A few years ago I made a commitment to mirrorless format cameras and have progressively consolidated onto Nikon Z cameras. I had a strong feeling from the outset that mirrorless would become the predominant format and with its recent launch of the Z9 Nikon is now making a play for the professional market and press photographers. It is a little early to be certain but I believe this could presage the end of digital SLR cameras.
Another attraction of the mirrorless format for me is the fact that it is generally smaller and a little lighter than digital SLRs and their lenses. This distinction was greater with my first mirrorless camera namely a Panasonic GX8 and is less so with the larger format sensors of the Nikon Z 6 and Z8 that I now use. Being smaller and lighter is an important consideration for multi day mountain treks. For this reason I restrict myself generally to two, or a maximum of three, lenses on these trips; a wide to short telephoto zoom (Z 24-70mm F4S) an ultra wide zoom (Z 14-30m f4S) and occasionally a telephoto lens (Z 105mm macro VR). These lenses can generally cope with the demands of the scale of alpine peaks.
Considerations of weight and portability also explain why I do not carry a tripod on the mountains. Although my lenses are not particularly fast the camera and lens stabilisation technology these days means that it is quite feasible to shoot sharp images at shutter speeds down to 15th of a second. However, when doing this I generally shoot multiple frames to increase the chance of getting a sharp result. In addition I find that the photo editing software today is remarkably good at recovering detail in shadows without generating too much noise in the image. I shoot in RAW format and use Capture One as my main editing tool. I use SilverEffexPro for my mono work.
