I miss my DSLR camera. But before you assume it’s purely sentimental, I actually started to learn photography using SLR film cameras. I still own a film camera, but I don’t miss film like I miss DSLRs. In fact, I miss my DSLR camera so much, I’ve actually considered selling my mirrorless kit and going back to the Nikon D850, a ‘holy trinity’ of F-mount glass, a couple of choice primes and a supertelephoto, and never worrying about upgrading my setup ever again. Of course, I’m not going to do that (I don’t think…), but that’s how much I MISS MY DSLR!
I miss my DSLR like a ghost misses being opaque. And it gets worse. I swear I took my best photos ever on my DSLR cameras. I understand how ridiculous that sounds, given the insane specs of almost any enthusiast-level mirrorless camera nowadays. I’ve thought about this a lot and the conclusion I’ve come to is that I was less precious as a DSLR user. Let me explain.
My DSLR camera made me a better photographer?
When you shoot with an optical viewfinder, you’re less bothered about getting the perfect exposure. You understand the limitations of your camera’s light meter, and you deal with it. It’s kind of freeing. When I use mirrorless cameras, I’m almost constantly fiddling with the settings, hyper aware of the preview on the EVF.
I find myself retaking the same photos over and over again, ad nauseam, striving for perfect exposure and absolute sharpness. With a DSLR camera, I’d take a few shots, glance at the rear screen and move on. There’s also this expectation with modern cameras that they’re so good, anything other than sheer perfection isn’t good enough. As such, I think my DSLR shots were more characterful and featured more variation.
I miss the more tactile experience of using a DSLR camera, too. Mirrorless cameras are silent, free from vibrations, and to this day that bothers the heck out of me. I miss the reassuring vibration that AF was engaged and that visceral clunk of the reflex mirror and shutter dancing in tandem. I could operate my DSLR with my eyes closed. Mirrorless? No such luck.
Perhaps the best way I can describe it is that mirrorless cameras feel like picture-making computers, whereas DSLR cameras feel like picture-making machines. I’m a bit of a romantic at heart; I’ll be gushing about my Nikon Z8 again next week, but I can’t be the only one to feel this way. I’m sure a lot of photographers won’t get it, and that’s totally fine. But man, you cannot put a price tag on the bond I built with my Nikon D800 and Nikon D850.
Do you agree? Do you long for the DSLR camera's heyday? Do you still shoot on a DSLR camera? Let me know in the comments below!
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