Choosing A Mirrorless Camera
Derek Smith • 18 February 2022
Going Underground
Photo By: Derek Smith - Olympus E-PL7
Puffin
Photo By: Derek Smith - Olympus OM-D E-M5 iii
Flamborough Head Stack
Photo By: Derek Smith - Fuji X-T3
Fuji - Twin Lens Kit
Photo by: Derek Smith
There are so many excellent mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras on the market at the moment, choosing the right camera for your needs can be quite daunting. These are my thoughts, and personal opinion on choosing a mirrorless camera.
The first choice would possibly be on sensor size; there are four to consider, medium format, full frame, APS-C (Nikon DX), and micro four thirds. Medium format sensors as used in Hasselblad, and Fuji GFX cameras are probably too “high end”, and specialised for the average photographer. Most photographers will opt for a full frame camera, or an APS-C camera. The advantage of a full frame sensor is improved dynamic range, and low light capability, the disadvantages of a full frame camera, are the larger size, weight of the lenses, and higher costs of buying those lenses. Personally for my needs an APS-C camera hits the “sweet spot” on weight, physical size and price of the camera, and lenses. Micro four thirds, is the smallest sensor used in the Olympus / Panasonic partnership cameras, I have used micro four thirds cameras since I bought my first Olympus E-PL1 in 2010, and never found the image quality lacking in any respect. Some of my best photography of late has been taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 iii which has been a sterling performer in all weathers, and never let me down, and the amazing Olympus E-PL7 using the 17mm f/1.8 pancake prime (34mm full frame).
Possibly the next choice would be brand loyalty, if you’ve used brand “X” for a number of years, then you might consider buying a mirrorless camera from that brand if upgrading. I believe however that rather than focus on a particular brand of camera, your choice might be better served by the camera features needed, and the choice of lenses, and the price of those lenses.
Sony produce some excellent cameras, the auto focus, and subject tracking on those cameras is first rate, however for me the APS-C A6000 range of cameras are ergonomically flawed, fine if shooting in semi automatic mode, set the ISO, and white balance to auto, the mode dial to Aperture Priority, and use the single control wheel to adjust the aperture. Choosing to shoot in Manual Mode is a different proposition entirely. Set the ISO from the menu, aperture from the control wheel on the top of the camera, and the shutter speed is adjusted by the tiny thumb wheel on the back of the camera, and it’s not possible to adjust the settings while holding the camera up to the eye!! I upgraded to the Sony A7 ii, a far better camera in my opinion, but the lens mount is too close to the handgrip, I had to squeeze my fingers in between the lens barrel on some lenses, and the handgrip, and personally I’ve never been able to see much difference between a full frame camera, and an APS-C image.
It was the ergonomics that prompted my return to the Olympus fold, even the base camera Olympus OM-D E-M10 iv has twin control dials on top of the camera, and can be bought new, as a kit, from under £800. Olympus, and Panasonic have over 100 lenses to choose from, with the micro four thirds mirrorless cameras having been in existence since Panasonic produced the G1 in 2008, followed by the Olympus E-PL1 in 2009.
My choice of camera system was based on my change of needs. My workflow had markedly changed, I now predominantly shoot in RAW, and edit the images, but I also liked to shoot in JPEG to share on social media, and a single SD card meant that I had to separate out the RAW images, and the JPEG images when loading onto the computer, which slowed my workflow down. I therefore needed to have two SD card slots, I also wanted to have a joystick to control the focus point, and the camera must be weatherproof. My immediate upgrade path would have been to the Olympus OM-D E-M1 iii, but I felt like a change.
Canon make some excellent cameras, I looked at the M mount APS-C cameras, but currently a poor range of lenses, no weatherproofing, and no dual card slots, the Canon RP is a great camera but no dual card slots.
Nikon next, I like the Z50, but again with only two lenses for the APS-C (Nikon DX), I seriously considered the Nikon Z5, dual SD card slots, weatherproofing, and IBIS, however it was the lens choice, and cost of lenses, that determined my rejection of this choice.
Sony wasn’t even a consideration, due to the ergonomics, but the lens choice, and image quality are outstanding, apart from the dust spots on the sensor which is a common problem on Sony cameras.
Panasonic S5, I nearly bought this, my finger hovered over the “buy now” button, especially over the Christmas period when the camera body, and 20-60mm lens were on offer at £1300!!
