You might have studied the explanations of digital SLR technology in this chapter because you’re pondering which dSLR to buy. Because technology changes so rapidly, it’s unlikely that the camera you buy today will be your last. A generation ago, film SLR buyers were committing to cameras produced by companies called Topcon, Miranda, or Yashica. These were fine cameras in their time, but none of them survived to the digital age.

Even among modern digital camera vendors, you have important SLR manufacturers that were late to the party (Konica Minolta, for example) and others with now-you-see-it/now-you-don’t products, such as the Contax N Digital, a 6MP digital SLR announced in July, 2000, but later withdrawn from the US market. You can be certain that Konica Minolta is in the digital SLR fray for the long term, but can you be that confident about all the other players in the game?

Digital SLR decision makers often fall into some categories:

■ Serious photographers, photo enthusiasts, and professionals who already own lenses and accessories belonging to a particular system, and who need to preserve their investments by choosing, if possible, a dSLR that is compatible with as much of their existing equipment as possible.

■ Professionals who buy equipment like carpenters buy routers. Compatibility may be a good idea if an organization’s shooters share a pool of specialized equipment, but a pro choosing to switch to a whole new system probably won’t care much if the old stuff has to fall by the wayside.

Six months later they were posting questions in newsgroups about whether they should sell everything again and buy a Canon EOS 20D or maybe a Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D.