Anyone gone mirrorless?

Hmm...a bit undecided right now. By the time I pay off the Sony a7, maybe I'll be ready to get the EOS R. But I should probably upgrade my 2009 iMac first.

 

"I don't need to know anything because MY camera has this button."

That was directed to the conversation about the guy at Acadia.

 

Normally, I am the same way if someone approaches me and asks a question about my gear -- I am happy to chat with almost anyone when I'm out shooting, and do quite often. I've had some very enlightening conversations with some very nice people -- some that were beginners, and some that knew a lot more about photography than me. This guy, though, didn't seem interested in chatting -- only in claiming he had the best camera out there, without even understanding why someone would want to use a tripod. That's why my casual one sentence answer of "my lens has IS, too" and his confused look was so priceless.

I do not get too caught up in brand wars. All the camera brands are capable of producing extraordinary images in the right hands, or horrible images in the wrong hands. Ansel Adams could produce masterpieces with a pinhole camera, while my neighbor would produce horrible photos with the most expensive equipment on the market (it's painful when she shows me photos from their trips). It's the archer, not the arrow, that matters.

And thanks for the kind words. I really do appreciate it, Sam.

 

Looking at some of those lens prices, I think I will be using my existing dSLRs and lenses for quite a while longer -- $2,300 for the 50mm f/1.2, $3,000 for the 28-70mm f/2, $200 for the EF to RF adapter with the control ring. The body alone isn't too bad for a new body at $2,300, as bodies drop in price a lot quicker than lenses.

If/when I make the leap, I would probably go for the 24-105 f/4 lens and not the 28-70 f/2. My current setup includes a 24-105 f/4, and I supplement that with a couple of fast primes instead of a f/2.8 zoom. That new 50 f/1.2 is too pricey for me, too, so I would probably just keep my current 50 f/1.2 and get the adapter for it and my other EF lenses (16-35mm f/4, 100-400mm, 105mm macro, 70-200 f/4, etc.).

 

I thnk you meant Richard Harrington. I wondered what our film restoration expert member was doing reviewing still cameras.

 

...Robert Harris?

 

Just say "RH" and you'll have covered your bases.

 

Oops, wrong Mr. Harris. Richard Harris would be even more tricky, since he passed away 16 years ago.

 

So I finally checked up on the reviews for the EOS R and I mainly wanted to see how happy folks were with the AF and the various situation (native RF mount, with the mount adapter and EF/EF-S lenses, and 3rd party EF/EF-S mount lenses), and for the most part, folks were happy, while some 3rd party lenses, it's YMMV, which is to be expected.

But I just can't pull the trigger with the EOS R having just 1 card slot, so I'll wait for the next Canon offering and hope Canon doesn't jack up the price of the next mirrorless body for it to include dual card slots, and other fixes of the identified shortcomings of the EOS R.

 

Dual card slots are not that big a deal to me, although I understand why professionals prefer bodies with the feature. Both my Canon 5D3 and 7D2 have dual slots, and I do have SD cards in the 2nd slot of each. However, I do not have the cameras configured to save to both cards -- the SD card is setup as overflow just in case I run out of room on the primary compact flash card while I'm out somewhere (which I never have). Writing to both cards slows the camera down too much for my taste.

I should probably just take out the SD cards to use as spares for my mirrorless M50, which has a single SD slot. I prefer compact flash cards for my dSLR, and I have quite a few extras. However, for most trips a single 64GB card in each dSLR is sufficient for the number of photos I take.

The only time I ever had a card fail was in my very first digital camera -- a Canon Powershot G series fixed lens body. It happened while we were in Hawaii. I removed the card immediately and set it aside. When we got back home, I was able to recover all the photos using a data recovery utility. The card probably would have been okay to re-use after a low level reformatting, but I threw it out just to be on the safe side.

 

Yeah, I haven't utilized the dual slots much either. I actually had things set up as overflow, as well, but found it confusing when I forgot to put the card back into the camera and it was writing to the card that was considered the backup, then I'd realize later on that photos were on a different card or not on the card I thought. Most of this is my own user error, but my use hasn't really demanded that I sort myself out, so I just opted to shoot to one card.

 

I've been using dual card slots since 2012, so I don't figure to stop shooting in the fashion anytime soon. I value redundancy. Probably had to do with traveling to places to take photos, and wanting that extra bit of backup provision for the photography activities. In my Canon 5D3's, I write my RAWs to the CF slot, and the JPG's to the SD slot.

 

The frustrating thing is that the Sony A7III has dual card slots, and IBIS, at a $300 less price point over the EOS R, along with better eye-detection and AF tracking. If the Sony native glass wasn't so expensive, and their colors not quite popping as I've been accustomed to with my Canon's, I'd probably jumped ship earlier this year, but I guess I'll wait for the next round of Canon mirrorless bodies to show up...

 

I'm sure the new Canon body will drop a few hundred in price not too far down the road -- their new models usually do.

 

Anyone using something like an Atomos Ninja V for videos w/ their mirrorless cams? What's your preferred choice and why, if not the Ninja V? I suppose some might also use such w/ DSLR as well...

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm likely (and previously unexpectedly) picking up a Nikon Z6 kit this week... but want to make more sure about the video side of things since that's a major factor in going mirrorless at all.

Anyway, thought a new thread on the subject probably makes sense, so let's get into it more over here instead...

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/using-external-monitor-recorder-like-atomos-ninja-v.362147/

Thanks.

_Man_

 

Scott,

This one's for you... even though you're married to Canon, haha...



_Man_

 

Man, thanks for posting that video. I only watched the first 7 minutes, but it was still pretty interesting. I do need to take my camera to the ice arena some next hockey season -- it's been awhile. It's just hard to both watch the game and shoot at the same time.

I guess the lighting at our local arena isn't too bad for just a major junior rink. At the Philly NHL arena, he was shooting at 1/1250, f/2.8 and ISO 1000. I would shoot at 1/1250, f/4 and ISO 6400 with my 70-200 f/4 lens (don't have a f/2.8 70-200), and that was before USA Hockey installed new lighting after they bought the arena and moved the National Team Development Program here from Ann Arbor.

Here is an example of what I could get from our center ice seats. This was the final home game for our Plymouth Whalers, who relocated to Flint, MI the next season and USA Hockey moved in. It was also the final regular season game for Connor McDavid of the Erie Otters -- who is now is arguably the best player in the world, but is stuck playing for the horrible Edmonton Oilers.

 

Yeah, I'm no hockey fan, but I definitely found the video shedding interesting "light" on the subject (and bit entertaining) well beyond being fairly reassuring about the Z6's capabilities (for respectable, but not-quite-pro level, performance at such high action photography... that really isn't my thing anyway... and maybe I should really get something like D500 or eventual D750 successor? or maybe even a refurbed D850 specifically/largely for that in that case)...

Despite the hype generated largely by Sony's push, FF mirrorless is probably just not ready to make DSLRs obsolete yet, if ever... even though it would be nice eek out any additional performance, if possible, now...

Still, this little real world test seems to be done just before Nikon (officially) released its latest firmware that's supposed to improve low-light AF performance some and add Eye AF...

_Man_

 

If you're looking for a camera specifically for action in the current Nikon line, the D500 is definitely the way to go.