higashida Iron tower
There were about 74 dust spots in the sky area of this image.
It took me about 23 minutes to get rid of these dirty spots.
Removing dust spots is tedious and very risky, difficult and sometimes deprives all the good charm of the image!
The current state of the camera world Mirrorless vs D-SLR 2018:
I think the 2017 was the first very first year for us to truly see the future would be the Sony E mount and maybe the Fuji X and G systems. They have successfully fixed all weakness or so-called mirrorless specific issues of their respective mirrorless systems with their latest flagship mirrorless offerings.
It is getting better in every way in mirrorless world, not getting perfect or any close to it yet, but it is getting better in every way...
Sure, it is obvious there is no, even one perfect camera system out there, still, even in the end 2017 and the first month of 2018 and probably neither will be in 2019 or 2020.
Every ILC system has flaws, some serious ones and not very serious but still significant flaws or at least quirks........that severely hurt usability of the system.
But all systems have pluses and minuses, and it is getting really complicated(used to be a lot easier) to choose the one closest to our specific needs, and still the old D-SLR trolls prefer Canon and Nikon and trash every single mirrorless system without any legitimate or logical reason, they are just too prejudiced against electronics compaines like Sony, Fuji, Panasonic to even assess any of them honestly........but they like it or now, it is really changing and this is the first year we are beginning to see the trend clearly.
Here are some of the "so-called" mirrorless problems at the current stage of mirrorless tech development that some of our crazy biased D-SLR customers at our shop kindly pointed out to us, and I find these points quite interesting but not quite right any more and I'd want to correct these wrong points against the mirrorless.
1) Generally slow operation speed-it is ridiculously slow sometimes due to the tiny weak low power CPU combined with the tiny weak battery Sony, Fuji and m43 all use.
This one was completely correct until the latest generation mirrorless cameras such as the Panasonic GH5, the G9, the Sony A9, the A7R3, the Fuji XE3, etc come out........
So in terms of pure speed and usability, the mirrorless team really leapfrogged this year.
So now, not all mirrorless cameras are slow in operation like their predecessors, but still most of them are slow in every area that does not show up in the spec sheet...
The MK2 generation Fullframe A7 series are very slow because they have a huge sensor and that requires a lot of juice power to run fast, and Sony was too cheap to put a decent processor, or more precisely saying, they did not want to increase the body size by designing and putting proper effective heat sink system....but this serious flaw of the A7X2 series was already fixed with the latest R3 and A9 series and I am sure all newer bodies will have the same powerful A7R3 frontside LSI and similar heat sink system.
Most of Fuji cameras released before 2016 were really slow, but the XT2 and X-T20 changed it and it will get even faster with the next firmware update. The X-E3 is pretty snappy and I think it will get even better with a series of new FW updates that Fuji will issue for that camera in 2018.
However, their IQ flagship GFX is quite slow, nothing like the XT2 or the X-E3.....I just tried a GFX and compared that to my own Sony A7R2(the ancient camera now replaced), and I have to say the GFX is like a snail in my yard, it is extremely slow, much slower than my old A7R2 in every way....... What I mean by slow here is general operation speed not the shooting speed or AF speed. It is extremely slow to write to the card, it is extremely slow to wake up from a long sleep, etc.......and I think it is a bigger issue of a bit slow AF of my A7R2 or any newer Fuji cameras that I have tested.
2) All the current highend mirrorless cameras are overpriced and hold almost no value in a year or two.
"Its a developing technology. So no value in products.IOW, for the same or identical performance for Sony FE or Fuji X, we must pay 2 times more than similar Nikon or Canon to get the identical performance in mirrorless world. The X-T2 costs about 1400US and the Nikon D7200 costs about 700 US.......see my point? even the poorly made lowend camera like Sony A6500 costs 1200US and that is about 500 US more than the D7200.....in fact, even the OM-D EM5M2 using an ancient tiny format sensor costs more than the D7200 or the 80D. The A7R2 costs about 1k more than the D810 and the A7R3 without any weather sealing costs more than the pro class Nikon D850."
This is what out most diehard DLSR customer Jake told us, it may have been true in the last generation mirrorless era, but the latest Sony and Fuji have changed it for good.
The D850 may sound like a big bargain, but it is made out of a collection of old old techs, while the A7R3 or the Fuji GFX is made out of a collection of real latest techs and that costs more to design than the already very matured D850.
