Should you buy a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera in 2026?

In this episode, we tackle one of the biggest questions facing photographers in 2026: DSLR or mirrorless?

For years, DSLRs dominated the photography world, but mirrorless cameras have rapidly become the industry standard. We break down the key differences between these two camera systems, including how they work, image quality, battery life, viewfinders, lens options, and real-world performance.

We also take a deep dive into autofocus technology, explaining the difference between traditional DSLR phase-detection systems and the AI-powered subject tracking and eye-detection autofocus found in modern mirrorless cameras. If you've ever wondered why so many photographers have switched to mirrorless, this episode explains exactly what's changed.

Finally, we answer the question every buyer wants to know: which camera offers the best value for money in 2026? Whether you're a beginner buying your first camera, an enthusiast looking to upgrade, or a photographer considering a move from DSLR to mirrorless, you'll come away with a clear understanding of which system makes the most sense for your budget and shooting style.

Topics covered:
• DSLR vs mirrorless fundamentals
• Optical vs electronic viewfinders
• Autofocus technology explained
• Eye-tracking and AI subject detection
• Battery life comparisons
• Lens ecosystems and future support
• Best camera choices for beginners
• Used DSLR bargains vs new mirrorless systems
• Which camera delivers the best value in 2026

If you're shopping for a camera this year, this episode will help you make a smarter buying decision.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello again. And this week I'm going to look at that question that's been around for a while now. Should you buy a mirrorless camera or should you stick to DSLR? So, what's the difference between the two? And I think this is particularly important to go through in the middle of 2026, which is uh when I'm recording this, because the answer isn't always that obvious. So, what I'm going to do is just dive into first of all, what are the key characteristics of each one? What's the difference? And then the what kind of photography are you doing? And based on what you're doing in your budget, what would be the best thing for you to look at investing in looking at the uh the future? So the key things let's get straight into what a DSLR is. So, DSLR, digital single lens reflex, it's that body format that if you grew up with film, you'd be familiar with with single lens reflex. And essentially, DSLRs were um essentially replacing the film with a sensor, digital sensor, but the body itself looked pretty similar. And the big difference between a DSLR and a mirrorless camera is the mirror. And if you're not familiar with how a DSLR works, you have um a mirror in front of where the sensor is, and what that does, it reflects the light coming through the lens and it diverts it up vertically, up into what we call a pentaprism, and that's what you see in your viewfinder, that's uh where that comes from. Then when you press the shutter button, that mirror flips up very quickly, and then the sensor is exposed, and that's pretty much it. That's how it works. So, what happens with the mirrorless camera? Well, as the name suggests, what they do is eliminate the mirror. So, what you're then seeing, so in the case of a DSLR, what you're seeing through the viewfinder is a live analog, you know, it's a mirrored view of what's going through coming through the lens, so it's a real-world view. What's happening in a mirrorless is that the light goes directly onto the sensor, so then everything that you see, whether it's through um, and I'm I'll refer to it as a viewfinder, but it technically isn't, um, but what you see at the viewfinder at the top of the um camera or on the screen at the back is basically a digital display, so it's not real, it's not the the live view as such. So there's a tiny lag between what's going on in front of you and what you're seeing um through the viewfinder to keep it simple. Um, in most cases, it doesn't make any difference uh into that that lag, but that's essentially what's going on. Now, um when mirrorless first came along, they were pretty awful compared to DSLRs, but they have moved on a lot. And the so one of the key differences, so the first one is image quality. Is there any difference? And what might surprise a lot of people is that basically there isn't because image quality, and it's important to understand how image quality is arrived at, is determined by the sensor size, the technology that the sensor is using, the quality of the lens, and obviously how good you are as a photographer. So if you are comparing a really good DSLR camera with a really good mirrorless camera, and the specs are pretty much the same, what you're going to come back, come out with as a result is pretty much the same. And it would be really difficult to tell the difference between those photographs if you could if you could even tell the difference at all. So the difference between them is not image quality. So that's the first thing to understand. The big difference, and one of the it's probably two, maybe three decisive differences. And the first one is autofocus. So how do the two systems work? Because DSLR and mirrorless use different systems in autofocus, and one is a lot better than the other. So looking at DSLR first, generally in DSLR cameras, they have a dedicated autofocus module and it sits beneath the mirror. So when you look through the optical viewfinder, basically light is split, and obviously, as I've just described, some light bounces off