Yeah, Tony's click-bate titles and news sensationalism and exaggeration can really be annoying; however, I'm not throwing the "baby out with the bath water". There might be some underlying truths, here.
Camera sales have been continuously falling for a number of years, partly due to smartphones. There is little question that AI content generation will displace real photography, to some degree. I have a lot of professional photographer friends and their businesses continue to shrink, year after year.
It really hit home for me a couple weeks ago. My wife asked if I could take some portrait headshots of her for her business. I started to think about which studio backgrounds and strobes/modifiers I would use. Later that day, she said she no longer needed the shots. She took a selfie with her phone, then sent the image to an AI processor. They sent back 30 images with different backgrounds, etc. They looked great. While as a photographer I could tell they were AI manipulated, I would guess that most folks would never know. This is just a hobby for me, but if I was a pro, and she was a potential client, this could have been a situation where I lost income.
I am starting to see on social platforms where non-photographers are starting to post some fairly sophisticated images that previously would have taken a Photoshop expert to create. This movement is growing and AI image manipulation/generation is growing more realistic at an astounding rate. On YouTube, I'm starting to see videos where I need a really discerning eye to see that they were AI generated. In a year, or two, I would guess that the technology will improve to where it will be really tough to distinguish real from fake.
IMHO, to think that all this will not impact the sale of cameras/lenses is just burying our heads in the sand. Tony may not be completely correct in his proclamations, but he may not be completely wrong, either.
Feb 08, 2026 at 07:19 AM
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