DSLR vs Mirrorless - what do I buy?

Sometimes people ask me whether it's better to go with a D-SLR or one of the new mirrorless cameras, and as usual, my comment is "Well, it depends".  Here's my pro list for each type of system.

DSLR pros

-Fast auto focus

- Generally a very wide range of lenses and other accessories available, both new and used

- Fast operation - ie easy to access menus, very little shutter lag, optical viewfinder

Mirrorless pros

- Size and weight

- Ability to adapt a huge variety of old lenses

Similar

- Image quality

At the end of the day it really depends on what you will use the camera for.  If you need a small sized camera, but want to step up from a compact, then go mirror-less.  If you need flexibility so that you camera can shoot a wide variety of subjects, the get a DSLR.  I, like may others, have both; and this allows me to choose the perfect camera for what I need.

Barn on Prince Edward County  - Sony NEX 5n with Sigma 30mm f2.8  (mirrorless with AF lens)

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro - AF lens

Daffodil - Sony NEX5n with Leica 50mm f2 Summicron - adapted MF lens (Note: Pic is heavily cropped from original)

Macro on a Micro Four Thirds

A couple years back I was at Edward Gardens taking a few shots when I saw a girl with a (then) new Olympus EP-1 with an adapted Nikkor 50mm f1.8 trying to take shots of a caterpillar.  Unfortunately the lens minimal focal distance didn't let her get anywhere close enough, so I decided to let her try out my Micro-Nikkor 55mm f2.8 that I happened to be using.  

The results on her camera were outstanding.  The bright light levels let her keep the ISO (and noise) down and still retain a fast shutter speed, while the 2 stops of extra depth of field created by the small sensor allowed her to get excellent sharpness across the whole of the caterpillar, even at f4. 

I tried to take a photo of the same caterpillar a few minutes later, and could not get a shot anywhere near as good.  The thin depth of field made this very tricky, and stopping down meant I had shutter speed issues to content with.

I suspect running this lens, or another full frame Nikon mount macro of some sort with the Nikon V1 or J1 with a F mount adapter would yield truly excellent macro results, as long as there was enough light around.

Nikon D90 and Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro

The proliferation of EVILs

This is not a “The world is about to end" commentary, but a description of a type of camera like my NEX – Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangable Lens, or EVIL for short.

The growth of this category started with the Micro Four Thirds format with the Olympus PEN EP-1 and the Panasonic G1.  Then the NEX came out, and recently Pentax and Nikon added their own versions.  

Weirdly, both Pentax and Nikon chose to use compact camera sensors, the Pentax being the same size as the $99 point and shoots; while the Nikon sensor is the larger sensor found in the P100.  Still the Nikon sensor is still very small and has a 2.7x crop factor if you used a Full Frame lens.  That wide angle 28mm turns into a tele 75mm.  

The cameras do have a couple interesting features, like eye point viewfinder, but this is nothing new.

To me it looks like the Sony NEX 7 is going to be by far the best EVIL out there; with 24 megapixels, electronic viewfinder, easy access menus and that large APS-C size sensor.   Price point is meant to be around $1,200, so I better start saving!

These photos were all shot with the NEX around the College and University area, and shows how good quick snaps on this camera can be.  All were shot using the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 Nokton.

Looking for a Night Street Shooter - Part 1 - The Need

I really like street photography.   It captures the mood of a place, and what people are doing in their day to day lives.  My wife and I often walk streets together – her looking at interesting shops, me taking photos.

For quite some time I’ve been on the look out for a small pocketable digital camera that was versatile and delivered great image quality.  Such a camera is perfect for street photography, easy to whip out when you need to, and very discreet.

Several cameras have come out that have satisfied some of my criteria, but I dismissed all of them:

Point n’ shoot digitals – very poor high ISO performance, controls too basic, limited depth of field adjustment, shutter lag; but they are small and very pocketable

Sigma DP1 – Too expensive, non-interchangeable lens; but the large APS-C size sensor was interesting.  The same type as most D-SLRs, with good low light / high ISO performance.

Leica X1 – A slightly nicer Sigma DP-1 that is stupidly expensive.

Olympus EP-1 / Panasonic GF-1 – I loved the idea of interchangeable lenses on a compact camera, and being able to use adapter to fit many other brands of lenses, specifically for me, Leica and Nikon.  I also liked the available wide angles – 17mm Olympus, and fast 20mm Panasonic f1.7.  Both very compact, but they have huge distortion when not self-corrected by camera software – not a good sign for a lens purist like me.  The four-thirds sensor is also too small, creating too much high ISO noise.  No good for night street photography where low light / high ISO performance is critical.  It also doubles the focal length of all my Full Frame lenses – again no good for street photography where a wide lens is much better suited.  I also like shallow depth of field effect, and even the four thirds sensor adds 2-3 stops of depth of field compared to a full frame sensor.

Nothing really seemed to work, so lugging a D-SLR around was going to continue.

TO BE CONTINUED......

The photos in this post and the rest of the upcoming posts in this little series are taken at the 2010 Toronto Nuit Blanche (Night time Arts Festival) with my Nikon D700 and a Nikon 50mm f1.2 – an awesome low light combination; and my benchmark for night time street photography. However the size makes it unsubtle, and a little worrysome when you remember the value of the camera that’s very visible in a slightly sketchy area; which is in a large part why this adventure for a smaller camera is taking place.