Pages: 1 2 [3]   Go Down

Author Topic: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?  (Read 11943 times)

owinthomas

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 32
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #40 on: May 22, 2017, 07:39:11 pm »

One happy bunny here.

I went the Fujifilm route (X-Pro1, X-T1 and a bunch of lenses. I've recently traded the X-Pro1 for X-Pro2) from Canon.

I've never regretted the move and my back and shoulders thank me every time I go out shooting.
Logged

Del

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 63
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #41 on: May 22, 2017, 10:51:12 pm »

It took me a long time to pull the trigger, much longer than I even imagined in the face of most of my friends leading the way.  I went from Canon and a lot of glass to Fuji Xpro-2 and three lenses to date (just into it about 6 weeks at this point).  I feel liberated.  I still have my Canon's and some glass for birding, etc.

I also print a lot (shows my age apparently), but I just love it. I don't really regret not jumping on the bandwagon, but am glad I now have.  But hey, I still buy Vinyl to play on my 1977 Vintage Stereo Equipment-and I don't see that changing-ever.
Logged
Del

bernie west

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 323
    • Wild Photo Australia
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #42 on: May 24, 2017, 02:13:35 am »

I've just sold all my nikon full frame gear and moved to fujifilm x.  I've used a X100 a couple of years ago, but had pretty much forgotten the feeling.  The first thing that I really miss is looking through a big TTL viewfinder.  It's hard to beat that clarity and feeling.  While the EVF's are great, it's just not the same.  I guess it's just a matter of getting used to them.
Logged

Petrus

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 952
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #43 on: May 24, 2017, 05:11:26 am »

I have a full complement of pro Nikons and lenses provided by the publishing company I work for, but during the last few years I have started to use my own set of Fujis more and more, especially on reportage type assignments. First X-Pro1, then X-T1 and now 2 X-T2 bodies. They are just so much lighter and smaller and lack nothing in image quality (well, 800e still has a slight edge). They are also much quieter, an extra bonus sometimes.

After retirement (just 5 weeks left...) I am not going to take the DSLRs with me but plan to use just the Fujis, and also my wife's Sony RX10 III for birding. Technology has come a long way, not only during my whole 40 year career, but only during the past few years. Faster, lighter, optically better cameras with great sensors. Cheap.

Sometimes OVF is better,  though, but not anymore often enough to warrant the size, weight and cost.
Logged

David S

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 311
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #44 on: May 24, 2017, 07:28:32 am »

As others have said, it is to some extent a matter of personal choice and something I will call "fit." My last film camera was a Nikon 90 but my first digital camera was an early Konica and initially I had issues but with better EVF they no longer bother me. I am happy with the Fuji line but there it isn't just the EVF or OVF but how the camera feels in my hands and how I and the camera work together. Wouldn't work for others but sure works for me.

Dave S
Logged

Hywel

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 294
    • http://www.restrainedelegance.com
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #45 on: May 25, 2017, 07:06:56 am »

Up until the last few days I would have said yes, I am happy with my mirrorless system.

I just did an intensive three-day multi-model vintage fashion shoot. I had eight shooting areas set up, and was flitting between them.

This client needs web images, and I know they can handle Canon files and have liked Canon colours before now. So as on previous shoots with them, my main workhorse camera was a Canon 7D (mark one) with 24-70 mm f/2.8 L (mark one). A bit primitive by modern standards, I thought. For my own website I usually shoot either Hasselblad H3D31ii or latterly Sony A7Rii. The Hassy is out of the question for this client (I'm not teaching them the ins and outs of Phocus workflow, and if Moire happens, it can be intolerable for this client's clothes).

But because I needed a backup system, I brought along the Sony and shot with it for some sets.

And oh my god it was a reminder how far Sony have to go to sort out ergonomics and user interface.

It was a bit of a revelation how much faster and more confidently I could work with the Canon - a camera which never actually was my workhorse (I bought it for video at the start of the dSLR revolution, to replace a 5D Mark I which had been a workhorse but which has different control layout). The Sony has been my go-to camera for well over a year now, with me racking up maybe 100,000+ shots on it. You'd have figured that the camera I use daily would seem more familiar than the old one I'd not shot with in almost a year, wouldn't you? But it didn't.

Now the results of the Sony are duly impressive on the technical front, no doubt. I likely won't be printing any of the 7D shots to 24" x 36" for gallery display.

But bloody hell, it was a lot easier and more productive to shoot with than the cussed Sony, whose user interface still pretty much guarantees menu hunting and many more missed shots. The Sony has a mode for everything, but to get the shot you need to change to the right mode. The model starts to move or do some walking shots? You'd better switch to AFC and the right sort of AF settings and get your zones sorted. If you press and hope, it'll mess up. The Canon has lots of modes too, but my experience was that in use, if I forgot to change over when the model stared to move, the camera would do a pretty workmanlike job of getting it right regardless.

The Sony felt like a fussy highly-strung old maid by comparison. Capable of excellent results. But if you don't get the settings just so, it'll sulk and may not shoot a single usable frame until you change modes. Oh, and you won't get through a day's shoot on a single battery like you will with the Canon either. 

So the Sony remains a technical tour-de-force, with great lenses, a lot lighter than the Canon (essential for mountain photography) and very many fantastic features.

I'd dearly love someone to take the same A7Rii innards into a completely redesigned camera. Like completely rethought and re-engineered layout and physical design and everything.

The shoot has made me rediscover the virtues of a solid dSLR with a decent zoom lens (the 35-135 equivalence of a 24-70 on APS-C is just perfect for people/fashion photography). I'm keeping my Canon kit, and I will look at a 7D Mark II when I finally burn out the shutter on the 7D.

Of course, mirrorless systems are just getting going whereas the dSLR has 15-ish years of development, and borrow a lot of tech from the film era. I think there's more strengths and weaknesses in the mirrorless systems: I much prefer the UI of the GH4 to that of the Sony, but the GH4 can't compete with 42 megapixels full frame and dynamic range of the Sony, for example. dSLR's are Swiss Army Knives- do anything, but not quite as well as an actual screwdriver or saw. Mirrorless systems are more like a single-purpose tool. It'll cut you angles at exactly 90 degrees or exactly 45 degrees, but it won't let you bodge through when you want 63 and a half degrees.

It confirmed my prejudice that if I had to pick just ONE camera system to shoot everything with, I'd still go for a Canon dSLR, regardless of how it all looks on paper.

Cheers, Hywel




 
« Last Edit: May 25, 2017, 07:13:01 am by Hywel »
Logged

rdonson

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3263
Re: Previous DSLR users, are you happy with your mirrorless system?
« Reply #46 on: May 25, 2017, 09:40:14 am »

Hywel, the recently released A9 may point the way to improved ergonomics for the Sony future offerings.  Sony faithful are optimistic with what they see in the A9. 
Logged
Regards,
Ron
Pages: 1 2 [3]   Go Up