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I’m saving up for a new camera. For a while I thought I knew which one I wanted (Nikon D850) but my head has recently been turned by the mirrorless market and now I’m not sure what to go for. The D850 is a superb camera and will almost certainly cater for all my needs. The main worry for me is that I get left behind by investing in a system that’s maybe coming to the west end of its day. Mirrorless looks like the future of DSLR’s. If you were upgrading your camera, would you go mirrorless? Has anyone here already gone mirrorless?

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21 hours ago, jamamafegan said:

I’m saving up for a new camera. For a while I thought I knew which one I wanted (Nikon D850) but my head has recently been turned by the mirrorless market and now I’m not sure what to go for. The D850 is a superb camera and will almost certainly cater for all my needs. The main worry for me is that I get left behind by investing in a system that’s maybe coming to the west end of its day. Mirrorless looks like the future of DSLR’s. If you were upgrading your camera, would you go mirrorless? Has anyone here already gone mirrorless?

OK, I'll go first.

Spoiler

 

All from a Canon perspective. Never liked EVFs (electronic viewfinders), had them on consumer cameras in the past. Up till November I was working with a 5D4, full frame for landscapes, and a 7D2, crop sensor for wildlife & sport. Knew loads of folk in my camera club with mirrorless and they all said they were the bees knees, but they weren't really needing the same things as me.
In November I got a fantastic price on a Canon EOS R so it was pretty much an impulse buy. If it wasn't up to the job for wildlife & sport I could use it for landscapes. It had a fold out screen so that's a big help if you're using a tripod at waist or knee height. Sold the 7D2. Got some decent shots over the winter with the R but didn't really try it on birds in flight, and there was no football.

Couldn't decide if the R was better than the 5D4 but then the 5D4 developed a minor fault and I decided to move it on. Now I only had one camera, then the football came back. Wasn't happy at my first game, missed some shots, partly my fault (no match fitness 😉 ) but not sure about the blackouts when you shot in burst mode. I also didn't realise that I could do better switching to electronic shutter rather than mechanical. Next day I covered another match and it was a good bit better.

But about 3 of my mates had got the EOS R5 by this time and it was a bit of a game changer. The processor is 2 generations on, the burst speed is 20fps and that solves the blackouts. It also has IBIS so if you use it with Canon IS lenses you can get about 8 stops of stabilisation. I got a shot of one and decided to get the wife in a good mood and borrow a couple of grand out the funds. Went up the road to Ullapool on the way to Lewis and stopped at Ffordes in Beauly and traded in the R. So since July 1 everything I've shot is mirrorless.

It was a big jump to the R5 money-wise and I could have got the R6 as a halfway house. 

What you also get with mirrorless is eye recognition for people or animals so on servo you can track things amazingly well. This is quite a biggie, it wasn't possible with a DSLR. The images are 45MP so I haven't even tried out the Dual Pixel raw yet.  It eats batteries though because of the viewfinder so for the first time in my life I've had to buy spares. I was on the Isle of May on Tues and I got just over 300 RAW files from a charge. No false modesty, I was probably the no 1 guy in my club for wildlife but it took a few years of experience. A few guys now are getting good results right away by buying the R5 or the Sony equivalent. I don't know so much about Nikon, there were a lot of Canon users switching to the 850D when it came out but that's a traditional DSLR. Some of them have moved to mirrorless with Sony or back to Canon. Quite a few people I know have gone to Olympus micro 4/3 where everything is smaller, mainly the women though.

 

 

Edited by The Mantis
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OK, I'll go first.
Spoiler

 
All from a Canon perspective. Never liked EVFs (electronic viewfinders), had them on consumer cameras in the past. Up till November I was working with a 5D4, full frame for landscapes, and a 7D2, crop sensor for wildlife & sport. Knew loads of folk in my camera club with mirrorless and they all said they were the bees knees, but they weren't really needing the same things as me.
In November I got a fantastic price on a Canon EOS R so it was pretty much an impulse buy. If it wasn't up to the job for wildlife & sport I could use it for landscapes. It had a fold out screen so that's a big help if you're using a tripod at waist or knee height. Sold the 7D2. Got some decent shots over the winter with the R but didn't really try it on birds in flight, and there was no football.
Couldn't decide if the R was better than the 5D4 but then the 5D4 developed a minor fault and I decided to move it on. Now I only had one camera, then the football came back. Wasn't happy at my first game, missed some shots, partly my fault (no match fitness [emoji6] ) but not sure about the blackouts when you shot in burst mode. I also didn't realise that I could do better switching to electronic shutter rather than mechanical. Next day I covered another match and it was a good bit better.
But about 3 of my mates had got the EOS R5 by this time and it was a bit of a game changer. The processor is 2 generations on, the burst speed is 20fps and that solves the blackouts. It also has IBIS so if you use it with Canon IS lenses you can get about 8 stops of stabilisation. I got a shot of one and decided to get the wife in a good mood and borrow a couple of grand out the funds. Went up the road to Ullapool on the way to Lewis and stopped at Ffordes in Beauly and traded in the R. So since July 1 everything I've shot is mirrorless.
It was a big jump to the R5 money-wise and I could have got the R6 as a halfway house. 
What you also get with mirrorless is eye recognition for people or animals so on servo you can track things amazingly well. This is quite a biggie, it wasn't possible with a DSLR. The images are 45MP so I haven't even tried out the Dual Pixel raw yet.  It eats batteries though because of the viewfinder so for the first time in my life I've had to buy spares. I was on the Isle of May on Tues and I got just over 300 RAW files from a charge. No false modesty, I was probably the no 1 guy in my club for wildlife but it took a few years of experience. A few guys now are getting good results right away by buying the R5 or the Sony equivalent. I don't know so much about Nikon, there were a lot of Canon users switching to the 850D when it came out but that's a traditional DSLR. Some of them have moved to mirrorless with Sony or back to Canon. Quite a few people I know have gone to Olympus micro 4/3 where everything is smaller, mainly the women though.
 

 



Thanks for the response Mantis. That’s a very pro mirrorless post! Yeah, the electronic EF is something I’m not the biggest fan of but I suppose it just takes getting used to. The eye detection technology sounds like a major advantage for wildlife photography. Not a fan of the poor battery life although the difference in weight is a plus.

I’m upgrading to full frame format which will mean having to get a kit so I have a landscape lens. Going mirrorless is going to bump the price of this up significantly, and I’ll need an adapted as well. Lots to ponder.
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6 hours ago, The Mantis said:

Sea stacks at Mangurstadh. The best view of them is from the south:

7J1A6074.thumb.jpg.96647544d865169c77cc08576126700f.jpg

But you can only get the sunset perched on the cliff east of them:

QS6A6734.thumb.jpg.466c6b757cf42cb209019c6059527193.jpg

They're lovely snaps. It's amazing how you can get all the "Colin Baxter" stuff that took really expensive kit even 10/15 years ago with nothing more than a good eye and relatively inexpensive equipment.

Love both those pictures.

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  • 3 weeks later...
32 minutes ago, Stevo Fife said:

The Old Kirk, Arinagour, Isle of Coll. 

Froze my bollocks off at 1am in the morning. Milky way wasn't happening that night but the shot turned out ok I think.

20210808-_SDJ3047.jpg

I think the big bright one to the left of the tower is Jupiter.

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