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Mirrorless cameras

6K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  hcaroselli 
#1 ·
I am needing some help finding a good mirrorless digital camera. I want to replace my SLR with something equally capable but more compact. I've been using a Canon DSLR for the past few years but quit carrying it due to its bulk but I'm not thrilled with the cell phone camera. It is not bad but limited. I've been reading about the mirrorless cameras but I keep finding reviews that say they're fragile and the electronics are finicky. Does anyone have a brand or model they recommend?

Carl
 
#2 ·
I am needing some help finding a good mirrorless digital camera. I want to replace my SLR with something equally capable but more compact. I've been using a Canon DSLR for the past few years but quit carrying it due to its bulk but I'm not thrilled with the cell phone camera. It is not bad but limited. I've been reading about the mirrorless cameras but I keep finding reviews that say they're fragile and the electronics are finicky. Does anyone have a brand or model they recommend?

Carl
There's a few "SLR looking" digicams around that aren't DSLRs: they've got a proper viewfinder, only it's a lens and a tiny viewscreen inside the camera, plus they've got the regular useless ~3" screen on the back for checking to see if you got the shot/deleting rejects. My only complaint is that I want one w/ interchangeable lenses, but so far all I've encountered in my price bracket is one w/ built-in autozoom. Of course, in an ideal world someone would have made a drop-in 35mm film pack replacement by now so I could just use my old Nikon FM2 with my existing lenses... :rolleyes:
 
#3 ·
A few years before I called it quits I moved to the Sony A77 for my primary work camera. Weighted less than my Canon gear, professional lens were all as sharp or sharper than Canon L glass.

Sony makes a full line of compact mirrorless SLR cameras. The Sony A6000 seems to be a top contender as best all around small camera.

I am a big fan of the Sony cameras. They made me money and made my clients happy.
 
#7 ·
Have you gone to www.bythom.com? It's helpful. I'm bitterly clinging to a DX sensor and missing medium format tremendously
Amen to that Brother!!! (holds up Hasselblad 503cw with 100 3.5 CFi into shining halo from above) I'll take the extra bulk, Please!!!

Pokey, have you checked out http://www.dpreview.com ?

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/2015-roundups-interchangeable-lens-cameras-500-800

Personally I'll always be in the tank for Canon, M3 for me.

http://www.dpreview.com/buying-guid..._source=mainmenu&utm_medium=text&ref=mainmenu
 
#8 ·
Gotta agree with all of that.

If I had no lenses to consider, and wasn't sort of latched into the Canon system, I would probably look very closely at the Sonys.

But since I am sort of married to the Canon system, I got an EOS-M a few years ago because the "kit" was amazingly cheap. I think I paid $220 for the body with the 17-55mm lens, and have been getting a huge amount of use out of it ever since.

Let me rewind back a ways:

I have a lot of Canon gear from the early 1970s and on through about 1978, FL and FD lenses, FTb body and a couple of F1s, motor drive, etc. I worked at a newspaper for a few years before getting into electronics, and this gear served me well.

I never suckered into that whole autofocus business, so that's kind of where that stopped.

Then about 1998 I got my first digital camera. A Kodak. That lead to more and more digitals as they got smaller, better, cheaper...

But they always lacked the manual control and, of course, TTL viewing. So I finally got a 20D, and then started building a lens collection to work with that. I Got a 40D at one point, and have used those bodies ever since.

The manual FL and FD lenses and those bodies sat unused.

One day, I was at the shooting range, and a tornado hit between the range and town. All of us stopped shooting, wandered over to the edge of the 300 yard range, and watched it. It was spectacular. All I had with me was my Cell phone that day. I'd had a full DSLR setup with me the day before, but alas. So I got some really excellent 640X480 shots of that tornado. When I showed them to people they could see the tornado. Except it was actually a light pole in the foreground. :rolleyes:

After that, I resolved to NEVER be without a decent camera. So I got a little Sony which actually is quite fantastic. Zoom range equivalent to 24mm to about 200mm. Shoots full HD video. Extremely compact. Wonderful. It went with me everywhere, and I got a lot of excellent use of it.

