2023: DSLRs offer still a film-like experience
It is not something very fashionable today to still support reflex cameras.
But I guess you can believe me, having been one of the first photographers to switch from DSLRs to mirrorless in 2010. Am I crazy that I am working with DSLRs in 2023? Follow my reasoning here.
My return to DSLRs was first with a Pentax. Then the Rebel T3 definitively guided me towards a convinced return to the digital reflex. Don't get me wrong: nobody here is denying the advantages that a mirrorless camera can offer. I also shoot with a mirrorless. But if we talk about reliability, ergonomics, pure pleasure in creating images, the reflex still beats all the mirrorless.
Let me also say that it is not my intention for anyone to live here. Also because the more DSLRs are considered obsolete, the more the prices go down. But I also see that many photographers do not welcome this total transition to mirrorless with the definitive discontinuation of DSLRs. And the reason is easy to get it.
Essentially a DSLR camera is a film camera (I am talking as concept) with the mirror system in order to allow us to frame through an optical viewfinder, with a digital sensor. And the OVF is exactly the main reason why I love to photograph with my reflex.
I thought a little bit about my reason and some of them are exactly the same why many years ago I switched to mirrorless cameras:
THE LARGEST SIZE
It can appear an absurd, especially for a street photographer BUT sometimes I want to feel myself as a photographer and I feel that with a small mirrorless I am just a snapshooter. If sometimes this can be great, not all the time I want to feel like that. The experience is completely different, the approach changes, even how the people receives a photographer in public places. I am now working with a DSLR in the barrios, the popular neighborhoods here in Mexico. Sometimes I am asked to make a portrait and this is pretty good and funny. I love it!
Largest size of the camera means a better ergonomy. This is a relevant aspect in the photographic experience.
THE OVF
I said before: this is the main reason and the OVF in a mirrorless system is something completely different, not even comparable with an optical viewfinder of a rangefinder. Because with a reflex I see exactly what the final shot will be but with the advantage of avoiding painful headaches guaranteed by looking through a screen, which happens with mirrorless cameras.
I analyzed myself all over these years and I think that rangefinders systems are not a thing to me. I know this is not a street photographer thing to say, but you take a real advantage with a rangefinder if you use the camera by framing with both eyes open while you frame through the viewfinder and this means you must have a dominant right eye. I don’t have it. I frame through a viewfinder using my left eye, closing my right eye. Yes, it took a while but now i get it: I am more of a slr guy and not a rangefinder guy.
And you know what? To frame through a real viewfinder is still the best experience for a photographer. When you make a living from holding a camera in your hands all day like I do, these differences become more obvious.
THE OBSOLETE
You know what? I like that today DSLRs are considered obsolete by most. This makes us, all those that have made this choice, a bit like the new film photographers. Apart from all the economic aspect that derives from it, I see only advantages in terms of personal safety in certain places. Don't think it's a contradiction. Even with the smallest camera everyone understands if you're there to take pictures, and if you do it stealthily you only increase the mistrust and the risk of attracting the bad guys even more. If we accept that we are in a certain place with a camera in the end it doesn't matter what kind of camera you are with. I also take the camera to Cuautepec, a total unsafe area here in the north of the city. Our attitude and our body language make our history, then clearly unpleasant episodes can happen anywhere.
The idea that a camera is obsolete is relative. A Nikon D850 or the Canon 5D Mark IV are the best a professional photographer can desire. But even talking about entry level cameras like the ones I use, guys, the difference, the real difference is always the photographer that uses it. One of the best shots realiazed in 2022 were realized with my Canon EOS Rebel T7. And you know what? When I make them with a reflex they make me more proud.
What is important for a photographer? What is important to me?
I don't care what others think: the very fact that as a professional photographer I work with cameras considered for beginners should speak volumes. Warning: I'm not saying it's a valid speech for everyone. Everything is, indeed, relative. What you can do well for a client doesn't depend on how much money you spent on the equipment. I'm not the best photographer in the world, but I'm a very good photographer at what I do. This awareness is simply dictated by the fact that I succeed where I want to succeed. All over these years I photographed with any kind of camera: high end consumer, pro and entry level. I photographed with a toy 3 mpx camera, with point & shoots, mirrorless, DSLR, film cameras, medium format, smartphones. I photographed virtually with any brand camera: Panasonic, Nikon, Canon, Samsung, Olympus, Sony, Ricoh, Leica, Fujifilm, even with a Casio Exilim and I laugh at that, a digicam made by BenQ. I made my experience with any camera I worked with. Only Hasselblad is the brand I never worked with.
I just do what I like.
And this means that I choose the equipment that I want to choose. Today this speech is more valid that in the past when I was ambassador. Of course, the question of what I can afford has an impact. I see no need to necessarily buy new cameras. Even though in 2022 I did it twice, but the used market allows me to access cameras and lenses otherwise impossible for my pockets.
In the real world I still find sense for DSLRs. This despite the fact that the world is shooting towards ever more advanced technology and therefore does not want to conceive of any concession to something that is more human like the use of a system of mirrors that allow you to see and compose your photograph. Today there are already AI artists. Files are preferred to prints. Everything is pushed towards the metaverse. Real life is abandoned in favor of an increasingly remote existence. I don’t want it for me. I know that my reasoning will still be appreciated by many people. I am sure you agree with me.
All the photos you see here were made with a Canon EOS Rebel T3 in Oaxaca in 2021.
In 2022 I realized this photo with my Canon Rebel. I think is one of the best street shots I ever made. Other photos made with my DSLRs have received the honor of being published in books. This is the best answer to those arguing to make street photography with a DSLR is not recommended.
PLEASE SIGN MY PETITION: LET’S SAVE THE DSLRs!!!
