Thom Hogan ridicules that video, without mentioning the stores that priduced it by name in this article about the state of mirrorless AF.
Focus Focus Focus | Sans Mirror — mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras | Thom Hogan A few excerpts from a guy who makes a living shooting, AND writing about d-slrs and mirrorless cameras.
" I took an X-T1, E-M1, and D7100 to the Galapagos in April and shot with them side-by-side. Generally, I had one of the mirrored cameras plus the D7100 with me on most shore excursions, so I was able to do real life scenario testing on some of the toughest subjects there are: small birds flying close to me and somewhat randomly. Its a real stress test of focus systems and how well they handle constant and random change in subject position."
"The more focal length youre usingespecially if its fast glassthe more the DSLRs shine compared to the mirrorless cameras."
"Most of the mirrorless continuous autofocus systems shot in bursts have some discontinuity to the burst (e.g. they slow down), even when Release Priority is selected." (ie, with the Fuji 8 frames per second slows to 4 frames a second...
"Where things start to change is when you want to shoot more than one photo in sequence (either via a burst or by pressing the shutter release in quick succession), where the subject is moving randomly and at/away from you, and when you cant keep a single autofocus sensor on the subject with reliability. Then, DSLRs (and the Nikon 1 with native lenses) start to show off their advantage. "
As far as the allegation that people have been shooting birds in flight for years: YES, mostly with EXPENSIVE, cutting-edge lenses like the old Killfit trigger-squeeze telephotos that appeared in the 1950's, so only the true experts had them. And, the "bar" has BEEN RAISED. Getting ONE or two in-focus frames is not the same thing as a modern d-slr that can shoot 29-frame buffers of 14-bit RAW files with basically almost every frame in crisp focus, all day long, for years on end. I own two of the world's BEST internal focusing telephotos from the 1976-1987 period, the 300/4.5 and the 400/3.5 ED-Internal Focus "sports/wildlife" lenses, and while they are good, a modern AF Nikkor can focus better, faster, easier, for more in focus frames over a 2-hour event than either MF lens could or can. Plus, the viewfinders on today's AF cameras are not optimized for focus ascertainment as much as for a BRIGHT view.
Like the guy in the review robbins linked to: a telezoom that's an f/3.5 to f/5 or f/6.3 or whatever is the kind of SMALL, light, affordable zoom that pairs well, and sells well with mirrorless cameras; the bigger f/4 70-200 and f/2.8 70-200 tele-zooms let in double, or four times, or eight times or more light than the slower,lighter tele zooms can, so that means the big cameras have an advantage by having more light, and greater IN-focus versus OUT-of-focus data differentiation information difference (which is how phase-detect AF works), which helps the bigger camera in tough lighting, as well as in good light conditions. Bottom line though is what Thom said: the current state of mirrorless AF,
especially for ONE-shot AF acquisition might be good enough for the needs of
many people!!!!
You JUST HAD a Nikon D7100 and the 70-200 f/4 AF-S VR-G Zoom~NIKKOR lens...you saw what that can do. Thom shot his D7100 next to the Sony XT-1 and the Olympus EM-1, two of the finest, best APS-C and 4.3 mirrorless bodies, using mostly the slowish but brand-new Zoom~NIKKOR 80-400 f/4.5~5.6 AF-S G VRII. The D-SALR and the Nikon zoom were better performers on tough targets, without the focus slowdowns, stall-outs, and the hesitations and slowing down of frame rates the mirrorless cams had at times. Prediction: mirrorless will get better, but traditional higher-level d-slrs like D7100 and up will ALSO get better and better. But NOT EVERY PERSON will need the focusing speed and capabilities of the d-slrs! Often, we shoot ONE, single, fast shot of a static subject: mirrorless cameras are very fast at that. And if a camera is too big and heavy, it gets left behind, so the smaller camera that is carried wins the day.