.8, a 24-70mm f/2.8, the 70-200mm f/2.8, the cost of each is hovering around $2500!  Wow!  How many of us can afford a new kit buying three or four of those kinds of lenses along with a new $3000-4000 camera?  You could buy a good used automobile for the same money.

When you add in the new long telephoto primes or telephoto zooms, the prices go up even higher.  Luckily, I believe we are getting to the point where we can buy 'good' quality lenses instead of 'the best' quality lenses that are a little slower and achieve excellent and fully satisfying results.  How? It is due to the newly created AI based plug-ins that allow us to take a 'good' lens and turn its results into what a 'great' lens would give us.  The most amazing plug-in I've used so far is DXO's Photolab 5.  It has hundreds of specifically engineered camera/lens combinations where their engineers have identified the various flaws in a camera/lens combination, such as good center sharpness but lower sharpness as you move to the corners or edges, distortion correction, vignetting, etc. and improve the image automatically.  I've been playing with this for the past few months and I continue to be amazed how this program improves images.

I'm going to wait to see if and when Nikon releases either a Z8 or a third generation of Z7.  Those two might better fit my needs.

OMD Systems (formerly Olympus) 

Out of all the cameras I've mentioned, I think the newly announced Olympus OM-1 is the most interesting.  There are enough upgrades and improvements that increase the image quality, versatility and usability above this camera's predecessor.  I felt there were three things OMD needed to upgrade to find success with this camera.

First, a new sensor.  I was hoping for about a 24mp sensor as that sends an unambiguous signal to everyone that the sensor is new and has more resolution.  However, OMD stayed with a 20mp sensor but it is now back-side illuminated and stacked, which is currently cutting-edge technology for digital interchangeable lens cameras.  Smart.  According to the press releases as well as some photographers who have gotten to use this camera for a couple of months, the camera does indeed have a stop more dynamic range and two stops less noise in higher ISOs.  Recently I read a comment by either the chief engineer or chief product manager for this camera and when asked why not a higher pixel sensor, the man responded that, overwhelmingly, they have been getting feedback asking for less noise and more dynamic range over an increased pixel count.  He went on to say the next camera will have a higher pixel count.

Sensor size is no longer the defining and divisive issue it once was.  Why?  Improvements in technology has reduced the differences in image quality between the various sensor formats and with the addition of AI based plug-ins, such as the Topaz, DXO and On1 products, the differences become negligible in resolution, sharpness and noise profiles.

If it proves out with extensive use and testing that this new sensor does, indeed, give you an additional stop of dynamic range and two additional stops of headroom for noise, then I will be impressed.  However, for whatever reason (and no one has explained to me why), OMD kept the image readouts at 12-bit instead of the industry standard 14-bit.  If they would have increased readout to 14-bit, image quality would even be better.  Anyone know?

Second, autofocus improvements.  Olympus has a mediocre subject recognition AF system in their E-M1x and it really doesn't measure up to what the other companies are now providing.  In the OM-1 they have improved it.  Some of the wildlife photographers who got to use the new camera say it is really a big improvement but until we get some definitive tests, I'll withhold my judgment.

Third, a better electronic viewfinder (EVF).  They have done that.  The new EVF is 5.7mp and is only surpassed by the EVF in the Sony A1 (if I'm wrong let me know).  Many of us still use a viewfinder and an EVF that is blackout-free at a high refresh rate, puts this camera's EVF on par with the Z9.  No more lag when following fast moving subjects.  That works well for a variety of photographic genrés.

If I were going to jump back into the micro4/3 format I would definitely buy this camera, even without confirmation of the additional image quality.  Why?  Two reasons.  First, because when I look back in my 205,000+ image catalog in Lightroom Classic and I look at the images I've made with my various m4/3 cameras over the years, they still look great and are of excellent sharpness, low noise, great color and still meet or exceed my needs and expectations today.  Larger sensors and more pixels are not absolutely necessary.  Nice to have but not 'have' to have.

Second, the features, especially when the computational photography features in these cameras are considered, this new camera is more versatile than any just about any other camera out there.  Add the terrific lenses that Olympus and Panasonic (and some third-party independent lens manufacturers) make, it would be an easy decision.  

Currently, my thinking is that I would only get back into m4/3 gear if I decided to scale back my photographic efforts and activities and would want to carry just a camera and a lens (maybe 2 lenses if the second is very small) and not actively pursue photography on the level I now do.  I would carry the OM-1 with the Olympus 12-100mm f/4. PRO lens (an extraordinary lens!).  If I wanted something a little wider, I would pick up a very small wide angle prime from an independent manufacturer.  Something in the range of 8-9mm.  Pocket sized lens.

Panasonic 

Panasonic just introduced the GH-6, a 25mp micro4/3 camera that is the successor to the very well regarded and well-loved GH-5.  However, this camera is clearly targeted to the video crowd so I won't have much to say about it.  However, one feature that caught my eye when looking at several videos on YouTube is the 100mp hand-held high-resolution mode.  Supposedly, it has some sort of compensation for moving subjects in the frame as the camera makes its various number of exposures to be composited together.  That is intriguing and I'll be watching how well that actually works.  Great camera.  Big camera.  Heavy camera.  Expensive camera.  Video camera.  Not marketed to us old time still photographers.

