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Tuesday, 24 July 2018

MIRRORLESS V DSLR (again!!!)

Lots of people getting very hot and bothered about the sightings of the new mirrorless Nikon. Plus of course lots of 'DSLR's are dead' comments. Well as I'm about to go out the door this afternoon with my Canon 5DS R, I can assure people that my DSLR is very much alive.

And what do the mass of people who still buy stand alone cameras think about this? Well my guess is absolutely nothing. Many will not know (or want to know) the difference between them anyway. Plus their two most asked questions are probably - 1. 'How much is it?' and 2. Is it a good make? Now most people may not know much about cameras but they 'know' that Nikon and Canon are 'good makes.' Because after all people on TV and in movies use them.

If I go out to do some 'serious' photographic work, I usually choose between my Leica SL (Typ 601) or my Canon 5DS R. One is mirrorless, the other is a DSLR. But the reason I choose between them is nothing to do with whether they have a mirror or not, it's about other things. And I guess this illustrates the difference between those of us that earn our livings as photographers and those who pursue it as a hobby. To me I will choose whatever of my cameras I think is right for what I want to do. And that goes for every other other professional photographer I know. OK, so most of us are in a position to have more than one camera to choose from, but many 'enthusiast / hobbyist / advanced amateur' photographers are in exactly the same position.

I would give just one very simple reason why I still use DSLR's. I changed the batteries in my Canon 5DS R the other day. First time in about 6 weeks, during which time I had used it for about 5 stock shoots. Now a mirrorless camera will never be able to do that. Well not until they radically overhaul battery design. I still remember shooting weddings, taking 3500+ images and still having 1/2 a batteries power left in my camera / grip combination at the end of it. For me it's just one less thing to to think about.

Stock photography by david martyn hughes at Alamy

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