Best Mirrorless Cameras

We were recently in the market for a new digital camera. My wife is a coloured pencil artist who want's to get high quality reference photos of birds… Read more

and wildlife for her art. Over the years, we've had a plethora of film cameras, digitals and bridge cameras that were good but not top quality. Even the excellent camera in the modern phone could not compare to a modern digital camera for picture quality. A friend loaned to us their Nikon P950 bridge camera to try out. It was a nice camera to use with pretty good picture quality but it had some minor limitations and lower picture quality than we really needed. When we were seriously looking at a new camera to buy for wildlife photography, it came down to a toss up between the Nikon P1100 bridge camera and the Canon EOS R50 mirrorless DSLR. After careful consideration, we chose the Canon. The choice was determined by two factors. #1. The Nikon had a smaller sensor with lower picture quality, has less low light capability, is heavy and was also not immediately available at any local stores and, #2. The Canon was cheaper, has a bigger sensor for better picture quality and is much, much lighter and we could have it right away. The Nikon has 16MP sensor and an impressive 125x optical zoom, equivalent to 24-3000mm and ease of use with no lens changes to worry about. However, the Nikon has a lot of glass and mechanical stuff in that lens casing and is heavy at 1.5kg. That's a lot of weight to carry all the time. The Canon on the other hand has 24MP sensor, it is much lighter than the Nikon. The body alone weighs only 380g and only 529g with the 18-45mm lens attached. It has a bigger APS-C sensor which is over 11x larger than the sensor in the P1100 and with much better low light capability than the Nikon. The Canon came as a 2 lens bundle with 18-45mm (152g) and 55-210mm (310g) lenses. For super long distance shots, I purchased an f11 600mm (940g) prime lens to go with it. Having the interchangeable lenses is a bit of a pfaff when you want to change focal length quickly but it also means that the camera is not heavy all the time. The EOS R50 with the 'huge' 600mm prime weighs 1.3kg vs 1.5kg for the Nikon. With the Canon, we need a carry bag with enough storage space for the camera body and the lenses. This makes the bag a bit bulky. The Nikon is much more compact and has a much smaller bag. I can't comment on the Nikon performance because we haven't used it, so I shan't; but after owning the Canon for a few months now, we have explored most of the many features and functions. Having owned a few "instamatic" and bridge cameras before, this one leaves the others in it's wake. It's by no means the 'Rolls Royce' of cameras, in fact it is a Canon 'entry level' camera. It is a mirrorless camera meaning that unlike an SLR camera, there's no mechanical gizmo to flip a mirror out of the way each time you press the shutter button. This makes it less complicated and lighter too with a longer life due to less mechanical gubbins' to wear out or go wrong. The view finder image is an LCD image from the sensor and not an optical path through the lens but it is still excellent. THE GOOD STUFF: This camera with all it's functions and quality is IMHO best bang-for-buck. It's perfect for a beginner or budget conscious person but with most of the features the more professional cameras have to offer rolled up in a compact package. It has some other nifty feature too, like the wireless connection to your phone or computer to download images. You can also control the camera hands-free from your phone. The image quality is very good and the lenses are easy to change. There is a viewfinder and a fully articulated 'touch screen' LCD display. There is a built-in flash and a 'hot foot' too. I have tried the time lapse function to video the summer storms rolling in and they look amazing. The camera has many cool functions to play with. You can leave it as a point-and-shoot camera set in "auto" mode, or fiddle around with ISO, F stop, shutter speeds and other settings to your heart's content to get the optimal shot. Being a newbie to the world of photography I am impressed with the abilities it gives me. Battery life is better than expected too. THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF: My only complaint about this camera is the button layout. All the buttons to change modes and do other functions are located on the right hand side (handle) of the body around where your right hand goes. This is convenient for operation but it means that they are susceptible to accidental pushing of the buttons just by holding the camera. It's just a minor 'first world' problem and something to get used to I guess. The EOS R50, like most DSLR cameras is susceptible to weather. There is no weather sealing so be careful to not get it wet. LENSES: Our camera came as a bundle with two lenses included. The lens hoods are not included but are available separately. The 18-45mm is perfect for family snaps, general photography and close-up's. The 55-210mm is best for sports and wildlife photography. The lenses are of the (12 contact) RF-S family and the RF mount is not compatible with the older (8 contact) EF lenses. However, there is an accessory adaptor ring available to allow EF lenses to be used on the RF mount. So, if you've got an old Canon, you can use the old lenses on the new camera but you need to purchase the adaptor. There is a wide variety of lenses from canon and other manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron available for this camera that can suite all needs. The EOS R50 camera body does not have image stabilisation. However, the RF-S (S for Stabilisation) lenses do carry that feature. CONCLUSION: I'm very pleased and impressed with our Canon. If you want a good all round but budget camera with all the bells and whistles, you can't go past the Canon EOS R50. It has all the tricks and trappings of expensive cameras at a fraction of the cost. It's light and compact and perfect for beginners and anyone wanting a good quality DSLR without spending a fortune.

