Whats so special about mirrorless bodies?

I picked up a Sony A6000 after I sold my 70D which was my second body to my 5D3. The weight difference alone was worth it, but the A6000 impresses me every time I use it. It's an awesome little camera with enormous capabilities. I can go the adapter way to use my Canon lenses, but I'm quite satisfied with my e-mount lenses. For my needs, which is to carry a light weight camera everywhere instead of lugging my gear around, the A6000 nailed it.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but with a mirrorless system and adapted lenses you can actually make them faster and wider with pretty much no noticeable image quality loss by using speed boosters.

The metabones system is fantasic and used by world famous filmmakers, even the 3rd party knock offs are starting to be really good.

maverick75 wrote in post #17057471
Not sure if this has been mentioned but with a mirrorless system and adapted lenses you can actually make them faster and wider with pretty much no noticeable image quality loss by using speed boosters.

The metabones system is fantasic and used by world famous filmmakers, even the 3rd party knock offs are starting to be really good.

Only applies to crop sensors as far as I know. I'll never understand the wizardry of Speed Boosters. Cool concept thats for sure!

xyzzy-in-NC wrote in post #17057205
One other thing, Canon isn't making APS-C primes. I have the 23 and 56mm Fuji's and they are excellent low-light lenses at half the size and cost of the Canon equivalents. If you're shooting people, they are much less self-conscious if you're using a camera that size so you get better photos. I still use my 5D w/ 70-200 for sports and it's great for people as well, but the CSC mirrorless is going to be taking a huge chunk out of Canon's APS-C market share. At the very least, it will bring prices down a bit and spur some innovation.

Canon makes a 22mm that is brilliant, just as good as the 23mm 2.0 that is in the x100.

Not as nice as the 23mm 1.4, it has a bit more distortion and it's slower but the Canon is a $100 kit lens.

If they made it into a EF-S mount it would easily sell for $400-500 and be a huge hit, but then it would be 4 times as big and it probably wouldn't be nearly as good. That's another benefit with mirrorless bodies, lenses can be made better.

It's a one huge reason why the Leica M line has always been superior to the Canon/Nikon SLR offerings.

Small thin body, nothing to hang onto except the barrel of a not-so-small lens (especially true of telephoto FL)...wanna buy a battery grip with that, to have place to put your ring finger and pinkie?!
Why does that simply sound like an iPhone with attached supplementary lens?! Anyone else feel like they need to add GPS and a telephone to the camera, and Bluetooth stereo headphone support?! Give it the name pPhone (photoPhone).

'speed boosters' take a lens which is designed for a larger format, shrink the image circle in size for support only of smaller formats (like dedicated video cameras) to accomplish the apparent magic increase in max f/stop. I just cannot imagine taking he Canon100-400 and using a speed booster to use the lens with mirrorless format camera...you need a grip to screw into the tripod mount on the lens, to hold the monster but it still will be front heavy since it has no dSLR body as a counterbalance.

FWIW, every time I buy a mirrorless camera I end up returning it during the return period. I have yet to find one that gives me everything I already get with my DSLRs. I always end up telling myself that it makes no sense.

Once you put the camera in a bag you are carrying a bag on you shoulder. I don't really care if it is 70D size or E-PM2 sized as neither fit in any of my pockets. So since both would be around my neck and both would require a bag on travel, I will take the 70D. Now a Sony RX100 is another story, but image quality while very impressive, is still nowhere near DSLRs and the controls are very frustrating.

I sold my Canon DSLR , lens and Speedlight and bought a Samsung NX300. The NX300 is 20+ MP crop sensor camera, great low light and capable of shooting great images in the right hands. Is light in weight , looks beautiful and very advanced in technology. Took me a while to get used to it but it's like anything else I guess, I was used to my Canon and loved the IQ i got from it but for my use the Samsung is a better camera. I don't want to carry a heavy camera with me anymore so from this point forward, unless I'm shooting for business, I wont be buying another DSLR.

maverick75 wrote in post #17057471
Not sure if this has been mentioned but with a mirrorless system and adapted lenses you can actually make them faster and wider with pretty much no noticeable image quality loss by using speed boosters.

The metabones system is fantasic and used by world famous filmmakers, even the 3rd party knock offs are starting to be really good.

I mentioned focal reducers earlier, unfortunately most people are un-necessarily skeptical about them, probably because they don't really get how they work.

I have the Kipon BavEyes reducer for my Fuji and I absolutely love it. IQ is just as good through it as it is without it and it definitely gives you that FF DOF.

Tony_Stark wrote in post #17057476
Only applies to crop sensors as far as I know. I'll never understand the wizardry of Speed Boosters. Cool concept thats for sure!

They're really pretty simple. Think of it as the opposite of a teleconverter. Instead of magnifying the image they do as the name implies, they reduce the focal length using optics. It's more than a concept, it works, and they work very well. I'm really still putting my money on Canon making their own focal reducer for a future M, it would make perfect sense to have the option of using all of your EF lenses in their full glory with full AF and AE control, and given how good Canon's optics are it'll likely be the best reducer on the market.

