Mirrorless camera thoughts .......
 

this one is to the 'camera experts' out there, Stephen, you listening ..........

I'm contemplating a mirrorless camera purchase and being a Canon guy all my life I'm thinking about the EOS M50. Canon gear is just naturally intuitive to me thus my logic in thinking this way.

good ...... bad ?

I was a lifelong canon guy and switched to Fuji for mirrorless. Sold my several canon bodies and all the lenses and never looked back. YMMV, of course, but I am just stunned at the Fuji lenses and love the old school (ish) bodies.

Food for thought .........

I was also a Canon guy for a long long time. After a torn rotator cuff resulting in 3 little X’s tattooed on my shoulder and a year later a C5-6-7 fusion, I needed something lighter too hang around my neck. Back then there were not many choices in mirrorless. I got me a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and my oh my oh my! Never looked back. I’ve now got the X-Pro1, an XM-1 and X-T2 and a shelf-full of spectacular glass. You may have a thing for Canon, but do yourself a favor and give the Fujifilm an unbiased look. You just might surprise yourself!

I was also a canon guy with full stack of L lenses and slr. I sold all and switched to Fuji. Very lightweight and high quality pics. The Fuji xt2 can be had now at great prices. The new Fuji xt3 is rumored to be out in September

I might take a look at the new Nikon Z-7. DPReview had the flooding initial thoughts.

"We see the Z 7 as not only a 'D850 without a mirror', but also (perhaps more) 'a D850 with a more consistent stills/video experience and greatly improved video AF.' And straight out of the gate, that makes it a pretty well-rounded do-everything camera."

At least look at the sony stuff. Switched from Nikon DSLRs and I prefer it.

Reminds me of my college days when my English professor ask what hobbies I had. Made the mistake of saying photography. He gave me an assignment to write a 5000 word essay on the effects of mirror bounce in a single lens reflex camera. This was the same professor who held his classes at an off campus bar!
Ed
He was let go mid term!:thumbsup:

I have gone back and forth between the over the years. I started with Canon then moved to Nikon. I then went back to Canon and returned to Nikon.

Actually I have grown tired of lugging a camera and lenses when I travel overseas. I want simple now.

In terms of features Sony is number 1. The A7 mk3

I am also a former Canon owner who switched to Fuji (XE-3) and I'm very happy with my choice. My son recently bought a Sony a-7III and my opinion is that it is a better overall camera in terms of imaging than my Fuji but it is not as compact. I've given up on lugging camera bodies and lenses during travel unless my travel is dedicated to photography. I use a Sony DSC-x100 compact camera when touring and I can't say enough good things about it. If I could use only one camera this would be the one - it's pricey but worth it.

Simple is good.

I was a Canon film guy, but for digital have switched to Olympus. My reasons -
- The OM-D series is a great, but small-ish camera. Weatherproof.
- The 4/3 format was always meant for digital. No film legacy issues. So high quality lenses are relatively small, lightweight and priced accordingly (less glass).
- You can switch the lenses to a PEN style body (also a retro style), for a very compact , simple camera.

If I were starting over, I would give Fuji a serious look too.

It's hard to believe that it has already been 12 years since Sony got into the business when they acquired Minolta who made some excellent cameras They have done a fine job of developing the brand.

I'm waiting on the sidelines to see what Canon will announce (this year?). I don't shoot much professionally anymore so I can be patient. I currently have a Canon 5D Mark III that I'm selling but I'll keep all of the L lenses which should be adaptable to the new Canon mirrorless if I go in that direction. I'll consider the Sony a9 if I don't like the Canon and I can at least use an adapter for the lenses I currently have. I'm using a Leica M10 now for my personal work because I like the small size for travel, but with the compact size of the mirrorless cameras I might get rid of it.

There's a lot of great options here - my wife has an Olympus OM-D with a full complement of lenses that tempts me to sell off my Nikon D800, D300 and lenses. Been shooting with Nikon for over 30 years, and have absolutely no problems with their gear, but the smaller form factor of the Nikon Z series just announced is tempting to look at. If I had stuck with Canon back in the day of taking my dad's fully manual AE-1 on my first round-the-world trip as a backpacker (also had a Nikon N4004 (or N401 outside the US), which was one of the early auto-focus film cameras)) I may have stayed with Canon and not regretted it.

