Tag Archives: body

Going Mirrorless

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Being late to the party is something that I make a habit of.  You could also be more optimistic and say that I am not an early adopter.  A number of friends and colleagues have added a mirrorless body to their collection of gear and I have followed suit.  I am perfectly happy with the performance of my SLRs.  This was to add something rather than replace something.  The primary interest was in size and convenience.  There are times when lugging the heavy bodies around is just inconvenient.

I went with an EOS M6.  I did consider going with a different manufacturer but using other equipment I already have was one factor.  Another was that this camera gave me an option I was quite keen on.  It has a screen for use while shooting but it also has an optional viewfinder to slot into the hot shoe.  This was discounted to only $11 when I bought the camera.  I like a viewfinder hit am okay with a screen.  Nancy, on the other hand, does not like screens so the viewfinder can be brought along if required and will make her happier to use the camera.

So far my experience with it has been very good.  Image quality has been fine, the controls are good and let me make adjustments without needing to enter menus.  The flippy screen is really handy and the kit lens fits plenty of needs.  The app that works with it is also pretty handy which gives a few options I wish the SLR could match!  The time lapse functionality is good too.  I have not tested it fully with my range of lenses and will do so at some point.  However, for what I bought it for, it is doing the trick nicely.

A New Body

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Not for me of course.  A new camera body.  A new one for me might be good but I have to stick with the one I have I guess!  There has been a lot of information floating around the web for a while about what the next body might be from Canon.  I have been paying particular attention to this as I have been considering getting another body for a while.

The reason for my interest is that I would like to replace one of my existing bodies.  I have two broadly similar cameras but there are of different vintages.  The more I have shot with them both, the more apparent the problems have become with switching from one to the other.  There are little issues that become noticeable over time and there are capability differences that also have a bearing.

The little differences are surprisingly important.  Canon changed the control arrangements between the release dates of these two designs and switching quickly between them can result in me using the wrong button combinations.  I have back button focus set up on my cameras and they use different buttons for this.  A small issue but one that is a nuisance when you are in a hurry.  (They also have different batteries which is inconvenient although not the end of the world.)

The newer body has greater capability in low light, better frame rates and something that I never thought I would care about – video.  It turns out I shoot more video clips than I ever expected.  When you have two bodies set up with different lenses, it can be a pain to realize that you want to shoot a quick video but the appropriate lens is on the non-video body.  Therefore, two identical bodies would be better.

Consequently, I nearly bought a second body earlier this year.  Then the earthquake hit and they became a rare commodity.  For ages they were unavailable.  Then they would occasionally show up but by then, talk was of the next body coming out.  I was in a quandary.    Do I wait for the next evolution and risk having another pair of mismatched cameras or do I forgo whatever enhanced capability there may be and have identical bodies?

Today I got some clarity in that Canon announced the new body.  As expected, it merged the two lines to create a full frame camera with high frame rate capability.  This is very appealing as a full frame sensor was something I did want to get.  Canon seem to have been clever and not gone crazy with the pixel count.  At 18Mp, it is only slightly more than the current body (so no panic over replacing cards, computers and hard drives to cope with huge files) but this is with a full frame sensor so actual pixel density is slightly reduced.  This is not something I am too concerned about.

However, I do have different sensor sizes between bodies.  I would have video for both which is a plus.  The button configuration has been tweaked again.  However, it does seem to be that the key interfaces are still the same and some of the changes are things I have thought about myself.  The battery is changed which would have annoyed me but it appears to be the case that the batteries are backwards and forwards compatible so that should be fine.

There is a stumbling block of course – price!  Canon has been edging up the price of the APS-H cameras for a while getting them closer to the full frame version pricing.  With the merger of the line, it appears that they have got to a price point closer to the full frame version.  Have we been trained to accept this?  Maybe.  What will the street price be?  We shall have to wait and see.  Am I going to buy one or get a duplicate of the current model while it is still available?  I don’t know.  I have nearly six months before they become available so I guess I have plenty of time to think about it and get saving!