How to Use a Mirrorless Camera
It doesn’t look like much, does it…?
Sony a1 camera body
Most people buying a mirrorless camera these days will be switching from a DSLR. Using a mirrorless is a little bit different, so here’s my guide to help you make the transition.
There are a few key differences, and I’ve divided them up into which camera to buy, how to customise it, which settings to use, plus sections on shooting mode, the EVF and custom buttons.
Which Mirrorless Camera Should I Buy?
Every major camera manufacturer has a mirrorless camera range these days, but the top three for wildlife photographers are the Sony a1 (or ⍺1 or Alpha 1), the Nikon Z9 and the Canon R5.
They all have similar features including a large, full-frame sensor, a high frame rate, eye detection and an autofocus area that covers the whole EVF.
I have a pair of Sony Alpha 1s, and I’m very happy with them at the moment, but they’re not perfect by any means, and I’m sure there’ll be technological breakthroughs by all three major manufacturers in the next few years.
How Should I Customise It?
One of the joys of mirrorless cameras is that they can be customised in a variety of ways. DSLRs tend to have manual switches, dials and levers that can never be ‘reset’ electronically, but that’s not usually a problem for mirrorless models.
The Alpha 1, for example, has three numbered custom drive modes on the main dial, and I’ve set those up so that the first is for portraits, the second is for bird-in-flight shots and the third is for slow pans.
It’s very easy to save the settings, and that means you can tailor your default shooting modes on the fly. That’s particularly important for a wildlife photographer, as you’re often trying to take different kinds of shots of the same subject.
Having two cameras gives you the flexibility to be able to use different lenses whenever you need them, but you still need to be able to switch quickly between exposure settings.
Some photographers do this by dialling the shutter speed and the aperture up or down, but every second counts, and there’s more to a shot than those two settings.
The joy of the three custom shooting modes is that you can tailor absolutely every detail of your set-up, from the basic shooting mode to your autofocus settings to your aspect ratio and a host of others.
All photographers have their own ‘favourite’ shots based on their particular brand of photography, so this kind of easy customisation is very valuable.
My only gripe is that the Custom Mode Dial is hard to turn with your eye to the viewfinder because of the lock button. In an ideal world, that button either wouldn’t be there or it’d be replaced with a toggle switch like the one on the Exposure Compensation Dial.
The whole point of having these custom modes is that you can quickly switch between them, so Heaven knows why Sony decided to make them more difficult to use!
What Settings Should I Use?
I’ve written an article on setting up the Sony Alpha 1, so feel free to check that out if you want a detailed guide.
In this post, I just want to cover the basics.
Focus
You need to select AF-C using the outer Focus mode dial on the top left of the camera body, then delete the autofocus and eye detection options you’re not going to use and set up custom buttons to toggle through the remaining ones and switch on tracking.
The camera’s autofocus system will only look for something to focus on in the area you select. If you leave it on Wide, the camera will hunt across the whole frame for the eye of the subject, but it’s not very good at that if there are trees and bushes in the way!
There are lots of possible focus areas, with each one offering options with and without tracking. I mainly use Zone and Spot Medium, so I’ve set up the C1 button next to the Shutter button to toggle between those.
Zone helps the camera narrow down the possibilities, which means focus acquisition is faster and more accurate, but one of the Spot settings (such as Spot Medium) is sometimes necessary if you’re shooting through the branches of a tree, say.
Any areas that you don’t use should be turned off in the menu system so that they don’t slow you down when toggling between the different options. The same goes for Human, Animal and Bird eye detection, which I again control through a custom button.
I followed Steve Perry’s advice and set up the AF-ON button so that it switches tracking on as well as back-button focus. If I don’t want to use tracking—let’s say for a slow pan when I want the focus point to act as a target—I use the AEL button to turn on the autofocus.
Shooting Mode
It’s obviously possible to use Single Shot, but that often leads to missed shots! Animals and birds can move quickly and unpredictably, so you should keep your camera on one of the continuous shooting modes just in case they blink an eye or do something unexpected.