Kind of like a lot of the audio gear we debate about here, there's really no bad option. You could jump in tomorrow with something and not make a bad decision. One brand or the other might be better for what you want (ie., full-frame vs. micro 4/3) but hey, it's not exactly a problem, but a great set of options to choose from (sorry if this sounds flippant, am enjoying some margaritas with Boss-girl right now during cocktail hour after a long week at the moment! :thumbsup:)

all good thoughts gents, again Canon being intuitive to my logic is a factor. Gotta take a closer look at Fuji though .......

I am a huge Fuji fan. I have a XT-1 and some awesome glass. BUT, it is an ASP-C frame, with the resulting crop factor from the “standard” 35mm full frame size. Thus my 23mm prime is basically yielding the same shot as a 35mm full frame lens. If you are willing to shoot in manual mode, the Sony A-7III is a mirrorless full-frame body that, with an adaptor ring, will let you USE YOUR EXISTING CANNON LENSES. It also comes with its own zoom kit lens that will let you shoot automatically in a wide variety of situations.

I am lurking here. My Nikon D7000 is a beast to carry and having something that takes equal or better pics that is lighter is appealing.

Quick question though - where does one go about selling used camera gear?

KEH here in Atlanta. There are also specialists sites on the web, if you want to offload it, KEH will at least pay you something (including online).

Sold all my Nikon gears years ago and started with the Fuji XE-1 then a FujiXT-1 then a Fuji XT-2. Now the Xt-3 is coming in a month or two. Fuji lens are fantastic, great build quality and much lighter than SLR. Canon and Nikon are now getting it and are offering mirrorless camera's. If you don't need all this just use your iphone as the best camera you have is the one you with you.

for candid 'grab it' shots perhaps but if you're shooting action not very good IMO. Any camera with shutter lag is useless IMO. For the record i have an Android, perhaps the Apple is different. Regardless, with rather large hands either is not as comfortable as a real camera

I am a real camera nut . . . and I've tried many different mirrorless cameras, from most of the current top brands.

In the past, I used and loved Leica, Canon and Nikon SLRs and DSLRs, but 5 or 6 years ago, switched to mirrorless, mostly for the compact size and for image quality equivalent to the BIGGER cameras.

The mirrorless cameras I seem to have recently gravitated to, all seem to have one feature in common that, as an older (but not quite elderly) person, find that I need. . . . In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) . . . Old hands do shake!!!!

The lens based image stabilization offered by Fuji (Canon and Nikon too), the earlier Sony cameras, and others, just didn't seem to do it for me . . And, most of the prime lenses for those systems and some of the zooms, didn't have image stabilization at all - so, for me, the result was, quite often, fuzzy pictures. I did own Fuji X-E2, X-E3, X-T1, X-T2 and X-Pro2 cameras, and "brought home" a X-H1 for trial and examination.

Fuji now has an in body, image stabilized (IBIS) system camera, the X-H1, but the camera body is huge . . the size of most mid range DSLRs (Nikon and Canon) - perhaps defeating the purpose of mirrorless. And, the upcoming replacements for existing Fuji cameras apparently do not have IBIS.

I also tried the Sony A-6000, A-6300 (my wife uses this) and an A-6500, which does have in body stabilization. (Still have this) - but don't feel that the IBIS is as good as the Olympus system.

Sony does have superb in body image stabilization in its recent A "7" and "9" series, full frame cameras, but, for those cameras, the lenses are mammoth. I recently tried the A7 III camera and three of its "EF" lenses . . but the resulting "kit" was much too large for me to comfortably travel with.

So, what do I (or did I) do?

Last November, I purchased my first Micro 4/3rd camera. An Olympus E-M1 Mark II. An extraordinary camera. Superb image quality, Extremely rugged body (probably the best in the business). Not tiny, but small nevertheless. And, a superlative line-up of lenses - from Olympus, Panasonic and other manufacturers.

Olympus and Panasonic lenses are completely interchangeable. I have lenses from both brands and use them on my Olympus bodies. And, the lenses are, for the most part, much smaller than those used by other mirrorless camera systems and DSLRs. The image quality of these micro 4/3 lenses is also extremely, extremely excellent.

Olympus pioneered in body image stabilization and remains the leader in this modality, and Panasonic was the pioneer in mirrorless cameras (The first to offer a mirrorless camera - 10 years ago -) And, cameras from either manufacturer and lenses from both are astonishingly good.

