ALL HAIL THE MIRRORLESS CAMERA REVOLUTION!!!
Hahahahaha…that’s been said for years now since mirrorless cameras hit the scene.
I would not say that the mirrorless ‘revolution’ is totally upon us…yet. But the inklings are there…and the reason I say that the ‘revolution’ is not in FULL swing is because they’re not great for every type of photography…yet…
Yes, they’re light and they offer great resolution and they’re super quiet. But, they also have their drawbacks…like poor battery life from having to constantly power an EVF or LED screen. Viewfinder lag. Startup/sleep mode lag. Poor AF in low light or with fast moving subjects…
That’s based on my personal experience – and yes, I’ve tested the Sony cameras…
That being said, I think there are going to be great advances in mirrorless camera tech now that Canon and Nikon are launching ‘professional’ full frame mirrorless cameras. I’ll be interested to see what they actually come up with.
I won’t be adopting right away – I’m a big proponent of NEVER paying to be the beta-tester for new camera tech. Let the camera roll out for at least 6 months.
Why? Because there are always going to be a few monkeys in the wrench. Personally, I’m not going to spend that sort of money on a product that hasn’t been truly finished.
It’s along the lines of what Apple has been doing pretty much since Steve Jobs died, releasing products that aren’t fully finished because they know there’s a certain portion of buyers who MUST HAVE the latest, greatest, shiniest toy!
But what type of money do I mean? Well, you can pre-order the new Nikon Z7 put the pricing at about $3400 for the camera body alone!
The tease…
Can we talk about the build up to the announcement? Nikon was releasing teasers leading up to the official announcement of the Z7 and Z6 with the regularity of someone who uses adult undergarments…
Canon users? Well…we’re waiting…
BUT, I am hopeful…
Personally, my ‘go to’ travel camera is my Canon EOS-M3. It’s small, light, and it takes great pictures. It has all of the drawbacks that I’ve ever mentioned about mirrorless cameras but I can overlook those in my ‘walking around’ camera.
I can connect it to my Canon lenses with my adapter even though I mostly use the 35mm equivalent pancake lens.
The Nikon Z7 and Z6
Nikon officially launched the Z7 and Z6 yesterday, AND….there’s already complaints…about the single card slot (with some complaining about it being an XQD card slot – but that is to be expected – they offer much higher speeds, and these cameras seem to be very much about speed!).
I’ll wait and see what the hands on reviews are from folks who are paying for the cameras, though it looks pretty impressive as of now.
Three things I think they nailed out of the gate:
- It LOOKS like a Nikon camera – they obviously worked very hard to create the same control layout in a smaller form factor. If you’re already comfortable with the control layout on your Nikon, you won’t have to learn a new system.
- Two mirrorless entry levels for pros – the Z7 is the ‘flagship’ 45 megapixel model with a price tag of $3400 but the 24 megapixel Z6 is under $2000 and rocks a very fast 12 FPS at full resolution AND a higher ISO range. Not everyone needs all those megapixels, and I’m glad that Nikon realizes that.
- Releasing a lens ‘roadmap’ – so, you just created a whole new lens mount for a major camera brand? I think it is great that Nikon also announced a pretty hefty roadmap as to where they’ll be going in the future with their lenses. Along with that, being sure to create what I’ve heard is a very solid adapter so that people with a bunch of Nikon glass don’t have to get new lenses if they don’t want to.
Three things I am curious about:
- Battery life
- AF in low light situations
- Whether there is any cropping with the FTZ lens adaptor. I haven’t seen any discussion of this, so, at the moment, I’m assuming there isn’t any – and that’s awesome if it’s true!
For us Canon shooters…it’s kinda like…
I am looking forward to seeing what comes next from all of these camera brands! It’s a very exciting time for photography…
