Camera Geeks Needed - Recommendation?

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by jyl

Lots of knowledgeable folks here, thank you.

Okay, most of my shooting is of two types:
- Available light, often poorly lit situations, range 5 to 40 feet, subject is people. Think dance performances, amateur theatre, music clubs, soirees. Usually, in the film world, I'm using a fast film, pushed, fast lens, f1.2 to f2.0, slowish shutter speed. I know the exposure, typically use an external light meter, so it can set it and forget it. Usually the subjects are slow moving, they kind of have to be at 1/30 to 1/125. Yesterday, for instance, I set both bodies at 1/60 f1.4 or 1/125 f1.2 and never changed exposure, just tried to anticipate focus and push the shutter release just before the moment, only had 36 chances per body. Usually use primes 35 mm, 50-55 mm, 85 mm. That's with film. With digital I could use faster shutter speeds, fast AF, fire a burst of shots, zoom around, might be nice!
- Still life, landscape, architectural detail stuff. This is usually small aperture, longer exposure, slower film, trying for detail. Most any camera will do. Usually using primes, 24 mm to 180 mm, maybe on tripod.
- All my shooting, on film, is black and white because I like the darkroom manipulation. With digital, I'd likely shoot some color.
- I only enlarge to 8 x 10. Purely a hobby.
- I don't know nothing about Photoshop. I've used Adobe Photoshop Elements. I guess I will have to learn.

I'm not needing a "small" camera. Right now I'm carrying Nikon F/motor drive or F3/motor, before that I hauled around a Hasselblad, so almost anything is going to feel nice and light! For casual snaps I use my iPhone. Or an old film rangefinder.

The mirrorless cameras are intriguing. I need to look hard at those. Which Sony model should I look at?. How about Olympus OM-D?. I loved my OM-1 back in the day. Leica is probably too spendy and I'd cover up the red dot anyway!

I'm quite sure I don't need video. I want to get into to videotaping my son's theatre and dance productions, and the low end camcorder I have is terrible in low light, but will buy a decent camcorder for that. I'd prefer that to a DSLR wired to an external microphone. For casual video I, yup, use my iPhone.

Okay dokey - feel free to ignore my post above...

[pcardude]

Yes that's true. You get 29 min on most of them and you have to start recording again.

The GH4 will do non stop video.

Anyone know about the Sony's ?

[campbellcj]

I just got the D750 only 10 days ago or so. Immediately I realized it's the best camera I've ever used, by a stretch, and I have or used to have some very nice ones including a D3 I still use for racing stuff.

[jhc]

Well if you want quiet don't go with the first generation Sony A7 series, they are loud as are most dslrs (mirror slap). You might want to check out the Fuji X series, they have electronic shutter option (silent) and if you are still using film cameras their controls are similar, you can start using with no learning curve. They can take Nikon lenses with adapter and have focus peaking for manual focus, but they do have a 1.5x crop factor (you can get a pricey adapter that will allow you to shoot with no crop factor. They have both rangefinder and slr type bodies to fit your shooting style. One thing nice about the Fujis are that they consistently offer free firmware upgrades that improve functionality of the cameras and lenses: https://luminous-landscape.com/rantatorial/fuji-keeps-giving-me-a-new-camera/
See Fred Miranda for used equipment: Buy & Sell Photo-Gear - FM Forums

[jyl]

I played with a Fujifilm XT1 last night at the darkroom, while waiting for my negs to dry. It belonged to the person running the darkroom. She also had a Nikon FM and the two cameras were almost the same size and weight, with a very similar control layout. I really liked the Fujifilm! Two issues: she said that above ISO 800 the images are noisy (not something I'm reading in reviews), and there isn't an obvious focusing aid in the viewfinder (hard to believe I didn't simply miss it)

I also learned that there are third party split-image focusing screens for the Nikon Df, which would address one issue I have with that camera.

[jhc]

The df doesn't do video if that's a concern. I had one for a while, it was way overpriced and in the end I traded it for the Xt1. It has a manual focus assist button and you can use it for focus peaking, digital split image and magnification, works great. Here is photo taken on the Ganges river at ISO 6400 with the Xt1, I have enlarged it to 17 x 22 with great results:

[jyl]

Thanks for the info and the cool image! I see that the XT1 can use Nikkor lenses with a simple adapter, hmm.

[island911]

Originally Posted by jyl

...The mirrorless cameras are intriguing. I need to look hard at those. Which Sony model should I look at?. ...

NEX series.

You may miss having an optical view-finder. The EVF's are a lot better than they used to be, but still lagging, compared to straight optics.

[nostatic]

The a6000 is popular as a backup/2nd cam with some guys who also shoot larger format. Very quick AF and will shoot silent. The original A7 and A7r don't have silent shutters (and the A7r is downright loud - A7 has an electronic front curtain that is quieter). A7s will shoot silent as will the upcoming A7r2. A7-2 isn't that loud but isn't silent. There is a rumored a7000 that should be out soon with a slightly higher spec than the a6000 - probably higher res EVF and 300+ AF points.

