40 Years of Mirrored Camera Use Comes To An End
I have shot with
mirrored cameras (SLR) since about 1978 when I was so happy the day I left the camera store with a Chinon CM3 along with a 28, 50 and 135 mm lens. I had been shooting with a Hanimex 35mm fixed lens
rangefinder camera. Since then I have went on to own almost two dozen SLR’s and test drove even more over the years. I was also fortunate enough to have owned a Mamiya 645
medium format camera that had a quite large mirror in it.
The beauty of the SLR was the fact you see right through the lens when you look through the viewfinder and on most all SLR’s you could push a button and it would stop down the lens so you could preview the Depth of field (DOF) of the scene. Those two things you couldn't’t do with the rangefinder camera, although on high end rangefinder cameras such as Leica, they also had interchangeable lens’s.
Through a system of mirrors in the viewfinder and another one that flipped up in front of the shutter mechanism during the exposure, you were actually optically looking through the lens mounted on the camera. As you pressed the shutter the mirror would flip up and then back down after the shutter closed. All of this happening within a fraction of a second.
In 1999 when Nikon introduced their first real production Digital SLR (DSLR), the D1, it was basically their tried and true F100 film camera with a digital sensor in place of the film box. At that time it’s 2.7 megapixel image size was rather small and barely produced a decent 5x7 print which would help film cameras sustain popularity a few years longer.
Mirrored Cameras Early Roots
Since 1959 when the Nikon F was introduced, photographers were fixated with the premium image capabilities of a SLR. It was only natural that some 40 years later they still would use the proven systems that photographers were use to using.
Although it was Epson that came out with the first “mirror less digital” camera, the R-D1 in 2004, it was a rangefinder type camera and not really marketed using the “mirror less” moniker yet. The first mirror less camera commercially marketed was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1, released in 2008 that had interchangeable lens and looked very much like the DSLR we were use to.
While mirror less DSLR type cameras look the same as their predecessors, their is no “reflex” in a mirror less camera. Instead of seeing through the camera lens, the viewfinder is actually a monitor screen showing you want the sensor would see. And that was probably the reason that many pro’s didn’t adapt immediately to the mirror less camera. The viewfinder image wasn’t nearly as optically clear as the old mirror box was and was good for causing headaches amongst other nuances with early mirror less cameras.
I was in that group of holdouts and just like the switch to digital from film,I was not in favor of switching. The same with going to mirror less, I had shot some with early mirror less cameras like the Minolta and then a newer Sony, but just didn’t like that low quality viewfinder image.
In 2013 when I upgraded my trusty money maker Nikon D2x with a D600, it was purely out of the fact I wanted a nice clean and perfectly clear viewfinder. Then even later in 2016 when I bought the D810, I really thought I may never need to buy another camera again. That camera is a beast with its astounding 36mp image and a sweet optical viewfinder.
By then I had grown my gear bag to a bunch of SD cards, over a half dozen lens and other gadgets, resulting in a nice big heavy bag of goodies. That became the bigger reason in 2020 when Nikon introduced the Z series which not only used an entirely new type of memory card but also a brand new lens mount even though they had also come out with a lens adapter that could mount your old F mount lens to the new Z camera line.
There were may features that didn't matter at all to me about the Z7 compared to the D810 but there would be some that did matter in my needs for how and what subjects I shoot. Primarily the things I looked for were:
Full frame CMOS Sensor at least 36mp (Z7 is 46mp)
Weather Sealed Body
At least 5 fps continuous shooting (Z7 is 9 fps)
Lighter weight - the D810 weighs 980 g (Z7 675 g)
Smaller foot print than the D810 5.7" x 4.8" (Z7 is 5.3" x 4")
The one feature that may cause some concern would be the drop to only 330 shots per battery charge compared to 1200 with the D810. But then... thats why i will have a spare battery or two when I go to shoot auto racing at Road Atlanta with the Z7.
Out of curiosity I stopped in a camera store and had a look at the Z6... it felt good in my hands and once I looked through the viewfinder I was absolutely hooked. It is quite difficult to tell it wasn’t an optical viewfinder and the build quality was far above what Nikon had been producing previously. The new Z lens so very much resembled the look and build quality of a Leica lens I had owned before.
To Sell Or Not To Sell
That became the question I had to ponder. A big hurdle to cross would be to liquidate my mirrored gear since I wanted to go all the way with Z series. I had also sort of retired from commercial shoots and mainly focused on my fine art works so I wanted to downsize my gear bag anyway. Most of my lens had not seen use in over a year and I hated seeing the just sit around unused.
I had kept tabs on what my used gear was worth and since I had previous generation glass (without plastic barrels), their value had pretty much diminished. Then when I saw that the D810 body was dropping below the $1000 dollar mark, I decided to bite the bullet and go Z. So, I sold most my glass and traded what was left towards the Z7 and a 24-70 lens.
There was a three week span of going without a digital camera in which I happened to shoot and process a roll of black & white through my old Nikon FE. A nostalgic trip back in time that also prompted the “Film Is Dead” project published in this issue also. Most likely a project that will draw the disapproval of all those new breed of film shooters out there that think film is so great. Having shot film since 1972, I can personally tell you it's not.
