Erik,
Yes, this is now. Prices do change with time.
But it is not easy to just lower prices for the mirrorless guys. Most of them appear to be losing money at the present time.
Canon and Nikon have put in place at great cost a very efficient machine from design to production that enables them to release extremely high performance DSLRs at extremely low prices.
This discussion is not about technology, it is about excellence in execution and the impact thereof on the ability of companies to release products at the right price point relative to their competition.
Cheers,
Bernard
Very good points. The critical one is this:
"Canon and Nikon have put in place at great cost a very efficient machine from design to production that enables them to release extremely high performance DSLRs at extremely low prices."
This is both their short term strength and their long term weakness. They are very wedded to their current profit lines and are loath to disrupt their cash flow. But in the long run, it will end. The question is will they be the dominate players in the post-DSLR world, or will it be someone else.
The camera line Canon needs to make:
A mirror-less body with a brand new, 24x24mm 24mp sensor. The 24mm is chosen because a: it's big enough, and b: the current EF lenses are internally baffled so that they can't use a 36x36 sensor.
A new line of lenses to take full advantage of the sensor.
EF and EF-S fully supported via an adapter.
Selectable format with native and EF lenses, 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 2:3. EF-S lens only in 3:2, the camera will auto-crop the sensor output to the current APS-C size.
State of the art EVF.
This wouldn't be and shouldn't be a cheap camera. About 7D price. This should be Canon stating "This is the future, get on board or be left behind". Most of the native lenses, at least in the beginning, should be in the wides to normal range, the EF legacy lenses can handle the longer stuff.