DSLR's demise: Nikon's exit market-driven, say photography purists

The impending demise of the SLR camera in the digital age has been long foretold. Now, the fear of losing an iconic product that captured the imagination of millions of shutterbugs just became real.

According to a recent Nikkei report, Japanese giant Nikon will withdraw from the single-lens reflex or SLR camera-making business and shift toward pure mirrorless digital offerings amid intensifying competition from smartphone cameras, as well as declining sales in the last couple of years.

The report pointed out that Canon, the largest SLR manufacturer only ahead of Nikon, also plans to “stop producing flagship SLR models within a few years” like its rival.

A benchmark across industries — from art to fashion to media to corporations and hobbyists alike — the SLR camera has been the first choice for generations for over half a century.

There has been no shortage of devices — including the CD player, Polaroid camera, the Walkman or the landline telephone — that have been consigned to posterity by the digital juggernaut, thanks not in the least to the all-encompassing smartphone.

As Nikon shifts focus, photography purists and professionals view it as a market-driven inevitability.

In layman terms, the difference between a mirrorless camera and a digital SLR or DSLR is this: DSLR cameras contain a reflex mirror inside them that reflects light into the optical viewfinder. In mirrorless cameras, light goes directly into the image sensor. Viewfinders on mirrorless cameras are electronic and show the same preview of the image that is on the LCD screen.

Veteran lensman Raghu Rai, who uses a Fujifilm GFX 100, says the only real advantages in a digital or mirrorless camera are that the viewfinder gives you updates on whether there is too much or too little light exposure and that they are lighter.

The downside is a time lag. “I may see something amazing happening, a baby’s smile or a jaguar leaping, and I may lose that moment of seeing it between pressing the trigger and getting the image,” he says.

Rai refers to the modern mirrorless cameras that have been in use, and adds that the Nikon Z9 supposedly has “almost no time lag”, but even a fraction of a millisecond can make a big difference to photo composition.

What does the reported move by Nikon mean in a larger sense?

“It means business is business,” says Rai with a smile. “The new generation, in their 20s and 30s, have mostly never used a DSLR or SLR and will never know the difference, which is just like the difference between driving a manual transmission Ferrari or Porsche and an electric version of the same thing.”

Award-winning photographer Pablo Bartholomew, who uses a Sony mirrorless camera, observes that the Germans were first to innovate with cameras such as the Leica — used by the legendary Henri Cartier-Bresson — and later the Japanese were experts at borrowing innovation and adapting it.

“The bottom line is, whatever camera you use you have to create an image. While the DSLR gave you an image, sent it through a mirror to a prism and you saw it, now you see (in the mirrorless camera) the image directly as is. But of course, there is an old school view that film and cameras should be pure,” he says.

He adds that only a minority holds that opinion. “Ultimately, it’s market forces that determine what sells.”

In Bartholomew’s opinion, there’s less vibration, more stability and one can hand-hold live views in mirrorless cameras. But the pros and cons are dictated by personal preferences as well.

Rai points out that the new-age cameras are packed with apps, features and buttons. “For someone like me, hit a button in a hurry and your whole programming goes wrong,” he says. “The cameras are putting in way too many features and qualities that make things more complex than they may need to be.”

Others agree.

Rid Burman, a professional photographer based in Mumbai and Paris who has been shooting for two decades, says he comes from the “guinea pig generation” where it was all manual and analogue until an almost overnight switchover to digital.

“I have actually gone back to old school. I started shooting in the 1980s with a Leica M7 and, given the opportunity, will only shoot on analogue.” To be able to stand out, one has to swim against the tide, he adds. “Luckily, I have the education, the skill and the passion to shoot on analogue. I fight with my clients for it. There’s a lot of talk about HD (high definition) and extra sharpness, it’s all fairly useless.”

He takes old cameras with old lenses, which are the best ever in his view.

The glass used in them came from special sources, and the moment it becomes about numbers and sales it sort of loses the quality somewhere, Barman says. “It helps maintain a distinctness and style as a photographer.”

For some, changes are part of a natural progression.

Bandeep Singh, a career photographer who has shot prime ministers, tycoons and celebrities for over two decades, says that “the DSLR’s phasing out is, in a manner of speaking, like the natural extinction of dinosaurs”.

The Nikon mirrorless camera has been in the making for a few years now and their flagship has been mirrorless, which is the Z series (Z7, Z9 and others), he adds.

The DSLR does give a photographer the sense that he or she is part of the scene by letting one see things directly, but it is bulkier because of the added components including mirrors. In a mirrorless camera, one actually sees the image of the photograph being taken, Singh says.

For those in the crossover generation, there is a connection with the image, which is all one sees in a DSLR, but with a mirrorless camera it’s like looking at a recording, albeit a live one. “There are no accidents because you see the actual frame that is being shot. There is no blind spot, yet at the same time it’s not the real thing. So, it does have a digital sense so it’s not what a purist would appreciate. There is a trade-off but speeds are faster and focusing is sharp in mirrorless cameras,” Singh says.

The digital transformation is also about reinventing one’s skills with the modern tools of the trade. In another sense, it’s about generating the best performance possible — akin to a master batsman using his preferred choice of willow.

“Only dead fish float in the mainstream, so it doesn’t really matter as I’m not really competing with that,” Rai says, explaining that there is a difference between professionals and what the layperson may want.