Wilt wrote in post #17057513
Small thin body, nothing to hang onto except the barrel of a not-so-small lens (especially true of telephoto FL)...wanna buy a battery grip with that, to have place to put your ring finger and pinkie?!
Why does that simply sound like an iPhone with attached supplementary lens?! Anyone else feel like they need to add GPS and a telephone to the camera, and Bluetooth stereo headphone support?! Give it the name pPhone (photoPhone).

'speed boosters' take a lens which is designed for a larger format, shrink the image circle in size for support only of smaller formats (like dedicated video cameras) to accomplish the apparent magic increase in max f/stop. I just cannot imagine taking he Canon100-400 and using a speed booster to use the lens with mirrorless format camera...you need a grip to screw into the tripod mount on the lens, to hold the monster but it still will be front heavy since it has no dSLR body as a counterbalance.

For your first assessment... just no. If you can't see the practicality of having a smaller and lighter camera you're simply being close minded. It reminds me of how people acted when they heard of the 6D's WiFi capability, thinking it's a "gimmick". Give it 5 more years, every camera will have WiFi... why? Because it's incredibly useful. I bet people thought AF was a "gimmick" once too

As for your second paragraph; I don't know why anyone would buy a mirrorless camera to stick a 100-400L on it... so not sure where that even comes from. But a focal reducer does in fact increase the amount of light for your exposure using the same lens, I know because I've tested it (it's not hard to test). I don't get the advertised full stop, but I do get from 1/2 to 2/3's a stop depending on the lens.

As I (and pretty much anyone else who actually owns a mirrorless camera) have said, it's not the right type of camera for everyone or every use (yet), but many people can see and understand the huge pros of using a smaller and lighter camera with IQ that's just as good or as near as makes no difference to a DSLR, even a FF one. Why everybody is so unwilling to see the advantages they can present is beyond me... if anything I'd say the people stuck thinking DSLR's are the only way to get good pictures are the hipsters

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17057605
If you can't see the practicality of having a smaller and lighter camera you're simply being close minded.

ME?!...who laments the overly large dSLR, compared to my Olympus OM system that I have owned for over 30 years? who finds even the smaller body (not like the 1Dn body) dSLR overgrown and overweight even compared to the beefiest of professional film SLRs (pictured in center)

Wilt wrote in post #17057635
ME?!...who laments the overly large dSLR, compared to my Olympus OM system that I have owned for over 30 years? who finds even the smaller body (not like the 1Dn body) dSLR overgrown and overweight even compared to the beefiest of professional film SLRs (pictured in center)

Then you should look more seriously into the Fuji system, particularly the X-T1

beatle34 wrote in post #17057536
FWIW, every time I buy a mirrorless camera I end up returning it during the return period. I have yet to find one that gives me everything I already get with my DSLRs. I always end up telling myself that it makes no sense.

Once you put the camera in a bag you are carrying a bag on you shoulder. I don't really care if it is 70D size or E-PM2 sized as neither fit in any of my pockets. So since both would be around my neck and both would require a bag on travel, I will take the 70D. Now a Sony RX100 is another story, but image quality while very impressive, is still nowhere near DSLRs and the controls are very frustrating.

I put my X100 into my jacket pocket and am ready to go. No need for a separate bag to carry all that large DSLR equipment. That is the difference...DSLR you NEED a bag, with a nice compact mirrorless, a bag is optional.

Hogloff wrote in post #17057649
I put my X100 into my jacket pocket and am ready to go. No need for a separate bag to carry all that large DSLR equipment. That is the difference...DSLR you NEED a bag, with a nice compact mirrorless, a bag is optional.

I'm waiting for the X100 to hit that $400 mark used... I'd love to have that OVF option on my daily camera (right now I use my EOS M). Hopefully the rumored X100 24mp replacement will drive that used price down a bit more

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17057644
Then you should look more seriously into the Fuji system, particularly the X-T1

The OM-D is the right size, but it forces one to go to the even-smaller (than APS-C) 4/3 format, an Olympus direction which I do not support.

The X-T1 is also the right size, the APS-C doesn't force an even-smaller format on you. Sounds nice initially, but I'd need to look over the complement of available lenses for suitability for me.

Wilt wrote in post #17057662
The OM-D is the right size, but it forces one to go to the even-smaller (than APS-C) 4/3 format, an Olympus direction which I do not support.

The X-T1 is the same size as the OM-D... in fact the OM-D EM1 is bigger. And if you want to keep the FF sensor the a7 cameras aren't much bigger either.

JM Photos wrote in post #17055903
Hmm, seems to me like the hipster way of photography. They wanna be original so they buy the Olympus or Panasonic. That's just a first thought though.

My apologies, I am trying to figure out how to word this without sounding confrontational or insulting. Your reply to your own thread sounds like this went from a question to a rant. Your reply sounds like instead of curiosity, you've already judged and pigeonholed without gaining any info.

The fact that there are mirror less systems with far better sensors and image quality than Canon's flagship 1Dx at a small fraction of the size and cost should be an indicator that these systems are serious alternative.

They can't do everything better or as good as a DSLR (currently) but they do excel at some tasks with little to no sacrifice vs DSLR.

Again, sorry if I come out sounding strong. If in fact you are curious I hope some of the time taken by people to earnestly reply has helped you to learn a bit about the advantages mirror-less offers.