Talking Lenses; Am I Missing Anything By Only Owning And Using Mirrorless Lenses?

Canadian National Steam Locomotive #3254 undergoing restoration at Steamtown National Historical Site (click to enlarge)
Fuji X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 27.4mm; 1/50th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200

Writing about the upcoming Nikon D850 in my last post started me wondering if I am missing anything by no longer owning a digital SLR and those traditional large but excellent lenses that come with them.  Sometimes I do miss full frame, but not because of any perceived (or real) image quality differences resulting from differing sensor sizes but only for the extraordinary dynamic range I enjoyed with my Nikon D810.  No, I really don't miss having a digital SLR.  I also thought about the lenses.  Am I missing anything by only owning and using mirrorless lenses?

When I consider any lens I evaluate lens performance in the way of sharpness and resolution across the image plane as well as focusing accuracy, consistency and speed. When thinking about my mirrorless lenses, whether Fuji, Olympus or Panasonic, my conclusion is I don't believe I am missing anything.  From extensive use and testing over the past five+ years, I believe the mirrorless lenses I've owned and used are every bit as good and some much better than larger, heavier, higher priced digital SLR lenses I've owned, even some the highest level professional lenses digital SLR lenses.

Gull on driftwood, California Coast (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M5, Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 lens @ 100mm; 1/4000th sec. @ f/3.5; ISO 200

I don't really need to go into sharpness and resolution.  You can find innumerable review sites with all the stats you want to read objectively describing how good mirrorless lenses can be.  In my opinion, the best mirrorless lenses are only restricted by the size and resolution of the sensor in the cameras on which they are mounted.  In other words, in many cases, the lenses are better than the cameras.  I'm not missing anything when it comes to sharpness and resolution.

Second, because my mirrorless lenses achieve focus directly off the front of the sensor and not a separate focusing module, I've enjoyed more images that were consistently in perfect focus than even my best Nikon digital SLRs.

I used to have to take each of my Nikon lenses, even the $2500 US ones, and run them through a "focus tuning" protocol (using the software FoCal) to ensure best focus performance.  As we know, any individual camera and individual lens will have never met until you buy them and mount a particular lens on a particular camera body.  Each digital SLR body is made to be within certain tolerances.  So are lenses.  The problem occurs when the body you own is at one end of the tolerance spectrum and the lens you just bought is at the other.  Individually, they both are within the manufacturer's tolerances, but together they don't focus as accurately as you think they should.  That is why the more expensive digital SLRs have the ability to "tune" and set focus with each individual lens.  The manufacturers know that phase detection autofocus, although fast, is not as accurate with a separate focusing module and accurate focus can vary with each press of the shutter button. (Try calibrating a particular lens to your camera several times and see that the "best focus" calibration figure will change!  It shouldn't but does.  That is due to the nature of PDAF.  Focus isn't necessarily exact every time you press the shutter)  With mirrorless, the lenses focus off the front of the sensor itself and not a separate focus module as in digital SLRs.  The accuracy and repeatability of precise focus, in my experience is much better with mirrorless lenses.  Again, I'm not missing anything in this regard either when using mirrorless lenses.

Lone tree in fog backlit directly by the sun (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 16mm; 1/640th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

Third, how about when it comes to focusing speed?  My subjective judgment is that my mirrorless lenses focus faster than did my big expensive Nikon lenses.  Mirrorless lenses are smaller and have less mass to move when the focus motor actuates which can allow them to focus more quickly.  That is one possible contributing factor.  Olympus, Panasonic and Fuji have access to the same high quality of electronics, focusing motors and engineering talent so that should not be a decisive factor.  (I do agree that some are better than others and some put more money into research and development than others) I think most of the better (and smaller) professional grade mirrorless lenses generally focus faster than the larger digital SLR lenses.  I have no empirical data to back up that statement, just 5 years of experience using mirrorless and digital SLR lenses side-by-side. Remember, my statement is my opinion derived from my experience using my gear.  I may be wrong as opinions are neither right nor wrong, just opinions.

Grand Canyon National Park (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M5, Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 40mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200
Made with an inexpensive "kit" lens

The bottom line for me is that I'm not missing anything by only owning and using mirrorless lenses.  They are sharp, excellent at resolving fine detail, contrasty, have good color rendition and as a bonus, focus fast and accurately on a consistent basis.

As I stated in my last post, even though this new Nikon D850 has every indication that it will be an amazing camera, I'm perfectly happy with my mirrorless gear for both my professional and personal work.  I like to say, "if you aren't making good images, it is not the gear, it is you!"

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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