join me here for a minute. You’re in a major hospital, outside the operating room. The surgeon comes out to advise the waiting family that their child is going to be fine. One of the family members shouts “that’s wonderful news Doc, you must have a great scalpel”.

Sound completely stupid and idiotic? It is. But you’ve also heard “nice picture, you must have a great camera.” Also stupid and moronic. So why the ongoing miasma of DSLR vs Mirrorless? The camera does not make the photograph. The camera converts information about photons on sensors to a digital file that can be interpreted by software for viewing.. So really, who gives a crap about what camera does that work. A good photographer uses his or her tools to his or her personal advantage, and a good photographer can make good images regardless of the camera used.

Do you remember the old homily that a bad carpenter blames his tools? The same rules apply here. Choose a camera that fits your hand, that has a control layout that works for you, that has a menu system that was not designed by some people who couldn’t spell user interface if you wrote it out for them in foot high letters.

Not a newsflash. If you buy any camera in 2019, it is going to be very good at autofocus, at metering a scene, at being consistent in reproduction of shutter speeds, apertures and ISOs. It’s likely to provide more functions than you will ever use, and prove to you if you just try that its automation beats your manual settings over 95% of the time. Your camera is better at the tech stuff than you are. Get over yourself.

Why do we even have mirrors in cameras? To resolve human inability to handle images that appear upside and down and reversed side to side. My view cameras project the light reflected from a subject onto a ground glass. The image is upside down and reversed. I am used to this and actually find it a compositional tool. If I put a waist finder on my medium format cameras, the image is upside down and reversed. The whole idea of reflex. as in single lens reflex, is to make the image look right side up and non-reversed to a human viewer on some viewscreen out of alignment with the film gate / sensor. In order to get the image to the viewer in the first place, a mirror was placed in the light path from the subject to the film or as it sits today, the digital sensor. It adds no value to the image, but does let the photographer see what he or she is recording before they squeeze the shutter. The camera does not need the mirror for anything. It adds complexity to the build, and brings a lot of mechanical gear forward that if not properly maintained will fail.

Mirrorless cameras have no mirrors. The optical viewfinder is gone, replaced by what for all intents and purposes is a TV screen. That’s got a flat adoption curve because people understand TV. At first these were low resolution LCD panels on the rear of the camera, but now we have both high resolution LCD panels as well as smaller high resolution electronic viewfinders that allow the photographer to get the camera to the high, for better holding position, greater stability and greater ease of use in seeing settings and performing composition.

The camera cares not whether a mirror is there or not. Only the photographer might, and unless the photographer has given clear thought to his or her specific use cases, either doesn’t care, or is biased one way or the other, based either on personal experience (low probability) or some shit that they read or saw on the Internet (high probability).

Choose your camera based on your specific needs, not what someone else has to say because as they are not you, they are incapable of understanding your use cases. Competence in camera stores is the lowest it has ever been in years, partly due to zero investment in training other than how to puke up a spec sheet, and partly because picture taking is the largest part of a completely disposable marketplace. People who just take pictures neither need nor want camera stores. Genuine photographers want someone who can offer guidance and help, not just the current price on the gadget of the month. Those genuine photographers are pretty much screwed sideways as very few quality camera store representatives still exist..

Since we agree that DSLR vs Mirrorless is actually a pointless waste of time since it really makes no general difference, what does make a difference? Your use cases make the only difference that matter. Maybe you would like to be able to choose between a couple of vendors who make long focal length high speed glass. Mirrorless is quite limited there, so far. Maybe you’ve been sold the lines of BS that a) mirrorless is smaller and lighter or b) mirrorless costs less. When we takes the lenses into account, a) is a complete falsehood and b) has always been complete bullshit. Maybe you like landscapes, plenty of choice either way already.

I would submit to you gentle reader that picking the camera is a lot less important than picking the lenses that serve your use cases. Do that, and then find a body that you can work with to hang onto the lens. Bodies have a best before date of about 24 months whereas lenses last in production much longer. Megapixel counts, frames per second, number of focus points and the rest of the lipstick on the pig have no relevance EXCEPT as they apply to your specific use cases. If they do not apply to your use cases, they are just sound and fury signifying nothing.

I have a substantial investment in glass for DSLR cameras. I will not buy any more lenses like this. I expect to never buy another DSLR, not because they are bad, but because they are over. The margins in the photo industry suck. No maker can do a good job spending limited R&D funds on two disparate lineups. They will focus that money on systems that cost less to build and where they can gather more money from brand loyalists over time. They will focus innovation dollars where innovation can be accomplished. There’s no innovation left in the DSLR space, it’s rinse and repeat with a new label. Lots of people want to blather about mirrorless being the future. Bull. Mirrorless is the present, and will be so until something better is innovated, presuming the photographic industry survives the smartphone. The industry has been sitting in a small dark room telling itself that it will swing back up. It won’t because all the innovation is presently being done on smartphones. Smartphones are the biggest selling cameras in the world. And they have no mirrors.

Do you have an idea for an article, tutorial, video or podcast? Do you have an imaging question unrelated to this article? Send me an email directly at ross@thephotovideoguy.ca or post in the comments.  When you email your questions on any imaging topic, I will try to respond within a day.

If you shop with B&H Photo Video, please consider doing so through the link on thephotovideoguy.ca as this helps support my efforts and has no negative impact whatsoever on your shopping experience. 

If you find the podcast, videos or articles of value, consider clicking the Donation tab in the sidebar of the website and buy me a coffee. Your donation goes to help me keep things going. 

I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.