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When I switched from DSLR cameras (I was shooting the Canon 7D Mark II at the time) to the mirrorless Canon R5 I made a point of extolling the considerable virtues of the R5 to my readers. But only in passing did I mention some of the ‘quirks’ inherent with mirrorless cameras, some of which I found difficult to adapt to. I promised that at some point I’d publish a post about those quirks, but then life, including thyroid surgery and multiple back surgeries, got in the way so I never got around to it.<\/p>\n
But apparently there’s a lot of folks still on the fence about switching to mirrorless because I keep getting requests to get off the pot and publish that promised post. I received another one of those requests yesterday so I decided to tackle the project today. Apologies for the extended delay.<\/p>\n
Some of the quirks I’ll mention may be specific to the R5 but I suspect many of them are inherent to most or all mirrorless cameras. They will also be specific to my style of shooting, which mostly involves birds and nature, lots of behavior, flight and action shots and no video to speak of.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0The Canon R5. Image in Creative Commons – Copyright Harrison Jones.<\/em><\/p>\n Following are some mirrorless camera quirks that I’ve noticed, in no particular order. Some may be specific to the R5 and the ones I’ve included here are based on my own experience, or lack of same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All things considered, would I ever go back to a DSLR? Not a chance!<\/p>\n Canon’s animal\/eye detection is worth the price of admission all by itself. These days I’m getting multiple sharp shots of fast-moving subjects like birds in flight that I had virtually no chance to get sharp with a DSLR. The approximately 45 MB file size of the R5 means I can drastically crop my images and still have more detail than I used to get with my 7DII. And since I’m using compressed RAW, those huge file sizes are whittled down to a much more manageable size without noticeable loss of detail.<\/p>\n In burst mode I can use the relatively quiet mechanical shutter at up to 12 frames per second (my default) or switch to the silent electronic shutter at up to 20 frames per second and still retain full autoexposure and autofocus. When I’m looking through the electronic viewfinder I can see what my exposure looks like without taking my eye away to look at my screen or fiddling with extra buttons or dials. For my style of shooting, that’s huge.<\/p>\n There are other advantages to mirrorless also, but this post is primarily about “quirks” so that’s where I’ve concentrated.<\/p>\n If you’ve slogged through this entire edition of Feathered Photography you’re probably at least considering switching to mirrorless. If so, good luck with your decision. I don’t regret mine.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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