GET THE BEST FROM YOUR MIRRORLESS

Use the camera format’s strengths to your advantage to achieve top shots

Nikon both announced their own full-frame mirrorless models within days of each other in 2018, followed a few weeks later by Panasonic. The market has never had so much variety and competition.

NARROWING YOUR FOCUS

There are multiple things to consider when choosing a mirrorless camera. A suitable starting point will perhaps be how much you’ve got to spend. There’s pretty much something to suit everybody from those with just a couple of hundred pounds to spend, to those who want the best of the best and can afford to drop some serious cash.

Once you’ve decided – at least roughly – how much you want to spend, consider what kind of photography you’re particularly drawn towards. Mainly static

REVIVE YOUR OLD LENSES

Perhaps you’ve got a loft full of glass gathering dust, and that’s what’s been putting you off investing in a new system. Most mirrorless systems allow you to use old lenses via an adapter – they’ll likely make your system a bit bulkier, but it saves dropping cash on a brand new set of optics.

THE SILENT TREATMENT

Mirrorless cameras shoot silently thanks to an electronic shutter. That gives you a huge advantage when working in conditions such as weddings, wildlife and close-contact sports, subjects, such as landscapes and buildings, or are you somebody looking to capture moving subjects, like wildlife, animals and people? Perhaps you’re somebody that wants to photograph a little bit of everything and is therefore keen for an all-round performer.

Next, you might want to consider how important size and weight are to you. If you’re somebody that is drawn towards mirrorless because of its potential to save your back from breaking, full-frame models won’t save you that much compared to DSLRs. Instead, you might find yourself more naturally drawn towards those models with smaller sensors.

When it comes to sensors, you’ve got three main types or sizes. The smallest is Four Thirds, found in Olympus and Panasonic cameras. The largest is full-frame, but it also makes shooting subjects such as family occasions less intrusive too.

LIGHT FANTASTIC

Electronic shutters allow you to shoot at super-fast speeds. You can expose the sensor to light for a tiny fraction of a second – that’s perfect for freezing super-fast moving action, as well as allowing you to use wide apertures in sunlight without over-exposing the image.

SNEAK PEAK

If you need to manually focus – perhaps when shooting detailed close-ups – you can display found in Sony, Nikon, Canon and Panasonic cameras. In between, you’ve got APS-C, which you’ll find in Sony, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm cameras. As you can see, some manufacturers offer more than one size of sensor. Lenses for some systems will be compatible with both types of sensor offered by that company, while others will need proprietary lenses for each kind.

Received wisdom will generally tell you that the larger the sensor, the better the image quality. That’s generally a good rule of thumb, but it’s also true that larger sensors mean bigger (and more expensive) bodies.

That means, the final – and arguably most important – question you need to ask yourself is, exactly how important image quality is. It might seem like an obvious thing but it’s not necessarily as straightforward as wanting the best possible. If you prioritise image quality over everything else, then budget and size considerations might go out of the window. If, on the other hand, you’re prepared to compromise a little on image quality, then it’ll be other factors that become the deciding factor.

Every photographer is different and there isn’t necessarily any right or wrong answer – it all comes down to what is best suited to you, your needs and your photography.

Received wisdom says the larger the sensor, the better the image quality

something called ‘Focus Peaking’, either on the screen or via the viewfinder. With this, the display will show, in a brightly contrasting colour, exactly where you’ve achieved pin-sharp focus – making it quick and easy.

ABOUT FACE

If you like to photograph people, then switch on Face and/or Eye Detection. It’ll help you to get pin-sharp portraits by automatically detecting your subject’s eye, and tracking it around the frame. Some recent models can detect both human and animal eyes, which is great for pet and wildlife photographers.