the mirror, goes up into the pentaprism, and that's what you're looking at. Excuse me, but the rest of the light goes to the autofocus sensor, and this is a technology that's called phase detection autofocus. And I'm not going to go deeply into this, but basically it was it's extremely fast, it was revolutionary when it was introduced, and definitely the the top-end DSLRs that use this system were really are really, really good at tracking athletes, birds, wildlife, that sort of thing. But it does have some limitations. And the primary one is that the autofocus points are usually clustered towards the center of the frame, and this means that they can struggle when their subject is moving unpredictably towards the camera. And because the autofocus system is different, is separate basically from the image sensor, so it's a separate module underneath where the mirror is. Um, you do get calibration errors, and there are some things you might heard spoken about front focus, back focus, lens calibration. I'm not going to them, but essentially they are DSLR problems largely. So that's how the autofocus system works on a DSLR camera, it's a separate module and it tends to work around the center of the frame. With mirrorless, it's actually a very different system. And because there's no mirror, and because you're basically looking at the sensor continuously, the autofocus is directly on the imaging sensor. So that means that the camera focuses using the same sensor that it records the final image on, so there's no miscalibration between the two, there's no misalignment, it's the same thing. So just one thing is both recording the image and sorting out the autofocus, that's where your autofocus is located. And so, what modern systems do is they combine on-sensor phase detection, is what it's called, they have contrast detection and they have AI-powered subject recognition, which you may well be familiar with. And that's essentially the AI part of it, is where you um lock on a particular aspect, and then it so the system recognizes an eye, for example, and it will then track that eye. So the kind of thing that the camera can identify is it'll be human eyes, animal eyes, birds, cars, motorcycles, trains, aircraft, that kind of thing. And what a lot of the modern mirrorless cameras can now do is maintain focus on an eye, even when the subject turns briefly away and then reappears. And this is a huge advantage for things like sports, photography, wildlife, I guess to a lesser extent, weddings, family photos, that sort of thing. And it's also an advantage with video, which is another thing I'll talk about. So basically, if you were to just imagine um a child running towards you with an autofocus system, you select an autofocus point and you keep that point on the subject. Now, this is where back button focus is useful because provided the child in this case, actually it won't work in this case because the child's running towards you, but if it's running left to right but not changing distance, back button focus allows you to select one autofocus point, focus on that point, and then maintain that focus until you manually change it again. However, with a child running towards you, you select an autofocus point and you keep that point on the child, but the and and what the camera's doing is continuously adjusting its focus. Now, if you practice this, I'm not putting it down because the results can be really good. However, with a modern mirrorless camera, what you do is you activate eye tracking. So now you're using the um AI part of the system, the camera detects the child's eye and it just follows it across the frame. So it doesn't have to stay on that autofocus point, it can just go anywhere in the frame. And so you maintain focus even if the child moves unpredictably, even if they aren't centered, even if they look away briefly, the camera can handle that. And this does make focus much simpler for most types of photography. So that is a deaf. So that's one of the big differences. It's the autofocus system that the two types of camera use. Now, um, as I've already described, the viewfinder works differently, and some people much prefer a DSLR optical viewfinder because you're seeing things directly, you're seeing reality, there's no processing, there's no lag, there's no digital screen. And I think it's more photographers, particularly who've grown up on film, and we got used to seeing you know real life through the viewfinder, that feels more natural. With the mirrorless electronic viewfinder, you're basically seeing what the sensor sees, which should be more or less the same. Um, but the benefit of that is that you can see exactly what's in the photograph. You you can also preview exposure, your white balance, depth of field, picture styles if you if you're using those. So if your image is too dark, for example, you'll know before pressing the shutter. Now, if you're a beginner, this can be very useful, it reduces the number of mistakes that you're making. So that's the viewfinder. So it's different. I I don't see that honestly myself as a major difference at this point. I might do, um, because I'm just running both systems at the moment. Now, one of the other big differences, so I said there were three major ones, I think, and one of them is battery life. Now, and again, it depends on the kind of photography you're doing. This may or may not be a big deal, but if you're doing wildlife like I am, it certainly is because I can't always guarantee that I can recharge my the batteries in my camera because I use um two batteries. So um DSLRs definitely have the advantage here because the optical viewfinder is optical, it doesn't require any power. Um, and