It concerns me greatly that the trend has been and continues to move at warp speed towards marketing of digital cameras for the sake of competition and money.  Do all these camera corporations (you know the ones) really need to be pumping out so many new glitzy digital cameras in which there has been just a few upgrades?  Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Sony, Leica, Zeiss and so many more are competing fiercely to what end?  This is one of the major drawbacks to the digital age. 

This trend, which started early on when the digital revolution began in the early 2000's, has become disturbing.  Everyone wants to be the "big boy" on the block -- being on top for most sales, best digital product, most power, control and greed.  What is even more disturbing to me is that with the invent of the digital camera and the revolution that followed more and more of the technology is concentrating on the science and technical aspects behind the technology itself and not the art.

Photography is an art and science and something that is a craft to be learned, honed and used.  These camera giants seem to be inventing and incorporating more and more digital camera technology that is creating more confusion and fear to novice photographers.  These new "auto-everything" and "do-everything" cameras have and are becoming so sophisticated that it seems they are more marketable to serious and professional photographers and not the consumer market.  Also, even more troubling, is that with the focus (no pun intended) on the "do-everything" and "auto-everything" and "mega-sensor" cameras, less and less of the art of photography is being used.

Sure it is nice to have 50-megapixel sensors, 165 dual cross-type focus points, 5-axis camera stabilization, super-fast AF, articulated screens, EVF's, and so forth...but all of this, although very helpful to a photographer depending on his/her needs, don't mean much unless the "art" is learned first.  Every budding photographer MUST learn the foundation of photography - the art and science - and what is known as "The Photographer's triangle" or "The Exposure Pyramid".  This is key to learning "aperture", "shutter", and "ISO".  Once this foundation is mastered, then it is next important to concentrate on building your lens kit.  Your optics will "bam" your photography up to a new level more then your camera will.  Yes, purchase a good camera that will soot your needs but invest in your "glass" and by all means, don't buy into all this marketing hype about the next greatest digital do-it-all camera to come down the pike....learn the foundation of photography, master it and you will have mastery of your craft to become a successful visual artist!