Where’s My Professional Mirrorless Camera?

I always enjoy reading articles on Peta Pixel, they know when to talk turkey, I think that is the phrase although I might be wrong, anyway they tell it as it is. This article about mirrorless cameras is so right

Let’s take a moment to reflect on mirrors. Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, like the Olympus Pen E-P5 or Samsung NX300, have enjoyed increasing popularity over the past few years, and it’s become clear that they are more than a passing fad.

This motley collection of high-tech cameras filled the gap that existed between bulky DSLRs and compact cameras, but manufacturers are now starting to expand their mirrorless lineups in hopes of attracting a wider cross-section of photographers, including professionals.

However, efforts to court the professional buyer thus far have been misdirected, and they’ve focused on building luxury cameras rather than professional cameras. Mirrorless platforms have the potential to compete with, and outshine, even the most formidable of professional DSLRs, and camera manufacturers need to take note.

Manufacturers’ faith in a broad demand for mirrorless cameras is visible in their expanding lineups. While most of the current players — pretty much all of the big names in consumer photography — entered the mirrorless market offering just one or two models, there has been rapid expansion since then. For example, Sony’s NEX brand now includes four different lines, while Panasonic is actively selling more than ten different models of mirrorless camera bodies.

Part of this branching out includes a reach for amateur and casual photographers. While demand for conventional compact cameras is performing a spectacular dive, in large part due to the proliferation of smart phones, it’s not hard to imagine many amateur snappers being drawn to these middle ground offerings.

Meanwhile, some manufacturers have taken steps to court the professional market. These sorts of efforts may soon prove to be far more profitable than focusing on amateurs as demand for cameras with changeable lens systems, like mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, is picking up. These early efforts have produced some beautiful cameras, but their focus on style over substance may be missing the point.

If you want to read more of this, and I would, then go here

here is there take on the Hasselblad version of this less than useful camera type

The Hasselblad Lunar is the most egregious offender. For decades, Hassleblad defined the high water mark in professional studio cameras, but the Lunar, their first mirrorless offering, doesn’t come close to upholding that legacy.

To be fair, it’s a beautiful little work of art, featuring grips made of Tuscan leather and mahogany, but all the extra bells and whistles don’t hide the fact that it’s just a reworked Sony NEX-7. A reworked NEX-7 that costs more than $6000. For cameras like the Lunar, the primary goal isn’t to build a reliable professional tool, but rather to create a phenomenal user-experience.

More here

Related articles

• Sony’s New Mirrorless Cameras Are the First to Get Full-Frame Sensors (wired.com)
• Mirrorless Lens Cameras & Nature Photography (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Headless mirrorless crazyness buzz mess (pessoist.wordpress.com)
• What’s the different between a bridge camera and a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera? (viralvideosecret.com)

Best compact cameras- top four

While micro cameras are getting all the headlines, with their raw file and video capture abilities plus their interchangeable lenses, compacts still have their place as truly pocketable snap cameras. Kevin Carter reviews four of the best….more Author: Kevin Carter at The BJP

Micro Four Thirds the smaller dslr? Is it right for you

These cameras are becoming much more popular, they are chosen because they are smaller than conventional dslr cameras but look and feel more like a dslr than a compact camera. Many of these cameras also have inter-changeable lenses, so they are more like dslrs than compacts. Compact cameras have also improved beyond all recognition in the recent years and most offer a range of exposure and control options that you would expect on a dslr, so the question is why do people still opt for a full size dslr.

One of the defining points of a compact camera is their size, it is in the name, to achieve this things have to get smaller and the sensor is much smaller than on a conventional dslr, the sensor size definitely has an impact on quality and the smaller it is whilst retaining the megapixel count generally means poorer quality, especially with reference to noise but also sharpness. These cameras use software to resolve these issues of noise and sharpness but this is a fix for something that is wrong and so not ideal. A guide to this can be seen in the Canon G10/11/12  The G10 offered in excess of 14 megapixels but with the small sensor size the quality, noise, was less than desirable and the subsequent cameras in the range had reduced megapixels such that the G12 now has only 10.4 megapixel. These cameras are at the top of any serious photographers list when looking for a compact, I bought a G10 and if I am honest don’t use it as much as I expected because of the quality, well noise at higher ISO settings. I had mistakenly thought it would give me similar results to my Canon dslr cameras and have been disappointed.

Sensor size then has an impact on quality, the number of pixels crammed onto a sensor also seems to have an impact on quality, I have had 5 different dslr cameras and only when I bought a full frame sensor dslr 5D Mk2 did I realise what it was I missing from film, that intangible thing called quality, almost certainly measureable, not by me of course, but something that looks and feels right. You would be correct in understanding that the software and hardware improvements going into new cameras means that noise and increase in ISO options continues and much of what I say here might eventually be tosh but for now it seems quality does indeed relate to size. In full size dslr cameras there are 3 sensor size options, the previously mentioned full frame sensor as found in most of the the professional level cameras and the others are the APS C and the APS H, this article explains it in detail and this graphic shows the relative sizes. The size of the micro four thirds sensor is about half that of the full frame sensor

So the micro four thirds, there are a number of manufacturers who have embraced this market, the obvious being Panasonic/Lumix,  and Olympus, but there are also contributions from Samsung, and Ricoh, this site gives an explanation of the benefits of the system and this suggests the best on the market

Understanding that these cameras are not just full size dslr cameras without a mirror and all the space and weight that takes up is important, the sensor is also smaller than that found in dslr cameras and even with all the wizardry of the most recent software the resulting images cannot be as good as those obtained by a dslr.

You have to eventually make a choice based on quality, convenience, usability and that magpie thing that makes most people want new shiny things. I believe that for people actually interested in photography, wanting to make images that have meaning and impact, quality and functionality a full size dslr is better than a micro four thirds camera even though they are heavier and less convenient but as they say “you makes your choice..”

Thinking of buying a decent compact camera?

This BJP article is not an exhaustive evaluation of four of the best compacts on the market but it does reveal details about the cameras you may have missed from full review such as you might get from DP Review. I know when I was buying a compact I was interested in having a viewfinder, having enough pixels to enlarge the image to a decent size and having aperture and shutter priority, I chose the Canon G10, now replaced by the G12. I must say that I hardly ever use my compact because I prefer the experience of shooting with a dslr. The thing is a dslr is making photographs for me whereas the compact is making pictures. Any way the four of the best are here