Why I made the switch from DSLR to Mirrorless
Having listened to a lot of arguments amongst fellow photographers about which system is best and which brand etc, I made my own decision to move from using a DSLR camera system to a mirrorless camera system in 2019. Having been a DSLR user for all of my photographic career, I was a little old school and thought as many people do, this will never catch on this mirrorless lark.
Having watched Youtube and reading various articles about the technical points both for and against each system it really didn’t come down to that for me to make the change. Yes, it had some impact as no-one wants to step backward, so to speak, but the main reason for me was my eyesight. As with many people it is changing with age and I found myself shooting more in live view on a DSLR than through the viewfinder. I also analysed what I was actually shooting subject wise more and more. This led me to start to look at what I actually needed from a camera system in the way of file size, frames per second, low light capability, focus speed, etc. I also looked at the cost of changing a system as this can add up to a very large sum of money very quickly.
After looking at the equipment I already own, and being very happy with the quality of my lenses, I started to search for a system that would work with them and the other equipment in the studio. This pointed me in the direction of a manufacturer and that manufacturer was Sony. They produced a body that would give me far more than I needed from it and, with the use of a lens adaptor, all the current glass I own all worked fine. This kept the cost down dramatically, all I needed was camera bodies and lens adaptors and a flash trigger dedicated to Sony to control my lights. Yes, the focus might be slightly slower than the native Sony lens but we are looking at nanosecond speeds here and this didn’t worry me one bit. To be honest I have a Sony direct mount lens and I can’t really tell the difference. The camera body fitted my hand and the ergonomics felt right.
Do I have any regrets in changing, absolutely not, has it improved my photography, yes it has. The reason it has is based on the amount of out of focus images I get now, and this is very low indeed. The dynamic range is higher too, giving me far more control over the files I edit.