Above, you see a Samsung NX10 with an adapter that lets you put almost any lens on the front, from Nikon, Minolta, Canon, Leica and others. The adapter could be the most disruptive widget in the camera market.
There’s one thread running through the PMA photography trade show this year: mirrorless, interchangeable-lens cameras. These cameras, pioneered by Olympus and Panasonic with their Micro Four Thirds format, have become very popular with pros and serious amateurs who want great results but don’t want to lug around a big DSLR. Samsung has already shown its commitment to its NX format with eight lenses announced in under two months, and Sony is also getting in on the game sometime this year with a mirrorless Alpha.
This is great news, but what does it mean for the DSLR, which has for years been the fastest growing sector of the camera market? A DSLR used to be the only way to go if you wanted a camera that had a big sensor and a reasonably responsive shutter. The other benefits, like interchangeable lenses, are arguably only there for the more serious. Take a look around you next time you’re in a tourist spot and you’ll see mostly sub-$1,000 SLRs with the kit zooms still on the front.
Now, those buyers can buy something like the Samsung NX10 or the Olympus Pen and have everything they need, in a much smaller package. This alone is enough to shake things up. But the adapter above, versions of which are also available for Micro Four Thirds cameras, is even more dangerous to the current market. You can now use pretty much any lens ever made on a modern digicam.
Adapters have been around for years, but they never worked well. The extra length they added to a lens meant that it would be mounted too far off the body, and couldn’t focus at infinity. But because these new cameras don’t have mirror boxes, their native lenses sit much closer to the sensor. Adapters, then, have to move DSLR lenses further away. This is why they work so well with these little cameras.
Traditionally, you never really bought into a camera brand. You bought into a range of lenses. Once you had a few grand’s worth of Nikon glass, you weren’t going to buy a Canon body. Now, if you’re willing to sacrifice some automation, you can swap as much as you like. For the enthusiast, this brings cheap old manual lenses back from the dead. Expect secondhand prices to rise.
Does this spell the end for the Nikon/Canon duumvirate? Not really. Both companies will surely release cameras soon, and they could have one big advantage. All they need to do is make their own adapters so that their legacy lenses can talk to the bodies, allowing autofocus and aperture control. That alone would make me buy a mirrorless Nikon in a second (I have a lot of Nikon glass).
The DSLR won’t die. But it could become a niche product, and the specialist tool of the professional.
Novoflex shows adapters for Samsung NX [DP Review]
Photo: DP Review
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