Changing from a DSLR to Mirrorless?

[Hedgewitch]

I am fortunate to have acquired some very nice Canon DSLR kit over the years . . . EOS 7D MkII body and some gorgeous "L" series lenses.

None of which have been used for longer than I am prepared to admit because the whole setup has just got too bloomin' heavy to lug around. Most of my photography is birds / nature / views.

Had an interesting conversation with Wex this week, initially to ask about changing to a Mirrorless Body but keep my existing lenses. Found that I am not going to gain enough weight-loss by doing that so need a Plan B.

The current suggestion is look at something such as an OM (was-Olympus) Micro 4:3rds.

Has anyone done anything like this?
Are you happy with what you now have?
Do you regret it?

 

[Grianan]

I have Olympus micro 4/3s. Yes it’s neat and handy but I keep toying with idea of going back to DSLR .

 

[fred_jb]

I went from Canon, then Nikon DSLRs with large heavy lenses in the years when I did a little paid photography, to Sony full frame mirrorless. However by the time I had a decent collection of lenses for that, it was also getting too heavy. At the same time phone cameras were getting good enough for many uses making it tempting to leave the camera at home!

I did try m 4/3rds but wasn't happy with the image quality in low light so went back to Sony but with their APS-C range. I have been very happy with that and have changed to newer models as they were released and now have the A6700. There is a fairly good range of lenses for these cameras now, and I currently have a mixture of Sony, Sigma and Tamron lenses.

I shot my nephew's wedding on a big Nikon DSLR, then a few years later did my niece's wedding on a Sony APS-C A6500 camera. Both got equally good results and the young relatives were very happy with the pictures!

 

[Abacist]

Its the weight of the glass in the high quality lenses not the body that is the problem!

Just be grateful you don’t have a medium format setup as everything is much bigger and heavier.

 

[Ingwe]

I used to have a Yashica SLR (forgotten the model) SLR and a variety of Yashica and Contax lenses. Like the OP, I found I was using them less and less due to their bulk and weight.
A professional photographer I know suggested I get a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera. It was available then for about £500. He said he now used one for most purposes rather than carry round all the top end Nikon and Canon gear.
I bought one and was really impressed with the picture quality and the ease of use. For the money, I think it is excellent value and certainly wouldn’t go back to SLR cameras.

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[AJM2]

I’m going through the same thought process. Visited a reserve yesterday and the big Canon DSLR with 500mm f4 lens + tripod with gimbal head is not a light set up to cart around for miles. The quality is excellent when you nail a shot (I didn’t yesterday!) but if I could shed a few kg of kit without compromising quality it would make such trips more enjoyable.

 

[RoamingFree]

I have a Olympus OMD-EM1 4/3rd camera. It's quite old now but it suits me. The Pro lenses are very good. The 2x crop factor means that longer lenses are smaller and lighter than the equivalent on other systems.

The biggest thing to get used to is that the viewfinder isn't electronic not optical. That has it pros and cons. Some people don't get on with them but a big benefit, for me, is that you can overlay pretty much whatever information you want.

For me the image quality was more than acceptable.

That being said, most of my photogaphy was underwater so not the most common use case.

 

[Jon Stewart]

Its the weight of the glass in the high quality lenses not the body that is the problem!

Just be grateful you don’t have a medium format setup as everything is much bigger and heavier.

...and so much more light required as well!
(Mamiya/Phase One, don't use it much nowadays!)

 

[jwells]

All my professional camera kit, including all my original film kit, has been sitting in our spare room since my wife decided enough was enough and she was no longer willing to carry my equipment rucksack - no matter what trips I said would I would take her on!!!
Now occasionally using small digital Nikon and Sony kit, but I do miss the quality simple film, every shot counts days!

 

[Ingwe]

but I do miss the quality simple film, every shot counts days!

I know what you mean. In my day, it was all about composure. Getting the right light, composing the shot, depth of field etc. I used to shoot a lot of Ilford b&w film and using grain, varying exposure times and the limited asa speeds (compared with today’s digital kit) was much more challenging and when it worked, rewarding. Oh happy days.

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[Nigel Crompton]

Over the past 40 years I went SLR (Canon)-compact digital (various) - Micro 4/3 (Panasonic) - DSLR (Canon) - mirrorless (Canon)
I got the R7 with kit lens (18-150 excellent walking about lens) and the 100-400 R series with 1.4 converter
I do wildlife and landscape so I kept the EF100-400 zoom (+converter) and 10-20 w/a and got adapters.
I had intended to sell the EF 100-400 but was disappointed with the 100-400 R series so kept it. R series 100-400 not a patch on the other - but a quarter of the price, and weight.

R7,EF100-400 at 400mm, cropped.
Wild long-eared owl that roosted in one of our trees for a few weeks

 

[Jim]

All my photography is travel and street. I owned almost every Olympus MFT lens ever made, an OM1 and a couple of EM1's. Last year I flogged the lot to MPB for several thousand. I bought a Leica Q3 and have taken more pictures in 6 months with that camera than I had taken with the Olympus gear in 3 years. A simple joy to use, and it's really getting some use.

 

[Driventemple]

Been there, got the t shirt!
Sold all Nikon bodies and lens, bought two Sony 6300 and lens but could not cope with digital viewfinder so, sold everything and returned to much slimmed down Nikon setup.
D7500 and 16-80 lens - very happy to be back to optical viewfinder. I find it just right for traveling and sending pictures directly to phone.