However, I agree with Jake on the low end crop mirrorless cameras are all super overpriced and oversized for the sensor size now compared to the cheap mid level crop sensor D-SLRs like the Canon 80D or the Nikon D7200(not the 7500).
The Olympus EM1MK2 with a tiny dated low resolution sensor costs almost 2k USD, is really ridiculous, the new Panasonic G9, while it is an excellent all around hybrid body, I think it is at least about 500 USD overpriced since the IQ of the sensor or system is so poor, lousy.....compared to the cheap but decent matured crop sensor D-SLRs like the Nikon D7200, or the cheap FF cameras like the D750 or the A7MK2.....
The A6500 was also too expensive when it was out, but its price come down significantly and now it is at 1k US and I think it is very acceptable...
Like the A6500, the Fuji X-T2 and XP2 were really overpriced for the sensor size and overall image quality that system could ever produce, but now its price level is acceptable at around 1.2kUS or less. However it is still much more than the Nikon D7200 and about as expensive as the Nikon D750 or the Sony A7MK2...
So I think despite of a bit older tech used if the money is an issue then the Nikons and the Sony A7 non-R bodies are generally "best bang for your buck."kind of value champions. And Fuji and m43 are the two worst value systems, especially the m43.
But for the highend over 30mp FF or bigger sensor system camera market, the Sony A7R3 and the Fuji GFX50s are the two best value cameras ever made for sure..
So Jake is wrong on this one since he thinks all Nikons are better value than all Sony and Fuji rivals in the same price range.
3) Continuous Autofocus is really slow when compared to a decent D-SLR.
Well this was really correct in 2016, but at this end of 2017, it is no longer the case, if you doubt it, please try the A9, the Panasonic G9, or the Sony A7R3 and compare these to your choice of the best D-SLR AF. I bet you would be really shocked to admit these best mirroless AF systems have already surpassed the best D-SLR AF in every area except in super lowlight AF performance.
I think if you compare the D850 vs the A7R3 in real world, you would see the A7R3 is vastly better except in extreme lowlight AF and it may be the only one last bastion of the best D-SLR has against the best mirrorless of this time of 2017.
4) It is related to the issue 3, but one of our long time friends said ,"Lowlight AF, almost useless. Even the best mirrorless AF system like the one in the Fuji X-T2, the Sony A9, the A7R3 and the Panasonic G9 struggles in lowlight regardless of their AF EV rating, that is the most important difference between the best mirrorless AF vs the best D-SLR AF, why we serious action shooters still choose a Nikon".
Well, it was maybe true in the last year before the A9, the G9, the A7R3 era of the ILC world, but now I doubt it, the best mirrorless cameras like the A7R3 and the G9 already outperform any D-SLR in almost every area, maybe except action AF in extreme lowlight , say below minus 4EV light level.
And if you do not mind the tiny sensor of the Panasonic system, the G9 has the definitely best lowlight AF in mirrorless world and it is able to track at least as well as the D750, which was the camera its predecessor the GH5 was not able to beat in this specific area of AF performance.
And even the A7R3 is now almost as good as the D750 or the 5DMK4 level in extreme lowlight, it actually focuses on a moving leaf in extreme lowlight like minus 3 EV or a bit lower, and if my memory is correct, I do not remember any Sony mirrorless or Canon D-SLR before the A7R3 could do this without hunting a several seconds or longer.
So even in this very specific area of AF that all the previous generation mirrorless scored very bad, the current best mirrorless made a huge leapfrog, now they are actually better than most of D-SLRs, except for the best Nikon pro bodies.
But still, none of mirrorless cameras are able to go down to minus 4EV light level that the best latest Nikon D-SLRs such as the D850, the D500, the D5 have been able to do some how. And I think the reason is simple the current sensor gets too noisy when it gets heated up by continuous live-viewing in extreme lowlight, and the noisier the sensor gets the more difficult for the sensor based CD/PD AF to work properly at the current level of technology, so the best mirrorless still struggles in extremely lowlight action AF.....but for static thing, the latest AF system of Sony, Fuji and Panasonic made a huge leapfrog in performance in both speed and accuracy.
