So I haven't dipped into my photography hobby for a while, and in doing some perusing this morning, I find that unbeknownst to me, DSLRs are out and mirrorless cameras are in. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except one major thing has changed: apparently older lenses are either not fully compatible, or not compatible at all.
You can use an adapter in some instances, but previously one of the great things about SLRs and DSLRs was that the big companies always made sure the older lenses (often the most expensive part of a system) were fully compatible with newer bodies - even going from film SLRs to DSLRs. It looks like with these newer systems, they have gone to completely new bodies and lenses and mounts.
Sad to see. While phone cameras have come a long way, they still can't come close to "real" cameras for a lot of stuff. For instance, one of the reasons I was looking this morning is that all the snow geese, sandhill cranes, and tundra swans are migrating over my house, and I'm breaking out the good camera, as a phonecam cannot come anywhere close to my 12 year old Nikon D300 and the big lens both for image quality, especially at zoom, and for motor drive capability.
I don't need a new camera, as the D300 still does everything I want, but I'm not thrilled that if I ever have to upgrade for some reason, it looks like I'll have to start collecting expensive new lenses again for full compatibility. The D300 is the ruggedized Benproof body (one of the main reasons I bought it), so hopefully it will give me many more years of service.