DSLRs can shoot for very long periods on a single battery, so you might get between one and two thousand shots to maybe more. Mirrorless use a lot more power because they're driving screens. Um everything requires power. So the bottom line is that you may be reduced to as low as 400 to 800 shots depending on the setup you've got on a fully charged battery. Um so there will be numbers, uh, camera manufacturers quote numbers on what you should expect. Real world performance can be better than official ratings, but I think the bottom line, or the clear there is a clear difference here between DSLR and mirrorless cameras. So battery life, if that is important to you, if you do a lot of travel photography or wildlife or anything like that, we might be away from power maybe for a few days. So I climbed uh Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, for example, and um that took a few days to do that whole trip. So I had no way um of recharging uh the camera. I did actually try with solar power on one occasion, but that didn't work terribly well. Hopefully those systems are better, but you have to start thinking about that because if you've only got a single battery, and I had two with my DSLR, and I think I only used one, uh, but you do need to just bear that in mind. Now, another one that's often spoken about, and I'm I'm not including this as one of the three major ones, but that's size and weight, and and there is a reason for that. So, mirrorless cameras are generally smaller because once you remove the mirror, and if particularly if you move the pentaprism, you've got a physically smaller camera, and also depending on the sensor you're using. So, if you're using a crop sense, for example, you can get away with um smaller lenses as well to get with the same ultimate focal length. But if you're using pro-type lenses and full frame cameras, then the lenses are still going to be pretty large. The bodies themselves might be smaller, but if you've done what I've done with the um mirrorless that I've bought, which is an R6, uh Canon R6, basically I've still got I've I've got the the unit that bolts onto the bottom, so I've got two batteries in there, and that is pretty much the same size as the OS 5DS that I use and the OS 7D Mark II, both of those also have the battery thing on the bottom. So for me, there's pretty much no difference in the size of the cameras. So if you are using general, if you're a using camera for general photography and maybe travel, and you want if you're in a mid-range sort of camera, mirrorless camera, then yes, you'll probably find it is smaller and lighter, and that's a lot more convenient, but that difference does not go right across the board. So that's why I haven't included included that as one of the three key differences. So the two differences so far are just just to recap, but autofocus and battery usage. But the third one, and this is a very big difference between the two systems, and one becomes an obvious winner, and that's video. And um, so this isn't even close, and basically mirrorless will wipe the floor with DSLR. So modern mirrorless cameras, you've got 4K, you've got 8k recording, you've got advanced autofocus. As I've already explained, the autofocus system is um much better. Uh to use that um phrase, it's certainly much better at subject tracking. Um stabilization is much better. Um, DSRs can shoot video, but they were designed primarily for still photography. Um, mirrorless photograph cameras are designed to do both. So if video and particularly high-quality video is important to you, then you're probably going to want to look at mirrorless. Uh that's that sort of comes down to it. So there are certain differences that make one choice a no-brainer. And and depending if you're using just if you're just using the camera for general photography, though, it's not quite so obvious. Okay, so um other things. Well, lenses are obviously very important. Um, DSLR still holds an advantage here because there have been absolutely thousands of lenses produced for and probably hundreds of different lenses. If you start looking at um different manufacturers' own brands, and then independent brand lenses, there's certainly a lot of them for DSLR. Uh, plus, you've got the advantage that there are a lot of used lenses on the market because there have been so many, I mean, hundreds of thousands of lenses sold. So there's a huge used market for lenses, and you can find real you can get really good prices on very, very high quality lenses. So um, if you are trying to save money, and why wouldn't you? Because photography is certainly one of those things that uh pastimes or if it's a hobby can certainly consume a lot of money. Um, you've got a lot more choice and flexibility if you look at DSLR. If you look at mirrorless, however, um the advantage there is that the main major manufacturers for sure are now focusing development on mirrorless systems. So I'm not sure now of certainly the major or the common brands like Canon Nick on those guys are even doing any body development now on DSLR. And certainly I'm not sure I'm not aware of any lens development either. So if there if there is any lens development going on, it's very small. The primary focus is now almost fully mirrorless or fully mirrorless for some manufacturers. So most new lenses are being designed for mirrorless mounts, and often, I'm not going to say always, but often autofocus performance is going to be better. Um, optical quality is often higher because you've got the advantage of a lens system or lens manufacturers coming in and standing on the shoulders of giants, let's say, of the giants who developed lens technology over the previous