# Wnated to switch from Canon T3i, where to go DSLR or Mirrorless?



## shortduck (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello all,

I currently have T3i [crop], got 6 years back, and only shooing with 50mm _f_1.8. 
But now, I want to get more serious with my photography and go to the professional route.
From what I have read already the mirrorless is the way to go and future.
I am not heavily invested in Canon and can go to Sony or Canon 
I am open to ideas.

Thanks for your time.


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## Derrel (Aug 28, 2020)

Sony has about a 7 year lead in terms of full frame mirrorless and has a nice fairly complete lens line. The Canon brand R mirrorless cameras have far fewer lenses available in a native format. However there are many more Canon EF lenses which can be adapted fairly easily. As to what is the best course of action, that is highly debatable.

I think a lot of the question comes down to what you really think about the cameras and lenses themselves. I would encourage you to rent a camera before committing to it.


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## ac12 (Aug 29, 2020)

As @Derrel said, at the present only Sony has a mature mirrorless system.
Sony had several generations to refine their mirrorless cameras.
Canon and Nikon are playing catch-up.  Nikon is still on Gen1, and Canon has only just released their Gen2 camera.  It will take them a few more years to catch up to Sony, and Sony will be a moving target.

As for lenses, if the lenses that you want, is/are not currently available native, you have to buy a dSLR lens and use an adapter.
Example, I would want a 70-200/4.  That isn't even on the Nikon Z roadmap, the last time I looked, so it would be a few years before I would expect to see a Z-mount 70-200/4.
While I could put a Nikon F lens on the Z camera via an adapter, I would personally prefer using native Z lenses.  So you buy a F 70-200/4, then when Nikon comes out with a Z mount 70-200/4, you buy that.  Then you double purchased.  That is the difficulty with getting Canon or Nikon mirrorless at the present time.​
However, IF all the lenses that you want are available native, then that is not an issue.

You need to check the lens landscape for the various brands, and the lens roadmap for Nikon and Canon.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 30, 2020)

There are top professionals using all of the major brands, including Fuji crop and medium format, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus etc ...... I don't think the performance of any body from the last 5 years will be the limiting factor in your photography.  Fast action sports photography may be the only ecception - where probably Sony would be the best mirrorless option.

Lenses are much more important in my view, plus the handling, which is very personal choice.

So, as mentioned, go for the system with lenses you need, plus factor the body with handling you prefer.


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## malling (Aug 30, 2020)

Sensor size isn’t necessarily the only important aspect for a professional to consider,  as above I’m familiar with wedding photographers who uses micro 4/3 and other who uses medium format. So although there are certain benefits to a FF format, that gain isn’t for free, it comes at a price both in real money but also things like size and weight. 

If you first go FF there are still no super light solutions. Mirrorless of today  isn’t much lighter than DSLR with high end lenses in FF format. And although Mirrorless is undoubtedly the future, it can be considerably more expensive to get a top of line prof set than with DSLR or crop Mirrorless. And although weight of pro lenses has improved(the first many where often considerable more heavy than DSLR counterparts), so there is still a way to go in that regard. Sigma for example has just started producing their lenses from ground up which has cut 1/2-2/3 of the weight but they have still only four lenses with the new design!

So if weight is important to you this is something you should think about before buying into the system.

The benefit is that Sony FE is the most mature of any Mirrorless system, you can get almost everything you could possibly want, with a few caveats. There is still a lack of specialised lenses such as tilt-shift, fish-eye and macro is very limited in its selection etc. 

For a professional I don’t think Nikon and Cannon are mature enough, as allot of essential lenses isn’t even available at this time of writing, but they might have what you need. 

It’s about getting the system that fit your specific needs. For me that where Sony FE, but the Mirrorless Nikon and Cannon didn’t really exist at that time.


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## zombiesniper (Aug 31, 2020)

Going pro. -  What area of photography? - Really helps me not reccomend the wrong or unneeded capabilities.
Budget - Really helps keep any realistic gear suggestions.


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## beagle100 (Sep 5, 2020)

shortduck said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I currently have T3i [crop], got 6 years back, and only shooing with 50mm _f_1.8.
> But now, I want to get more serious with my photography and go to the professional route.
> ...



"going pro"     ....  sports?
 weddings?
 professional photography is tough in the pandemic era.  
Mirrorless can easily use DSLR lenses
Maybe look at Canon R5 or R6
*www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless*


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## Pixeldawg1 (Sep 11, 2020)

Hmmmm... no mention of the Nikon Mirrorless, which can use ALL old and new Nikon lenses. I have used the Z7 for a year now and love it. I think it's at least worth a look. I use old and new lenses (Even a 50mm F1.4 from my Nikon F!) and it works flawlessly.

