D7200 !!!!!!!!

[JR1]

I like the built-in wifi bit...

Buy any WiFi sd cards and use them

[selig1656]

xptaUSA, I too wonder why 4/3 has not grown more , I own a Olympus E-620 and really enjoy it, that said I did buy a refurbished Nikon D7100 at a good deal with a 18-140mm lenses.This I hope will give me a better Dynamic range and better resolution on landscapes, I was not happy with Olympus 's new mirror less series and the reviews were not great , plus the cost factor of the body and Zuiko lenses are good but a tendency to be exspensive and not a good refurbished market.I do like the 4/3 especially when doing enlargements it seems to work well for me.I did consider Sony , but again due to a budget I thought that I got a fairly decent package for under $900.Time will tell and lessons will be learned.

[xpatUSA]

xptaUSA, I too wonder why 4/3 has not grown more , I own a Olympus E-620 and really enjoy it, that said I did buy a refurbished Nikon D7100 at a good deal with a 18-140mm lenses.This I hope will give me a better Dynamic range and better resolution on landscapes, I was not happy with Olympus 's new mirror less series and the reviews were not great , plus the cost factor of the body and Zuiko lenses are good but a tendency to be exspensive and not a good refurbished market.I do like the 4/3 especially when doing enlargements it seems to work well for me.I did consider Sony , but again due to a budget I thought that I got a fairly decent package for under $900.Time will tell and lessons will be learned.

Indeed. My main point was more about keeping the collection of good m43 lenses. For example, my Panasonic-Leica 45mm macro Elmarit is a fine lens and I could change to Olympus and still keep and use that lens.

Whereas, I had bought a Sigma 70mm macro for a Nikon D50 but when I changed to Sigma cameras, I had to sell that lens at a loss and buy a SA-mount one at a premium.

I'm a firm believer in Sod's Law when comes to flipping gear. When selling, nobody wants your stuff. When buying, everybody and his dog is after the same thing.

Grump . .

[Manfred M]

xptaUSA, I too wonder why 4/3 has not grown more , I own a Olympus E-620 and really enjoy it, that said I did buy a refurbished Nikon D7100 at a good deal with a 18-140mm lenses.This I hope will give me a better Dynamic range and better resolution on landscapes, I was not happy with Olympus 's new mirror less series and the reviews were not great , plus the cost factor of the body and Zuiko lenses are good but a tendency to be exspensive and not a good refurbished market.I do like the 4/3 especially when doing enlargements it seems to work well for me.I did consider Sony , but again due to a budget I thought that I got a fairly decent package for under $900.Time will tell and lessons will be learned.

As someone who owns a recent model mFT, a not so recent APS-C sensor camera and a fairly recent full-frame sensor camera, let me have a go at it.

The only real advantage over a DSLR that I have found were that the camera is smaller, lighter and quieter than a DSLR.

The disadvantages are not as simple to document, but in my case outweigh the advantages for much of the shooting I do.

1. The bodies are too small to hold all the controls, so I find it difficult to chance some of the settings without taking my eye of the viewfinder. The buttons are small as well, so I find it all to easy to press the wrong one;

2. Because the body is small, many of the functions that would ideally have buttons have to be incorporated as menu functions instead;

3. Compared to a DSLR with a pentaprism, the viewfinder is dim and a pain to use on a bright sunny day;

4. High ISO and autofocus performance are marginally acceptable. Both of these were rated as being quite good when I read the reviews on my GX7. Not a camera for action shots.

[NorthernFocus]

The other thing Nikon hasn't changed that doesn't get a lot of press is their clinging to the mechanical aperture actuation. We go on and on about mirrors and shutters but on Nikon lenses the aperture is still mechanically controlled. Recently without any fanfare Nikon has gradually started drifting towards electronic aperture controls with their "E" lenses. The first appearance was with the 800mm f5.6E, then more recently the updated 400mm f2.8E, and most recently the brand new 300mm f4E. Though so far it is still hit and miss as the also recent 80-400 AF-S was still a "G" lens as is the brand new 55-200VR II.

Go figure...

[Manfred M]

I think the other thing that we forget is that digital cameras are now what I would think of as a "mature product".

We are all spoiled, to some extent, but the rapid improvement in digital camera functionality with each successive generational release. In the "old days" new camera models (plain old SLRs) would have an update cycle that was two or even three times longer than the roughly three years we see out of a high end digital cameras. Even then, the "improvements" were incremental and even minor versus what we have seen with digital cameras over the past dozen years.

Perhaps it is time to scale back our expectations and be happy that our cameras really have a much longer useful life as the feature set, quality levels, etc. have matured. I for one am happy to have money to invest in things other than a brand new camera body.

