Will the Sony A9 kill DSLR cameras?

The Sony A9 was released at an event in New York last month.

OPINION: While most of us happily snap photos on our smartphones, in the background a battle is brewing over the future of cameras.

The war is being fought on two fronts - DSLR versus mirrorless, and the old guard (Canon and Nikon) against the new school.

Recently the battle went to a new level when Sony revealed the A9, a new camera that could prove a turning point in camera technology.

That's because it targets action photographers, an area that DSLR cameras still dominate.

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The key part of this war is the tech used in cameras. On one side there's Canon and Nikon with their DSLRs which still use a physical mirror and have an optical viewfinder.

On the other is Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus and Panasonic which make mirrorless cameras with electronic viewfinders. This side has been making inroads into the market share long dominated by the two Japanese giants.

Canon and Nikon cameras are still great and very popular. But there is a vocal group of bloggers who have been championing the merits of mirrorless cameras for a while.

That group went wild when the A9 was released at an event in New York last month. It had specifications that, on first glance, finally put mirrorless cameras ahead.

For example, it can shoot at 20 frames per second, compared to 14fps for Canon's flagship camera. Other advantages include being about half the size and a lower price tag.

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Mirrorless cameras have been able to compete on image quality for several years. Their shortcomings have been battery life and having the viewfinder blackout for a split second when taking a photo. Nothing that would bother the average photographer but a big deal for pros, especially those that shoot sport.

While this was a camera launch, it also felt like a show of strength. Not many people will buy this camera, but it showed that Sony had developed tech that demonstrated mirrorless tech is now on par with, or even better than, all DSLR tech.

If the A9 is successful with professionals, then its tech will eventually trickle down to more affordable cameras.

And that's when mirrorless cameras could finally overtake Canon and Nikon and start to dominate the industry.

 - Stuff

Source: Will the Sony A9 kill DSLR cameras?