I’ve been quite happy with the Nikon mirrorless system myself. I have a Z6II and a Z8 (but this is not a hobby for me.) I thought the adaptor would maybe slow down the AF or compromise the quality of my lenses, but I have not noticed any hobbling of my equipment. The only thing that doesn’t work is the AF on an older screw focus 85mm f/1.4 lens I have. That will only work in manual focus mode. But with the bright LCD viewfinder, it’s actually much easier to manually focus than on my dSLRs. (Plus you can zoom in for critical focus!)
Enjoy the mirrorless!! They are so much fun and so quiet (or silent, don’t know if the Z5 is fully silent or not.)
My Fuji can’t auto-focus lenses that are on the cheap adapter that I have (no electrical signals going through it), but it will highlight focus for me. I imagine the Nikons do the same? That is, change the color of the area of the subject that’s in focus?
I found that pretty useful using my old Nikon 105 f/2.5 portrait lens.
Yeah, the focus selector turns green as far as I remember. I typically just go by visual confirmation of focus and I’m guessing I just subliminally note the color change in the selector. (Back in the days I manually focused everything, I just went by sight. I did not have a split screen or anything like that, and I tend to shoot moving things, so no time to really look at LCD focusing arrows or anything like that.)
My old Nikon film camera had a split screen, which I thought was great. The Fuji has a manual focus mode that emulates a split screen, but it doesn’t really pull it off.
I never liked those for some reason. I don’t know why. Always just preferred a clear screen. I have an old Nikon FM2 with a split screen somewhere in the closet. That was my emergency camera, as it did not require batteries to operate, as opposed to the F5 and F90x (N90s) I shot during the end of my film shooting days.
Yeah, the FM2! I was so tempted to get that new Nikon that looks just like it, but I don’t take that many pictures anymore and I’m really happy with the Fuji (and, APS-C is good enough for my uses). The XT-30 that I have also looks somewhat like the FM2, actually.
Those retro looking cameras are quite nice. I’ve had an eye on that Fuji X100 since the original back in 2011.
My dad had an old Pentax and a case of G.A.S. back in the 1980s. Mostly to satisfy my own curiosity I researched whether his old lenses would work on a new camera, and from what I read Pentax was pretty good about backwards comparability and supposedly they would mount on a new Pentax camera body (Well, new at the time, this was at least 10 years ago now, not sure if that’s still true), but as you say they would be 100% manual.
That’s me as well. I’ve got a Canon Eos Rebel T7 (i.e. an entry level crop frame camera), a telephoto lens and a standard 18-35mm zoom lens. I would really like to acquire a wide angle lens and a tripod (And my birthday is coming up in a few weeks…) I’m dreaming of getting a wide nightime shot of Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory on my trip there this summer.
I’m dreaming of getting a wide nightime shot of Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory on my trip there this summer.
Hint: stitched pano is another (maybe better) way of doing this.
I may experiment with both. I mean, it’s digital photography; if it doesn’t come out well I can just delete it.
I’d still like the wide angle lens for other situations anyway, like architectural photography, i.e. those situations where I want to photograph a building but can’t get it all in the frame without standing super far away.
My wide-angle lenses are my favorites.
I bought myself a Rokinon 14mm f/2.4 lens for my night sky photography last year, and it has quickly become by favorite lens. Sharp from corner to corner even wide open.
e.g.:
Well, todays photographers don’t have the cost of film and developing.
I used Kodachrome for many years. It got expensive.
It was always disheartening to get the prints and find shots that didn’t turn out as framed in the camera.
If you ever get to the mythical place where you can not find any more gear to spend photography money on but you want to level up, allow me to introduce you to astrophotography.
Every couple of new cameras Nikon decides to redo the button placement on the back of the cameras. I run two primary bodies & I never need to think about which camera I’m using, because even though they are different models, they are the same era/generation which means all of the buttons, knobs, & switches are in the exact same place & work the same way.
I thought about replacing one with a mirrorless but of course, they remodeled the back for them & the cost to switch multiple bodies & lens at once is prohibitively expensive. A complete mirrorless conversion is the second thing on my bucket list if when I win the lottery
I have Manfrotto tripod mounts, of course gimbals all use Arca mounts; even more money if I want one of those.
I’m not sure what you mean. I seamlessly switched from a 2xD750 system to a completely mirrorless system for the cost of the new bodies and two lens mount convertors.
Agree with the OP. When my son started to seriously get into photography some years ago, he started with a fairly entry-level Canon Rebel, but soon upgraded to a professional Canon EOS 5D Mk III (IIRC).
As if the outrageous cost of this camera body alone wasn’t enough, the USM line of Canon pro lenses easily run into thousands for just one basic lens. The simple EF 50mm f/1.2L USM is nearly $2000 in Canada, but it’s an amazing lens. Just for reference, the EF 600mm F4L IS III USM telephoto lens beloved by sports photographers goes for CAD $17,000 (no, he doesn’t have one, but has sometimes rented them when doing sports shoots).
Yeah, photography can be an expensive hobby! There’s lots and lots of stuff that an iPhone simply cannot do.
Wow, that is spendy for a 50mm. I’d rather spend a little more for an 85 f/1.2 or just get a 1.4. But that’s all personal preference. Some folks are crazy about their primes. I’ve never cared for 50s myself.
This made me smile. When I got the mirrorless, I was very happy when I realized that my Nikon 50 is a full frame lens, then very disappointed when I learned that it will not autofocus with the Z.
And then, almost instantly, I recognized the fact that I almost never used the 50 and really have no use for it.
mmm
I went mirrorless mid-last-year. I have some really good Canon glass for my level, so I have an adaptor ring. It works. But, my God, the video lags so much in the viewfinder compared to a mirror, that I think it was as mistake.
Except, compared to my real DLSR, the auto mode actually works. It just knows when I want depth of field instead of speed. I’m normally an aperture priority shooter, but Auto is picking what I want. It’s freaking amazing.
I haven’t tried it in tricky lighting situations, though.
It’s just such a boring focal length for me. Which is to say, god bless the folks who could make that work. If I had three primes to choose from, they’d probably be 24mm, 35 mm, 85mm. Or maybe 35mm, 85mm, 200mm. Nothing wrong with 50mm, but I’d take a 35mm or 85mm over it, depending on how I expect to use it.