Mirrorless, DSLR or Film - An Inconvenient Truth

About Climate (Change)

Al Gore knew in 2006 that summers will get hotter and longer every year, and now in 2021 I can attest that.

But what does it mean for us professional photographers? It means that our gear is consistently subjected to higher temperatures, especially during wedding season.

An Inconvenient Truth?

Image noise is not only a result of high ISO settings, but also stems from electronic components getting hot.

Nikon Z7 II, D800 and F6

In most scenarios, the impact of this heat buildup is negligible. However, a few years ago when I was shooting a wedding on an incredibly hot summer day with my Olympus OM-D mirrorless setup, I was in for a surprise when I later edited the photos. The ISO 100-shot-in-daylight images looked like the ISO 800 photographs I took later during the night.

Although there were never any Canon R-level overheating issues with the OM-Ds, the effect was quite noticeable on several occasions, especially when the camera was switched on for a long period of time.

Yes, that is an inherent issue with mirrorless cameras. The live view requires continues sensor readout and when the weather is hot, well then it will become too hot at some point.

Some manufacturers highlight that by advertising the heat management capabilities of certain models (e.g. Nikon Z9, Olympus OM-D E-M1X).

Among other reasons, this was why I made the switch to Nikon DSLRs two years ago, although I’ve been shooting mirrorless for almost all of my career.

Closing thoughts

I love DSLRs for many reasons, and I would recommend having at least one DSLR body for really long shoots or summer days.

If you are a mirrorless only person, bring a spare mirrorless body for critical work and switch from time to time.

Oh and by the way, you know which camera is unaffected by heat: A film camera.