Equipment Directory – Professional Mirrorless Cameras
MIRRORLESS CAMERAS DIRECTORY Our annual survey of professional cameras kicks off with the steadily expanding category of mirrorless interchangeable lens models.
It’s when you actually start listing them all that you realise just how many inroads into the professional arena have been made by mirrorless cameras. The first instalment of our 2018 Pro Camera Directory covers the rapidly expanding selection of mirrorless models that are ready and able to be put to work.
Over the last few years in the introductions to this directory we’ve been watching the slow but steady advance of the mirrorless camera. It now dominates the consumer categories and is starting to make significant inroads into the professional sector, speared-headed by Fujifilm and Olympus with the X-Pro1 and OM-D E-M1 respectively. These brands are now on their second generation pro mirrorless cameras – as are Sony and Panasonic – and each generation is not only becoming steadily more capable, but effectively erasing the technological impediments which kept the D-SLR as the camera of choice for working photographers.
Over the last year there have been a number of significant developments in mirrorless cameras, notably the ‘no black-out’ electronic viewfinder – derived from significant faster refresh rates – and very fast autofocusing systems… in the case of Sony’s A9, enables continuous shooting at 20 fps
with frame-by-frame AF and AE adjustment (and at 24.2 megapixels resolution). Perhaps more than any other recently-launched pro-level mirrorless camera, the A9 symbolises why mirrorless will ultimately triumph over the D-SLR, because the configuration and technologies deliver benefits that simply cannot be ignored.
In the promotional material Sony states, “[the] A9 liberates you from the limits of conventional SLRs that rely on mechanical systems” and, just to push the point a bit further, “…freedom from mechanical noise and vibration opens up a vast new world of imaging opportunities”. Sony is calling it the “full electronic revolution” and, more significantly, there’s still more to come. In contrast, the SLR camera – digital or otherwise – is at the end of its development possibilities… for example, there is no more speed to be had unless the reflex mirror is locked up, in which case why bother having it in the first place. Panasonic’s new pro-targeted Lumix G9 – the model number is presumably coincidence – leverages video technology to deliver its ‘6K Photo’ and ‘4K Photo’ capture modes. ‘6K Photo’ captures bursts at 30 fps, each frame an 18.7 megapixels still. There’s the option with ‘4K Photo’ to run at 60 fps with 8.3 MP stills. Panasonic is promising 8K video by 2020 with presumably ‘8K Photo’ which will deliver 33 MP stills. These functions aren’t just being used by sports and action photographers to improve their ‘strike rates’, but also for fashion, or when even shooting hyper-active children.
Then there are derivative functions such as ‘Post Focus’, which shoots at all the possible focusing points so the most suitable one can be selected post-capture… or all combined in-camera for focus stacking which ensures maximum depth-of-field no matter what aperture is used. Both the Lumix G9 and Sony’s new A7R III introduce a feature that’s already available on Olympus’s OM-D models, namely pixel shifting to increase the resolution and colour accuracy. This is a derivative of the sensorshift technology for image stabilisation, but now extremely finely controlled to allow pixel or even half-pixel shifts which build the resolution – up to 169 megapixels in the case of the A7R III – as well as allowing full RGBG colour to be recorded at each pixel point. There are still some limitations – the multi-shot capture process requires a static image and a tripod-mounted camera – but this technology is also still in its early days with more to come. And on the subject of sensor-shift image stabilisation, the G9’s system allows for up to 6.5 stops of correction for camera shake with lenses up to 800mm (35mm equivalent) which means that, with shorter focal lengths, it’s possible to shoot handheld with a shutter speed as slow as one second.
All this adds up to more tools for more efficiently handling technical challenges and with an increased potential for successful outcomes. With the ever tighter budgets that are now a reality for many working photographers, efficiency is now very much the name of the game. Furthermore, as we – albeit surprisingly slowly – move on from the perception that a big camera is somehow more professional and therefore capable of better results, the benefits of more compact and lighter weight equipment are undeniable.