5 October 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
USING DSLRS
‘I’M NOT anti-mirrorless. I’ve tried them, and I’d just
rather use my Nikon D850 and D810. A lot of it comes
down to the obvious things like build quality. I’ve
got quite sausage-like fingers, and the ergonomics of
the Nikon cameras just fit me perfectly. For me, some
of the mirrorless cameras are too small to be usable.
They have too many buttons and are fiddly. I once used
a Nikon Z 7 for an editorial job where I was shooting
inside a cathedral. The silent mode was brilliant,
because it meant I didn’t disturb the service, but it was
so small, I felt like I was using a happy-snap camera.
Because I’ve always used SLRs, I don’t regard the
D850 or D810 as heavy. A camera can be too light,
which means it doesn’t handle properly. And if you put
a big lens on a small camera, it can feel out of balance.
A DSLR is more intuitive to me – I’m so accustomed
to them, using one is second nature. I know where
the buttons are, I know how they behave, and I’m also
reallyhappywiththeirweather-sealing.I’mnotsure
whethermirrorlesscamerasareaswellsealed.
Thenthere’sthefactthatmirrorlesscameraseat
throughbatteries,nottomentiontheEVF,whichhas
a small,television-likeappearance.I findit offputting.
Theyhaveimproved,butyoucan’tbeatthebiting
sharpnessoflookingthrougha prismontoa mirror.
Havingsaidallthis,I dohavea LeicaM10,soI’mnot
againstsmallercameras.I useit fora lotofon-the-fly
portraiture,andit is lightweight,butunlikemirrorless
camerasit’snotcoveredinbuttonsandmodedials.
If someonecalledmea dinosaur,I’dprobablyagree.
It takesa lotofconvincingtomakemeconverttonew
technologyif I feelI don’thaveto,andmirrorlessgives
menothinga DSLRdoesn’thavealready.’
‘I USED the CanonEOS5Dand
6D for several years,butsold
them when the SonyAlpha7RII
came out. It wasa goodcamera,
and its video functionswerea
bonus. However,forvarious
reasons, I sold itandwentback
to shooting withDSLRs.It didn’t
feel quite as durable,fora start,
and what I needis a reallysolid
camera that cantakea beatingin
the wet, the coldandtheheat.
The battery lifewasoneofthe
main issues. Witha DSLR,the
batteries easily lastalldayor
longer. With theA7RII,I ended
up having to carryaboutten
extras with me, andwhenyou’re
halfway up a mountainand
hanging off a rope,it’snot
particularly practicaltobe
changing your camera’sbatteries.
I need somethingthatcankeep
going even in crapweather,and
in the extreme coldI foundthe
batteries might onlylastfiveJeremy Walker
Dorset-based landscape photographer Jeremy is
a familiar name to many readers of AP. Known for
his landscape photography, he regularly travels
to locations in Europe and the UK, both to run
landscape workshops and for commissioned
work. Visit http://www.jeremywalker.co.ukChris Prescott
Outdoor adventure photographer Chris can often be found
in remote locations hanging off the side of a mountain in
pursuit of his pictures. His images have been published in
a wide range of newspapers and magazines, and his clients
include the likes of Berghaus and The North Face. He also
produces video and is a trained sound engineer. Visit http://www.
chris-prescott.com and http://www.darksky-media.comminutes. DSLRs do suffer from
similar issues, of course, but not
in the same way.
I also found the tilting rear LCD
screen was very easy to break off,
and I damaged it a couple of times.
Lenses were another important
issue. I’d been using my Canon
lenses for 15 years or so and was
very used to them. I didn’t want to
sell them, so bought a Metabones
adaptor for the A7R II. It wasn’t
reliable enough for me. There were
times when the autofocus didn’t
work, and it would occasionally
disconnect. I’m sure it would have
functioned better with Sony’s
own lenses.
I lasted about a year before I sold
it and went back to Canon, buying
an EOS 5D Mark IV. It was great
to get back to features such as
Canon’s fantastic intervalometer
for time-lapse photography (I could
never get the software to work
properly on the Sony).Jeremy has a great deal of
confidence in the weather-
sealing capacity of his DSLRs© CHRIS PRESCOTT
© JEREMY WALKER