As I blogged HERE and HERE, I believe that the DSLR has probably had its day (as soon as they (they being Canon and Nikon) start making "full frame mirrorless cameras", which they have JUST started to do this year) but.... my main camera of choice at present is (still) my full frame (original) Canon 6D.

I love my 6D - it can gather SO much more light (and detail) than my APS_C Canon 40D, which in turn can gather so much more light and detail than my SUPERB old tiny-sensored bridge camera, my Panasonic Lumix FZ50 - which I used a lot on our holiday to the Isle of Wight this year.

I don't think I'll ever sell my 6D - as only it can get shots like the below (taken today as I took my boy to a local wildlife park). And these, I might add, were just snap shots - with a pretty bog standard lens.

Cropped (and rotated slightly) from above:

And another shot:

I expect this website has compressed the photos of my boy above - so just in case it has (I'm sure it has!) let me tell you the detail in these shots is SUPERB.  And full size (which again, I'm sure (on this website) they're not), - MINDBLOWING. OK... OK... it helps that I nailed the focus perfectly.

Yes...  my Full frame Canon 6D is wonderful for detailed, poppy, shots like the above - or even milky way shots like the below.

Mars, Saturn, Milky Way, Jupiter from the Isle of Wight.

And I ADORE being able to take detailed shots on a full frame (35mm) sensor which gathers light like a vacuum cleaner. I love it.

But.

(And here's the but).

Ever since I re-took up photography about 10 years ago now, with (firstly) a wee Sony Ericsson mobile (non smart) phone, I've really wanted to capture fast action - as well as detailed, static shots.

I've lost track of the amount of shots of flying birds or running cats/hens etc that I've missed, either because I could never afford a big DSLR sports camera (like the Canon 1DX) or because my bridge cameras (FZ20,30,50) have WOEFUL contrast detect autofocus, rather than the MILES BETTER phase detect.

Even the shot of the flying barn owl I took on the Isle of Wight last week was the only shot in focus from a burst of about 6 on my Canon 6D - a wonderful camera for sure... but in no way built to take photos of moving subjects. (Here's where I blow my own trumpet - I used to be quite well reknowned in photography circles for PUSHING my cameras (plural) to beyond what they should be capable of. Give most people my 6D and they couldn't get one shot out of twenty of a flying bird in focus, let alone one in five).

Likewise.

Give someone my 40D with an APS-C sensor and they just wouldn't be able to produce a shot like I did below, in near NO light. It shouldn't really be possible. Not this clean.

Anyway.

Sony have just changed that game.

And have probably made all my (and others) dreams come true.

Sony, last year, put the first phase detect autofocus system (from their full frame sports A9 camera) into a bridge (or fixed lens superzoom) camera.

Yes... the Sony RX10 mk iv is at present the first and ONLY bridge camera with anything other than contrast detect autofocus in it.

I'm sure Canon and Nikon (and others fo-sho) will HAVE to respond by, for example, Canon putting their truly excellent dual pixel autofocus system into their next range of compact or bridge camera. Just like Canon and Nikon HAD to react (as they are jussst doing now) after Sony started making absolutely superb mirrorless pro cameras - which is spelling, I think, the end of DSLRs.

But for now, as I've just written - like a moth to a UV lamp - I am being sucked into the world of Sony right now - I don't see how I can buy a pocket (or bridge) camera with contrast detect autofocus, knowing as I do that that system just WILL NOT focus on anything moving  - but knowing that the Sony RX10 iv does - and does so , so unbelievably well.

At present I think I'm going to have to keep my Canon 6D for low light shots, or detailed shots, or specific shots like landscapes or sea scapes or night sky shots - but for anything else - ANYTHING ELSE - I'm just going to HAVE to save up and buy the Sony RX10 mk iv.

JUST GONNAE HAVE TO....