I think this is the main reason why the Sony's new A99MK2 still have the much criticized SLT design and it is superb in lowlight. I think when Sony or Canon feels comfortable with their respective OSPDAF tech even for extreme lowlight action tracking use,they will eliminate the mirror from their A99MK2 successor or 5D successor and the one get there first will win this game.
But for my personal needs, the AF system of the Panasonic G9 and the Sony A7R3 are both more than good enough for every kind of action that I shoot........so for me it is not a issue any more.
5) extremely poor ergonomics and controls design in some cameras..without proper grip and dual card slots. I personally like ergonomics of the Panasonic G9 and Sony A7R3. I find all my Sonys and Panasonics just OK, but the other mirrorless cameras ,especially the Fuji cameras simply feel too awkward to operate through and difficult to hold steadily. And many of mirrorless cameras even the expensive ones like the A6500 or the Pen F have very poor SD card slot design. I mean why put the SD card slot inside of the battery compartment?
I think this poor SD card slot placement is the only one real con of the Sony A6500/a6300 series, and other wise, I use them as my sub camera to my A7R3 and A7R.
So some mirrorless cameras still have some serious usability issues but these issues are all the tiny size related issues not mirrorless related ones. And the increased size of the G9 body or the A7R3 body has already solved that...
The A7R3 is significantly bigger than my original A7R, but it has dual card slots, a bigger battery, a more powerful CPU, etc, and the size increasement is really easily justified in this case.
The D-SLR guys like our friend Jake always criticize no mirrorless has dual card slots but Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic and Sony have already fixed this issue with their respective flagship models. I expect that even consumer models will get this feature pretty soon to make it really no issue for most.
Plus, good ergonomic design is very personal thing, for me the A7R3 body is very easy to use and very intuitive because I have been shooting A7R series since the very first A7R and thus I am extremely familiar with it and that series of camera design already.
I am sure the D-SLR guys hate it but it is not objective criticism and thus it is not fair to mirroless guys.
I mean I know many people feel the D850 or 5D4 really awkward and unintuitive(actually I am in that category) and hate it.
For me the ideal camera body size is something like the Nikon D750 or the Canon 6D, but the latest generation A7R3 is close enough.....
6) EVF is not a problem for me, I actually love it but many of our customers hate it and say it is the biggest con of the current mirrorless without even testing the latest cameras like the A7R3, the A6500, the G9 and the EM1MK2.
Is the EVF still really bad? Or is it even fair to criticize it now?
For me, though, it is the biggest advantage of mirrorless over any D-SLR...... I think if one gets used to the best EVF like one in the Panasonic G9 or the Sony A7R3, even the middle class ones like the Panasonic GH5, the Sony A7R2, the Fuji X-T2, there is no way back for him or her to the OVF based cameras. But many of our customers disagree and so I respect that. Some people actually say the Sony A7R3EVF really tires their eyes much faster than the OVF in their D850 or D810 or 5DMK4 does and so they cannot shoot the A7R3, let alone any EVF worse than that. I do not know if this is any true but again I respect that.
Now a few Japanese university studies reporting that the current level of noisy EVF actually hurts human eyes and may degrade their eye sight...........but I do not know if this is really true. And to me the EVF of the A7R3 is very clear and never gets too noisy, and so it is a vastly better finder than any OVF even the best one in the Nikon D850.
But I admit that it is very personal thing, some prefer the OVF in the D850 and some like me prefer the EVF, after all I am and my generation of people are very used to using EVF and LCD panels in their PC's, in their phones, etc...
My first EVF device was the Minolta A2 digital camera from 2003.
7) terrible battery life. the best mirrorless camera in this regard is probably the Panasonic GH5, the G9 or the Sony A9/7R3 now,but even these cameras are still much worse than the similar class D-SLR such as the Nikon D850 or the Pentax K1. Well but, I 'd say try your D-SLR shooting full time LV for 3 hours, you will see the DSLR is actually worse, less efficient in power management than the best mirrorless cameras if you use the LCD a lot. And to be fair to Sony, Sony has kept the same battery for years since the first NEX5, so we long time E mount shooters have already collected at least a several of these, I have 9 and so it is no longer a serious issue for me, I mean even my old A7R2 and A7R are fine.
Nikon, on the other hand, has kept changing their batteries, so I have only two batteries for my D750.