But when the EOS-F came out, and was selling for so cheap, I got one because I really did miss having RAW format, the larger sensor, and interchangeable lenses. Plus, because it's so thin, you can use a simple adapter to let you mount all of those old FL and FD lenses! So I could blow the dust off of them and finally get some use out of those.

And with another simple adapter, it'll mount all of the EF and EF-S lenses. So it's compatible with every single Canon lens I've ever bought!

Not that it's really the body of choice with a huge lens mounted to it, but it works. And it shoots video, which my 40 D doesn't do, so it filled my desire to play with that, yet use my existing "big" lenses, too. Macro video with the MP-E65! Wooo Hoo! :D

Anyhow, my situation may be like yours in some ways.

While I really wish Canon would jump into the mirrorless world with both feet and get serious about it by building an EVIL (electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens) body to use the "M" lenses, the existing M and now the M3 or even M10 (a more budget-minded M body) are there for us people sticking with Canon.

I have yet to get an M3, but I may. My brother got one along with the separate (but apparently quite excellent) electronic viewfinder (it mounts to the hot shoe). He says the EVF is great.

I miss an eye level viewfinder at times. And I'd really like to see Canon offer an "M-like" body with the EVF built in. But I have gotten excellent use out of the old "M". The low-light performance is light years ahead of my 40D, that's for sure. And the IS in the kit lens is great. I've gotten more amazing existing light shots since getting the "M" than I would have imagined.

Now that we've got grandkids, I tend to take it everywhere, and it's allowed me to get what I consider to be very acceptable kid shots in amazingly dim light.

I have used it with my old FD 55mm f/1.2 lens, and with it's 1.6X (APS-C) sensor, that lets me pretend I have an 85mm f/1.2. ;) However, I do notice that the old lenses are not anywhere near as great as I remembered them. Film hid a lot of imperfections, actually! Still, it's nice to have them available again.

The video is handy. The "M" lenses are good. And despite early reviews, the updated firmware makes the autofocus quite usable. I'm sure the new M3 and M10s are a LOT better, but I've not found the old M lacking much, actually.

So in conclusion, I think Sony has taken this idea and run with it better than Canon has at this point. But if you're kind of stuck on Canon the way a lot of us are, I do think the M3 would be a good way to dip your toe into the world of mirrorless.

I use the big, huge DSLR gear when I want a true optical eye level finder. But that's less and less often. The smaller kit is something I can haul around and have with me so much easier.

And really, there are some excellent cameras out there now that do not have interchangeable lenses. For the ultimate in compactness, some of those really are getting to be a viable alternative to a DSLR and bag-O-lenses, too.

Nothing that I've tried yet matches the feel and absolute speed and utility of a full-sized DSLR. But portability really is a consideration. You never know when you'll see a tornado, or bigfoot, or a UFO, or maybe a grandkid doing something adorable!
 
#13 · (Edited)
I don't know if they have an Android App, but my Olympus OMD comes with a very nice app that makes downloading pictures relatively easy. (It is 100x better than the Nikon App meant to accomplish the same thing.) Having said that, it does have a small learning curve.

Currently, I have two camera systems:
Nikon D610 - full frame with lenses and flashes.
Olympus OM-D M10 - mirrorless m4/3 system. (I have a Nikon 1 camera, but it sucks.)

Simply put, a good DLSR will outperform a mirrorless camera because the size allows faster lenses and more control. But, a good mirrorless camera can do 90% of the work in a small package.

My usage pattern: I carry the Oly almost everywhere and get almost every shot I need/want (subject to my skill & having the right lens with me).

But, if I have to get the shot, I use the D610. At full resolution (not compressed for the w.eb), the colors on the original) picture can't be matched by my mirrorless camera.

