AI Autofocus, Complex Menus, and Electronic Finders are Ruining The Photography Experience
June 2025, Carl Garrard
Camera companies don't track film sales, the used market, and they aren't paying attention to compact camera prices either. And if they are, they aren't telling you, and worse, they aren't listening to an obvious revolt. Film camera and film sales are up. Not just 35mm film, all film. Instant film, larger format film, all of it and the cameras that go with it. Its not up by huge margins but it is and has been steadily gaining. Yet, so what you say....
To me however, the fact that a much older technology is steadily gaining popularity, well that should be a huge red flag to camera companies. The used digital market is incredible right now too, prices on many cameras and lenses are going up and some like gangbusters.
Big time.
I know this because I watch it and participate in it heavily, and have for years. I'm not part of the symbiotic press/camera company relationship. I don't take handouts. I don't take free trips. I don't take loaners. And I don't talk to anyone at camera companies any longer and haven't for years. I learned a long time ago how well they control the press and got out of that years ago.
And nobody can argue about compact camera sales prices either, they are through the roof. Indication of HUGE demand. Not all models of course, but many of them.
Look, they didn't listen to us still photographers when the smart phone started selling better, and they aren't listening to us now either. What more evidence do camera companies need before they send themselves into financial oblivion?
The current market, one in which these companies serve shareholders, board members, and the lining of CEO pockets with quarterly bonuses, cannot last. Making cheap plastic camera bodies with complex menu systems and AI tech designed to take you out of the equation is not a sustainable market. It can't be. It's not a matter of IF, it's only a matter of when.
Digital still cameras, film cameras, and compact cameras would all sell if camera companies listened to photographers needs. I have a feeling that they have laid off so many employees they may not have the capability to make the kind of optical finder cameras, film cameras, or compact cameras that photographers really want anymore.
But they don't listen, in fact, they are going the opposite way:
And just like a few people who saw the mortgage crisis on the horizon, I see the camera market on the same precipice. Everybody said those guys were crazy, but they were smart enough, and disengaged enough from the system, to see clearly what would happen. They shorted the housing market, and they were right (even if it did take longer for it to fail than they predicted). We'll I'm shorting the camera market now. And you may call me crazy all you like.
But I have watched this market very carefully over the years, and bought more camera's and lenses than well over 99.9% of customers on the market. I'm just one consumer of many, but I know what I've experienced is true and I know I'm not alone. Take a look at this.
The average length of ownership of a mirrorless camera is way down in comparison to optical viewfinder cameras, why is that? The article title tells a big portion of the story actually. Yet it goes further than that. Also consider that companies are pandering to a tech and content creator crowd now, whom are historically used to rapid upgrading (like when computer processors and ram memory upgraded quickly, remember that?) But they will hit a wall. Just like computers.
Camera companies are also designing the still photographer out of the equation, this is not sustainable. The more complex, automated, and inorganic the experience, the more still photographers lose interest in the gear, and turn to other ways to express their creativity and will. This is already happening. They are ignoring a huge portion of the buyer's market by doing so.
The interest in photography remains higher than ever too, and that's why you are seeing the film market, used market, and compact camera market going up in sales. Those products offer a more simple, manual, and organic experience than what is being sold new on the market today.
There is next to no R/D going into new optical finder products the last five years despite an obvious interest in them. Almost no marketing of optical finder products either. After decades of touting the advantages of such, of developing such, all camera companies (but Ricoh perhaps) are silent on both fronts. How can you argue there is no market for optical finder products, compact cameras, and film cameras, if you aren't marketing them or developing them? Fact is, you can't.
Camera companies are still big enough to try and protect their interests and defend themselves but one day soon, they will fail big time. Still photographers are losing interest. It's become a video market now. And when the saturation of video hits its plateau, so too will videographers lose interest in the camera market. And when that happens, "BOOM!".
Fact is there are so many people interested in photography as a hobby or as a profession. Mirrorless cameras have their place too, it's not as if I'm suggesting they don't, but you can't ignore 3/4 segments of the market clearly indicating an interest into something else either, and survive. I thought that a companies main goal was to make products to sell to people?
So why ignore 3/4 markets? They have NO answer for this other than touting a product a majority of the consumer base have little to no interest in. For reasons I've already explained.
I've experienced build quality go down. I've experienced handing go down. I've experienced the quality of the photographer/camera relationship experience go down. With each new mirrorless announcement, it becomes more and more evident that camera companies are suffering a mass psychosis by believing that the mirrorless camera market is sustainable. It is not.
How can you increase sales by making a product more and more expensive, yet cheaper and less interesting to use? You can't. And of course if you look hard enough you'll find some data that supports a slight overall increase in mirrorless cameras, but it's plainly obvious that camera companies have hit a wall.
They are lying to you.
They are lying to you.
All you need to do is be open minded enough to see it. To experience it. Look at the pricing. Need I say more than that? Don't blame tariffs either, almost all camera companies are based in countries where tariffs have been used for decades. And prices got insane the last 4 years way before tariffs were introduced by the USA. The US was just the last big player to do what everyone else has been doing.
Listen to yourself. Not to online review channels or websites that work directly with these camera companies. How can they be honest when they get free trips, product, and loaners? How can they be honest if they have close relationships with people in these companies? They can't! It's human!
The situation is just as similar as the rating agencies had with banks during the banking crisis. They continued to rate bonds with an A+ rating because if they did not, the banks would go to another rating agency to get the rating they wanted. Just like camera companies will cut off press that gives them negative reviews. So you can only trust yourself. It's the honest truth.
If its too expensive for you that's a red flag. If you don't enjoy the camera, that's its a red flag. If you want something companies don't make, it's a red flag. Camera companies and online review sites aren't just not listening to you, they are lying to you too. Whether intentional or not, they aren't telling the truth.
"It ain't what we don't know that gets us into trouble. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so." -Mark Twain
Isn't that the truth.
Stay focused.
-Carl
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