5 Reasons to Consider Buying a DSLR in 2020

There is no doubt that the industry is heading toward an almost totally mirrorless world, but that does not mean that DSLRs will suddenly become useless overnight. In fact, now might be a better time than ever to consider investing in a DSLR for your work, and this great video discusses five reasons why.

Coming to you from Hyun Ralph Jeong, this interesting video discusses five reasons why you should consider buying a DSLR even in 2020. No doubt, all the excitement and momentum in the industry is headed toward mirrorless right now, but if you do not need the benefits of mirrorless or the latest and greatest tech, the used market is going to offer a lot of great deals on DSLRs in the next few years. Another benefit Jeong discusses that I totally agree with is how comfortable they are. Despite its very large size and weight, my Canon 1D X Mark II is by far the most comfortable camera I have used, as it fits perfectly in my hands and balances with even the most unwieldy lenses perfectly. As such, I don't always see a bit of heft and size as a bad thing. Check out the video above for Jeong's full thoughts. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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17 Comments

Commonsense, it seems to have gone out of style. If a mirrorless camera made my job easier, I would buy one but it would not. I too will likely buy a 1DxII in the near future to compliment my 5DIV's. Imagine the shock of a newbie trying out a Mamiya RZ67 and hearing the mirror as they hit the shutter...Oh, the humanity!

Bought my Pentax K3 used 3 years ago with 750 clicks on it for 1/3rd cost of new. With grip fits my hand like a glove. And if I ever need to pound in a nail in a rain storm it could double as a hammer.

Oh, and I still drive stick...

"And if I ever need to pound in a nail in a rain storm it could double as a hammer."

I miss that about my Pentax cameras. Too bad they missed the boat with mirrorless or at least providing a decent AF system for their DSLRs.

The shorter battery capability on a mirror less is my biggest issue and ads to the reason I have no rush to go mirror less. Lighter cameras, but more batteries when traveling defeats the point. So now you need a power strip in your fanny bag and bring all your chargers to most outings. I've seen people carrying all that extra stuff are races and fight for an outlet. I have no rush.

There is also the issue with flight restrictions around Li-Ion batteries and the amount you can carry and how, which has been a bug bear of mine for a while.

What are you talking about? Sony solve that battery problem back wen they made the Z battery. It literally last as long as a DSLR battery would last. I carry 2 spares but I think I only had to use a spare once on a shoot and this was after 6 or so hours.

Sony?, I am talking R5 here. Honestly, I don't know how much more, just informing myself and from what I have read, the R5 goes through more battery than a Dslr.
The other thing is, if you are talking about forcing yourself into managing your battery use, that's 0% for me. I shoot for a living and my priority is to do the work I am asked to do. So I would go with more battery back up than sidetrack myself on any time management program. More batteries is great for convenience, but what a pain to manage lights, cameras and other tools batteries on a daily basis.

Just bought a second hand 5D IV to compliment my 5D III, and I'll retire my 5D II. Photography is dead this year, and it doesn't look it's going to improve so there's no point in invest heavily into gear. The only reason I bought the 5D IV was to help out a friend and was offered at a good price.

Would I like a R5? Sure, but it's too rich for my blood at this time with no real means to recoup that cost. I'll probably rent one out sometime over the coming months to see what all the fuss is.

I only watch videos with 6 reasons. 5 reasons is just lazy click bait youtube influencer crap.

C'mon, man. Do you not know the “rules, of odds”? Five to seven reasons; three is too few, and nine is too much. Even numbers are just not aesthetic.

I wouldn't mind getting one cheap as a collectors item of sorts but I don't think I could go back to using one as my main camera. I enjoy not having to do AFMA and being able to focus across the entire frame way too much.

I spent years looking through the viewfinders of various camcorders. Staring at small monitors for hours at a time is a painful experience. It's not something I intend to replicate with a stills camera.

Up until the beginning of 2019 I was still shooting weddings on the 5DII and upgraded then to the 5DIV. I like how the batteries for both are the same and still keep the 5DII's on hand as backups on wedding days. The 5DIV gives me better video capabilities for sure and is amazing when paired with a gimbal. The battery life on these cameras is easily double the shot count per battery than that of a mirrorless camera and I rely on that battery life when shooting weddings. The shutter on the R5 on the other hand would be amazing to have in my 5DIV. Its so quiet you almost can't hear it but until battery life in those mirrorless cameras are improved I see no need to switch systems (EF to RF).

Mirrorless has improved a lot, but yes, I definitely agree that there are reasons to buy a DSLR even now. I like the form factor much better with them than with mirrorless. The EOS R and RP both feel like toys to me in a way that even my old 35mm Rebel Ti doesn't. But a big lens doesn't balance well on a tiny camera. Some of the technologies that are in mirrorless have been coming to DSLR's, though, and I'm quite impressed with how they operate. The 90D that I just picked up has face detection and tracking with the OVF, and I find it more relaxing to use that way without all the blinky blue boxes in mirrorless mode. I can definitely see the potential for more improvements to both systems as time goes on, though.

I'm just too old school. I like to look in a viewfinder and see what the lens sees, or at least the viewfinder. Looking at an itty bitty screen in the viewfinder...hard pass.

I've gone one stage further and just bought myself a Nikon f100.

It’s pretty simple, I just want a great sensor that excels in low light and that has top tier auto-focus. Whether that comes in a dslr or mirrorless format, I don’t care.

I can work around everything else (battery, shutter noise, viewfinder, etc.)