Wood duck and a mirrorless camera - I still prefer my DSLR

Photographed at Braydon Lagoon, Langley, BC today.

My camera and lens of choice is a Nikon D500 with a 500 mm PF (phase fresnel) lens.  Today I thought I would shake things up a bit and combine an 80-400 mm Nikkor lens, a 1.4TCiii teleconverter, and a Z7ii mirrorless camera.  In order to mount the TC and lens on the camera I had to use the FTZ adapter.  The combination worked well.  I have read that the number of couplings could cause a malfunction due to a loss of electronic integrity, but I had no problems.

As is often the case, I used the lens at the 400 mm setting - its maximum focal length.  When photographing wildlife I find that zoom lenses are at the maximum zoom value, which is why my normal go-to lens is a prime.  Primes often perform better than zooms at any given focal length, plus they likely will have a lower minimum aperture.  My 500 prime and the 80-400 zoom both have a minimum aperture of f/5.6 when the zoom is maxed out, but the 500 has more magnification.

The Z7ii has a 50 mp full-frame sensor while the D500 uses an APS-C size sensor at only 20 mp.  While it may seem that the 50% crop factor benefits the image by providing a relatively larger focal length (560 for the 400 and 700 for the 500), the greater pixel count of the mirrorless camera actually allows more cropping and produces a final image with greater resolution than the DSLR.  I could actually shoot in DX mode on the Z series camera and still out perform the 20 mp sensor of the D series unit.  At the end of the day, though, the differences aren't that great and both cameras produce very good images.

I love the DSLR's viewfinder over that of the Z7ii.  An optical viewfinder provides a crisp image without relying on electronics that erode battery time at a faster rate.  If my exposure is off in the DSLR, I can still see the shot while the mirrorless shows the overexposed or underexposed image.  If the exposure is off by a bit you can still see what you are doing, but a massive over or underexposure renders the image useless and corrections have to be made in order to actually view and focus on the subject.  I shoot mostly in manual mode, so this is a problem when I change environments with different lighting parameters.

Another thing I don't like with the mirrorless system is the lag time there is between touching the shutter button and an image being presented on the screen.  Once the camera has come out of sleep mode, the response is instantaneous, but that half second or so of waiting can make the difference between getting the shot or not.  The DSLR is instantly available for shooting with no lag time.  

Lastly, the mirrorless camera produces very large files.  I could reduce the amount of memory used by shooting jpegs (not an option), going to DX mode, or by just shooting fewer images.  The DSLR creates smaller files which takes up a lot less room on the card, computer, or cloud.  Fortunately, both cameras come with a large memory buffer and, if it was a problem, could be addressed by going with a CFexpress card.  I shoot FX cameras in FX mode and DX cameras in DX mode.

The speed of focusing and frame rate seem adequate for both cameras.  I understand that the Z8 and Z9 cameras are something else, but they are too much for my budget.  It would be nice to play with them one day to get a feel for them though.

I prefer my DSLR over my mirrorless camera because of its instantaneous readiness and bright optical viewfinder.  Whatever advantages the mirrorless camera has over the DSLR, they pale in comparison to those features.  I use my DSLRs for wildlife and macro photography and my mirrorless cameras for events, landscapes, and studio work.  It is a system I intend on maintaining.

Long live the DSLR.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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