Please help NIKON Mirrorless camera or DSLR ?

[Littlepumkin]

As a mum I want to capture my DC moments and I do want to do some professional pictures, looking forward to maybe become a professional photographer in the future ?

where do I start? What’s your experience?
thank you

Why does it have to be Nikon?

Mirrorless cameras are much lighter and more flexible than DSLRs. I'm not sure you'd want to be lugging a DSLR plus lenses around with small children.

I've got a cannon DSLR, my phone is almost, very nearly almost as good and portable. The DSLR is not.

Which one do you have ?

Personally I prefer DSLR over mirrorless, as it is substantial and feels like a ‘proper’ camera.

@Littlepumkin I would recommend that you get your hands on a couple of cameras and see what feels right to you

I’m a Nikon user, but that’s because it was a Nikon that was the right one at the right time when I moved on to DSLRs

To a degree an advantage of Nikons is that their standard lens physical fitting remained consistent for many years (eg I can use other Nikon lenses in manual mode even if their auto focus mode won’t work)

Once you’re in a DSLR ‘family’ you can build a lens collection, whilst keeping your existing lenses even when you change body for an upgrade at a later date. I’ve had a few Nikon DSLRs and worked my way up to a full frame, which would have meant I needed to discard all my older medium lenses, but my camera could use both old and new lenses so I was able to upgrade each lens as and when convenient.

A mirrorless has the advantages of a small compact if you want a light and small camera, combined with the quality levels of a DSLR.

If you go for mirrorless then ensure that you get one that has both the rear screen and a viewfinder - some don’t which means you have to use it like a phone camera held up in front of you, as opposed to steadied with another point of contact.
When you operate a mirrorless and are looking through the view finder you are actually looking at a screen which means battery life as opposed to a DSLR which does use power to operate but what you’re looking at is literally just a reflection on a mirror

You don't need an expensive camera to get good pictures and mirrorless are v good, which is what I would go for.

Unless you're intending to learn how-to use a dlsr properly - no disrespect but most people never take them off AUTO & it's a waste of money. You can get equally good pictures with a compact these days (if not better).

From what you've said, I would focus on practical concerns - things like weight, size, portability etc - over worrying over choosing a dlsr.

I had the same dilemma OP. In the end I bought a full frame Canon DSLR.

I was lucky enough to be able to borrow the mirrorless Canon equivalent and really didn’t get on with the electronic viewfinder. However, mirrorless undoubtedly does have many advantages and when the electronic viewfinders improve I will switch.

I have an Olympus micro-four-thirds mirrorless (OM-D E-M5), but I don't aspire to professional results. I still have film SLRs, which get an occasional outing, but I generally favour weight and size (i.e. lighter and smaller) over top-level performance. In fact, I more often use my Fujifilm X10 compact unless there's a real need for more control.

The reason I was querying Nikon was mainly that it was typed in capitals and I suspected you might be a bot posting adverts pretending to be messages.

@Littlepumkin you can rent cameras and you might find it helpful to rent a couple (or few) to see what suits you best