[Mike Buckley]

Perhaps it is time to scale back our expectations and be happy that our cameras really have a much longer useful life as the feature set, quality levels, etc. have matured. I for one am happy to have money to invest in things other than a brand new camera body.

Yep! Especially considering that the brand new digital camera body wasn't ever an investment unless you depended on photography to generate income; it was an asset that didn't hold its value.

[NorthernFocus]

Yes, pre-digital there was very little to differentiate camera bodies. All of the consideration was over lenses and what film to use. Then for a few years with digital, there were HUGE improvements from one gen to the next in camera bodies. Now it seems we're settling back in to that situation where there's just not much to entice one into replacing a camera body unless it is to upscale from entry level to mid to top end. Frankly if it weren't for living in Alaska and shooting in low light most of the time, I'd still be shooting a D300.

Like I said, mirrorless bodies and phase Fresnel lenses to lighten things up so I can keep shooting into my golden years. Or get wicked good performance out of the smaller formats and produce some nice glass for them. Aside from that, I'm not sure what they can do for me.

[NorthernFocus]

punched the wrong button

[JR1]

As someone who owns a recent model mFT, a not so recent APS-C sensor camera and a fairly recent full-frame sensor camera, let me have a go at it.

The only real advantage over a DSLR that I have found were that the camera is smaller, lighter and quieter than a DSLR.

The disadvantages are not as simple to document, but in my case outweigh the advantages for much of the shooting I do.

1. The bodies are too small to hold all the controls, so I find it difficult to chance some of the settings without taking my eye of the viewfinder. The buttons are small as well, so I find it all to easy to press the wrong one;

2. Because the body is small, many of the functions that would ideally have buttons have to be incorporated as menu functions instead;

3. Compared to a DSLR with a pentaprism, the viewfinder is dim and a pain to use on a bright sunny day;

4. High ISO and autofocus performance are marginally acceptable. Both of these were rated as being quite good when I read the reviews on my GX7. Not a camera for action shots.

Choice of lenses etc limited, and as you have said controls and shape make it useless for pro work (to me)

[Black Pearl]

Ha ha ha, spoken like a true CANON owner......................

I have owned Canon in the past along with just about every other brand but don't currently own one and don't currently like their offering. Nothing wrong with them I personally just don't like anything they make.

[Black Pearl]

Robin, that's rather ironic that the one body you like is the retro version. Nothing new or innovative about it. Back to old fashioned dials that you have to take the camera down from your eye to look at for adjustment.

Yep - I'm weird like that.

Depending on what I want to use a camera for I like different things.

For speed, performance, build, shear guts and buffer capacity then I do love the Pro Nikon bodies....I have one in fact. They lack certain features that they could have if Nikon would pull their heads out of the sand and grow some balls but they do a job and do it very well.

For a day-to-day camera to use for the pleasure of taking pictures then I do like the simplicity of mechanical dials with numbers on them......like the Df, like a Fuji X100, like some of my film cameras. Call me old fashioned and by all means call me odd but I do like the click of an aperture ring around the base of a lens (never liked Olympus putting them on the front but did own a few) and the click of a shutter dial and these days an ISO dial. Its a pleasurable experience and as I often take pictures just for pleasure I like the ephemeral.

I still maintain that some of the newcomers have the right ideas and that we also have a way to go yet. Touch screens are brilliant if the software behind them works well. If you have a smart phone you will know how fast it is to navigate a touch screen of icons, flick though images, double tap to enlarge then move the image around with a finger and a thumb....why can't we have that on a camera?
My Pentax DSLR has a quick menu that is laid out in a grid that I need to navigate with the thumb pad - if it had a touch screen I could access settings far quicker. I still like a good dial that I can feel and move without looking away from the viewfinder but surely we can have both?

The Nikon D7200 will be a lovely camera but like most of their current range they offer very little in the way of properly new features.

[Black Pearl]

Sharpness is a bourgeois concept



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

?

In the last few weeks I have shot with a 50 years old Steiner camera without a range finder or any real focus indication and a shutter you need to cock separate to the wind-on, a pinhole camera that my son and I made together, 3 of the DSLR's I own, a couple of compacts including a film one, my iPhone and my iPad. I do love a really sharp picture but that doesn't drive me nor is it the reason I pick up a camera. I pick up a camera to take pictures because I love to do so. I love to carry a camera every day I walk the dog along the beach, every day I go to work, every day I take the kids out and every time I go out with friends. I take pictures of everything and anything just for the simple pleasure of doing so.

My signature is there because I honestly feel that a picture can be great without it being sharp. If it captures your heart, captures a moment and lets you relive it, express it to others and makes you smile the technicalities don't matter.