decades. So you're going in with any decent quality uh lens and lens manufacturer, uh, you're coming in with really good quality lenses straight off the bat, and that's where the development is. So, and things like AF systems are really good and all of that. So the future is definitely mirrorless, and I honestly don't see that changing. There's been a bit of retro on film, which is a different issue, but um, in terms of I know I don't see any particular move likely to go back towards um DSLR is my honest thought. I'm happy to be proved wrong. Um, so again, depending on how long, I mean it depends obviously on your budget, that's a really key factor. So if you do decide to buy DSLR initially, you you're certainly going to have access to a lot of lenses. Um, if you're planning to buy a camera that you're gonna keep for a long time, maybe maybe um mirrorless. I'm not sure that that's such a big difference, though, to be honest with you. Okay, so um I just want to talk about value for money here. So um what you buy is is gonna come down, I think, to two primary things. One is your budget, um, and then the second thing is this the type of photography that you are uh doing. So if you are if you photography is more of a hobby, you're you're shooting family, friends, maybe a bit of travel when you go on vacation, that kind of thing, uh, probably any mid-range camera, it would be fine for you, and there is not likely to be much difference for you between mirrorless and DSLR unless you're shooting a lot of video, um, in which case you do need to make sure that you are able to get your batteries recharged uh regularly, because as I've said already, if you go mirrorless for the video capability, you need to be aware that mirrorless will eat battery power much, much faster than a DSLR will. If you are, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, you want a lot of flexibility in terms of lenses out there and and maybe other accessories, uh, and you're only doing photography, then I'd probably suggest that you look at DSLR because you and the reason being that you can get really high quality DSLR bodies. Um, so on the Canon side, it would be say EOS 5Ds, um, those sort of cameras, um, EOS 1Ds, um, but you can get them at really low prices, especially compared to the price of a new uh mirrorless camera. So I I did actually get look for a budget DSLR a couple of years ago now for somebody um just to help them out, and it was a real struggle to find one. But if it was me buying for myself in that situation, I would probably have looked at um at a secondhand DSLR, get one. Um, I I like to buy from um uh a camera store if I can, because you often get a three-month warranty or something, so it gives you a little bit of safety if something is wrong with the camera. Uh but before you part with any money, do just check it out. Um, take a maybe take a card with your SD card or something, and just try everything out and ideally pop the SD card out, pop the image up, or the images that you shoot up on a uh laptop screen, so you can just make sure there are no blemishes that are consistent on every photo, which would point to something on the sensor, um, or possibly an issue with a lens, that sort of thing. But you want to just check it all out, make sure the functions work. Um so if you go to a like a camera shop and they give you a warranty, a limited warranty, you've at least got time to check everything out. Um, but yeah, so if you are limited on money and you're doing general photography, that would be my suggestion because you can get really good quality stuff secondhand. There are a lot of lenses out there, which is generally the next thing you start looking at. How many lenses do you want? Um, and that would be um a good place to be. If you are definitely going to be shooting a lot of video and you want to shoot the best quality, and you know, really why wouldn't you? Um, then you probably want to be looking at uh a mirrorless camera. So it's gonna cost you more. Um, you you need to look at what cameras are available for your budget. Um, I'd be where a little bit wary about buying used mirrorless simply because if you go back more than a year or two, and um I may well get something in the comments to tell me that's not true, but I just say it anyway, and you want to comment. But if you go back a few years, mirrorless systems really weren't that good um in many ways. A lot of the technology was still developing. So I would say if you want to buy a new one, fine. Um they're they're really good. Maybe anything that's a year or two old. But some of the earlier models, even from good quality manufacturers, did have issues in some aspects of the how they worked, which got fixed in sort of later marks of those models. But just be aware of that. You might need to do a little bit of research. Maybe Google some reviews on those cameras and just check them out before you commit money to them. So yeah, I'm not going to do a sort of blow-by-blow in terms of budget, but I do think just to summarize all of this. Definitely if you um you prefer optical viewfinders, you don't like the digital. If you already own DSLR lenses, then that would be um uh you know a good reason to buy a later body because the um the change in functionality tended to be with the body more. Um and if you're happy with if you don't need cutting-edge autofocus, if you're happy with the um DSLR um style of autofocus that I mentioned, which work fine. Uh you know, I'm not gonna put that down. Yes, the mirrorless one is more convenient, but I've used DSLR autofocus systems for years, and they're fine. You know, I don't have any issues with them. And I would definitely um look at perhaps