Is mirror ... less or more?
Well it’s been a great year at BHP. After the previous 18 -24 months we’ve all experienced it’s been great to be busy again.
So let’s get too it! As most of you know I shoot Canon for all my Weddings & Lifestyle work. I have used Canon cameras for over 25 years now as they match my style & output perfectly.
My first Canon digital body was a 1DS in around 2005 - I waited until the first full frame body was on offer being used to shooting with Leicas before that! ( film of course!)
So too now- for the 6 years I’ve been shooting with a 1DX ( my 4th camera) it has now well surpassed 1 million actuations!! Yes I know pretty crazy right? It’s done me well and never failed but at that shutter count it’s time to switch up!
Now I’ve never been one for changing cameras to keep up with trends of technology. Do I need a new camera to make me better? No. Only whenI feel hindered by a camera is it time to change. Looking back since my first digital body, the 1DS I’ve only owned 4 cameras ( in over 20 years of photography!) so needless to say I get every ounce of usability out of my cameras! So what’s different now?
Canon 1DS
Canon 1DS Mark II
Canon 1DS Mark III
Canon 1DX
Canon 1DX Mark III
Well as it’s time to change now Mirrorless cameras have now become a very viable option. Last Summer I tested the Canon R5 & R6 cameras. Needless to say I was pretty impressed with them. Fast focusing easy handling - light - etc..( I wasn’t overjoyed with the dynamic range and how it handled highlights though. )
But the point of writing this is not to say whether I think mirrorless is good or bad ( plenty of blogs for that!) it’s to say why it may or may not work for me right now & why!?
Yes or no?
So I’ll cut to the chase! I’m a photographer that gets the best out of every subject I shoot. That connection is vital to the subject whether it is a Bride or Groom, a Family or Lifestyle shoot or indeed a Commercial assignment where people are key. It is this connection or lack of it that is the reason I am not choosing to shoot mirrorless at this time. I love to see my subject in a ‘real’ way - like they’re in front of me. Seeing the client through a digital viewfinder ( & I’ve tried & tried for sure) is just not for me & it’s that element of detachment that I feel from the subject, that disconnect that I just can’t get to grips with.
Whilst on paper everything surpasses the capability of a DSLR it has to feel right for me. Sit right in the hands , just feel part of me.
If I’m not capable of focussing a camera or getting a moving subject in focus myself then somethings quite wrong! Of course Mirroless will help photographers who this is important to, to achieve it faster and more consistently for sure. Those elements aren’t an issue for me. Colour. Connection & feel are what’s important in a camera enabling me to do my job. I’m no dinosaur that’s for sure and have embraced all kinds of technology over the years but at this moment in my photography & career I’ll be sticking with older tech for now. There is nothing wrong with the tech of Mirrorless, nothing at all. If fast focussing, face tracking, high ISO and a whole host of other things are important to you. Those things just aren’t to me. Like I said earlier, connection to camera & subject is vital for me. My Medium Format camera, Pentax 645Z is basically a box with a huge sensor in it! It slows you down, improves the connection with the subject and does everything I make it do. IT HAS SOUL! The same with DSLR’s for now!
What did I chose to keep me going for the next chapter?
Yes understandably major manufacturers have already started the discontinuation of certain DSLRS and no doubt this will be the way it goes in the coming months/years . Having previously owned a Canon 1dx as mentioned earlier I decided to go for a 1dx Mark 3. Choosing not to go Mirrorless yet I thought it the best move to go for what I think is the best of the rest!! I’ve had it over a month now and have shot four weddings & three family photoshoots with it.
Canon 1dx 3 - will it cut it?
It’s always been about depth of colour for me with my cameras 20 years ago no one was bothered about the camera you used , more the film you put in it! My mindset hasn’t particularly changed - as far putting the best into the camera to get the best out. Canon has always given me that colour depth & reality of colour ( digitally ) when I switched from Canon 1ds I was devastated with the 1dx & it took months if not longer to try and reproduce what I had been so accustomed to getting from my other camera. That is why now I don’t try and imitate when setting up a new body, I treat it as an entirely new entity so when switching to the mark 3 of course I had my doubts.
A month down the road I’m happy to say I’m getting there.
How have I set it up?
For those of you that are familiar with my work you’ll know that I mostly shoot jpg. For Weddings & Lifestyle anyway. I’ve always shot this way preferring the size and ease of use of a jpg. Also this has trained me to endeavour to get things as near as correct in camera. So how the camera is set up is key to my imagery as I haven’t got or am not using the Raw file for back up. So Picture Style is top of my list - preferring to use Standard setting most of the time for this. The only things I’ve changed on this are -
Sharpening -1
Saturation -1
The rest are left on 0.
Jpg setting is obviously max. Highlight tone priority is off as is peripheral illumination. The reason for this is that I use the 50mm 1.2 Lens for the majority of my work and I like the natural vignette that you get wide open from this lens. Mainly anything that can effect the look of the image or anything that the camera wants to do to help is mostly switched off, I’m not in the habit of blowing highlights so I can figure this out myself.
ISO noise reduction is on on the rare occasion I go crazy with my ISO. Incidentally this is one of the main improvements with the mark 3 - ISO use. I have to say my previous camera was pretty poor over 6400. I find files from the mark 3 usable up to 10000 ISO. In the event that I’ll need this kind of sensitivity!
The colour on the Mark 3 is starting to get to where I need it be be I use mostly Kelvin scale so choose my WB. On the occasion I use AWB I have taken a little magenta out of the AWB set up as if anything the files can be a little warm - also why I took -1 saturation from the picture stymie set up. I sharpen a little bit but not too much as there’s nothing worse than an over sharpened file. Once it’s done it’s done ! The colour can get a little too warm and over saturated so I am tweaking that at the moment but it’ll refine after every shoot. Also the camera wants to see too much!! By this I mean in real life there are shadows!! I love shadows and they play a big part in my photography. So I have to underexpose a little more than Im used too to get the look I need. To be honest I also found this with Mirrorless cameras too!
The camera feels right. I have quite big hands so like a large grip body. The R3 also felt good in the hands if not a little small. I shoot a lot of portrait orientation images so having a vertical grip is key to the way I work. Everything else is where I like it. The shutter is responsive, focussing is fast enough for sure ( especially as the Mark 3 is Canons flagship DSLR and particularly meant for sports photography. The issue for me with newer tech is that its too sharp, too clean and somewhat soulless! I’ve talked about the ‘soul’ of my 50mm lens and I believe this to be true also with the camera body. CLICK HERE FOR POST
Yes you can create soul to a point in post but I’m no photoshop wiz and I need to be taking pictures , not really creating them afterwards. My clients - Weddings particularly - often comment on the quality, the feel, the depth, the colour of my images, never do I hear about the sharpness! More the softness!
Which is what I am after for sure.
So, in conclusion to this short piece there is nothing at all wrong with the Mirrorless Camera. The tech, everything is without a doubt amazing. But it’s not for me right now. I want a box with a lens on it that I have to do as much as I can too to get out of it what I need. Having it on a plate has never been my bag and together I still feel that my camera & I make a solid team capable of conquering any environment, any situation, with any lighting thrown at me. I’ll see if I can get this camera to a million actuations and then we’ll see but for now it’s here to stay.