Then that day was finally here, my new Z7 was in hand and the battery on the charger. In the meantime I glanced through the user manual to learn as much as I could before going out on a test run. Yes, it was smaller but it still felt as heavy as the D810 even though it wasn’t. But I knew it wasn’t an issue I couldn’t overcome. And once the battery was charged I was in my car and headed out to shoot... I didn’t really care what I shot, I just wanted to use it and see what the images looked like. Although I only got one 64GB QXD card with the new camera, I know from my shooting digital , that it will be plenty for now and I will grab up a couple more cards over time depending on what I intend to shoot.
First Shots
I drove nearby to one of my common "test site" where I typically go when i need to test a camera or some photo process. With the camera in Shutter Priority mode, I began to pint it around and see how things worked. I can say that for my personal preference, it has way too many focus points, even after turning half of them off. I never use any focus tracking or Continuous AF so it is a useless feature to me.
Although the viewfinder seemed a bit too bright for what I thought it should be, when I looked at the images on the computer they were as I thought they would be. I can adjust the viewfinder brightness and probably correct the difference that I seemed to notice in overall brightness.
Since most of my work is produced from composite images using different exposure values in RAW files, I had to see if I could still produce images like I did with the D810 and the same expected outcome. As seen in the second image of this pop up window, The results were as I expected. Using the sky and grassy field from two different exposure values.
Since the sun was going down, I shot some lower light exposures to see how the noise compared to the D810. But not at an extreme ISO. But rather at ISO 1250 so that it would still be printable without a lot of noise since I'm not really a fan of the "De Noise Filters which I do have but they really don't work well on large output prints. Another subject I have covered in a previous TPE Project on Noise. The resulting final processed image as seen in the pop up window did produce noise but it was slightly different in that the density of the splotches was not quite so black and had more a Gaussian type of noise pattern. Although the test shots were handheld at 1/1250th @ f4 and if they had been shot certainly on a tripod at much lower ISO I would expect less noise. Since this was a quick shoot just to get some images from the new camera, I didn't really pay much attention to the fact I was shooting at such a high shutter speed. I will certainly address that setting in my next session in low light.
I also shot the grassy field and the gas station scenes in Manual Mode... and that is where I absolutely fell in love with the Z7. I'm not sure if all mirror less cameras actually show you the exposure you will get in the viewfinder or not, but I'm sure most prosumer and high end mirrors cameras will. I will be shooting most everything that I plan to work on or make gallery prints from in this mode. For quick snapshots and documentary stuff, I will use Shutter Priority mostly. While I could shoot and sometimes did shoot in Manual with the mirrored cameras, you still didn't know exactly how the exposure would come out. Yes, you could look at the preview on the LCD screen, but then that adds more time and takes you out of your shooting rhythm.
Since I print with an RGB Profile, I also shoot with one in the camera, since I don't care for the exaggerated saturation and vibrancy you get with sRGB. I also do not have the image preview feature turned on to preview the image on the LCD after each shot. If I want to look at them, I will stop and take a look but I don't need to look at each one after its shot. Thats where confidence in your camera and your shooting methods comes in handy. And since I don't use any focus tracking, I like to move my focus spot around quickly in the viewfinder, I don't want to move it around a bunch of locations just to get it where i want it. I typically just focus on the spot I want and then locking the focus and recomposing the image in the viewfinder as to how I want it. Of course this fits the way I shoot, you may have much different requirements for your set up and I suggest you go with the method that works for you. And if you are unsure, then thats all the reason for you to examine your methods and see if they fit your style and subject matters you may capture.
Could I ask For More?
Most of the cameras I have had sine the DSLR hit the market have been far more capable than what I personally have needed in a camera. Probably why I end up keeping a camera long past it's life expectancy. In fact, I really had no real need to get rid of the D810, since it really was still quite capable of producing the images I shoot.
Many features as I have already mentioned will never be used and as well, in fact there are so many features in the D810 I never used. My needs are pretty simplistic from a camera with the main requirement being.. does it feel good in my hands and do I go through the shooting process with a feeling of confidence in each snap of the shutter.
And as I also previously mentioned, I switched to the Z7 purely out of wanting a smaller camera that packed a big image punch. I did get to try it out on a short walkabout downtown and absolutely loved it's feel and performance. I was well pleased with the metering results when in semi-automatic, but really found myself totally loving the ability to see the actual exposure results n the viewfinder when shooting in manual. That feature alone was worth the switch for me, aside from it's smaller size and weight. I most certainly didn't make the switch thinking the Z7 will make my images better or my work better, and there is no image I can make with it that I couldn't achieve with the D810, or even the old DX2 except for the image size. Never think that the camera makes your image, you make the image with the camera that is just your tool to make it with.
The only feature I wish was available would be to only have about 12 focus spots. So... would I recommend that you say bye-bye to your mirrored DSLR? Not really, Even after doing some pixel peeping in comparisons of images from the D810 & the Z7, you can see the difference but the typical client, photographer or anyone would not see the difference. And then there is the change in lens mount if you don't want to use the adapter for the older F mount glass. As camera sensors have progressed at a greater rate than lens development has, most lens's can't even deliver the resolution of the sensor as it is. That's the beauty of using the Z glass as it has been developed from the ground up for the resolution power of the new system.
To sum up my basic overview of saying bye-bye to mirrored cameras, there were three features that made totally overshadowed the change. One being the slightly smaller size, plus the build quality especially in the lens is extremely noticeable. But the biggest plus I found was shooting in manual and seeing the change in Exposure Values in the viewfinder as I chose different shutter speeds or apertures. As you can see in the third image in the pop up window, the difference is absolutely amazing, and so is the Z7 in my opinion for what and how I shoot...
Your Results & Requirements May Be Different.
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