One of the big advantages of mirrorless cameras in wildlife photography is the fast frame rate. My Sony Alpha 1s can manage 30fps while shooting RAW, and that comes in very handy. You might not think you’ll ‘need’ 30fps, but wildlife can move a long way in between exposures taken every 1/30 of a second, so having those extra frames is like having extra tickets to the lottery—they give you extra chances to win the big prize!
To get such a fast frame rate, you need to have the right settings:
Turn the Drive mode dial to H+
Set shutter priority to Release (rather than Focus).
Set file quality to compressed RAW (or JPEG).
Switch tracking on with the AF-ON button, NOT by using any of the tracking modes (which slow down the frame rate).
Make sure your lens is compatible with 30fps.
Just make sure you don’t go overboard. It’s very easy to take thousands of pictures and run out of room on your memory card, so you should train yourself to be able to take a quick burst of three to five images.
EVF
The Sony Alpha 1’s Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) is very bright and realistic, and it offers blackout-free shooting with a fantastic 240fps maximum refresh rate. However, that comes at the cost of resolution and magnification, so I stick to the High option of 120fps. That still means the EVF is refreshed eight times between every single shot at 30fps, so that’s plenty fast enough!
All I’d say is that the EVF shows a strangely static, juddery image when taking slow pan shots. However, I’ve been using the camera for less than a year, so I’m not sure of the reason for that…
Custom Buttons
Mirrorless cameras like the Alpha 1 have a great selection of custom buttons, and they make life a lot easier.
I’ve already mentioned the three numbered custom shooting modes, but there are also four custom buttons (C1-C4), a function button (Fn) and AF-ON and AEL buttons (on both the camera and the battery grip).
You can also use the multi-selector button and press different sides of it to use certain features. By default, they’re labelled ISO and display (DISP), but you can customise them all to your heart’s content.
Here are my button assignments in the menu system:
Rear1
Multi-selector: rotate to select ISO AUTO or ISO value
AEL: AF On
AF-ON: Tracking On + AF On
For back button focusing, you also need to go to MENU/Focus/AF/MF/AF w/ Shutter and switch it off.
C3: Switch Silent Mode (so that the mechanical shutter covers the sensor when changing lenses)
Rear2
Nubbin: AF/MF Selector Hold (to switch off AF and use manual focus)
Centre Button: White Balance
Left Button: Face/Eye Priority Off Toggle
Right Button: Switch Right/Left Eye
ISO: ISO AUTO, ISO value and minimum and maximum ISO values
Top
Front dial: Aperture/f-stop
Rear dial: Shutter speed/time value
C1: Switch Focus Area (ie Wide, Zone, Spot etc)
C2: Face/Eye Subject Select (ie Human, Animal or Bird)
How Should I Take Pictures?
The biggest difference in using a mirrorless camera rather than a DSLR is that you don’t have to move the focus point around any more. In fact, there is no ‘focus point’ any more, only focus areas.
In theory, that means you don’t even need to use back-button focus (BBF) any more. You could just set your focus area to Wide (ie full-frame), point the camera, half-press the shutter to focus and then press it all the way to take the picture. The camera will automatically acquire focus on something—you just have to trust that Sony’s autofocus algorithms are good enough to choose the subject correctly!
In fact, I’ve been using BBF for so long now that I still use AF-ON to activate focus rather than the shutter button. And you can still move the focus areas around if you want to—they’re just a bit bigger!
One other point to make is about the battery life. It’s supposed to be only 530 shots, but don’t worry: that’s nonsense if you’re shooting at 30fps. I once used up three full memory cards shooting little bee-eaters with each of my cameras (taking over 6,000 shots apiece), but the second batteries in my battery grips stayed at 100% the whole time!
As a result, you might not need the battery grip at all. That might be a nice weight saving if, like me, you like to shoot hand-held with either a 400mm or 600mm lens…
Conclusion
Mirrorless certainly marks the dawn of a new age, and I’m glad to be a part of it. It was a little worrying at first, and the transition wasn’t cheap (!), but it can be done. You just need to buy the right camera, customise it correctly, use the right settings and then take lots of pictures with it.
Once you go mirrorless, you’ll be better able to reach your potential as a wildlife photographer, and I hope this article will help you to do that.
Practice makes perfect!
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