The glee some people exhibit when DSLR camera sales drop and mirrorless camera sales rise is difficult to understand. To me it's a bit like celebrating the fact that sales of beer drop and sales of whiskey rise. If DSLR cameras fade away, driven out of the marketplace by constant and never ending mirrorless hype, then we will all be the poorer for it, because our choices diminish. These days there are many DSLR cameras that are lighter, smaller and cheaper than certain mirrorless cameras, so none of these can be regarded as good reasons for DSLR haters. And the worst thing is that camera manufacturers seem to collaborating in attempting to phase out the kind of cameras they made their reputation with.
Above are images from one of my interior property shoots from the weekend. Camera used was my Nikon D850 camera, with Laowa 15mm and Nikon 20mm lenses. For the interiors I used the camera on a tripod in Live View, 45MP using focus peaking at ISO 31. Pretty much in the same way as I used mirrorless cameras in the past.
The Nikon performed as it usually did, efficiently. Using live view you can select an electronic shutter which makes the camera virtually silent. I also used the self timer set to two seconds, to avoid shake when pressing the shutter. This was a professional paid job and the estate agents who I was working for were happy with the pictures and the house sold within three days. The whole thing was fuss free and while I could have used any high res camera, I enjoyed using the camera.
The following images are from a couple of stock shoots using the Nikon D850 with a 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.
Now I've seen some reviews of the superzoom that made me laugh. One video review on YouTube said very emphatically that this was an 'amateur' lens that would never be used by a professional because the quality wasn't good enough. But then I'm a professional and I use it and the 'reviewer' was just some shop assistant at a camera shop. So what's going on here?
Well it's the well documented case of lens snobbery. It seems that many amateur / enthusiast photographers are more interested in owning and using expensive prime lenses, because they think that's what professionals use. However that's actually not the case. All the pro photographers I know work to a budget. And now with CoronaVirus affecting our incomes, this becomes even more important. Wedding and Event photographers are seriously suffering, as are theatre and performing arts photographers. And as a travel photographer the implosion of the travel market is having it's effect on me.
So more than ever we have to be careful about what we buy. The D850 and Z7 cameras I use are both second hand, as indeed are many of my lenses. In addition to this professionals are much more concerned about how useful a lens is to them. For example my 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom is totally useless for a wedding photographer, it's way too slow, but since I'm walking around the countryside in good light, it's incredibly useful for me. The idea of carrying around a set of prime lenses that cover the focal lengths of the zoom, is something I don't want to contemplate. However walking around with the zoom I can leave it on the camera and it covers what I need it too.
OK there is a drop in quality as it's currently impossible to make a superzoom to the same quality as a prime, but the difference is far less than some would have you believe. Plus a bit of sharpening in Photoshop works wonders. And of course carrying around a set of primes would mean I miss stuff while changing lenses.
So I'm very happy with my DSLR / Superzoom combination. Put simply, I get the shot. When I'm out shooting I don't have to worry about changing lenses and batteries. I can just concentrate on taking pictures. There is no sense that I'm missing anything. The D850 is good enough at higher ISO's to allow me to keep a decent shutter speed at the 300mm end of the zoom and the lens does have built in stabilisation anyway.
What we select in terms of cameras and lenses should be because of how useful they are for us. However, some photographers seem to think more about what they think they should have, rather than what is most useful for them. And I suspect that won't change either. But as ever, it's all down to personal choice, even though those choices may seem to lack some common sense.
