Okay, I've never used a mirrorless camera, nor even a Leica rangefinder camera. My experience has always been with SLRs and DSLRs, namely Bronica GS-1, Rollei 6008, and various Nikons.
This may seem like a very novice question, but I'll pose it anyway. Is there a steep learning curve with a mirrorless camera? On a wedding, will I be wishing for something that my DSLR does that a mirrorless does not?
For those of you with your Sony A7s and Fuji XT-1s, please share your knowledge and experiences with me, especially in a fast-paced environment like a wedding or similar event.
Maybe stupid questions, but I am wanting to like the idea of the X1D, I just don't know what I don't know. I had been saving my pennies for a used Leica S2, but this may be a better option.
I thank you in advance for sharing with me your thoughts and opinions.
Rick
Hi Rick, as you may know I am a wedding shooter … albeit less these days than in past years.
There is no quick answer to your question. The best answer would be to rent a Sony A7R-II and take it to a wedding to do a few non-critical shots. I did it that way at first.
My experiences:
Previously, I worked with the standard DSLRs as the main wedding system … Canon, Nikon then the Sony A900 DSLR, on to the Sony A99 SLT (my first introduction to an electronic viewfinder).
These are all gone now and I use a Sony A7R-II backed up by a A7R.
These main work-horse cameras were supplemented by a medium format digital camera kit, starting with a Contax 645 and Kodak back, onto a Hasselblad H system, up to the Leica S(006) I now use … all optical viewfinder systems BTW.
I think the learning curve is less about mirror-less than it is about using an electronic viewfinder (EVF) in the various wedding situations.
Mirrorless with EVF isn't the same as a rangefinder with an optical viewfinder (I also have used a Leica M for over 40 years). It is TTL viewing the same as a DSLR with some distinct differences.
Obviously, mirror-less cameras are smaller, lighter, easier to carry all day at a wedding. That advantage is also a desirable attribute of this new MFD camera from Hasselblad.
Mirrorless cameras can be set so you can see exactly what you will get right in the viewfinder (menu item: Setting Effect On). Hard to make an exposure error. If you use a TTL speed-light in the hot shoe, the camera reverts to Setting Effect Off, which is a constant view like a DSLR provides.
However, if you use off-camera strobes you have to manually change it to Setting Effect Off when shooting in a dark venue at 1/200th at f/8 or the viewfinder would be black or very dark. I tell you this because it adds a level of complexity to using a EVF while switching back-and-forth between available light with YSWYG, and use of lighting. Practice makes it swifter, but never as fast as a DSLR.
Also, if you are a shoot immediately check LCD like you can do with a Canon/Nikon DSLR, an EVF either immediately shows the last shot in the viewfinder which I found incredibly disorienting, or it has to be shut off and you have to press a review button to see the last shot on the LCD/Viewfinder (i.e., slower review) The latter is what I use when shooting weddings. I've now gotten used to this so it is less of an issue, but it did take some time.
The mirror-less cameras I've used (A7R and newer A7R-II) are different from the current DSLRs, and in lower light like a moody first dance scenario the viewfinder brightens which screws with your night vision, and it gets grainy (video gain) and smears when the camera is panned to the next still shot. I've also come to ignore this so it's less of an issue than at first.
I think you would miss your DSLR for awhile, maybe a long while. But that is the work-horse camera … rather than a MFD camera to use for more specialized work. I use my S camera for formals, portraits, and when using lighting both outside with a higher sync speed, and indoors with powerful off-camera Profotos … but DSLRs and even the A7R-II are faster for the more routine shots like processionals, dancing, and candids, etc..
As far as which between the S2 and this camera, this camera is CMOS and offers higher ISOs, plus with no mirror is easier to hand-hold … which I think would make it more usable at a wedding than the S2. On the other hand the S2 has a big bright optical viewfinder and offers up to 1/4000 focal plane shutter in concert with an array of pretty fast f/2, f/2.5, f/2.8 lenses.
If it were a few years ago, and I were looking for a MFD wedding kit
to work with a DSLR, I'd get this new Hasselblad without doubt. I could see it slowly taking over more and more of the DSLR stuff as I got used to it, and eventually the DSLR with a standard 24-70 would be the secondary camera just for those really fast situations.
Hope this helps.
- Marc