a used professional DSLR um as um as something worth investing in. Should you how why should you buy a mirrorless? Well, if it's your first camera system, then yeah, I'd probably suggest you look at mirrorless um because the chances are you're gonna invest in lenses. So, and I've found that I tend to keep my lenses longer than I keep my camera bodies. So, what you don't want to do is start investing in a system and then having to replace all of it. Uh, that's I mean, some people do, but it's a bit more of a nuisance, and you're you're more likely to lose money that way. Um, if you're shooting sports or wildlife, you definitely want to think about mirrorless for the autofocus. If you photograph children or pets, definitely if you shoot a lot of video content, definitely. Um, if you want the easiest way to get sharp photos, then um mirrorless is likely to be the better choice for you. And if you're planning to keep a system for many years, which I I recommend, um find a system you like and then stick with it, because then as you buy lenses and other things like remote releases and um you know all these other things that you end up accumulating when you've got a camera system, uh, you don't want, as I said before, you don't want to be switching system once you've started going down that path. Now, um the final thing I will say if you are just starting with photography and you don't have either, um, how do you choose? Well, again, you need to look at the style of photography you're shooting, and right now I'm gonna suggest that you look at what you're doing with your smartphone because pretty much everyone that I know has a smartphone these days, and they have really good cameras on them. So I'm and I'm so I'm gonna assume that you're using your smartphone to do photography. So, what are the kind first of all, what are the kind of things you're shooting now? Are you shooting primarily stills? Are you doing a lot of video? Um, what kind of thing are you shooting? Are you just shooting friends and family mucking about? Are you getting a bit more serious? Are you trying to do sport? Are you doing travel? I mean, they're good for travel, they're good for urban because they're very discreet. So you you're not obviously photographing what's going on because some people can be a bit sensitive about that. Um, but have a look at that, and then where you go from that is okay, what's what's good on the smartphone on the smartphone camera? Um, you know, what's really works for you, but where are the limit, what are the limitations? So um it depends on the camera you're using, but using things like depth of field, that kind of stuff. Um some smartphone cameras, in fact, I think a lot of smartphone cameras don't do that. You can trick a smartphone into giving you um a narrower depth of field. Some will do it digitally, but that's that's a different setup. I much prefer optical depth field. So that would be definitely one area where either the camera system would work for you. But have a look, think about what you're doing now, what works for you, where are the sh what are the shortcomings? And if it is that you want to shoot a lot of video, I've already given you some uh you know points there that would tend to push you one way or the other, but use that as a starting point. And if you still are not quite sure what you need to invest in, then just get something, um, give yourself a small budget, get a either system, uh, don't with the with the intention of just buying a body with uh maybe a short zoom lens and um just experiment from there. So don't invest a lot of money up front, is essentially what I'm saying here. Um, get a camera, use it, and then get very, very clear on what the what it does well, what it doesn't do well, and then that's the time to start looking at a more serious investment in gear once you are much clearer on your style of photography and what features you need on whatever camera system you invest in to deliver the kind of results you want. Okay, so that um I so I thought it was worth doing this again. Um, I don't think I've done this for a while, and um the story does change each time. Uh, I think um yeah, I mean, mirror so the bottom line is mirrorless technology has I think come of age now. Uh previously I would have said it was still in development, so I would have advised people to hold off. I think we're now arrived. As I've said, I've now invested um a reasonable amount in a new system that I'm gonna run parallel for a while with my existing DSLR kit, and um, I'll be off to Africa soon to do a bit more photography, so um likely to have both systems. Um yeah, so I hope that's helpful. Uh I hope I haven't waffled on too much, but uh yeah, just to I just to I guess recap on the key things. One is autofocus autofocus system, which I've spoken about a bit now. Um AF is absolutely adequate on DSLR, but um mirrorless is a bit easier for moving subjects, especially if they're coming to and fro. Um, so I guess the DSLR system is a little bit more limited, but it's definitely very, very good. Um, the power consumption may or may not be a factor for you, but if you're going to be regularly away from being able to recharge your batteries, then you really need to think about it. And and I would say probably the big one is actually video. Uh, if you plan to do a lot of video, or you're maybe going from still photography into a lot more video because the cameras will do it, um, then I would have a serious think about that. So that is it. I'm going to stop now. Thanks for your time. Uh, please remember to like and subscribe and uh maybe support the podcast because um that's all helpful too. And I'll speak to you next time. Bye for now.