Digital Camera Buyers' Guide - Year of the SLR

Things to Consider

Consumer Electronics are always on an accelerating roller coaster of better performing products, shorter life spans, and quick changes in the market. Despite this, there are watershed events in the markets for consumer electronics that bring stability and orderly progress to markets that were chaotic. An example of this is when DVD+ and DVD- merged and were supported by all DVD players and recorders. This holiday season we are hot in a war of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and whoever wins will make the opposing camp very unhappy. There are hints and rumors that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray may go the way of DVD and merge into a standard that supports both, but there is too much at stake in both camps to even hint there is any real interest in that development right now.

You might ask what that has to do with digital SLR cameras. The answer is that DSLRs are on the verge of a format war. Canon has had full-frame DSLR pro models for several years, and their hot-selling full-frame 5D has dropped in price these days to near prosumer territory. Nikon has also announced their first full-frame pro DSLR. Rumor has it that Sony's upcoming pro DSLR will also be full-frame, which makes sense when you consider that Sony is the primary supplier of Nikon sensors.

For those of us who have been using SLRs for many years the compromises of lens factors and APS-C sensors are just too much. It is frustrating to see an incredible and expensive Nikon 20mm wide-angle lens behave like a common 30mm wide angle on a D300 or a D80. It would be nice to see a 20mm ultra wide angle again, and full-size DSLR sensors allow that.

It certainly appears that the DSLR camp is going to be split by manufacturers in the near future to full-frame pro models and APS-C entry to prosumer models. This will require companies to support two lens lines with some overlap, but the pros will win this one and we will still be using mainly 35mm glass for quality results on the APS-C cameras. There will be cheaper "small sensor" lenses, as there now are, but perhaps fewer of these in the future. This is due to the reality that advanced amateurs inevitably want to shoot what the pros shoot. That is why they buy Canon 5Ds today and why they will demand full-frame prosumer DSLRs in the future.

This is where Olympus and the 4/3 system has a crack to pop through, because the only real standards in digital and SLRs in general are full-frame 35mm on the one hand and 4/3 on the digital side. Perhaps another small-size sensor standard will develop, but as long as the big players like Nikon and Canon are mainly interested in making pro glass for the developing full-frame DSLR market there is no incentive for them to develop a new small-sensor standard. Players like Pentax just don't have the influence to forge a new standard on their own.

By this point we hope to have shed some new light on your holiday shopping for a digital SLR. Our recommendations will not be popular with many Canon and Nikon owners, but we have personally spent time with every camera discussed in this guide and we call them as we see them. This is an interesting time in the digital photography market. It is a time of flux that will only increase as this battle plays out, but what develops will probably be interesting and surprising.

Have fun shopping for the best buy in digital SLRs this holiday season. There are many great buys out there and you will likely see lots of superb specials as manufacturers fight for market share. Performance is good enough on most of the entry-level cameras that you would not be wrong to shop for the best price you can find on a 10MP camera for example. Whatever you choose, just be sure to take lots of digital pictures of your family and friends opening their holiday presents.

Happy Holidays from AnandTech!