White Wine at the Blue Hour, Some thoughts about full frame cameras

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO200)

After two days in Dubrovnik we are back in our hotel in Podstrana. This was our favorite hotel during our whole trip and that is why we returned for another couple of nights. The hotel has very nice rooms but the best is that breakfast, dinner or drinks are served outside close to the sea. Behind the whine glasses you can see palm trees, the beach and the setting sun.

After dinner we had our daily walk at the beach. There are no white sand beaches just gravel stone so it’s a little tiresome to walk but nothing beats a sunset by the sea.

All images taken with the Fuji X100. This camera has really grown on me within the last year. It’s dynamic range, the colors, the rendition and the low noise are impressive. This is easily as good as my Canon 5D if not better. But I love full frame since I took my first image with my 5D. With the Sony RX1 announced I think there is hope to see a full frame version of the X100 or the X1Pro sooner or later.

Full frame is the future for DSLR. I don’t think that there will be a successor to the Nikon D300s or the Canon 7D. They will be replaced by entry level full frame DSLRs. The Nikon D600 has been announced yesterday and I expect Canon to follow within the next couple of weeks. The price for full frame will drop significantly below the 2.000 USD/EURO mark within the next couple of months. I think it was a mistake of both Canon and Nikon to introduce rather expensive full frame cameras ( 5DmkIII and D800 ) and now need to bring entry level version to keep people buying into their systems. A price of about 3.000 EUROs was fine a couple of years ago when the first amateur DSLRs were introduced or when the first Canon 5D hit the market in 2005. Today there are so many great cameras around for little money and 3.000 EURO is just a little bit too much compared to the other offerings.

Nowadays 500.- EUROs buys you a entry level DSLR plus kit lens. Less than 800.- EURO gets you a really good Nikon D7000 APS-C camera. So asking almost 4 times the money for a full frame camera simply is too much. Times have changed and the introduction of the entry level full frame cameras proof that camera makers are aware of it. I think that the D600 will cut deeply into D800 sales. A Canon 6D ( or whatever name it will have ) will cut or almost stop sales of the 5DmkIII.

I think pro’s most probably get a 1DX or D4. If you are a hobbyist you will be better off by getting a entry level full frame and put your money into lenses. That leaves the current full frame cameras from Canon and Nikon stuck somewhere in the middle. I can’t see a big market for that. I could be wrong but I think that sales of the D600 will outnumber that of the D800 significantly.

But what is the point talking about cameras that are too big for traveling anyway. I love full frame cameras and I love optical viewfinders but I’m not sure if I will ever take a DSLR for a vacation again. Maybe for a trip to Canada, Alaska or a trip to Yellow Stone NP where wildlife  photography would be a substantial part of my photography. For all other trips I don’t think so. I’m just not willing to carry around all that heavy gear any longer. And if I look at the growing interest in mirror less cameras I think I’m not alone.

Maybe it was the plan of the camera makers to make compact camera users upgrade to M43 or NEX but I think that they underestimated the number of DSLR users that want to have a high quality compact system as a second camera. Now these DSLR users realize that they shoot most of their images with their small second camera. Soon there comes the point where they ask themselves why they have a big camera gear they hardly use….

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO200)
FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO200)
FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO250)