Full Frame Mirrorless vs Full Frame DSLR Cameras

14th February 2017

AH! The classic battle between Full Frame Mirrorless and DSLR. But which one is better?

1. Size & weight

Verdict: Mirrorless wins here

One major reason professional photographers are moving onto mirrorless systems is the compactness of it all. Lugging around a huge tank-like f/2.8 200mm telephoto lens attached to a monstrous lunchbox sized full frame camera body sucks, period. We may not be able to do much about the lens besides choose something smaller, but why carry a heavy camera body when we don’t really need to?

For most of us hobbyist photographers, travel and landscape photographers, photographers on the move, and those who don’t usually shoot in-doors, we may want to travel as light as possible but still want 36 megapixels of full frame goodness. In these situations you’ll be happy you decided to choose mirrorless camera over the full frame DSLR.

2. Lenses

Verdict: DSLR wins here

This is where Canon and Nikon DSLRs dominate. Because they’ve sat on this DSLR and lens manufacturing market for so long, the number of lenses out there for these brands just mind boggling. You could probably get away with using a Nikon/Canon to Sony mount adaptor for your Sony mirrorless camera, but all in all if you want the best possible lens choice go with a DSLR from Nikon or Canon.

3. Viewfinders

Verdict: DSLR wins here, just slightly.

Mirrorless cameras as the name suggests don’t have mirrors inside unlike their DSLR cousins. Instead they use electronic view finders, which projects an image from the sensor to the eye much like looking at a computer screen. Although this system has some perks like being able to display a histogram with the image, battery power is drained twice as fast, and the image can look pixalated in low light conditions.

DSLRs on the other hand use a mirror or an “optical viewfinder” so that the scene is seen as it is, not as a electronic representation of it. There is no lag or pixalation of the image. For this very reason most photographers prefer the optical system and checking the image on the LCD after taking the shot.

Each to their own, my choice is DSLR.

4. Autofocus

Verdict: Mirrorless wins here

DSLRs use the ‘phase detection’ autofocus system fitted below the mirror inside the camera body. But these only work whilst the mirror is down. If you’re using a DSLR in live view mode, the mirror needs to be flipped up and the regular AF module is no longer in the light path. At this point, DSLRs need to switch to the slower contrast AF system using the image being captured by the sensor.

Most mirrorless systems use the ‘hybrid’ AF systems combining contrast AF with phase-detection.  This in on all the time and allows for a speedy autofocus and if enabled, subject tracking, an awesome little feature.

5. Continuous shooting

Verdict: Mirrorless wins here

You need a fast continuous shooting mode to capture action shots. This is where mirrorless wipes the floor with DSLR cameras. By design, the mirror inside a DSLR camera needs to move before an image can be captured. This means the rate for continuous shooting is limited by quickly the mirror moves in a DSLR system.

With a mirrorless system, there is no moving mirror inside allowing for a higher continuous shooting speed.

6. Video

Verdict: Mirrorless wins here

4K video is the way of the future. TVs are coming out being 4K supported, Youtube has G’ed up to supporting 4K and the standard movie quality is changing to 4K. DSLR were slow to offer this, not to mention their AF system which falls behind to mirrorless.

Mirrorless with their light weight, awesome autofocus capability and 4k offering are the way forward for video. In particular the Sony A7S II which is optimised for shooting video.

7. Features

Verdict: DSLR wins here

It seems with mirrorless there’s always some workaround in the settings that needs to be done to get the same settings as their DSLR cousins. Both systems are well defined in their manual controls however when it comes to bracketing on a 2 timer setting, image averaging on location and other complex operations, Nikon and Canon have this down to an art and handle all requests. Mirrorless are still to catchup.

8. Image quality

Verdict: This one’s a draw

36 megapixels on full frame DSLR = 36 megapixels on full frame mirrorless, period. The quality and size of the sensors are exactly the same. In fact there was a time when Sony used to manufacture Nikon’s sensors and the full frame sensor inside the Nikon D600 is the very same sensor as the one inside the Sony A7. Much like the sensor inside the Nikon D800E is the same as the A7R.

9. Battery life

Verdict: DSLR wins here

For battery life, DSLR dominates hard.

This is because the electronic viewfinder and liveview in a mirrorless system saps so much battery power. Owning both the Nikon D800 and the Sony A7 you’d be looking at using up 3 Sony batteries for every 1 Nikon battery. Whilst this is no problem on a typical day shoot, you’d be looking at carrying up to 15 batteries with a couple of powerbanks for a 2 week trip out into the wilderness where there’s no power points to charge your batteries.

10. Price

Verdict: Mirrorless wins here

Comparing apples to apples, full frame to full frame, you’d be spending a little bit more for the top of the range DSLR camera vs top of the range mirrorless camera.

At the time of writing this the most expensive mirrorless camera is the Sony A7R II faring in at over $3k, while the D810 just under $3k and the Canon 5d Mark IV explodes over $3.5k. Are they really all that different, my opinion is no.

Conclusion

Go Mirrorless.

The results tally up with 5 wins for mirrorless vs 4 wins for DSLR.
It would appear that mirrorless is slightly better, however consider it like this:
  • If you’re a video shooter, want full frame, get a mirrorless camera optimised for video like the Sony A7S.
  • If you’re a photographer on the move, want to travel light, want to take still objects, but don’t want to sacrifice full frame quality get a mirrorless camera like the Sony A7R.
  • If you’re a photographer in the studio, and shoot indoors where weight isn’t an issue a DSLR may work well for you, mirrorless will also do a good job.
  • If you’re shooting for clients who know nothing about photography, want them to see your massive camera, then go a full frame DSLR.
  • If you’re a hobbyist photographer taking photos of anything and everything, go full frame mirrorless with the Sony A7.
Overall having both these systems myself, for my purposes as a landscape, travel and stock photographer I’d recommend going mirrorless over full frame DSLR.