Don't get me wrong - after 24 years telling the stuff I am and always be a techy person but I no longer feel I need to have it, brag about it or even desire that latest and greatest to be able to take good pictures. If someone gave me a Nikon D810 with a bag of 2.8 lenses I would thoroughly enjoys taking pictures with it but I am under no illusions that they would be fundamentally better than I can take now and I would still take a dozens pictures every day with my iPhone.

[JR1]

I have owned Canon in the past along with just about every other brand but don't currently own one and don't currently like their offering. Nothing wrong with them I personally just don't like anything they make.

Dont like Nikon, Don't like Caon, I have the right camera for you, my first camera, I still have it and if I could get film, I know you still can not from the UK, I would take it out again

[Black Pearl]

I find film is easy to get a hold of and easy to get processed. I have about a dozen rolls of Fuji colour neg in the house at the moment.

One is in my Nikon 35Ti...



...another is in my Hunter 35 - yes I have a camera with my name on it





I have another earmarked to go into the pin hole camera once the bairn and I get a proper laser cut hole for it as the one we made is a bit big and ragged edged.

[tao2]

Dont like Nikon, Don't like Caon, I have the right camera for you, my first camera, I still have it and if I could get film, I know you still can not from the UK, I would take it out again

Hi Jeremy,

these links may interest ye...

http://www.lomography.com/search?que...atic+cartridge

http://www.instructables.com/id/Instamatic-Retro/

Black Pearl

I find film is easy to get a hold of and easy to get processed. I have about a dozen rolls of Fuji colour neg in the house at the moment.

Hi Robin,

If ye want cheap film go tae Poundland, it sells Agfa VISTAplus 200 in 24s(and sometimes36s). It's Fuji C200 (made by Fuji). £1 per roll + spend over £10 in the shop and get a £2 voucher! Just bought 30 rolls a few weeks ago, works out at 0.83p per roll! Negs developed in ASDA 1 hour and results are not bad...

[JR1]

[QUOTE=tao2;491564]Hi Jeremy,

these links may interest ye...

http://www.lomography.com/search?que...atic+cartridge

http://www.instructables.com/id/Instamatic-Retro/




Thanks for the links printed the first one off

[JR1]

I got mine in 1966, at nine, and it was the first and last thing my parents ever bought me, from that day on to this I have only ever had two loves photography and astronomy.

I can list the cameras I have owned

Instamatic 25
Praktica Super TL (re bought last year with 2.8 tessar)
Nikkormat FTn Re bought body last year)
Nikon F Photomic FTn (Apollo) (re bought last year with 50mm f2)
Canon EOS300
Nikon 10D (Had this longer than any other)
Nikon 60D (HATED, slow 5fps,)

and now what you see on my page, not a lot for 40+ years

[ajohnw]

As someone who owns a recent model mFT, a not so recent APS-C sensor camera and a fairly recent full-frame sensor camera, let me have a go at it.

The only real advantage over a DSLR that I have found were that the camera is smaller, lighter and quieter than a DSLR.

The disadvantages are not as simple to document, but in my case outweigh the advantages for much of the shooting I do.

1. The bodies are too small to hold all the controls, so I find it difficult to chance some of the settings without taking my eye of the viewfinder. The buttons are small as well, so I find it all to easy to press the wrong one;

2. Because the body is small, many of the functions that would ideally have buttons have to be incorporated as menu functions instead;

3. Compared to a DSLR with a pentaprism, the viewfinder is dim and a pain to use on a bright sunny day;

4. High ISO and autofocus performance are marginally acceptable. Both of these were rated as being quite good when I read the reviews on my GX7. Not a camera for action shots.

I did suggest you looked at an Olympus Manfred. I thought you had bought one of the more compact models anyway. I find weight is more important than what are often rather unimportant reductions in size. The 1st thing I do when buying a camera is find the manual and see where the controls I know I will want to use are despite that I still bought a Nikon V2. Another camera that I suspect has had something simple to do omitted on purpose. Some Oly Pen's are the same. Size wise though the V2 is ok apart from a tiny multiway that could have been replaced with something more like a joy stick.

AF? I'm an gaining the impression that just like phase aperture helps but I don't think it's as bad as some make out. That could be down to the cameras I have though.

John
-

[simie]

It is the same old story a product comes out and there is lots of rumors and excitement, but after a few months of the product being available, the critics step in and rip the product apart searching for faults and limitations when they write reviews for a website and someone feels its would make good article. The author does not particularly use that brand and is unfamiliar with its design and features.

You can argue that a photographer should know what all the functions on a camera do, but depending on the make and the model it will have been design for a particular market. I think a lot of writers tend to forget this.

Everything has its limitations and we should look at the product and say to ourselves can this product do what I want it to do, do not purchase it without doing the research.

Think about your requirements and look for equipment that meets it.