Re: Why I sold all my mirrorless gear and went back to DSLR's
MatthewK wrote:
I get the allure of going back to a somewhat more "analog" experience, but for my bird photography, DSLRs are thankfully a thing of the past. I still end up binning a lot of shots, but it used to be that a majority of my misses with my Canon/Nikon DSLRs were from gear inefficiency, whereas now with ML most of my missed shots are subject-related. Mirrorless has removed more of the gear out of the shooting process, which enhances my ability to getting the shot:
1) Improved compositions: mirrorless systems with Eye/Subject detect allows me freedom to lock onto bird and compose the scene exactly how I want.
- With DSLR, I relied heavily on the center AF point, as the outers couldn't be trusted, so a majority of my compositions had the bird at dead center.
- Focus+recompose wasn't really viable, as small birds (warblers and such) move so quickly that there just isn't time to F&R.
- With shallow DOF, recomposing can potentially result in the bird's eye being slightly OOF.
2) Improved exposure: WYSIWYG means no more under/overexposed images in challenging environments. Can't count the number of times I'd get a great bird/pose/perch, only to find after the fact that I have to destructively recover shadows/highlights in post.
3) No more Micro-focus Adjusting lenses to cameras... nothing like always having a nagging suspicion that all your shots are going to be just slightly back/front focused because you messed up the LensAlign/FoCal/tape measure process. Screw that, what dismal experience.
4) No more mirror slap. This scares or alters a bird's behavior.
DSLRs definitely felt more fun and satisfying to shoot with: the optical viewfinder, the sound of the mirror, the tactile feel of the AF locking on, being able to have the camera focus on a subject if it's slightly OOF vs. completely giving up and grabbing onto the background.. You also don't have the "winning the lottery" joyous feeling when you get your photos uploaded, hoping against hope that everything came together and you find that you nailed that one GREAT shot... with ML, you instead get to choose from 10 perfect variations/captures of that great shot, and that's amazing, but in a contrary way it's just not as satisfying.
I wouldn't give up my ML kit now to revert to even the best, top of the line DSLR, no way, but I'd consider adding one in just to have a different shooting experience from time to time. I held the D500+500PF on a pedestal, the benchmark that I measured my initial ML gear against, and it'd be interesting to see if I still had the same feeling about it all these years later.
And....
No shutter shock (depending on the camera).
The ability to zoom into 100% through the viewfinder for accurate focus.
The ability adapt a wide range of lenses.
Z-mount lenses.
Manual focus subject detect.
Better video implementation.
In body image stabilization.
The ability to shoot with picture controls applied in the viewfinder. Such as black and white.
Pre-capture.
Re: Why I sold all my mirrorless gear and went back to DSLR's
MatthewK wrote:
I get the allure of going back to a somewhat more "analog" experience, but for my bird photography, DSLRs are thankfully a thing of the past. I still end up binning a lot of shots, but it used to be that a majority of my misses with my Canon/Nikon DSLRs were from gear inefficiency, whereas now with ML most of my missed shots are subject-related. Mirrorless has removed more of the gear out of the shooting process, which enhances my ability to getting the shot:
1) Improved compositions: mirrorless systems with Eye/Subject detect allows me freedom to lock onto bird and compose the scene exactly how I want.
- With DSLR, I relied heavily on the center AF point, as the outers couldn't be trusted, so a majority of my compositions had the bird at dead center.
- Focus+recompose wasn't really viable, as small birds (warblers and such) move so quickly that there just isn't time to F&R.
- With shallow DOF, recomposing can potentially result in the bird's eye being slightly OOF.
2) Improved exposure: WYSIWYG means no more under/overexposed images in challenging environments. Can't count the number of times I'd get a great bird/pose/perch, only to find after the fact that I have to destructively recover shadows/highlights in post.
3) No more Micro-focus Adjusting lenses to cameras... nothing like always having a nagging suspicion that all your shots are going to be just slightly back/front focused because you messed up the LensAlign/FoCal/tape measure process. Screw that, what dismal experience.
4) No more mirror slap. This scares or alters a bird's behavior.
DSLRs definitely felt more fun and satisfying to shoot with: the optical viewfinder, the sound of the mirror, the tactile feel of the AF locking on, being able to have the camera focus on a subject if it's slightly OOF vs. completely giving up and grabbing onto the background.. You also don't have the "winning the lottery" joyous feeling when you get your photos uploaded, hoping against hope that everything came together and you find that you nailed that one GREAT shot... with ML, you instead get to choose from 10 perfect variations/captures of that great shot, and that's amazing, but in a contrary way it's just not as satisfying.
I wouldn't give up my ML kit now to revert to even the best, top of the line DSLR, no way, but I'd consider adding one in just to have a different shooting experience from time to time. I held the D500+500PF on a pedestal, the benchmark that I measured my initial ML gear against, and it'd be interesting to see if I still had the same feeling about it all these years later.
And....
No shutter shock (depending on the camera).
The ability to zoom into 100% through the viewfinder for accurate focus.
The ability adapt a wide range of lenses.
Z-mount lenses.
Manual focus subject detect.
Better video implementation.
In body image stabilization.
Oct 03, 2025 at 11:09 AM
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