Anyone tempted by the mirrorless cameras?

Anyone? A no. of my photo buddies who have 35mm dSLRs and some of them also that even have a medium format film camera, I have heard some who are a pro on travel it's a break so they break the SLR away, have gone with the likes of Fuji X100s, Sony RX100, Canon EOS M, Nikon 1 ... they are lot smaller many with an APC sized sensor, ok they are not for sports or action thou of the most beautiful professional looking portraiture but for travel ... and streets and docu ...

Edited by: Rayonline

millions of people are tempted by them. Olympus, Panasonic, SOny, etc, have been churning out models for 5 years or so now, and I see them all the time.

I use an Olympus Pen Micro 4/3. Very happy with it.

I have a Nikon 1 in my camera collection. LUV it ... small, fast and excellent quality on the output end of things ...

I use mine only as a camera I carry all times, when the dSLR is at home.

Have tried and used quite a few of the little ones and they are just too cumbersome to use.
All right if things don't move, but as soon as there are things that move, no thanks.
Accurate focus is another thing, if you need it fast.

Speed is one disadvantage of the small cameras, handling another.
Then comes lack of viewfinder if you go really small.

I like them small ones but no way can view replace my dSLR.

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/ive-got-good-news-ive-got.html

Camera sales.

My guess is that compacts loose because cell phone cameras are gettingt better and better and are goodeenough for many former compact users.

dSLR up because those full frames are getting more and more affordable and the entry levels offer a lot of camera for the money spend.

Overall low sales of mirrorless - albeit increasing - is high cost combined with certain drawbacks.

I'm VERY interested. On the verge of actually biting the bullet and buying an x100s. (I actually posted a thread about it here - http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2342008 )

I have gotten so tired of lugging my entire DSLR kit around with me places and the x100s seems to have the perfect balance of beautiful pics, features and portability for my needs. (Apart from my long zoom lenses, but I never use those much anyway, in reality) It should be the perfect camera for candid street and landscape shots on my trips.

And it's pretty.

I've got a lightish APS-C kit for travelling. But there is still this FF camera push, but i don't think it will ever become light enough for mainstream photographers. Mirrorless will probably happen to FF cameras soon as well. Basically its the viewfinder that is the issue and I'm not a fan of the mirrorless viewfinders yet.... But I can see a day where cameras with an optical viewfinder are a rarity. After all there was a time, people though digitals were not good enough...

Yes, I can see that optical viewfinders will be replaced by electronic ones - but that won't make D800 or so much smaller...
Neat if you can preview the shot as you will take it...

I expect to buy a mirrorless camera (micro four thirds) real soon. Camera companies not named Nikon or Canon keep putting out better mirrorless products each year. The original models got a deserved bad rap for falling too far below entry level DSLR standards for focus speed, image quality and viewfinder. Each of those has improved year by year. If I shot action, printed larger than 8x10 or didn't travel, I'd buy another APS-C DSLR. But I travel so a micro four thirds (m43) with 3 primes will replace my 3 year old DSLR with kit lens.

Panasonic has already announced a new m43 for Sept. release. The rumor sites say Olympus will do the same. Both are expected to be noticeably better in most of the aspects derided by the FF shooters. Sony just released a FF mirrorless camera, the RX-1. It has a Carl Zeiss lens and an eye-popping price.

Sony will soon release a full frame mirrorless camera so I may get it next year if it ranks well.

That said, after my recent trip to Peru, I have greater appreciation for compact camera like Sony RX100. It is light to travel around with and take comparatively good photos for most situations.

I grow even fonder for its predecessor Sony DSCR-1. It is as bulky as a DSLR and very slow, but it has great Zeiss lens. In addition, I like the small LCD screen that can be lay flat at the top, enabling me to discretely take photos while walking around the street. And because its lens is fixed, it is far less vulnerable to dust/sand getting into the camera sensor--a big concern I have with changeable lens camera and even with RX100 with its withdrawable lens. If Sony updates the camera, I'd buy it over any other camera.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngadventure/sets/72157635169261852/

I have Nikon D4 and D800e bodies with practically all lenses form 14 to 400mm, but I travel with Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X100s cameras. With the X-Pro1 I have 14, 35 and 55-200 mm Fujinon lenses, X100s has a fixed 23mm lens (these correspond to 21-300mm on a FF camera). The picture quality equals D4/Canon 5DII, but naturally these are not sports or action cameras. 10-12 page magazine articles have been printed from pictures I have taken with these cameras (Jerusalem, Burma, Petra, Tibet coming shortly). Using these cameras makes interaction easier with the locals, X-Pro1 is quiet, X100s is absolutely noiseless and both look old-fashioned and harmless.

My Nikon bag weighs 12 kg, Fujinon travel set is 2.5 kg. I have even travelled (Israel & Jordan) with everything (meaning photo gear, clothes, toiletries etc) packed into a 24 liter daypack, 7 kg total.

I been using an E-PL3 and now a OM-D E-M5 from Olympus for 2 years now. Those cameras are perfect for travel photography.
http://frugaltravelphotography.blogspot.com/

My APS-C DSLR died a week before leaving on my first trip to Japan. Taking my point & shoot was not an option because of it's image quality. Canon had updated the firmware on the mirrorless Eos M and cut the price in half so I bought one.

I'm 10 days into the trip. The pros and cons of a mirrorless relative to an entry level APS-C DSLR are just what I expected.
Pros: smaller and lighter. Between sensor and the 2 lenses (kit zoom and 22m f2 prime) image quality is good enough for me. Body size & 22mm lens will make this my carry-all-the-time camera when I'm wearing shorts with cargo pockets.
Cons: sometimes difficult to see viewscreen, but much better than my high end 3 year old point and shoot. Slow autofocus but good enough 95% of the time because of what I shoot while traveling.

I'll buy a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera when the viewfinder and autofocus speed are good enough for what I shoot. The panasonic GX-7 may be that camera.