DSLR vs mirrorless cameras: which is better for photography and video?

With the EOS R System including both APS-C and full-frame models, there's now a wide choice of mirrorless cameras offering new advantages to professionals and amateurs alike. But whether you want to upgrade from an older camera or step up from a compact camera to one with interchangeable lenses, you might be considering a traditional DSLR rather than a mirrorless camera.

It's true that Canon EOS DSLRs are great cameras and Canon EF lenses set the benchmark for lens design in their day. The EOS R System, however, represents a step change in both performance and creative possibilities. With an ever-expanding range of state-of-the-art RF and RF-S lenses and accessories too, this system puts unprecedented levels of quality and control in the hands of photographers, filmmakers and content creators.

Here, to help you appreciate the benefits of moving to mirrorless, we look at the differences between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, with expert insight from Canon Europe Senior Product Specialist Mike Burnhill.

• DSLR vs mirrorless cameras: body size and weight
• Lens mounts: why is mirrorless better than DSLR?
• A lens for every type of photography and video
• Optical vs electronic viewfinders: which is better?
• Do mirrorless cameras take better pictures and videos?
• Autofocus: mirrorless vs DSLR
• Mechanical shutter vs electronic shutter
• Battery life: DSLR vs mirrorless
• Mirrorless vs DSLR cameras: making a choice

"One of the key things about DSLRs is that they have a mirror or pentaprism to direct light through to the viewfinder," Mike explains, "but this has to have room to flip out of the way to expose the sensor. Eliminating this helps reduce the size and weight of the camera."

The weight saving of a mirrorless camera and lens compared to a DSLR can be significant. A Canon EOS R8 (including battery and memory card) paired with an RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM lens weighs approximately 1,161g, whereas a comparable DSLR setup – a Canon EOS 6D Mark II with an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens – at around 1,560g, is more than 34% heavier. To look at it another way, the difference of nearly 400g is approximately the weight of the RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM ultra-wide zoom lens, meaning you could pack both RF lenses in your mirrorless kit bag, giving you extended zoom capabilities on your hike or expedition, and still be carrying no more weight than with the DSLR setup.

Lifestyle content creator Diana Millos used the EOS R10 to photograph the culture and architecture of Andalusia. She comments: "The EOS R10 almost looks like a toy when you come from a camera that's much heavier, such as the EOS 80D that I use. I like that it's small and lightweight, yet it's so powerful."

The RF mount used on EOS R System cameras introduced many innovations. "The RF mount has been designed with an eye to the future," Mike explains, "such as improving communication speed between camera and lens and adding extra contacts to support more functions." These include much faster autofocus performance, real-time Digital Lens Optimisation, and enhanced controls such as the customisable control ring on RF lenses.

Instead of having to constantly work around a DSLR's reflex mirror between the mount and the sensor, lens designers can bring RF lenses closer to the sensor itself, enhancing optical performance. This has resulted in faster, brighter lenses with exceptional quality, as well as groundbreaking new lens designs.

Since the introduction of the first RF lenses in 2018, Canon’s range of lenses for the mirrorless EOS R System has grown exponentially. It now includes dedicated RF-S lenses designed for mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors such as the EOS R10 and EOS R7. It also enables creators of both stills and video content to explore exciting new lens technologies.

From the ultra-wide RF 10-20mm F4L IS STM zoom lens to remarkably compact and lightweight super telephoto prime lenses like the RF 600mm F11 IS STM and RF 1200mm F8L IS USM, the RF and RF-S lens line-up provides a full range of creative choice. Even the "standard" lenses are anything but ordinary, with the RF 28-70mm F2.8 IS STM and RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM offering outstanding image stabilisation and autofocus performance for sharp images and video.

There are unique stereoscopic and VR lenses, for example, which make it simple to start creating immersive 3D video and images with compatible EOS R System mirrorless cameras. Lenses such as the RF-S 3.9mm F3.5 STM DUAL FISHEYE, designed for APS-C EOS R System cameras, are at the heart of the Canon EOS VR SYSTEM, which makes creating stereoscopic 3D and VR content more accessible to more people.

Hybrid RF lenses – including zooms such as the RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z lens and primes such as the RF 35mm F1.4L VCM – combine the capabilities of stills and video lenses. They’re the perfect choice for a mix of photography and filmmaking. Highlights of these high-performance hybrid lenses include Iris Rings for manual aperture adjustments while you’re recording video, minimal focus breathing, and fast, silent focusing motors. The zoom lenses in the range also feature professional electronic parfocal focus capability while zooming, plus power zoom expandability.

DSLRs have optical viewfinders, which provide a clear view of a scene in good light. But the electronic viewfinders (EVFs) used on mirrorless cameras have significant advantages.

In particular, if you're using an EOS R System mirrorless camera, Exposure Simulation makes it possible to preview the image with your exposure, Picture Style and other settings applied, both in the viewfinder and on the rear LCD screen. On a DSLR, Exposure Simulation works when you use the rear screen in Live View mode, but not in the viewfinder. With an EVF, you can also compose your shot and focus in low-light conditions too dark to see with the naked eye through an optical viewfinder. EVFs can display digital aids or overlays, supporting a range of real-time assistive features such as focus peaking and zebra patterns. When you're shooting video, for example, the EVF in EOS R System cameras offers the same manual focus assist display as Canon's professional Cinema EOS cameras.