Other than these so-called problems mirror-less already won most of points, at least for me. Mirroless is competing in these areas too, and getting better and better every generation. One day it will send DSLR to Nikon Tokyo camera museum for all good for all of us.
But then, do we have to miss many of important present activities or memories just because the current MLILC cameras cannot focus in lowlight?
And, is it still wiser to wait to see who will be the next decade winner in this business?
Many of us who are already on mirrorless think it will be Sony or Fuji. But many of mirrorless haters think it will be Canon, they think Canon may be able to fight back with the EOS M mount as it can house the fullframe sensor just like the Sony E. Some Canon Nikon fans even think the current Nikon F and Canon EF will dominate the next decade too, they think what Canon Nikon should do to effectively fight back against Sony and Fuji is just eliminate the mirror from their D750 or the 6D series when the right time comes and that is all what they'll have to do to effectively fight back against the Fuji X and the Sony E.
Personally, I think it is now obvious the MIL will be the future of popular cameras for most of consumer markets, but at this time it is not there yet for many of old time D-SLR guys like our friends Jake and Thomas, who really hate the current form of the tiny E mount bodies that I sometime have(almost force) them try. Personally, I do not think the D-SLR will die out completely any time soon(because there is strong prejudice against Sony, Pana and Fuji in this ILC camera world), though, the DSRL will be a very niche expensive product like the rangefinder camera or MFDB in the current consumer camera market.
Last year when I wrote a similar article, I thought the poor lowlight AF of all the best(at the time) mirroless cameras really limits their real life usability in documentary or action photography, or anything not studio based or landscape on a tripod.
And I wrote:"Now, I kind of think mirrorless is, like the electric cars of camera world, it is the future but not really mature enough to be practical for many real life tasks just yet, and they are both still immensely overpriced just because they are relatively new tech in their own field."
But it has dramatically changed this year, now the best mirrorless cameras are just as powerful as the best D-SLRs and even more in many areas , such as video performance, hybrid-ability, precise shock less shutter system, absolute IQ,etc....
The Sony A7R3 is just as powerful a tool as the D850 is, the Panasonic G9 is the best crop camera ever made regardless of the finder system, etc.
And Sony and Fuji have made a huge leap in lens selection, they now have really a respectable lens set and it is expanding rapidly.
The Sony system now has the best wide angle slection in FF world and I think any one serious about super wide should take a serious look at their fantastic wide angle lens selection.
They have produced excellent wide zooms in the FE16-35mm f2.8GM, the FE12-24mm f4G, the FE16-35mm f4Z trio, and as an open mount system, the E mount has been consistently supported by Zeiss and other thirdparty lens makers such as Laowa, Tokina, Sigma, Samiyang, Voigtlander,etc...and they all have produced excellent wide lenses for that mount. Laowa has produced the 15mm f2D lens, which is a superb super fast(for the 15mm focal length)wide lens with incredible close focus capability.
Voigtlander has produced a set of 10mm, 12mm, 15mm primes, and while they are not as sharp as the Laowa 15mm f2D or the Zeiss Batis 18mm f2.8, still sharp and produce excellent images stopped down with incredible flare resistance.
Zeiss has produced a set of Loxia and Batis line primes and none of these are bad, in fact most of these are excellent or class-leading quality lenses and all of these are weather sealed.
In the Fuji X world, Fuji has constantly releasing outstanding quality primes and a bit pricey but stunning quality zooms.
The XF10-24mm f4, the XF16mmf1.4R and XF90mm f2 are all outstanding and nothing Canon Nikon D-SLR system have match the quality of these three Fuji lenses.
So go back to the original question: Are Fuji and Sony actually winning over the Canon Nikon dinosaurs in this mirrorless game ?
Well, one year ago, I thought it maybe 50/50, but now I think they are winning over the CN in many areas........almost all non action photographers have already switched to Sony or Fuji or something else already, and every week we are asked many questions like how much money they actually need to switch to Sony E mount from Nikon D810 based system? Or, how good is the Fuji APS-C camera image quality as a whole system compared to their Nikons? Etc, etc.........
And many Nikon and Canon guys selling their D-SLRs for something else, and many ex-Canon shooters bought their first A7X in last year moving to fully Sony set up this year, or many of these guys selling their Canon lenses for the native Sony or Zeiss lenses.
