The Biggest Mistake Each Camera Manufacturer Has Made

In a video that will no doubt earn him quite a bit of Internet ire, photographer and photo educator Tony Northrup recently took each of the major camera manufacturers to task. From Canon and Nikon to Pentax and Olympus… nobody is safe… except Fuji for some reason.

Besides leaving Fujifilm conspicuously off the list, the mistakes Northrup points out seem valid, though I’m sure a few of our readers could add a few extra mistakes under each name. Here are Tony’s gripes:

Canon’s biggest mistake: Choosing to use a slightly smaller APS-C sensor with a 1.6x crop factor, when everybody else uses a 1.5x crop factor sensor in their APS-C cameras.

Nikon’s biggest mistake: Not investing in proper live view focusing like on-sensor phase detection technology.

Sony’s biggest mistake: Basically abandoning the A-mount SLT system in favor of their full-frame E-mount mirrorless cameras. Northrup loves SLT cameras because they give you the faster, more reliable focus system of a DSLR alongside some of his favorite things about mirrorless cameras.

Pentax’s biggest mistake: The Pentax K-1, because while Northrup loves the camera, Pentax now has to develop an entirely new line of full-frame lenses for the new full-frame system.

Panasonic & Olympus’ biggest mistake: Northrup lumps both Micro Four Thirds (MFT) manufacturers together, saying that their biggest mistake is not investing in phase detect autofocus technology. Mirrorless camera autofocus may never match DSLR focus, but the closer it can get the better.

Northrup elaborates on each of these mistakes in the 14-minute video at the top if you want to dive deeper, but we want to hear what you have to say. Which of these do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? And what do you think is Fuji’s biggest mistake?

Let us know in the comments.

Image credits: Little Photographer by Bailey Cheng.