An EVF also enables a more detailed level of shooting information to be displayed, as well as allowing you to navigate and change settings in the camera menus. With an EVF, you can also review images and movies that you’ve shot, even when conditions may be too bright to see clearly on the camera's LCD screen.

The EVFs in Canon EOS R System cameras continue to evolve, with the EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II featuring a high-refresh-rate, blackout-free viewfinder, giving you a seamless shooting experience compared to a DSLR, with fewer interruptions in critical moments when shooting continuously.

Wildlife photographer Dani Connor, who used the EOS R7 on a trip in search of the endangered Iberian lynx, found that working with an electronic viewfinder completely transformed her photography.

"If I need to react quickly when photographing wildlife, or maybe the light is constantly changing, with a mirrorless camera I can quickly adjust my ISO or my shutter speed and I can see what my photo will look like, without having to take my eye from the viewfinder."

When the EOS R System first came out, capturing images using DSLR or mirrorless cameras wasn't radically different when it came to the actual image quality. But with the newest technology developments, the EOS R System mirrorless cameras lift performance to the next level.

In-camera correction

"For example, with the RF mount, one of the benefits of high-speed communication between the lens and the camera is that when you have optical problems like diffraction and aberration, we can do in-camera correction of those in real-time," says Mike. "This instant processing means you're getting better image quality straight out of the mirrorless cameras."

Continuous shooting speed

Similarly, in some situations, mirrorless cameras, such as the EOS R7 with its continuous shooting speed of up to 15fps using the mechanical shutter and 30fps using the electronic shutter with full autofocus tracking, are more likely to produce consistently usable images than DSLRs such as the EOS 7D Mark II or the EOS 90D, both of which have a maximum continuous shooting speed of 10fps.

The RAW burst mode that’s available on some mirrorless cameras, including the EOS R8, EOS R7 and EOS R10, further improves your chances of capturing the perfect moment. Not only does it record RAW files at up to 30fps, it packs a pre-shooting option that captures images for half a second before you fully press the shutter release. Pre-shooting gives you the power to essentially rewind time and go back half a second to save the moments you might have missed.

The EOS R5 Mark II and EOS R1 take this a step further with a pre-continuous shooting feature. With the camera set to continuous shooting and AF on, you can half-press the shutter button and aim where you expect the action to be taking place. The camera begins buffering images, with full AE and AF tracking. When you fully press the button, the camera doesn't just start taking photos, it also saves the 15 frames (EOS R5 Mark II) or 20 frames (EOS R1) just before the full-press. This ensures you capture the moment the action happens, and it works when you're shooting JPEG or HEIF images as well as RAW. (It's also more straightforward than RAW burst mode – it saves individual RAW files, whereas RAW burst mode uses a special file format from which individual images have to be extracted.) There's nothing like this on any DSLR.

Image stabilisation

Many lenses include image stabilisation that counteracts the effects of camera shake. But RF and RF-S lenses equipped with an Optical Image Stabilizer have an improved level of stabilisation compared to the equivalent EF and EF-S lenses.

Several EOS R System mirrorless cameras are equipped with a 5-axis In-body Image Stabilizer (IBIS). If you use an IS-equipped lens on a camera with IBIS, the two work together to produce even greater levels of stabilisation – up to 8.5-stops at the centre of the frame and 7.5-stops at the periphery, depending on the camera and the lens used. This means you can shoot handheld at a slower shutter speed and still capture sharp shots.

The advanced IBIS and lens image stabilisation technology is also effective when shooting video. EOS R System cameras have a dedicated Movie Digital IS option which can be combined with IBIS and Optical IS to improve the steadiness of footage, making EOS R System mirrorless cameras a better choice for shooting video compared to DSLR cameras.

All EOS R System mirrorless cameras use Canon's Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus system – Dual Pixel CMOS AF II in the EOS R6 Mark II, EOS R8, EOS R7 and EOS R10, for example, and a newer version called Dual Pixel Intelligent AF in the EOS R5 Mark II. In all the iterations of this system, every pixel in the sensor is used for both focusing and imaging, compared with the specific point-based phase detection sensor focusing through the viewfinder for DSLR cameras.

One of the big advantages of these mirrorless cameras is the ability to select an AF point anywhere within the frame. "This is impossible on a DSLR," Mike explains, "and it also allows for capabilities such as face tracking, eye tracking and animal tracking that we see in these cameras. You can, for example, pick up the eye of a bird in flight, and follow that around the frame – again something that is impossible for a DSLR."

On many EOS R System mirrorless cameras, the advanced subject detection even extends to vehicles such as cars, motorcycles, aircraft and trains, with the position of the driver, rider or pilot being tracked automatically by the intelligent autofocus system.