The above kind of serious changes in this industry are something we have never seen before the A7R2 and the X-T2 era; I think these two cameras have really really changed the way people view the mirrorless or feel about it........and their respective successor may make even more serious impact on this business.
In 2017, I said it would have been still possible for Canon Nikon to dramatically change the power order of the mirroless mount systems in the consumer camera market if they could release something like the Sony A7R2 or a bit better within 2017...........but I cannot say the same for the year 2018 any more.
I mean Sony has solidified the mount system with so many attractive FE lenses, and many thirdparties've also backed the system up with many attractive lens releases for the Sony system, so it is really hard for Canon and Nikon to surpass it with their very first serious mirrorless attempt.
With likes of the A7R3, the G9, the X-H1,etc, the mirrorless companies raised the bar very high this time, and it is really hard for CN to leapfrog over it at their very first try..........but they must do it or lose the mirrorless game forever.
I think the longer they wait to enter into the mirrorless game, the more difficult the rules of this game will become for Canon and Nikon, and time is running out for Nikon, they must do it in the first quarter of the next year 2018, or they will fade into the camera history.
Unlike Canon and Nikon, likes of Fuji, Panasonic, Sony, Leica and Olympus have been listening to their respective user base, thus they could fix almost all their mirrorless system specific issues.
Sony has fixed the battery issue with the A9 and A7R3, it is a huge issue for me since I shoot in a very cold mountain during the winter season and I know having 6 batteries for my A7R2 was not enough there since these weak tiny batteries all depleted already even before I tried to swap them over......
So having many batteries for it does not help there, but a much more powerful battery like the one in the A7R3 will help.
Carrying 3 of these is more practical than having 7 or more of the tiny old A7R2 batteries.
Sony has also fixed all usability issues of the A7R2 and A7MK2 with the A7R3, so there is really almost no real issue in the A7R3.
Sony has also listened to us and brought out the long awaited excellent class-leading FE24-105mm f4 G lens, it is a very important addition to the E mount system since we bad weather shooters can not change lenses over and over and over in any harsh winter mountain or island environment.
Panasonic has listened to us and brought up the excellent super powerful action shooter with 4k60p in the form of the G9.
Fuji has also listened to many of their user base and releasing many excellent lenses and updating the FW of X-T and X-P series bodies.
By contrast,Nikon has never added any new practical feature in any of their recent D810 FW update, they just fix some known bugs after they get criticized about the bugs for long time in many online fora, etc.
Canon rarely issues any new FW update for any of their cameras except the 1 and 5 series, even then they never added any serious video features or anything slightly dramatic....the last major FW update they issued was the 5DMK2 25p video mode because Magic Lantern and that hacking community forced them to do it.
Last year, I said no current mirrorless systems got decent flash system and they would be useless for any type of flash work, but it is also fixed.......I think for me at least and many would agree that the Godox has made it no issue and their flash radio base flash system is actually better than the optical based Nikon CLS system.
So , while Sony , Fuji and Panasonic all still have some different set of minor issues, I think they have mostly fixed all SERIOUS their mirrorless specific issues for their users, and they have raised the bar very high with their respective latest flagship cameras.
And maybe even more importantly, they've been listening to their long time customers and even thirdparty reviewers like DPR team, ePhotozine, IR team ,etc.
It is really making a glaring difference, and as I recall the last 7 or so years of mirorrless history, I realize this 2017 may be the very first year for Fuji, Panasonic and Sony to truly change the image of their respective mirrorless system or even the mirroless image in general in dramatically positive ways and I think it is a huge change.....and I am sure this dramatic mirrorless revolution will continue on the next few years, at least till 2020 Olympics year.
Time is running out for Nikon and it will never wait for Nikon , many of our customers telling us like below:
"My next camera will be a fullframe mirrorless , whenever I can find one. And once I started adding native lenses, the options on systems will get more and more restricted."
This is now happening to those who thought temporarily escaped away from their beloved CN system and started using a Sony with an adapter because they are now buying some seriously good Sony native FE lenses to replace their CN lenses.
Now Nikon seems really doomed.
Finally you may wonder why only Nikon seems really doomed not Nikon and Canon?
Because Canon already has all techs needed for a good FF mirroless system in house and Canon already has the EOS M mount that will be able to take the 35mm FF sensor easily.