The Camera Landscape Has Fundamentally Changed

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what cameras actually matter in 2024. We’re living in a strange era where dedicated photography devices have become almost niche products. Your smartphone probably takes better pictures in low light than a DSLR from five years ago. Drones dominate aerial work. Action cameras handle adventure sports. And yes, I recently discovered that even a humble spotting scope now ships with imaging capabilities.

Yet here we are, still getting excited about dedicated cameras. And honestly? That excitement is justified.

What the Sigma FP2 Announcement Tells Us

The newly announced Sigma FP2 represents something I’ve been waiting to see: a full-frame mirrorless camera that doesn’t chase the megapixel arms race or try to be everything to everyone. Instead, it commits to a specific philosophy—compact, focused, intentional.

For those of us building Photoshop actions and presets, this matters more than you might think. Cameras with defined purposes produce more consistent output. A 24MP sensor with a known color science is infinitely easier to calibrate presets around than a 61MP beast designed for every scenario imaginable. I’m already thinking about how the FP2’s output will interact with popular preset collections, and early indications suggest it’ll play beautifully with warm-toned, film-inspired workflows.

The Leica M12 Rumor and Rangefinder Revival

The persistent rumors around a Leica M12 indicate something equally important: rangefinder photography refuses to die. If anything, it’s experiencing a quiet renaissance among photographers who value intentionality over computational photography.

Rangefinder output—that particular rendering of color and contrast—has always translated well into elegant, minimal presets. There’s something about how these cameras render images that works naturally with film-stock-inspired actions.

Building Better Presets for Today’s Cameras

What strikes me about both announcements is that they point toward camera diversity rather than convergence. The future isn’t one camera that does everything. It’s multiple specialized tools, each with distinct characteristics.

This is actually great news for preset creators. Rather than building presets that compromise across all possibilities, we can now develop truly targeted workflows. A preset suite for Sigma’s color science. Actions optimized for Leica’s rangefinder rendering. Specific LUTs for each camera’s particular RAW file structure.

The real skill in modern post-processing isn’t having one magic preset. It’s understanding your specific tool—your camera, your lens, your sensor—and building a workflow that amplifies its natural strengths rather than fighting against them.

That’s the future I’m excited about.