Every year it is customary for us to feature an article that highlights the trends and predictions that will might become big in the coming year. This list usually includes a combination of photography styles, products, technology among others that we feel will be used/applied the most in the next year, and with 2022 around the corner there are things that potentially might be some of the biggest trends in 2022. In this article we’ve listed them and if you have read our previous articles then you would know that we usually get most of these things right.

– By Bhavya Desai

Weddings to come back full circle

For the large part of the past two years, we’ve spent most of our time in isolation or in smaller groups. This also meant that most of the celebrations like weddings have been more intimate or in a private setting. And while they have their own place and everyone enjoys that as an experience, it was believed that this will be the trend going forward. Infact I was also completely sold to that idea. But from what we’ve been witnessing in the past few months, weddings are for sure coming back full circle or circus (whatever you like). So get ready for some massive shor sharaba in 2022, which surely is great news for the photographer fraternity.

Short form Content

This will be one of the biggest trends for the year 2022 with more and more users consuming short form content thanks to social media platforms. Creators and photographers will use these platforms to showcase BTS, projects, etc. and if you aren’t one of those who hasn’t started using these features, now would be a good time to start. The potential of providing a sneak peek into your world and amplifying your reach via such content is going to be golden.

Content to be King

While content has always been important, the explosion of creators, social platforms, etc. have also increased the amount of content that is now available for viewing. And more often than not you find a lot of noise rather than meaningful content. But 2022 will be a time that viewers will become more selective when it comes to consuming content, whether still or video. So if you are a photographer or a creator then I would pay double attention to what you create in 2022 since it will be even more important this year.

NFTs in Photography

For certain 2022 will see more photographers/artist try out NFTs in photography. NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens and I am not certain if they will be around for many years to come, but the sort of success that they recently got, their popularity will surely increase more in 2022. Artists will try their hands at NFTs in 2022 and if they will taste success, then it will plant the seed for the years to come.

Camera and Smartphone brand collabs

We’ve already seen a number of collaborations between camera manufacturers and phone brands. And this is only natural since cameras play such a big part in influencing the buyers’ decision today. But while the both these segments are collaborating since the past few years, the true potential of what they can achieve isn’t there yet. But in 2022, I feel these will start shaping up with great meaning. The phones will start offering superior features, better cameras, better technology, thanks to the results maturing from such collabs that’ve been initiated over the years.

Candids are the Only Thing Now

Everyone knows Candid Photography has been around for a while. It really isn’t a new concept anymore. But what is about to change is the sheer application of that style in 2022. With photography now becoming more personal, candid is the future with lesser application to commercial outlook in weddings. For instance, in wedding photography you’ll now find dedicated photographers only for the bride and only for the groom, probably one only for the families as well. These are uncommon today, but in 2022 you’ll see more of such trends where dedicated candid photographers/videographers will be used with commercial ideas thrown out of the window for a new style of services to evolve.

Drones, drones and more drones

Drones automatically have been qualifying in our list for the past few years and they’ll continue to do so may be for the next few years as well. With technology getting better and better with what drones can achieve, like newer shots, angles, scenes, photographers and creators will continue to use them extensively in 2022, especially with the norms now relaxing slightly towards their applications.

Death of the DSLRs?

I am on the fence with this point honestly. Every time I feel that DSLRs are done, some manufacturer springs in and surprises me with a new product. But honestly, I think now the time has come when DSLRs or at least new products might be done. I don’t see many launches happening for the next few years and the remaining few manufacturers that are still making them might also stick to only a product or two in every few years. But with some of the new products being launched still doing the rounds, you never know what happens.

Affordable Mirrorless Full-Frames

This as a category of cameras will grow exponentially for the next few years to come. Products with great potential have already been launched in the market and from the popularity that they are getting, it is a matter of time when products with better features at a more affordable price will start emerging from all manufacturers.

Plus Size and Dark Models

We are always shooting subjects in Fashion and Commercial Photography who for the longest time were considered to be perfect models. Unfortunately, that system and belief is severely flawed since we’re tuned to like people in a particular body shape and skin colour, but in the last two years these inhibitions are changing and more plus sized and dark skin models are used in global and mainstream campaigns. And this is a stance that is now adopted by some of the biggest brands globally and 2022 will mark an important change in this trend moving forward.

