A Mirrorless Newbie taking the first steps...

[smilodon]

In honour of Chaos Theory's 2014 post....

"A DSLR newbie taking the first steps..."


I really can't justify working with two cameras from 2008 which both sport 12.3 megapixel sensors and zero video capiability.
So I have finally joined the 21st Century.

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Nikon Z7

It's sooooo tiny though and the memory cards cost £250 - EACH !!! :wacko:

[SithAfrikaan]

Man, NICE purchase, that Nikon entry is just fantastic spec, and really only Sony Fanboys would argue about Sony being the only mirrorless brand.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the spec sheet on that z7, and have even considered the z6 for myself, but I'm still just, out of it. It's like a bad drug getting into lens purchases lol

Please upload some sample snaps when you can dude I'd love to see what you do with it man!

[smilodon]

I'm SO heavily invested in Nikon Lenses that while I'll admit the Sony is a more mature camera, they are on their fourth iteration of mirrorless cameras, I couldn't in a million years replace all my Nikon glass with Sony equivalents, which would cost five times what the camera cost.

I'm going to take it to Whipsnade Wildlife Park next week for a days practice.

[BrotherTobious]

Can someone tell me how mirrorless work?

[SithAfrikaan]

Chaos is probably chomping at the bit to reply to that BT,
So I'll beat him to it by giving the short version which is:
SLR Single Lens Reflex, has a mirror inside the camera between the sensor and the lens, this flips up when you hit the shutter and takes the image. The main benefit I guess is that the image you see through the viewfinder is EXACTLY the image you're capturing?

Mirrorless, is literally that, there is no mirror reflex, so the sensor is closer to the lens, thus making it SMALLER and FASTER than a typical SLR, but these rely on now very fancy electronic viewfinders.

[BrotherTobious]

thanks mate

[Chaosphere]

I have owned a Sony A7III for a few years now, and would never go back to an SLR. The information these mirror-less cameras give you at the time you take the picture is just phenomenal, it can't be beat with a traditional 'dumb' viewfinder. I am sure all of the current mirror-less are similar tbh, in terms of features and use, getting the one that works with your current glass is no doubt the most sensible option. Enjoy the new Nikon.

Sadly, as I have discovered, a better camera doesn't magically make you a better photographer! :roflmao:

[smilodon]

I've spent the day at Whipsnade Zoo testing out this Nikon Z7 and my Nikon 70 -200mm f.28.
I've had some fun and realised I need to get to grips with the focusing modes as plenty of shots were way out of focus.
One thing I have just noticed is what 47 megapixels actually means. This is a passably Ok photo of a deer. I've uploaded a jpeg at full resolution (37mb) and below a very tight crop for comparison with a slight edit for brightness.

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Here's the tight crop and what stunned me is that I can see clouds reflected in the eye of the deer that are basically sharp. That's seriously freaky and I'm beginning to see why the sensor on the Nikon Z7 and D850 is compared to medium format. Crazy resolution.... Some more to follow

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[smilodon]

I'm sure this is of no interest to anybody but me so here's another one.

A picture of a monkey chewing some old newspaper. It might take a few moments to download and render.


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And zoomed in tight the text on the newspaper. My old cameras were perfectly adequate for the work I used to do. But it's only now that I can really see how far behind the curve I was and what high quality modern cameras can achieve.
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[SithAfrikaan]

Man Smilo!
That is some crisp edges! I'm way more impressed than I even thought I would be! I bet you are happy with the purchase?

[Chaosphere]

I'm not sure I like where this is going. If anything, we should be aiming to take out of focus, blurry, low resolution photos at the LAN. Taking such crisp and clear photos of our members is not really fair to the rest of the world. :flirty:

[OldBloke]

Well I'm knocked out with those shots. So very impressive.

[RogueTaylor]

Stunning pictures !!

Please keep it he camera away from me ! I don’t want any videos of me with that quality

[smilodon]

A gallery from the zoo.



It's a step change going from a DSLR to mirror-less. My missed shot rate was very high compared to what I usually get. Lots of images I thought were fine turned out to be far from sharp. It really showed up my lazy technique.
Even so I'm sold on mirror-less. DSLR's have been a delight to work with but their day is nearly done. Now that there are full frame, professional grade mirrorless options I think we're in a similar transition as when we moved from film to digital.

Go buy one


My top OMFG from the day is the auto - focusing on the Z7 (and I assume other mirror-less cameras) which is astounding. The image of this underwater seal lion was shot in a dark underground viewing area, through thick and scratched glass into quite murky green water. The settings were (1/640 s, ISO 2500, f 5).

The sea lions would zip past the window at truly phenomenal speed, the keeper said about 20 mph. They'd only be in view for a genuine split second. I set the focus to continuous area auto and high speed shutter. Then I just pressed the button whenever I saw any blurry object fly past the window. While it's not super sharp at least it's clearly a sea lion. Trying to do it manually resulted in a bit of a flipper or a few bubbles!
A quality DSLR should also be able to nail a shot like this but I seriously didn't think mirrorless had it in them.

[TeaLeaf]

I think we blew through your bandwidth allowance Smilo, website down.