In 2023, lots of brand-new cameras have been lacking something big: the Joystick! According to the Nintendo Gods, if there is no joystick, then there is no joy. I’m only partially joking about that — and brands are just letting it go. I’ve gathered feedback about this from various newer photographers, and apparently, none of them care. In fact, they can do without the joystick. So, will the joystick become a premium addition to a camera?
One of my very good friends has had a Sony A7 IV for a while, and he uses a Leica M mount lens I gifted to him with an autofocus adapter. Only the other day, when we were photo walking, I told him to use the joystick to select a specific focusing spot. “This camera has a joystick?” is the response I received. For a long time, he went without out, and now that he realizes that it’s there, he’s really happy about it.
This was in my mind for our entire photo walk for many miles, and it couldn’t escape.
At the Sony Kando trip, lots of brand-new creators (whom I refuse to call photographers) stated similarly that they don’t use the joystick.
Canon’s newest cameras targeting the entry-level crowd get rid of the joystick. Nikon does similarly with lots of their entry-level gear.
Even Leica didn’t put it on the Leica Q3. This, perhaps more than anything, really saddened me as the camera isn’t even as pretty as the previous one was.
Often, there will be statements about there not being room on the camera. However, I think this is an excuse for billion-dollar companies.
Fujifilm and Panasonic get it; they’ve incorporated it into more entry-level cameras.
For years, I’ve wondered how and why brands make their decisions about what they put in and take out of a camera. Canon reps have told me before that a lot of R&D has to do with finding out whether the product will sell. And often, they seem to get it right in terms of selling cameras and such.
Photographers are really the ones who would need a joystick. Those who say they don’t really use it often do not shoot in unpredictable situations. The higher-end Sony and Canon cameras, as good as they are, still need assistance when it comes to finding a subject in low light. That’s especially true for people of color. It’s also very true for finding birds in trees that are obfuscated by branches and leaves. The AI detection and scene detection simply just can’t do it.
So, I think these cameras are being made more for content creators than photographers. Video shooters don’t need joysticks, really. In fact, Fujifilm, long lauded as having terrible autofocus, has great autofocus in the video mode.
Now, this isn’t necessarily something new. But photographers who’ve wanted a camera have surely wanted a joystick. Why didn’t the Nikon ZFc have a joystick? What about the Leica Q3? And why couldn’t the Sony a7c R and Sony a7c II have a joystick?
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As a journalist testing many cameras for years, I think cameras are starting to move away from photographers tools. But the truth remains that lots of us don’t want to shoot videos and not everything is or needs to be on social media. It could instead be a print and hung in a museum.