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#10 ·
take a look here.

they do alot of work on revising cameras and their pictures.

http://www.imaging-resource.com

there are alot of digital mirrorless camera out there. just know what you want in terms of features and such.

one comment. what i found out a couple years ago when i was doing my research was that its not the pixel count that makes the picture even tho it can. But it was the combination of pixel count, lens and software. just something to think about.

good luck.
 
#11 ·
Thanks again for the new sites! Sweetmk, I definitely agree with you on having the capability to download like an phone but I find them a bit limited. If there was a way to have the features of a DSLR on a phone, I'd be all over that!

I really enjoyed both of my Canon cameras but I'm not a professional so they were a lot to carry. I'm leaning toward a Sony A6000 since Amazon has a deal on them. All the different websites seem to like them. I just haven't pulled the trigger since I'm worried this Sony will be only moderately less bulky. I'll see if I can find a local dealer ao I can at least handle one.

Carl
 
#12 ·
A lot of cameras now have wifi and/or near field or bluetooth communication. The EOS-M3 and M10 both do. The old M does not.

Samsung made or maybe still makes a pretty serious camera that has a phone built in and does all of that sharing stuff that is common with the phones.

Pixel count really isn't the be all and end all. But if the size of the sensors are the same, and the quantum efficiency is the same, then more pixels does allow for more flexibility in the image processing. It's like having a higher sampling rate in digital audio. It lets you do more with the digital filtering to deal with noise and artifacts.

It really does pay to read the reviews at sites like dpreview, etc., to get a good overview of what the various choices have to offer. There are a lot of great cameras out there.

Tabbed in.
 
#14 ·
Well,, I got tired of carrying the Nikon D7000 so I ordered a Nikon S6900 ($89)
For that price, if it is lost, destroyed, etc,,, there will be no tears!! :D

Hopefully,,, it will take my walking around pics,,, :confused:

If nothing else,, I will learn what the downloading is all about,,, :bthumb:
 
#15 ·
Similar to UncleFester, I have an OM-D E-M1, which I purchased after trying out a fellow shooter's E-M1. I had, already, purchased a used E-P1 kit, which I used on photo-safari in Southern Africa in 2015. In addition to the above I have Nikons: D80, D300s and D7100 with various lenses. I decided that the hassle of the weight and bulk of the Nikons had become too much. I am happy that I have decided to make the change from Nikon and am now building up my collection of micro 4/3rd and 4/3rd lenses. Eventually I expect to get rid of the D80 and D300s (unless I convert one of them to full infra-red) and possibly add an E-M10 mark 2 to the line-up. This years photo-safari, which encompassed South Africa>Botswana>Namibia>Botswana (north)>Zimbabwe>South Africa, required the purchase of a Peli-type case to carry all the cameras and lenses, just less than 32Kg. The tripods, spotting scopes and binoculars went into my clothing luggage. Another 32Kg.
 
#17 ·
:p:p:p I've been studying on this whole thing for a couple of months now. Just when I decide I'm going to get the Canon 80D with the three exact lenses that I want.......mirrorless pops up. Even the professionals are debating this. Some say DSLRs will never be replaced.....others say they are already on their way out. I'm pretty sure that for most of our needs.....even those that make their living with a camera......either format can work fine.


Gotta have that through the lens view that only a DSLR offers......we then, why are all the top of the line DSLRs coming with screens. Screens....allow you to see exactly what your picture will look like....no surprises when you download and they have very fast touch adjustments. As far as speed of focus...the DSLRs are on top but not by much.....while the mirrorless cameras excel at video including this mysterious 4K....which I'm not sure what you watch that on to begin with. Then there is a wider variety of lenses for DSLRs and they offer full frame sensors.....yet a crop sensor model seems to be on equal footing picture quality wise unless you are blowing the pictures up to 8'. And....full frame mirrorless are cropping up everywhere....but, cropped sensors give you a bonus multiplication factor for your lenses....which make a 100mm lense effectively a 150mm lense and on and on and on. It's enough to make you pull your hair out.