Excellent – Bought the canon after reading many articles, and asking salespeople to recommend a camera, I had a Fuji which had a very difficult menu system that… Read more

put me off photography, but thus menu on the canon is intuitive, (but like the apple computer over Microsoft) everything seems so straightforward there are terms and settings I still don’t understand, but the shop said to pop by anytime for advice. This camera exudes quality, not cheap but worth the extra. Very pleased with the quality and ease of settings and very helpful staff at camera electronics.

Just to add to this 6 months on, The colours you get from this camera are incredible, I use a Nisi polarising filter, and shoot in Raw mode, I also subscribe to Lightroom, which is a new learning curve for me, and prob need more utube hours to perfect, but I just printed a selection of my photos and I was blown away with the colours and quality, even the lady who processed the pics commented on them as I picked them up, (never had that before!) I think the full frame is a must for anyone wanting quality, it’s 24.000 mega pixels, which seems adequate, if I had money I’d definitely look at the new R5, but that’s up there price wise for a hobbyist, I only buy L series lenses, which is what you need if your a perfectionist! Although I just bout a 15mm f2.8 standard lens, less than 500$, as I want to try some astrology pics, and maybe I’ll trade up if I get into it. But was told the quality difference isn’t as noticeable with this type of photography, the fast lens is more important for now. Anyway this is my experience, years ago I had minolta 9000, film camera which I loved, and a entry model Fuji which I found complicated, apart from that I’ve never used a Nikon, which was on my list when I chose the canon because the salesmen all favoured the canon and because of the menu system, and I have no regrets!

I'm going overseas so I bought the Olympus E-M10 Mark IV. I've already owned a range of film and digital cameras over the decades and I have a good… Read more

understanding how cameras have progressed . My main camera is a Sony A7III with a whopping 40-something MP sensor (although some would consider this low resolution considering there are now 60 MP and 100 MP cameras out there). To be honest, the Sony is far superior to the Olympus in many ways but so is the weight. I hate lugging the Sony and its various lenses around with me. In the end, the Sony distracted me so much from photography during my last overseas trip that I started leaving it in the hotel and used my mobile phone.

The E-M10 is plastic, light weight, has a good lens and features that make photography fun again. Especially for street photography or long walks on dirt tracks, the Olympus just fits in my pocket. No need to carry a camera bag around and no need for shoulder pain. I'm done with being a pack mule!

Image quality isn't the only difference between Sony and Olympus, however, image quality or the number of pixels wasn't the deciding factor in buying the Olympus. So, first the most debated issue of 20 MP vs 40 MP. 20 MP is "sufficient". I took some of the best photos of my life on a 14 MP Nikon. The Olympus 20 MP isn't noticeably better in terms of megapixels compared to my 11 year-old 14 MP Nikon camera. But the images overall look better on the Olympus (i.e. more crisp) due to internal processing of jpgs. However, when zooming into the images (because of the digital tele converter software), the pixels become noticeable. However, all the image degrading features in the Olympus can be turned off. There are pros and cons regarding internal processing of images that I won't be getting into because the various internal software gimmicks built into this phone are complex. However, straight out of the box, the images are wholesome, good and nice to look at. There are settings that you need to change to get even more out of your E-M10. If you look up Robin Wong on YouTube, he has good tips on setting up your Olympus. Only after changing some settings did the E-M10 reveal how good it is. Although more megapixels produce better images in theory, in reality, the tone, colours and other factors affect whether an image is good or not - not the megapixel count.

