My main camera is always 7d. But for last year, I started to do some video work. I really like to get better with my video quality. So I first bought a second hand gh2. And last month I bought a new gh3 along with the 12-35 f2.8 and 35-100 f2.8. There are many benefits to use these two cameras to shoot video than my 7d. There are tons of articles and videos talking about this topic online. I am not going to explain here. What I really want to talk here is that I really enjoy shooting photos with these two mirrorless cameras too. That is not expected. I am going to give some my points here.
1. What you see is what you get
I know you may see this sentence many times online. Me too. But until I actually used mirrorless camera, I did not really grasp what it really means to us.
What is the usual steps using traditional dslr to take photo? You look through the viewfinder. You take a photo. You take your eyes away from viewfinder and look at the LCD. You hit the play button to review the image to see if you got the right exposure. If not right, you dial the setting, and take a photo again. And then you hit play to review the photo again. You constantly repeat these steps during your photoshoot.
Ok, here is the joy to shoot with mirrorless. You look through the viewfinder. You are already previewing the exposure of your final image. If it is too dark or too bright. You turn the exposure dial to change setting, and you got instantly preview of the exposure. Once you got the right exposure, then you press the shutter. You do not even need to take your eyes away from the viewfinder during the whole photo capture process. How cool it is. I even turn the auto review off. So there will be no photo review after every shot. I can just shoot and shoot with high efficiency. You can see it is a great way to shoot for photo journalist.
2. fun in camera effect
Last point leads to this point. Since we get instant preview of the final image. Shooting with in camera effect is a joy too. You can called it instant gratification. Let’s see we apply cross process effect in gh3. Now everything we see through viewfinder is with this effect now. You feel like the color of the whole world turns to cross process now. That is interesting, isn’t it. We can set custom preset for each effect. Let’s say C1 for black and white effect, C2 for sepia effect, and C3 for cross process effect. Then we can just turn the dial to switch between each effect. This is the beauty to use mirrorless camera.
3. Size and weight
Two gh3 is about the same weight of one Nikon d800. You still getting weather seal and good control button. Actually the main difference is the lens. m4/3 lens are just so small and light. I can carry two gh3 with two high quality lens whole day without problem. Again for travel, it is a huge plus.
In my opnion, mirrorless is made truly for us to enjoy photography. It makes the technical easier. Let’s us focus more on taking the photo self.
That’s not saying I am not going to use bigger DSLR. I still went to rent Canon 6d and 24-70 f2.8 for my wedding job last month. I still think for more professional work. DSLR is a better choice. But my second camera might be a GH3 with a longer lens.
