true reflection

Canon’s R6 and R5 camera bodies

- PETER RYAN

I still vividly remember the excite­ment of getting my first digital sin­gle lens reflex camera (DSLR). The freedom to take hundreds of images revolutionised my birding as well as my photography. Over the past 16 years, photography has become an indispens­ able part of my ornithological toolkit, giving novel insights into birds’ moult, diet and other behaviours, as well as improving my ID skills. Like many bird photographers, I have spent a small for­ tune investing in the steady increase in image resolution and frame rate in the quest for the perfect camera. After a week with the Canon R6, I feel as ex­ cited as when I got my first Canon D10.

In the early 2000s, the debate was whether digital would replace slide film. I have some useless slides from a stunning day on Tristan peak in 2004 because publishers at the time still fa­voured transparencies. How quickly things changed! The past few years have seen a similar revolution brewing – the switch from DSLRs to mirrorless cam­ eras. Mirrorless is nothing new – every point­and­shoot camera is mirrorless. The disadvantage for bird photogra­phy has always been the lag between the sensor and the viewfinder. Until re­cently, you couldn’t hope to track a bird in flight with an electronic viewfinder (EVF). The mirror system in an SLR camera allowed you to literally see the image going to the sensor.