Chip Shortage

Now this really isn’t a trend but an important update on the chip shortages that plagued every industry in 2021. One of the biggest challenges for any industry in 2021 was acquiring microchips that power every smart product. And the camera industry was no different with shortage in supply of products still on-going. In 2022 also most manufacturers will face this challenge, so be ready to see some delays.

So this rounds up the trends that we feel will become big in the year 2022. Do let us know in the comments what you think of them or if there is something that we have missed.

Nikon yesterday introduced its latest flagship mirrorless camera, the Z9 for a whopping price of Rs 4,75,995. The camera is the first of its kind which doesn’t feature a mechanical shutter and only features an Electronic Shutter making it the fastest CMOS sensor produced and also that it will have the least amount of rolling shutter due to this feature.

The camera features a 45.7-megapixel sensor and has the capability to shoot 8K video at 30p and up to 20 fps RAW burst shooting capabilities. It’s Nikon’s first camera with a stacked sensor and built-in memory, allowing for extremely rapid readout speeds. Nikon is so confident in the electronic shutter that it has abandoned the mechanical shutter altogether, making the Z9 the first high-end professional camera to do so.

The Z9 sensor (which has the same megapixel count as the Z7 II) enables for flash sync speeds of up to 1/200th of a second, which appears to be the quickest sync speed for an electronic shutter ever. This should also make it particularly resistant to rolling shutter, which is important if the camera is going to be used for sports or action photography. The quicker sensor enables JPEG burst photography at up to 30 frames per second or RAW shots at 20 frames per second. If you’re ready to go down to 11 megapixels, you can capture photographs at 120 fps as well. The Nikon Z, like other stacked sensor cameras, features substantially better buffering, allowing you to shoot up to 1,000 frames at once with JPEG or the new HE (high efficiency) RAW compression techniques.

Nikon’s autofocus (AF) technology is likewise all new, and it makes even greater use of AI algorithms. Like the Canon’s EOS R3, can now monitor a wide range of subjects, including people’s eyes, faces, and bodies, as well as dogs, cats, and birds, aircraft, trains, motorcycles, and bicycles. And, unlike other AI cameras, there’s no need to tell it what you’re shooting – if you set it to “Auto,” the camera will figure it out (or, you can set the subject type manually). It also has a “3D tracking” feature, similar to that found in Nikon DSLRs. 

Nikon’s in-body stabilization mechanism has also been upgraded (which it calls “vibration reduction” or VR). It can now combine in-body and lens stabilization systems for more stable video and less blurry images. However, it will only be available with a few lenses at first, including the Nikkor Z 70-200mm F/2.8, Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR, and the recently announced Z 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VR S.

As Nikon hinted earlier this year, video performance is similarly outstanding. The Z9 will be able to capture 8K at 30p, as well as oversampled 4K 30p from an 8K clip, which should be extremely crisp. It will also be capable of capturing 4K at up to 120 fps if you don’t mind pixel binning or line skipping. To begin, you’ll be able to capture these files at up to 10-bit resolution using H.264 or H.265 long GOP codecs. Furthermore, Nikon provides the extremely handy option of shooting video using ProRes 422 HQ compression, which is considerably easier to edit right out of the camera.

However, things will become much more fascinating later on. Nikon intends to provide a firmware upgrade in the future that will enable 12-bit 8K 60fps capture in a new, proprietary N-RAW format or Apple ProRes RAW HQ capture at 4K/60p. Nikon claims that at “average” conditions, you’ll be able to capture the oversampled 4K/30p for more than two hours. 

The camera features two CFexpress Type B slots (backward compatible with XQD) for maximum video and burst photo capabilities. The new EN-EL18d battery has a capacity of 740 shots per charge with the LCD and 700 shots with the EVF activated. It boasts a 3.69 million dot OLED viewfinder, which probably could’ve been better considering that most cameras now already have this since a longtime. The refresh rate of the EVF is just 60 fps, but Nikon claims that it always provides that speed and never downgrades it regardless of what you’re doing. It has a multi-direction back LCD rather than a completely articulating screen, although it can be tilted up to face you.