In this article I am going to explain about Mirrorless Cameras, What is the hype about Mirrorless Cameras? How is it exactly different than the DSLR Cameras?
It's not a new topic, Mirrorless cameras have been in the market for a long time people are familiar with it, The million-dollar question is- Should you invest your money in purchasing a Mirrorless camera? I am going to answer this question in this article. So without any nonsense let's get to the point.
Differences in DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras:
First, let's quickly understand the difference between a DSLR and a Mirrorless Camera. In a DSLR you have a mirror with a light that hits and it passes to the optical viewfinder when you actually take a picture this mirror is moving out of the way and it is revealing the image sensor and then the picture is captured. The major difference between a DSLR Camera and a Mirrorless Camera as the name suggests is the absence of this particular mirror, there is no mirror present in a Mirrorless camera so there is no optical viewfinder. What you have in Mirrorless cameras is an electronic viewfinder.
What is an Electronic Viewfinder?
An electronic viewfinder is basically a miniature version of the display that your camera has that's it. A professional cameraman prefers an electronic viewfinder over the optical viewfinder the reason is when a cameraman is using a DSLR and he/she is changing the exposure he/she is not able to see the live changes through the optical viewfinder, so when I take the picture the exposure that he/she sees in the optical viewfinder is very different than the final picture., whereas if a person is using an electronic viewfinder this problem won't occur.
Why Mirrorless cameras are so compact?
The reason why Mirrorless Cameras are so compact is that the mirror is taken away from the camera system and that saves a lot of space but that's not the only advantage you get by removing the mirror. As I explained before every time you take a picture through a DSLR Camera the mirror has to move away and then the picture is captured. Now when we are talking about capturing a single picture the time is not much but when we are talking about consecutive images the time gets added, like for example if we are talking about shooting 10/20/30 pictures this will make a difference, that is why you can see the latest Mirrorless Cameras can shoot 20/30 fps but the DSLR's can't do that. Even the autofocus in the Mirrorless Cameras have been improved drastically, if you compare the latest Mirrorless Cameras with the older DSLR cameras you will see the Mirrorless Cameras have eye autofocus, face autofocus, and they can also track the subject continuously when you are shooting videos. So in terms of technology Mirrorless Cameras are a step ahead of the SLRs.
One myth that some people have is that Mirrorless cameras are better than DSLR in terms of picture quality, Now this is absolutely wrong because the picture quality is dependent on the image sensor and doesn't matter if it's a DSLR or a Mirrorless camera. So for example, if there are two Cameras one is a DSLR the other one is a Mirrorless Camera both Cameras have the same sensors they will have pretty much similar picture quality.
Should you buy a Mirrorless Camera?
So now that we know the differences and have a better understanding of Mirrorless Cameras the question is should you buy one?
There are a lot of things to take into consideration while making this decision. The first important thing is, do you own a DSLR? If you don't own a DSLR and this is your first Camera, I would recommend choosing a Mirrorless camera system because companies are developing Mirrorless camera systems now and have stopped developing DSLR's So if you're looking for long term usage the Mirrorless camera is obviously a better investment. If you own a DSLR and you're thinking of whether you should or should not upgrade to a Mirrorless camera system you should think about why do you want to upgrade what are the limitations of your current camera body.
If you are into Videography I would highly recommend you to a Mirrorless system not only it focuses well but also it's more suitable for videography as a Mirrorless Camera is lightweight when you're using it with a Gimbal or you're shooting handheld that extra weight difference makes a lot of difference. Most of the Mirrorless Cameras can shoot in 4K some of them can even shoot in 8K and also slow-motion videos. So if you are a videographer or Filmmaker a Mirrorless Camera is definitely a better choice.
Talking about Photography it depends on the genre that you're shooting. If you're a Portrait Photographer a Mirrorless Camera is going to be a gamechanger for you. Once you start using face and eye autofocus and you get habituated of it and then you again start using a DSLR you have to manually move the focusing points you realize how easy how to convenient it is to use eye and face autofocus.
If you're into Wildlife and Sports or any kind of Action Photography where you need a faster camera don't only focus on the FPS of the camera because in the Mirrorless cameras there's one problem with the electronic viewfinders that are blackout now what is blackout basically when you are capturing a picture there's a black screen that comes for a fraction of a second and moves away when you're doing High-Speed Photography and the subject is moving you need to track that subject and blackout will be an issue. So if you're into wildlife sports or any action genre you need to find a camera that has less or no blackout. For example, if you choose the Sony A9 and if you're an electronic shutter you practically get no amazing blackout.
Talking about genres like Landscape Architecture Street the Mirrorless Camera doesn't make a lot of difference, but the EVF does make a lot of difference just because I can see the Exposure changes in the viewfinder that is a game-changer.
Lenses:
The next important point is the Lenses. If you have invested a lot in the Lenses that are compatible with the DSLR Cameras and you're switching to a Mirrorless system of the same company chances are those lenses will work fine if you're using an adapter. The problem is if you're using an adapter you're not using the full potential of the camera body. For example, when I am using a native lens specially made for Mirrorless cameras. I am getting five-axis stabilization but when I am using an adapted lens with an adapter I am only getting three axis of stabilization this is just one example the bottom point is you are not utilizing the full potential of the Lens. Native lenses are expensive, no doubt amazing quality but they are expensive, When you talk about Nikon and Canon they don't support lenses from Sigma and Tamron and Nikon and Canon the first party Lenses are terribly expensive when it comes to Sony it supports Sigma and Tamron Lenses and this is a huge deal from a budget perspective. When you compare the price of first party and third party Lenses the price difference is huge even though the quality difference is not that huge, this is a very important point while switching to a Mirrorless camera system and I really hope Nikon and Canon in the future start supporting third party Lenses. As I said before Budget is a huge factor when you're thinking of upgrading to a Mirrorless Camera System the current market scenario is you have a lot of options if you're looking for expensive Full-Frame Mirrorless Cameras but if you're looking for a good budget Crop Sensor Mirrorless Cameras you don't have very good options you have some good options but the number of options is less comparatively. Even if we talk about lenses there are more lenses made for Full Frame Mirrorless Cameras and very few Lenses made for Mirrorless Crop Sensor Cameras.
Conclusion:
So when you are thinking of Updating to a Mirrorless Camera System if you're on a tight budget I would not recommend the Mirrorless Camera System. If you have a Good Budget If you want the latest Camera Technology definitely go with the Mirrorless Camera System it's not going to disappoint you. However, no camera is perfect Mirrorless Cameras are not an exception there are few problems with Mirrorless Cameras. One is Battery Life Second is the Blackout Issue and also the Mirrorless Cameras Overheat a lot when you're shooting at High Resolution and High FPS also the number of Lenses available for the Mirrorless Cameras are less compared to DSLR's but these problems are getting gradually and the situation has improved a lot when you compare the Current Cameras with the Cameras that were an available couple of years before and the situation is going to improve. Mirrorless Cameras is the present and Future of Photography and Videography. Companies are working a lot harder with the firmware updates as well, it's just a software update but the performance of the camera improves a lot. So definitely the future of Mirrorless Camera is very bright.
That's it for this article. I hope you find this article helpful for making your purchase decision and got to learn more about Mirrorless Cameras. Stay tuned to CERadar for more such content.
0 Comments