After a lifelong career in photography, I no longer own a DSLR camera. Wow. I never thought I’d say that. How about you? Do you think DSLRs are doomed?

I have used single-lens reflex cameras for, well, ever. Eight retired Nikon F, F2, F3, and F5 35mm film cameras decorate my mantle. I sold all of my Hasselblad cameras in the late twenty-teens. I still have my Sinar P 4×5 camera. No. Wait. That one is a mirrorless camera.

My first professional full-color portrait camera was the Foveon Studio Camera. It was a three-chip on a prism that used a Windows laptop for the viewfinder and the finished photo side-by-side. I loved that camera and it was mirrorless.

My clients reviewing their headshots on my laptop-with-a-lens Foveon camera
The Foveon Studio Camera let my clients see their headshots immediately. They loved it!

Bye bye DSLRs

I have had a digital single-lens reflex camera since March 2001. Kodak dropped the price of its 6.1 megapixel digital Nikon F5 by $20,000. I ran to the camera store, plopped down my $8K, and walked out with my first truly portable digital camera. That August, while on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, I made the full transition to digital photography.

I just sold my Canon EOS 5Dsr and EOS 1Dx Mark III last fall. I was kind of sad to let them go. On the other hand, I was using the Canon EOS R5 and R5C cameras exclusively. It was either sell them or find something else for them to do.

DSLR around the house

The opening photo shows a DSLR serving nicely as a candle holder. Here is a video with that and other possibilities for those no longer useful cameras. Long live the DSLR!

A candle holder. One of many uses for that old DSLR.