If you look at the image of the red car, I processed the RAW file and cropped it when zooming in. The results are great. A 20 MP sensor can produce great results, even when zooming in at the extreme. Also, the red is the lushest red I've ever seen. The colours are just warm, wholesome, almost hypnotising...and no, I don't work for Olympus!

Moving away from 20 vs 40 MP sensors debate, the second thing to note is the dodgy positioning of the on-off switch. It's on the left side of the camera body and it is difficult to turn on. Big fail here. Also, some of the other buttons and dials can be turned accidentally because this is a small camera. That's the price you pay for having a small camera. I'm not knocking Olympus but the on-off switch is pretty bad. The on-off button on the Olympus PEN-5 is much better.

The third odd thing about the E-M10 is the lens cap. It is so small and thin, it is hard to remove and easy to lose. I don't get it. Put a string on it! After removing the lens cap the other day on the footpath, it slipped out of my hand and rolled toward a drain. Lucky it stopped before it vanished.

The fourth issue is the graininess of the images at high ISO. Images above ISO 6400 border on useless. That's where my Sony 40 MP camera laughs at the E-M10 but, then again, the Sony cost three times as much. Obviously, cameras with larger sensors have less "noise" at higher ISO.

The fifth thing is the plastic body. Do I care? Hmmm, not really. But for over $1,000 I was expecting aluminum or a light alloy at least. The question here is: since my iPhone takes really nice images (but without the fancy features of the E-M10), there's little justification to buy an E-M10. Sony A7-II already has a 24 MP sensor and is technically better at the same price. However, I refer back to my opening arguments that I bought the E-M10 for the look of the images and the lower weight.

That about sums up the bad. Now to the good: Keeping in mind that this is only a 20 MP camera, the images are not meant to be zoomed-in and cropped. They are good right out of the camera if photographed at low ISO and framed correctly. The jpgs are generally very good and you can apply in-camera processing to make the images excellent right out of the box. While RAW images can't be edited in the camera, they are higher quality and generally require post processing in a software program like DarkTable, RawTherapee or OM Workspace anyway. The RAW images are very good. I've also taken awesome images on my 40 MP Sony but they had to be processed in editing software to bring out the best colours (E.G. red) while the Olympus sensor and processing already makes the images look softer in some ways but punchier in others, more like analogue film. There's a general desire among photographers to get the 'filmic' look. Similar to the Fuji and older Nikons, the Olympus achieves that.

I don't like Sony's menu. In contrast, Olympus has an easier menu but it shines when pressing the Super Control Panel button. You can access all important settings through this feature on the touch screen or via the toggle button at the back.

The M-Zuiko 14-42mm lens is pretty good and better than Sony's average zoom kit lenses.

The camera is fun to take on photo sprees and to just tuck away in the glove box and grab it when needed. I haven't had any battery issues and overall the camera is sturdy, albeit being plastic. The only real downside is the price. Although I negotiated it down to $1,021, in my view, $899 (including lens) should be the most. Otherwise, get an iPhone. But, I wanted this particular camera - not a Fuji, not a Panasonic and not Canon. I wanted a particular look in my images and the E-M10 gives it to me.

If the price and on-off button were fixed, I would have given it 5 stars.

Learning to Handle Briliance – My R5 with Canon lenses has performed better and better as I have become used to handling the features that are new to me. Tracking focus Has turned… Read more

out to be a brilliant addition to my photographic experience as I've learnt how to use it well. Battery life is shorter when tracking is always on but that is a small price to pay for the great results.