Which is why I haven't been able to make up my mind yet. These things have gotten down to which Ruger MK series pistol outperforms the other MK pistols???

I'm down to the Canon 80D with a 50mm F1.4 for my prime, small, carry around lense. A 16mm to 35mm F 1.4 and then a mild telephoto up to say 200mm. All good lenses. This will run about $3500 I expect.......or.......the smaller Sony A7,II, S, R......A series full frame mirrorless cameras that run from $1200 to $3000 for the body. Again a very adequate supply of lenses exist that duplicate the ones I want for the Canon. The Sony is 1/2 the size of the Canon......but when you start slapping on big telephotos....these smaller cameras are no longer small. The A series are full frame, have an electronic viewfinder and screen of course.......

Just when I'm almost persuaded that is what I want.....the $600, 6000 or 7000 or whatever it is Sony series which has the next step down in size sensor, is an even smaller camera, has a pretty wide selection of exceptional lenses, gives you the advantage of longer focal length for any given MM telephoto.....well, I'm stuck.

OK, the $600 camera does not have five or even three axis stabilization....whatever that is....and I don't know if I really need it. All offer stabilization in the body or the lens.....all you have to do is be willing to pay for it. I don't have any existing lenses to worry about. The Sony has a lot of focus points....not as many as some of the high end DSLRs.....but, how many is enough?

I'm not to sure the guy with the good point and shoot isn't ahead of us all.....you sure won't take any pictures if you don't have your camera with you......and all of those adjustments.....that is going to take a good deal of time for me to benefit from them...DSLR or mirrorless. I did look at a $1000 Nikon point and shoot....oh man. DSLR, large and easy to hold, point and shoot....the mirrorless, not quite as good of a grip...but not bad. Good luck with it.....I'm going to get something.....soon. 1917
 
#18 ·
I'm not to sure the guy with the good point and shoot isn't ahead of us all.....you sure won't take any pictures if you don't have your camera with you......and all of those adjustments.....1917
I hate to throw a wrench into the equation,,, BUT,,,,,
my latest Samsung phone comes mighty close to the performance of my Nikon D7000,,, Hmmmmm



For posting pics on gun (or tractor) forums,, my phone,,, IS the answer.
The phone is bulletproof, always in my pocket,, and been in use continuously for 1 year now.
NO mirrorless/DSLR/point&shoot could take that abuse and survive a year.
AND,,, it only cost a little under $400

The phone will get in tight places,, and take a pic that none of the 3 others could,,,



This pic of moving precious cargo was taken from 150 feet away,,,



No way I would have had my DSLR with me on this trip to the top of the mountain,,,



Carry a DSLR while digging ditches??? NEVER!!





Just my opinion,,,
 
#19 ·
I sold my Nikon DSLRs a few years ago and switched to the Micro Four Thirds system. I have three Panasonic Lumix models, all purchased used from KEH.

I have a friend, a retired news photographer for a Detroit paper, who loves his Fuji, and another friend who thinks the Sony system is great.

Thing is, they’re all good. Given that most of use post most of our photos on the net, and rarely print anything, camera resolution isn’t a factor anymore, so long as you’re dealing with cameras with a decent sized sensor. Image quality is more about lens contrast and resolution.

I knew a guy who was photographing Formula 1 in the 1990s with a Nikon D1, the first Nikon DSLR. It had a resolution of 1.4 megapixels, and his photos were spread across the pages of the glossy F1 magazines.
 
#20 ·
One question...

I sold my Nikon DSLRs a few years ago and switched to the Micro Four Thirds system. I have three Panasonic Lumix models, all purchased used from KEH.
I'm pondering buying a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds, are they compatible with other Four Third lenses.

In short, I'd be buying a Panasonic body and Olympus or Nikon lenses.

Will they work together?

:F
 
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