So I now have the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, OM-D-E-M5 Mark II, and Olympus Pen F cameras, as well as the Sony A-6500, and I am quite happy.

And, almost all of my photographs are shake-free, and, if I can overlook all the other faults in my pictures, the Olympus cameras with IBIS have made me a truly great photographer of the worlds most amateurish looking snapshots. Every thing the camera does is great, everything the photographer does is pretty lousy.

good synopsis Julian, thanks !

Excellent, Julian! I think very relevant for me. Thanks for posting.

I have a good friend // excellent photog who ended up with Olympus 4/3 kit for similar, but not the same reasons. Fantastic alternative.

Dave - what did you decide?
I spent some time in the camera section of a Best Buy this a.m. (first one I've been in for several years) and handled most all the mirrorless cameras that I've given some thought to. However, all are too large/bulky and, especially, heavy, for my needs (putting in my pocket for walking around while traveling). Settled on the Sony DSC-HX80 with Zeiss lens. Does everything I need.

Forgot to mention that I strolled into the Magnolia theatre (audio) section in the back corner of the BB and there were no sales-people around and it was dimly lit. They had a rack of Pioneer, Denon & Yamaha home-theatre gear, but all the other individual components were locked up in individual "boxes". Was not possible to see into them or open them to see what they might have. Based on the size of the 'boxes', am guessing they have no McIntosh gear other than, possibly, the smaller (no auto-former) integrated amps. Did have a couple of pairs of the smaller ML speakers, but no high-end B&W.

Glenn, I haven't pulled the trigger yet. While I like the Canon M50 I also like the little EOS M100. I may head down to Delaware this coming week and check out your choice

Well........... while the M100 is considerably smaller than the M50 and likely the smallest of the mirrorless herd, it is still about twice the size of the Sony HX80. And, it has that 'huge' (a relative term) lens stuck on the front, making it impossible to slip easily into & out of a front pants pocket.

wow, the Sony is that small ?? no thanks, I want nothing smaller than the M100. Not worried about stuffing in my pocket.

Canon is introducing a new mirrorless full frame camera.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...s_digital.html

I settled on the Canon M100, in the end it was the sheer simplicity of the camera that did it for me plus the fact it shares a battery type with two of my other cameras.

I understand. Anyone who uses a 'punt gun' for shooting sporting clays would not be happy with the Sony. ;)
Congrats on the M100. Looks like a great choice. Happy shooting (with your punt guns & camera). :thumbsup:

Fuji XT3 is wonderful

I've been using a Sony A-6500 with just two lenses: the 10-18 and the 18-200 zooms. Gitzo tripod with a Gitzo ballhead. I'm very, very pleased - it's a great camera.

Ended up with a Lumix DMC-ZS60 with the Leica lens rather than the Sony/Zeiss combo. The Lumix was on 'close out' at 45% off (recently replaced with the ZS70). Pretty decent 'deal' for what has been one of the most highly rated point & shoot cameras. Especially like that it has a fixed LCD touch-screen (one less thing to break) and an eye-level view finder.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...1&d=1538498548

LOL Glenn, while a few years back 32" barrels were considered long, now more and more 34" ones are starting to show up !

And I went from 32" back to 30" I'm so yesterday. ;)

I sold all of my Nikon gear and recently purchased glass for the Sony A7III and I’m never looking back. The system has been such an improvement in terms of quality while gaining in size and weight.

The stabilisation is so impressive that there are many shots that I thought would be impossible to make and they came out sharp that I believe I can push it even longer (I’m talking long exposure type of scenario, hand held!).

DSLR are now dead and FF mirrorless is the future.

Even on my lowly Lumix the stabilization is quite outstanding. Took a second macro shot this afternoon thinking the first was surely blurred. Both were perfect. Need all the help I can get.

I have been using the Leica Q for the past year now and absolutely love it. Its a 24 megapixels full frame camera with a fixed 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens. It is a stunning camera to look at and feels right in my hands. The build quality is second to none. It makes my Fuji cameras feel cheap (which is no easy to do). Also I found that other cameras have too many buttons and you have to dig into menus to switch settings which takes away from the experience whereas Leica achieves a minimalistic set up. Though I normally shoot completely manual the autofocus is spot on and the camera is extremely fast. Though a 28mm lens may not be for everyone I find this camera very hard to beat as the glass is pin sharp even when wide open.