Sony 

Sony recently introduced the A7IV.  This successor the wildly popular A7III, I predict, will also be the sweet spot for many photographers, not only the current Sony photographers, but others who are looking to switch systems.  The is a 33mp full frame camera that has all the goodness of Sony, including excellent subject detect focusing.  I don't think I would hesitate buying this camera if I wanted to move to Sony for an all-around camera.  My problem with Sony has always be three fold.  First, the camera doesn't feel good in my hands whatsoever.  The larger lenses hit my knuckles.  I don't think that is good.  If I had smaller hands?  Well, maybe. 

Second, the menu system is worse than Olympus'.  Or was, as Olympus completely updated their menu in the new OM-1.  I know the Sony A1 has a new menu system that is supposed to be much better, but I'm not sure about this camera.  Hopefully, so.

Third, Sony, again with the exception of the A1, gives its users full resolution RAW files but only lossy compressed RAW.  There isn't any excuse for that in today's digital photography world.

Other than those things, Sony makes excellent cameras as exhibited by the thousands of photographers who have left Nikon, Canon, etc. to move to Sony.

Fujifilm 

I know Fujifilm has not released any new cameras in the past few months, but a new camera is speculated to be released in May of this year.  Theoretically, it will be an XH-2.  Additional speculation is that Fujifilm may introduce two variations of this camera but no one knows that for sure and no one knows what the differences would be if they introduced two versions.

That said, here are my thoughts about what they need to have done with the X-H2 to remain competitive.  First, they need to improve autofocus to include subject recognition—and not a primitive version but a version that can compete with what Sony, Canon and Nikon provide in their higher end cameras. 

Second, they need a new sensor and new processor (they have stated the new camera will have both) that has higher pixel count.  Even though the current 26mp will satisfy most everyone's needs, people still want more pixels and will buy a camera that has more if priced the same and has the same features.

Third, they need to adopt some AI features in the way of what OMD Systems (Olympus) has done in the past.  These features bring much more versatility and true value to the equation and are useful for many of us.  Some of these computational photography features are becoming common and now kind of expected to be in new cameras.  High resolution imagery, for example.  They also need improve the ones they already include.  Being that they 'technically' can't compete with the psychology of a full frame sensor, that psychological thought process can be overcome with AI based features.  More features give the perception of 'more professional' and 'more value.'  Those are my thoughts.

Also, I think Fujifilm needs to, more quickly, upgrade their older lenses that were initially developed for their original 16mp and 20mp cameras.  Pixel count is only going to go up and if someone buys one of the new X-H1's and it has 32-40mp (as speculated), the lenses might not resolve that detail.  That is a good way to lose customers.

Currently, I have less gear than I have had for many years.  In fact, I still don’t have a backup camera to my X-T4 (it is my only viable digital camera) so I’m looking forward to May and what Fujifilm brings to the table.

In summary 

Those are my thoughts about these cameras for now.  I want to leave you with two points.  First, for a long time now, almost all cameras have exceeded our practical needs.  I would bet that every one of the cameras I've mentioned above will more than suit your needs.  They are all excellent.  Some have larger sensors with more pixels while others have all kinds of computational photography features.  Some have better viewfinders while others shoot 50fps.  Some have eye detection focusing while others automatically focus stack for macro photography.  They are all different but all excellent.  What's best for you is the one that meets your particular needs.  

Reviewers seem to review from their own points of view and for their own needs, not taking into account everyone needs something different and few of us need top of the line, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet, every feature on earth cameras.  They criticize when a certain feature is absent or it doesn't shoot off enough frames per second or it won't focus on the eye of a gnat at 10 meters.  Well, they are speaking for themselves much of the time.  Your needs almost always are different.  Don't be distracted by the negative.  Focus in on what you need and find the cameras that have those attributes.

Second, cameras are so close in capabilities and image quality that reviewers have to find the smallest differences and then make a "mountain out of a mole hill."  Who would tune into their channels if they didn't generate headlines through controversy?  Their motivation for this is selfishness.  They need to make money from people watching their video reviews.  If they had nothing to really complain about, their reviews would be pretty bland, and no one would watch.  At least, I suspect that is their fear.  In the real world the differences between these cameras above for most of us are inconsequential.  It is more important to find and buy a camera that has the features, speed and image quality you need for your kinds of photography.  Don't worry about what the reviewers say.  Handling, menus and button/dial placement is more important the small differences found in today's digital wonders.

Like you, I'll be waiting to see what transpires the remainder of this year of pandemic, out of control inflation, supply chain breakdown, lack or people who are willing to work and, now war in Eastern Europe.  One comment about that.

How, in this world of global trade, global travel, global spread of disease, global communication, social media, dependency on one another for products, services and the like, does the leader of one country just decide to declare that part of another country is now independent and send his troops in to just take over.  As bad as that is, this is the second time!  How does that happen today?  Why are we letting it happen?  If not stopped, what is the incentive not to do it again and again and again.  Invincibility then becomes the weapon of dictators.  End of rant.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook  

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