EOS R System mirrorless cameras are capable of focusing in darker conditions, too. The EOS R1’s autofocus can lock on to a subject in light as dim as -7.5EV, for example, which is roughly equivalent to a starlit landscape. This improved AF sensitivity also makes autofocus possible at smaller maximum apertures than before. Pair the compact RF 600mm F11 IS STM telephoto lens with a Canon Extender RF 2x, for example, and in practice you have a 1200mm f/22 lens – complete with effective autofocus.

The majority of DSLRs have mechanical shutters, but all of Canon's EOS R System mirrorless cameras have both an electronic shutter and a mechanical one.

So, what are the advantages of an electronic shutter as compared to a mechanical shutter?

With an electronic shutter, the mechanical shutter is locked open and the imaging sensor is essentially read electronically. The biggest advantage of this is that shooting can be totally silent – not just quieter, with the shutter damped or suppressed as it is when you select the S ("soft" shooting) option available on some cameras, but completely noiseless. This can be invaluable when you're photographing nervous wildlife, slumbering babies or the quiet parts of weddings, for example.*

Electronic shutters also enable faster continuous shooting. "With mechanical shutters," Mike says, "the fastest possible in our DSLR cameras was 16fps [frames per second] on the EOS-1D X Mark III, a high-level professional camera. With its electronic shutter, the EOS R10 can give you the option of up to 23fps for a fraction of the price, while the EOS R7 can shoot at 30fps, matching the speed of the EOS R3, another professional camera, but for a third of the price."

However, the phenomenon of "rolling shutter" can be a problem when you photograph action with an electronic shutter – fast-moving objects such as a swinging golf club or a rotating propeller can move in the time it takes for the whole frame to be read, leaving them distorted in the resulting image. The phenomenon is greatly reduced in the latest mirrorless cameras, though. The EOS R5 Mark II and EOS R1 are equipped with innovative full-frame back-illuminated CMOS sensors and have a DIGIC Accelerator image processor in addition to their DIGIC X image processor. This combination of high-speed processor and sensor technology minimises rolling shutter distortion – in case of the EOS R1, to the level of the fastest mechanical shutters on the market, or even beyond.

It's often said that DSLRs have longer battery life than mirrorless cameras, mainly because a mirrorless camera's electronic viewfinder requires power while a DSLR's optical viewfinder uses none. In practice, however, battery life depends a lot on how you use the camera – using flash, for example, will consume more power on both types of camera, while using the LCD screen on a DSLR typically consumes more power than using the LCD screen on a mirrorless camera. A mid-range DSLR such as the EOS 90D offers 1,200 shots or more with the viewfinder and 450 with the LCD, while the mirrorless EOS R6 Mark II delivers 450 shots with electronic viewfinder or 760 with the LCD.

The difference is even greater at the pro level: if you stick to the viewfinder on the EOS-1D X Mark III, for example, you could shoot 2,500 images before the battery runs out, but this falls to 600 images if you rely on Live View, as compared with the mirrorless EOS R3's 620 shots with viewfinder and 860 with LCD. So if you prefer to use the rear LCD screen, mirrorless cameras may well give you more shots on a single charge.

Power consumption has been further optimised in Canon mirrorless EOS R System cameras with the introduction of new high-performance batteries. Additionally, various power-saving options in the camera menu, along with the possibility of charging via USB and power banks, can extend camera operation time even further.

DSLRs have their strengths, but EOS R System mirrorless cameras and lenses offer a wealth of innovative technology that unlocks new creative possibilties for photography and video.

If you want a lightweight camera with fast frame rate for travel photography, then a mirrorless camera such as the EOS R10 may be ideal. If you enjoy wildlife and action photography, then the high-speed mirrorless cameras like the EOS R7 and EOS R6 Mark II will give you the step up in performance you need. If you’re looking to move up to full-frame photography and video, then the mirrorless EOS R8 is packed with creative features to help you achieve your artistic aims. And, of course, the range extends to leading mirrorless cameras with cutting-edge features to meet the needs of the most demanding professional photographers, including the EOS R3 and EOS R1.

Across the range, the mirrorless EOS R System enables you to use next-generation RF and RF-S lenses, with accompanying benefits including in-camera image correction and autfocus tracking performance.

A mirrorless camera's electronic viewfinder makes it possible to preview your image in the viewfinder with shooting settings applied. Live View on the rear LCD of a DSLR will do the same, but it isn’t always convenient to shoot this way. You also won’t be able to see much in the dark in a DSLR viewfinder, unlike with the EVF in a mirrorless camera, which will enable you to frame your shot in almost any conditions.

Advanced autofocus features such as Animal Eye AF and Vehicle AF are available only in the latest EOS R System cameras. These mirrorless cameras also give you the freedom to shoot with either an electronic or mechanical shutter, with typically much higher continuous shooting speeds available, and the option of completely silent shooting.

From ergonomics to autofocus, shutter type to shutter speed, try out the camera you're interested in, if you can – there's no substitute for actually feeling how it suits you. Once you’ve decided which mirrorless camera is for you, ask your local camera store about part-exchange opportunities, or consider donating your old camera gear to a local camera club or school so that someone else can begin their photography journey.



*Sounds other than the shutter (aperture, focus lens drive sound, electronic sound, etc.) may be generated.