Eventually it was the Fuji APS-C range of cameras that I was drawn to, with a choice of over 40 native lenses, the weatherproofing, dual UHS ii SD card slots, a joystick and the analogue dials on top of the camera of the X-T3 that won me over. I needed a high quality prime lens for my portraiture, and this has been filled by the excellent 35mm f/2 lens (50mm full frame equivalent). The 16-80mm f/4 constant aperture lens (24-120mm full frame) is ideal for travel, and landscape, and I have the excellent 70-300mm variable aperture lens (105-450mm full frame) for the wildlife. As a wide angle lens I have the Samyang 12mm AF f/2 prime lens (18mm full frame). The camera is reasonably small, and light, (heavier though than the Olympus), and makes a complete set with the camera body, the 16-80mm lens, and the 70-300mm lens all fitted into a small Manfrotto camera bag.
As to costs, the X-T3 body was £899 new, the 35mm lens, and the 16-80mm lens were bought second hand, and I had to buy the 70-300mm lens new at £729, as it was only introduced late last year, so the price, size, and weight of the lenses suit my needs.
The learning curve moving to the Fuji system has been fairly steep, some of the settings are inter dependent, as an example if I want to use the face / eye auto focus, then that overrides the choice of focus point, but once you know these things then it becomes easy, I’ll have the face / eye auto focus on for portrait sessions, and switch it off when shooting in other genres, and I have a function button assigned for this.
Louth Photographic Society
Fed up with watching the rain coming down, I set out yesterday into the rain to Normanby Hall to try and get a photo for the “Water Project”, I have one potentially good image, but I always like to see if I can get something better. My OM Systems OM-1 camera, and 12-40mm Pro lens are weatherproof, but obviously I wasn’t, but really lovely to get out.
Last night Dave Mann gave an excellent talk on his visit to Beamish in May last year. Dave explored much more of the Beamish site than when I visited in April last year, Dave mentioned the difficulties of getting on some of the vintage transport around the site, I experienced the same during my visit. It's a fascinating historic working museum and well recommended for a visit. Many thanks Dave for an entertaining evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we had our yearly project night, last year it was one photograph a month with the same focal length, there is a full report on the evening on our blog page, but four members did last year's project with newer member Sam Collet showing photographs at the club for the first time, some excellent photographs taken in Japan. It would be good if a few more members took part this year, just one photograph a month with the subject being water. Attached is my January photograph from last year, it would work for this years project as well. This week, Wednesday 28th January, our catering manager Dave Mann will be having a week off and showing some of his photographs. His presentation will be a mixed bag of photographs. Don't forget to send Dave Turner an email with your titles for the print of the year. Entries will need bringing in on the 4th February. Regards Graham
We held our "Project Night" last night, the theme being "Prime Time", one photo each month taken over the previous 12 months, using the same focal length "prime" lens. Myself, Harry Kerman, Keith Rossington, and Graham Harrison, had each completed the project and were able to show their results as projected images at the meeting. The results of the project were very interesting, seeing how each photographer had approached the theme, and their interpretation of the project. I have posted here one image from each photographer. The evening was rounded off by one of our newer members, Sam Collett, displaying some of his images taken on a visit to Japan, his wildlife photography was stunning in detail, and quality, well done Sam.
Good morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly competition, a PDI, with the categories of "Insects" and "Open". There was a good level of entries and some excellent photography. The competition was judged by Colin Lusby of NELPS Photographic Society. The "Open" category was won by Dave Turner with an excellent landscape of Llanberis, and I managed a first place in the subject competition with a Willow Emerald Damselfly, still quite rare but I photographed this one at Bressingham Gardens Norfolk. The results and photographs are on are website under competitions. This week, Wednesday 21st January, is our project night, only four members took part, hopefully more will take part this year. The subject was "Prime Time", one photograph a month with the same focal length lens. To finish the evening, Paul Twomey is showing his mini lecture that he missed last time, and newer member Sam Collett is showing some of his work. The new project subject is Water, one photograph a month including water. There is plenty of water about at the moment, the rivers are flowing well for a start. Dave Turner will now accept your titles for Print of the year, the same subjects as the PDI of the year but with the addition of Best mono in competition as well. This is chosen by the judge from any mono print in the six subjects. Regards Graham
It was our first meeting after the Christmas break, it was good to be back and the meeting was well attended. We held a PDI competition with the categories of “Insects”, and “Open”, our judge for the evening was Colin Lusby, who is a very experienced judge, and he gave many useful tips, and suggestions on how to improve our images for greater impact. Dave Turner took the well deserved top spot, in the “Open” category with his image of “Moody Llanberis”, landscape photography doesn’t just need a good view, the skill is in capturing the mood, the light, and the shadows, as well as the scene – Dave has captured the scene perfectly, it’s a view that anyone would love to hang on their wall. In the “Insects” category, Graham Harrison took the top spot with his perfectly sharp Willow Emerald Damselfly, this is a beautiful green iridescent insect pictured on a stalk, an excellent capture. The Competition page on the our website has been updated with the top three images in each category, and the score sheets.