The Fujis are a love/hate thing. They have a very traditional ergonomic setup with actual dials. I found the files difficult to push around but ymmv.

[Jay Auskin]

I switched from Canon late last year, as technology was changing fast, and it allowed me to change the way I wanted to shoot.

If you want low-light capable, I can't speak any higher about the Sony A7S I bought. It doesn't shoot in low light, rather impossible light. It is truly remarkable in that regard. Fast AF might not be important, but being able to hit AF in ultra-low light is quite nice.

[wdfifteen]

Just a data point here. I don't have a solution for you, but I saw the "reasonably quiet" comments and thought I would ring in. I was shooting hummingbirds on my patio last weekend ('cause they're so tasty ) and the shutter noise on my Nikon D-610 was making them nervous, so I switched to silent shutter. The results were disastrous.
The only difference in the camera between these two shots is that the first one was taken with the mirror down and the second with it locked up. I have no idea why this occurs.

[Scott Douglas]

I think it might be because the auto focus uses reflections off the mirror in order to work but could be wrong. [Nice hummer pic btw.]

When I wanted to use my legacy glass I got a used NEX-7 and a bunch of adapters. It's been a lot of fun using old glass and getting pictures with character because of it.
I shoot a D7000 w/18-200 VR 1 when the picture absolutely has to come out. So far it hasn't let me down. I have the 'wants' for a D750, Sony A7ii, or a D7200, not necessarily in that order. The need for a full frame isn't that great these days. The only desire is to shoot the legacy at their native focal lengths.
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, with interest, to see which way you decide to go.

[jyl]

I really appreciate the ideas and thoughts here!

It is hard for a film fogie to figure this stuff out.

[Super_Dave_D]

My Nikon 20mm f1.8 lens on the D610. It's my new favorite lens, it stays on the camera. It wasn't toooo expensive and its light so it doesn't kill me to carry it around.

[jyl]

Just to define my needs and wants a little more, these are some typical shots that I struggle with, using my current old school film camera. These were taken last weekend at my son's dance class performance, quickly printed tonight, and scanned at 600 dpi on my home multi-function printer. i think the scanning has reduced some of the shadow detail.

First shot. Film, HP5+, pushed 2 stops to 1600 ISO, 1/60 sec, f1.4, 85 mm lens. Scene is dark, figures are moving. I struggle with manual focusing, fast enough shutter speed (1/60 doesn't work great for dancers in motion), and noise (someone got shirty about my shutter/drive). My next digital camera needs to autofocus on the face of the dancer in the background, instead of on the foreground dancer; if I have to tell it what to do, it has to be something I can do very fast, this shot existed for a fraction of a second. It doesn't need high resolution, but needs to handle shadows well. Its lens needs to have big aperture for shallow DOF, the only way this shot works is because the foreground danger is out of focus.



Here is another picture from the performance. That's my son by the way. Same ISO and shutter speed as the first shot, but using a 55 mm lens at, I think, f1.8. Also a dark scene. Here I my focus wasn't so great, and the shot doesn't need shallow DOF. I did want a slow shutter speed (not that I had any choice given the lighting) because I was hoping for faces sharp and arms blurred by motion, didn't really get that because timing was off. So my future digital camera needs to be able to focus very accurately on the face, to have the ISO flexibility to allow a smaller aperture (like f5.6) and a slower shutter speed (like 1/30). I could print this shot to get more shadow detail if i wanted to, the digital camera should allow that too.



A third shot from the performance. 1600 ISO, 1/60, f1.4, 55 mm. I figure most any digital camera should handle this easily. The dancers were briefly stationary.

[nostatic]

Go to a local camera store and check out a Sony A7s.

[jyl]

Here is another one, this was taken about 10 years ago, a friend during a midnight walk on Halloween. Can't recall exact details but was likely HP5+ pushed to ISO 1600, 1/30 sec (edit maybe 1/15 sec), 55mm, f1.2. Was very dark, we were on the sidewalk and the only light was a porch light on a nearby house. My friend's DSLR (a Nikon something) wouldn't function at all, not enough light, the AF just hunted constantly. I was using a Nikon F.



I'm not showing these pictures to imply that all I ever shoot is low light stuff. But that is the situation where I have the hardest time with my film cameras and where I need my future $3000 digital camera to really work and work really well. Taking pictures of stuff in the daylight, landscapes, etc - I don't feel that those situations are going to stress any good digital camera.

[rusnak]

I would shoot in color with a low flash and then edit with Photoshop.

[jyl]

Flash absolutely verboten in a dance performance. Available light only.

[rusnak]

I wonder if you could use an infrared pinlight and a tripod