I've long bored people dumb enough to listen to me, that the DSLR has had its day and in my last-but-one blog post, I reiterated that opinion (of mine and perhaps others) and suggested that whilst I might keep my full frame Canon 6D DSLR, I might well also have to save up for a new, mirrorless (so not a DSLR) all-singing all-dancing, (speedy for action shots AND full frame for image quality) new(ish) Sony RX10 mkiv camera - mirrorless IS (I'm sure) the future for cameras, I'm sure.

Then.

Less than a fortnight later.

I actually go and buy a second DSLR (a 2nd hand Canon 7Dmkii) from ebay and shelve plans (for a year or five) to jump DSLR ship, sell everything if I can and start climbing up the mirrorless tree, with, probably that Sony RX10 mkiv.

The advantages of mirrorless are many - but for example:

1 - Smaller and lighter in size (at least in terms of camera body if not lens - but to some degree lens size too).

2 - MUCH quieter action - even silent  (for timid wildlife, precious golfers and event photography (weddings etc) for example).

3 - Faster, theoretical shutter speed (for freezing high speed action better) and faster flash synch speed (for REALLY freezing very high speed action).

4 - Zebra stripes (on overexposed images, LIVE IN the electronic viewfinder) as well as LIVE histograms and focus peaking.

5 - Preview of the image in the Electronic viewfinder - good for anything really but especially low light photography.

6 - Talking of low light photography - it's often MUCH easier to focus for low light shots using a mirrorless (and not a DSLR) camera.

7 - No blackout during a burst.

8 - Talking of bursts - a much higher burst rate (perhaps up to 20 or 30 (or even higher) frames per second, as opposed to 10 in a top spec DSLR).

9 - Better and faster autofocus (often) with tools such as face or even EYE (in Sony mirrorless cameras) recognition.

10 - Invariably a larger spread of autofocus points covering the entire frame of the shot in many mirrorless cameras.

11 - Discrete (good for street or event photography where you don't want to draw attention to yourself and your camera).

12 - Future proof (as far as we can predict) - mark my words, DSLR will eventually be replaced by mirrorless.

SO.... even more now.... why did I buy another DSLR in the form of an old (well... 4 year old) Canon 7d mkii - reading all the advantages of a mirrorless camera above?

Well... as described in my last-but-one blog, I have always hankered after a speedy camera for action shots, which my wonderful full frame Canon 6D DSLR cannot deliver easily for me. It can deliver quite well in this respect (see shot below of my son on a water slide at a friend's house t'other day) but the sort of shot I got below would be SOOOOooooo much easier to take with a fast (speedy) camera rather than my wonderful but slow full frame Canon 6D.

I KNOW the old 7d mk ii DSLR and current crop of (for example) Sony mirrorless cameras are SUPER speedy, so that's that particular box ticked … AND if I'd choose Sony - I'd choose a full frame Sony Mirrorless Camera (unlike the smaller- APSC sensored Canon 7d mkii DSLR), so that would be THAT box (image quality and low light capability) ticked too.

So.

Again.

WHY didn't I pull the plug on my own DSLR "habit" and go mirrorless?

My reasons, right now, can be summarised in a few points below:

1 - The only company right now, doing FULL FRAME (important to me) mirrorless options well is Sony - and I've bought into the Canon, not Sony gear "ecosystem" for almost a decade now - all my chargers, lenses, remotes etc are Canon and I'm "used" to getting Canons to work, physically (ie where the buttons are ON the camera - and what the buttons do) and also navigating the Canon digital menus (settings) IN the camera.

2 - Sony have a TERRIBLE (I mean potentially catastrophic) reputation for customer service, customer care and aftersales. There basically is none with Sony. Sony's business model is well-documented - pump out technology and updates (in terms of NEW, updated models) as quickly as possible -and make your old (less than a year old in many cases) products OBSOLETE - and that goes for all the parts and repair services too. FORCE your customers to buy a new product every year or two.

