Why Upgrading from a DSLR to Mirrorless Isn't a Slam Dunk
Plus: Hot-take mini reviews of Fujifilm GFX100RF and Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2; Lightroom updates; and old-school wet-process prints from your digital photos.
We’re still in the thick of cherry blossom season in Washington, D.C., which has meant a lot of sunrise shooting for me in the past week (and also some in the rain). I’ll include some shots in next week’s newsletter after the bloom winds down. For today, I’ve included some shots from Granada, Nicaragua, a very photogenic and fun town I’d head back to in a heartbeat.
DSLRs are Dead. Long Live the DSLR.
There’s a lot to like about mirrorless cameras. They come with a lot of whizz-bang features, some of which are genuinely useful. They’re often smaller. They’re naturally quieter. And their reconfigured lens flange requirements have allowed lens manufacturers to step up their game.
Sales of DSLRs have been on a steep slide for years. They now amount to a rounding error in terms of all cameras sold these days1 The reality is the market has moved on, and manufacturers have stopped making new ones.
But I think it’s a mistake to write DSLRs off just yet or put them in the back of the cupboard. Because there’s still a lot to like about them. And there are some things they do even better than mirrorless.
So whether you’re wondering whether to sell your DSLR gear and migrate to mirrorless, or whether you want validation for a choice you’ve already made, I thought it might be worth a quick reality check. Because we hear a lot about the great new things that mirrorless bring to the party. But you hear much less about the areas where DSLRs still lead the way.
I shoot with both, and DSLRs still shine in some very practical ways.
First is battery life. Unless you’re using the back screen constantly, you generally get much better mileage from a battery in a DSLR because the optical viewfinder takes much less power than a fully electronic one.2 And in-body stabilization is now ubiquitous in mirrorless cameras; it was used but less commonly in DSLRs. And we’re not talking fine margins here — there’s a big difference in how many charged batteries you’ll need to take with you for a full day’s shooting.
Second is the optical viewfinder. I get it, electronic viewfinders can do things optical ones can’t, like showing live-view visual exposure, film emulation profiles, and focus peaking. But give me a clear optical viewfinder any day. They can’t be beaten for resolution, response time, and refresh rate.
DSLRs are also faster off the mark. Put a mirrorless camera up to take a shot of a fleeting scene, and it might not power up in time. That second or so from hibernating to ready to shoot can make all the difference, and it’s something I’m often frustrated by with mirrorless cameras.
Finally, there’s the lens value. There’s an enormous selection of used DSLR and SLR lenses out there, often at great prices. The mirrorless ranges are coming along nicely, but they still have a lot of catching up to do in terms of the breadth of choices. Sure, you can use a mount adapter, but that adds an extra layer of complication.
Mirrorless cameras certainly lead the way when it comes to silent shooting, burst speeds, and overall size. And I do shoot with them regularly. But if you’re thinking of trading in your gear, your hesitation might be well founded. I’d recommend renting a mirrorless body for a week or two first, because there are good reasons you might prefer shooting with your DSLR, and you might find you already have exactly what you need.
Hot Take Mini Reviews
I’ve been testing out:
Fujifilm GFX100RF. This is a medium-format camera in a fixed-lens walking-around body. It’s very much the same DNA as Fujifilm’s other X cameras, but with a much larger sensor. While I’m enjoying it, it’s not really one of those cameras you just pick up and intuitively get great shots. You need to spend some time with it to get the most out of it. There’s no in-body stabilization, and even the tiniest movement will show up in those high-res files. The fixed lens maxes out at f/4, which isn’t particularly fast when compared with 35mm standards. And the 102MP files it produces are massive! I’ll have more details on it as I shoot more with it, and I’ll post some examples in a couple of weeks.
Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S. This is a beast of a lens. A very fast prime with outstanding optics. The reason it exists is for portraiture, but I’m not using it for portraits. Instead, I’ve been using it as a low-light and narrow focal plane travel lens to try to get something different than I get with my regular stable of lenses, especially for dreamy cherry blossoms shots. The f/1.2 on an 85mm is incredibly unforgiving, but it’s also not something that you can get from other combinations.
Wide Angle
New Lightroom Updates: Adobe has release new updates for Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. Topaz Gigapixel is now integrated directly into the cloud-based Lightroom app (but not Lightroom Classic) for generative upscaling — no extra subscription required. In Lightroom Classic, they’ve also improved the AI-assisting culling, which has been basically an experimental feature and pretty hit and miss so far.
It’s still possible to get real silver-based prints, both color and true black and white. The Darkroom is one of the few labs still offering them. They combine a digital projection onto the paper with a traditional wet-process developing. No, they’re not as cheap as the more common dye-sub or inkjet prints, but they do have a quality that those methods just can’t quite match. I’ve previously ordered black and white prints from them (on real Iflord black and white silver gelatin paper), and I recently ordered some color prints from them and was very impressed with the results. I’ll be ordering more.
Rock-solid backup is never the wrong decision. Carbonite is offering 75% off personal plans for automatic backup of your drives (and those precious photos on them!). They also have 30% off professional plans if you need something heavier duty. It runs through March 31. I use Backblaze myself, but I’ve used Carbonite and it works well, and both are set-and-forget services that run silently in the background. And at this price, it’s a great deal. Just be sure to get the plan that includes an external hard drive if you’re using one.
There are other things draining batteries too, like in—body image stabilization and lens vibration reduction. But the EVF and live-view screens are big ones, and you’ll need one of them on all the time in order to shoot.
I tried a couple mirrorless, a first gen Olympus m4/3 unit and a Sony a6000. Good cameras but I never fully gelled with either. Much happier with my SLRs.