Cordially,

Mark


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## Original katomi (Sep 11, 2020)

Hiya, I think what is not being said here is
You really need to know what you want to do. And having the kit to suit
Going pro is rather vague. What subject,  local travelling fast sports. What?
I am not pro I am definitely a hobbyist. However having said that my kit has grown to suit what I do

The difference of the question detail is like this
I want todo close up photography 
Or 
I want to photograph things that are coin sized on a table, I am looking for some sort of rail system that will allow me to make fine adjustments 
The latter case I would recommend a focusing rail and send url links to products
Very old school but grab a sheet of paper and pen or digital equivalent and make a list of 
How, what where, why and what if 
What sort of photography am I going to do. A massive zoom inside a church is not much use
Where,  how much kid are you going to want to carry, a wedding where you can park close is one thing but lugging a ton of kit up a hill or Tor is another,, alternative.... what market am I aiming at what are the requiments of said market
How, that’s what everyone asks as they look at a planned shoot. How am I going to do this what do I need
Why. Why am I doing this, fun, pay the bills, interest why that style of camera are you thinking of future proofing your kit by looking at systems that don’t have mirrors if so what to you are the advantages have you weighed the cost of latest kit against the advantages it will give you

What if. That’s planning and thinking ahead
Weddings. Just the one chance-so what if the , add kit of choice, packs up?
At the end of the day it’s your cash, like always any advice or ideas I give are just that
Feel free to use ,disregard, disagree even. And what ever you use rem there is no shame in getting used kit if it does what you want. I have some canon l glass, only because the previous owner wanted the latest version and I bought what they trained in for a good price. I does what I want, I don’t care that’s it’s one or two versions old


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## paigew (Sep 11, 2020)

I just purchased a Sony mirrorless and am so excited to try it out. I have used a mark iii for almost ten years. I'm looking forward to auto face tracking/focus, better focus in general, and of course the smaller (lighter) body size. 

I shoot a little if everything including portraits, high volume headshots, landscape, weddings, macro, newborn etc. 

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


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## ac12 (Sep 11, 2020)

Pixeldawg1 said:


> Hmmmm... no mention of the Nikon Mirrorless, which can use ALL old and new Nikon lenses. I have used the Z7 for a year now and love it. I think it's at least worth a look. I use old and new lenses (Even a 50mm F1.4 from my Nikon F!) and it works flawlessly.
> 
> Cordially,
> 
> Mark



It can, BUT, it cannot autofocus the mechanical AF lenses.
Not an issue if you don't have the AF lenses, but is an issue if you do, as you lose the autofocus of the lens.


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## Original katomi (Sep 12, 2020)

Have you thought about business plan
Supply chain 
delivery options
Pricing
Who are your target customers
As said I am not pro these are just some of the question I would ask before thinking about doing photography as a living


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## crf8 (Sep 12, 2020)

My guess is a lot of small businesses that quickly fail, did not do a written business plan, nor calculate how much work it takes to break even or profit. Fixed costs and variable costs.,,,


FB.me/CRFinTN  Facebook 
www.flickr.com/crf8/


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## photoflyer (Sep 12, 2020)

Think about the types of venues you will shoot.  Outdoor sports is a bit different from indoor sports.  Weddings are different from shooting models.  Product photography is a realm all its own and so on.  

A body is important but in my experiemce is the lenses you chose are more important than the body.  I just got an R6.  It is super awseome by the way and it may be the best camera in terms of value Canon has ever produced ... time will tell.  Today I was doing air-to-air pfotogrpahy.   Last week it was astrophotography amd landscapes. During the week we had a compression challenge.  All of this was shot on the R6 (I have other bodies including a T3i) but the lenses I took for each were very different.  Indeed, the astrophotogrpahy shoot highlighted that I need a wider lens in the arsenal.

Think of it this way, what bends the light is more important than what captures it.  The settings for the images you are capturing dictate the lenses you will need.


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## greybeard (Oct 21, 2020)

"How to make a million as a professional photographer?  Start with 2 million."  With all the digital technology these days and covid to boot, you are trying to break into a very tough business indeed.  It is much like professional musicians which I have had a lot of experience with.  Mirrorless, Sony is the clear leader in this type of camera system, hands down.  dSLR, Nikon or Canon with no clear advantage for either system.  I use Nikon but, that is what I started with because my local camera store only handled Nikon.  If I had started with Canon I would be just as happy.


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