3 - Sony cameras' ergonomics (both in terms of physical layout of buttons and switches - and even more so in terms of electronic menus in the camera to change settings) are truly abysmal. The average Sony camera is about as user friendly as a space shuttle is to a chimp. Now... you might say... sure but after a while you'd get used to the nonsensical button layout and menu configuration wouldn't you? No... Not as far as I hear from experienced professional photographers - who tend to all (mainly) still use Canon and Nikon (Canon especially) because Canon cameras just work as you'd expect!

4 - Sony camera are like cheap, plastic toys. They're often not even weather proof. That's almost a deal breaker right there for me. I'd be scared to take one outside the house. And outside the house is where I like to BE (and take photos!).

5 - Sony cameras tend to break. Easily. Internally (poor, cheap electronics) or externally (see point 4).

6 - Mirrorless cameras have often overheated (generally as the battery is constantly being drained when the camera is just "on", (unlike DSLRs) and especially so when the camera operator is shooting 4K video for example, which in some Sony Cameras you can't shoot more than 5 minutes of before the camera whines that it's hot and it needs a rest (and then shuts down).

7 - The battery life is AWFUL on mirrorless cameras (think of your smart phone or even a point and shoot or bridge camera).  OK... battery life for mirrorless camera has improved over the last decade, but as an example, I was regularly getting only 100 shots MAXIMUM from my old (and beloved Panasonic Lumix FZ50 bridge camera), whereas even in my first, old Canon 40D, I often would only charge it at the end of each month (as a habit, rather than it needed it) as it would take a thousand or more photos on a single battery's charge - A HUGE HUGE advantage for DSLRs.

There you have it then.

Points 2,3,4,5 and 7 above are all deal-breakers (pretty-well) for me, to be honest.

I still say Full frame (or even medium format like Fuji are into right now) mirrorless cameras ARE the future for enthusiast and "prosumer" photography.

Right now, Sony at least - and to a lesser extent perhaps Fujifilm, are STREETS ahead of the big dawgs like Canon and Nikon in terms of giving the photographer the electronic bells and whistles they need to take great photos relatively easily. Canon and Nikon have to wake up - and wake up quickly.

Nikon have started to wake up to be fair, launching their first two new, full frame mirrorless cameras, the Z6 and Z7 this week - but personally speaking, I'm not sure these two cameras will be enough to save the financially-haemorrhaging Nikon.

Canon on the other hand are playing, as usual, a slow hand.

They WILL announce a full frame mirrorless camera within a year fo-sho - and that may be good enough to compete with Sony (in particular) for the mirrorless pie.

It may well be, mainly because even though Sony are (as I've written above) STREETS ahead of Canon in terms of mirrorless and sensor technology  - Canon have some things that Sony will never (it seems) have.

A) RELIABILITY. (My Canon DSLRs are ALL built like tanks and (touch wood) have NEVER let me down yet and NEVER will).

B) USEABILITY. My Canon DSLRs all just work. They're easy to use. They're intuitive. They're.... USER FRIENDLY.

C) CUSTOMER SERVICE and AFTERSALES. 

D) A HUGE RANGE OF LENSES. Possibly the best of all camera firms in terms of variety, quality and price. 

For those four reasons above (and for available capital reasons of course!) - two days ago I decided to shelve my current fascination with mirrorless cameras and buy an old TANK of a Canon 7Dmkii for action shots.

I'd LOVE to have all those advantages of mirrorless cameras (above) at my fingertips - but I can't get past the four big current drawbacks (above) right now. I just can't.

My new (old and 2nd hand!) 7D mkii takes the same batteries as my 6D, the same chargers, the same remote, the same lenses, it works with my non-subscription version of Lightroom (the Sony cameras will do NONE of this)… and more importantly than all that...

it just BLOODY WORKS....

...and I'm sure will just continue to work, until Sony or Fuji or even perhaps Canon (I hope as I don't think Sony ever will try) sort out the current robustness, reliability and user-friendliness issues of mirrorless cameras.

Yup.

They are (already) much more advanced (than DSLRs) -  so one day we'll ALL be using mirrorless cameras.

Even me.

But.

Not.

Just.

Yet....