Good Morning All I photographed this Treecreeper bird at Linwood Warren recently. We start back again this Wednesday 14th January with a PDI competition, the categories are "Insects" and "Open" to be judged by Colin Lusby of NELPS. The list of entries has been sent out and we have a good entry, fifty images altogether. The following week we hold our project night, "Prime Time", we have four members showing their images from the project. Regards Graham
The use of monochrome images seems to be coming back into fashion of late. Many of a certain generation will remember when monochrome was everywhere, television, newspapers, magazines, films, and our own photos (black and white film was less expensive), I remember in the mid sixties when the Sun newspaper (a broadsheet at that time) and the Daily Herald began a rivalry to publish the most colour photos into each edition. Monochrome images can sometimes convey a mood, and detail that’s not always evident in a colour photograph. Converting a digital colour image to monochrome can take a fair amount of skill, sometimes it’s helpful to visualise the image as a monochrome before even taking the photo, when editing the blacks have to be rendered as pure black, and the whites rendered as pure white, with a range of greys in-between, otherwise an image can look “muddy”. If your camera allows possibly try shooting some images in monochrome. Portraits, architecture, landscape, street photography, and trees often make the best monochrome images, and rarely wildlife, although my image of a lizard is quite effective. I shall be running a “Photo Editing” workshop on the 4th February, and members will have a chance to try converting colour digital images to monochrome.
Good Morning All I have been out a few times with my camera, there are a lot of Fieldfares around in large flocks at the moment, the only trouble is they soon take flight so are quite hard to get near, this one was from the car window. Our first meeting back in the New Year will be January 14th opening with a PDI competition, the categories are "Insects" and "Open" judged by Colin Lusby, please send your entries to Harry with a closing date of midnight the 7th January. The following week is the project night where members were asked to take part and using a prime lens take one photograph a month. Myself and Derek have done the project could any members who have taken part let me know please so I have an idea how much time will be left over. We are hoping to enter the N&EMPF club PDI competition and LPA club PDI competition, Harry as usual will organise an entry for us but if you can send him up to six of your very best PDI's when you have time, please. The main rule is it can't have been in the competition before. You may need to send them in two files as LPA use a size of 1920 x 1080 and NEMPF 1600 x 1200. The new project for this year is water, one photograph a month which includes water. The projects will be then shown January 2027. There is also the LPA individual PDI competition you may want to enter, Derek sent details a few weeks ago but information can be found on the Lincolnshire Photographic associations website. Regards Graham
So, why did I swap my Olympus OM-D E-M5 iii camera, and associated lenses for the Fuji XT-3 and lens system, and return to Olympus / OM Systems just a few years later? The Olympus E-M5 iii was, and still is a very capable camera, with a 20Mp micro four thirds sensor, and fully weather proofed, my camera upgrade path was to the OM-D E-M1 iii, but it would have cost me at least £1000, providing me with dual SD cards, and a few extra controls. It was cheaper for me to sell all my Olympus gear, and buy into the Fuji ecosystem, the XT-3 had the dual SD card slots, and promised to have improved image quality. The Fuji lens selection was extensive, and I bought a pair of zoom lenses, and a couple of prime lenses. Later on I bought the Fuji XS-20 as an everyday carry camera, but it was forever warning of overheating. I was content with the Fuji system for several years, I would liked to have photographed more birds, and wildlife, however the reach (focal length) of the 70-300mm Fuji lens was a limiting factor. I took some of my best photographs with the Fuji system, and the Fuji 16-80mm zoom lens was one of my favourite all-round lens. The turning point for me was the launch of the OM Systems OM-1, with a stacked BSI sensor, and subject detection AF, I could have chosen a Nikon, or Canon camera system but the lens selection was limited at that time for the latest mirror-less cameras. I sold all the Fuji gear, and bought a used OM-1 camera for £850, closely followed by a 12-45mm f/4 zoom lens, the 17mm f/1.8 prime (an all time favourite of mine) the 25mm f/1.8, and the 45mm f/1.8 prime. I’ve repurchased the Olympus E-M5 iii, as it’s a great small everyday carry for travel, and general photography. The lens I bought last year was the 60mm f/2.8 macro lens, which has enabled me to take some great insect photos. For bird, and wildlife photography I have been using the Olympus 70-300mm zoom lens, but I’ve just upgraded that to a OM Systems 100-400mm zoom lens, which is stabilised to 7 stops of IBIS on the OM-1, and is fully waterproof, and dustproof. As the micro four thirds sensor is smaller than a full frame sensor, you have to double the focal length to obtain an equivalent viewing angle to a full frame camera, thus the 100-400mm lens becomes equivalent to 200-800mm on a full frame camera. For this coming year I intend to be more focused (no pun intended) on landscape, and wildlife photography, watch this space. Whatever camera, or phone you’re taking photos with just enjoy your hobby, and keep learning and improving.
