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Most professional photographers who used DSLRs ten years ago are still using them. Electronic viewfinders are fundamentally inferior in terms of the viewing exp

Most professional photographers who used DSLRs ten years ago are still using them. Electronic viewfinders are fundamentally inferior in terms of the viewing experience and battery life, but have other pluses like light weight, low cost and configurability (all of which amateurs prioritize more than professionals). It is not a huge loss though, because pros almost exclusively buy their DSLRs from Canon and Nikon.

ghaff 5y ago
Yeah. Even Canon is switching over to mirrorless at this point although I assume they'll keep one or two pro reflex models in their line for the foreseeable future.
ubermonkey 5y ago
I'm a pretty enthusiastic hobby photographer, and I jumped on mirrorless systems + EVFs several years back. On the Olympus OM-D E-M10 (and what IS it with Japanese electronics companies and ridiculous nomenclature?), the EVF was absolutely never a problem EXCEPT in that it impacted battery life a bit (solution: a second battery in your pocket). I upgraded last year to a Sony A7ii, and this one's even better. The tl;dr is that, at this point, optical viewfinders are overrated. The best EVFs are just as good. Pros aren't married to glass or to viewfinders, though. They're married to lens mounts. Glass investment dwarfs camera body cost. That's the sticking point.
- jiggliemon 5y ago
  Get the A73 and you’ll never think about the battery again. The worst part of the A72 was the battery and the buffer. The A73 made both of those concerns a non-issue.
  - ubermonkey 5y ago
    I'm very, very happy with the A7ii, especially at the price point. Battery life is not in my way in any meaningful sense. I have no plans to upgrade.
jiggliemon 5y ago
Pros buy new cameras about once a decade. And they don’t like drastic changes in UI. The reluctance to change and infrequent purchase cadence makes supporting the professional market a real bear. I understand that they typically sell their flagship models at a loss, but write the loss off as R&D. I have to disagree about viewfinders and batteries being inferior. The viewfinder is an acquired taste. If you look at cinematography and movie production, you’d need to search for a long time before you found an optical viewfinder. And I just shot a 12hr production on a single battery, using the highest resolution DSLR on the market. No pro photographer will ever need more than a day of battery life.
gsliepen 5y ago
> Electronic viewfinders are fundamentally inferior in terms of the viewing experience [...] I respectfully disagree with that. Current generation viewfinders have excellent resolution and very little lag, and while that will never be as perfect as an optical viewfinder, they do have the great benefit of being able to show you the image as it would be after exposure (so you can see which parts would be over or underexposed for example), and can overlay much more useful information.
- AzN1337c0d3r 5y ago
  > that will never be as perfect as an optical viewfinder, Don't forget that EVF can surpass OVF in image quality because they can apply lens correction to the viewed image which brings the image closer to the final product. (although AFAIK it's not done currently)
dagmx 5y ago
EVFs have gotten much better since the early days of mirrorless. I prefer them immensely now, especially when it comes to manual focus or low light shooting. I would honestly reach for my mirrorless for my professional concert shooting over my SLRs. Canon and Nikon are also shifting en masse to mirrorless. So the tides have clearly changes across the board.
rythie 5y ago
Sony's SLRs didn't have a optical viewfinder anyway and haven't done for models released in the last 10 years (a580 was the last one with a optical viewfinder).

ghaff 5y ago

Yeah. Even Canon is switching over to mirrorless at this point although I assume they'll keep one or two pro reflex models in their line for the foreseeable future.

ubermonkey 5y ago

I'm a pretty enthusiastic hobby photographer, and I jumped on mirrorless systems + EVFs several years back. On the Olympus OM-D E-M10 (and what IS it with Japanese electronics companies and ridiculous nomenclature?), the EVF was absolutely never a problem EXCEPT in that it impacted battery life a bit (solution: a second battery in your pocket). I upgraded last year to a Sony A7ii, and this one's even better. The tl;dr is that, at this point, optical viewfinders are overrated. The best EVFs are just as good. Pros aren't married to glass or to viewfinders, though. They're married to lens mounts. Glass investment dwarfs camera body cost. That's the sticking point.

jiggliemon 5y ago
Get the A73 and you’ll never think about the battery again. The worst part of the A72 was the battery and the buffer. The A73 made both of those concerns a non-issue.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  I'm very, very happy with the A7ii, especially at the price point. Battery life is not in my way in any meaningful sense. I have no plans to upgrade.

jiggliemon 5y ago

Pros buy new cameras about once a decade. And they don’t like drastic changes in UI. The reluctance to change and infrequent purchase cadence makes supporting the professional market a real bear. I understand that they typically sell their flagship models at a loss, but write the loss off as R&D. I have to disagree about viewfinders and batteries being inferior. The viewfinder is an acquired taste. If you look at cinematography and movie production, you’d need to search for a long time before you found an optical viewfinder. And I just shot a 12hr production on a single battery, using the highest resolution DSLR on the market. No pro photographer will ever need more than a day of battery life.

gsliepen 5y ago

> Electronic viewfinders are fundamentally inferior in terms of the viewing experience [...] I respectfully disagree with that. Current generation viewfinders have excellent resolution and very little lag, and while that will never be as perfect as an optical viewfinder, they do have the great benefit of being able to show you the image as it would be after exposure (so you can see which parts would be over or underexposed for example), and can overlay much more useful information.

AzN1337c0d3r 5y ago
> that will never be as perfect as an optical viewfinder, Don't forget that EVF can surpass OVF in image quality because they can apply lens correction to the viewed image which brings the image closer to the final product. (although AFAIK it's not done currently)

dagmx 5y ago

EVFs have gotten much better since the early days of mirrorless. I prefer them immensely now, especially when it comes to manual focus or low light shooting. I would honestly reach for my mirrorless for my professional concert shooting over my SLRs. Canon and Nikon are also shifting en masse to mirrorless. So the tides have clearly changes across the board.

rythie 5y ago

Sony's SLRs didn't have a optical viewfinder anyway and haven't done for models released in the last 10 years (a580 was the last one with a optical viewfinder).