Comments on: Roger Buys a Camera System: Screening for Candidates

By: Patricia Dulaney

Patricia Dulaney — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:21:12 +0000

It is really good to think first before buying anything. If you need it always, then better yet buy it. If you don’t need it frequently you can just rent and use your money for other stuffs that you’ll be more needing.

By: Harry P. Lux

Harry P. Lux — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:33:20 +0000

great article and serious thoughts – Thank you Roger!
I do practical lens tests for more then 25 years now – for me, lenses are always first choice – and second I look for a camera – a camera that pleases my hand, my photography style and is fast and durable.
I loved the Olympus E-System (except for the AF and High ISO) , I liked even the Pen-Series, but the OM-D was a big disappointment – the zooms lenses (collecting dust inside) and the body are looking old and used after a few weeks of consistent shooting – not professional at all. The primes are other quality and stay dust free.
I always liked the Panasonic G2, GH2 and now the GH3 better and even the Nex 6 I would favorite.
But there is no one camera for all and everything what counts for me, are lenses, so I kept my Eos 5D3 and lenses like 2,8/300mm; 2,8/400 mm with extenders
IF one goes to 400 mm – there is only Canon – 2,8/300 mm & 1,4x – 4,0/400 mm; 5,6/400 mm or even 2,8/400 mm or 5,6/100-400 mm -
it’s no Nikon, no Sony, no Pentax, no Sigma out there at 400 mm at the same quality, speed, lightweight and durability.
I had the fantastic 2,8/300 mm and the 2,8/90-250 mm from Olympus – but AF is weak and finally ISO 1000 is not fast enough for animals and sports, nor for children.
I had Nikon D3x with 2,8/70-200 mm and 4,0/200-400 mm – not bad, but for me, not good enough and to much is missing, like 5,6/80-400 mm AFS VR; 4,0/300 mm AF-S VR; 4,0/400 mm AF-S VR; 2,0/135 mm AF-S VR and better, lighter 2,8/70-200 mm VR; 2,8/300 mm VR; 2,8/400 mm VR; 4,0/500 mm VR; 4,0/600 mm VR – so Nikon is no option for tele – not for me – and when I see crazy price of the heavy 5,6/800 mm – no thanks.
Pentax has a few really great lenses, like the 4,0/300 mm – but mostly primes and the AF is unpredictable.
So if I had to pick one camera, it would be Eos 5D3 (today!)
but if I could pick too – the second would be the Lumix GH3
and third my IPhone 5 or Lumix LX7

and I use them all for different situations and with different lenses
I take a GH3 with 7-14 mm & 12-35 mm for a holiday
and I take a Eos 5D3 with 2,8/400 mm for telephoto
maybe some day, there will be an EOS M with viewfinder, fast AF and fine, small lenses … someday when I wake up…

By: Matthew Saville

Matthew Saville — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:24:29 +0000

Roger, allow me to spoil you on one small issue that has “ruined” me as far as amateur / advanced amateur bodies is concerned.

On all semi-pro and pro Nikon bodies, and on a few of the newest Canon bodies, there is a button customization that I absolutely cannot live without. 1-click 100% zooming during image playback. Canon is still working out the bugs on this one, but the 5D mk3 and 6D have at least a “Quick zoom” button now. You customize the playback initial zoom to be “actual size”, and then on the 5D mk3 you program the “SET” button to do zooming. Now, instantly after clicking a photo, you can go BAM right to 100%. Even if you shot with an off-center subject, as long as you managed to get a focus point over that subject and lock focus, the camera goes right to that point. Same on the Nikons, with the center button customization. I like Nikon’s implementation a little bit more because Nikon allows you to scroll from image to image without first hitting the playback button, whereas Canon still seems convinced that you should have to hit “play” before being able to review more than one image. At least the newer Canons are worlds better than the previous generations such as the 5D mk2, where it would drive me mad to be able to see the image on the back of the camera right away, but not be able to zoom or scroll to other images without first clicking “playback, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll…”

It sounds like nothing, but once you get spoiled then it becomes oh-so-annoying when you’re in any situation that even remotely resembles action, and you need to confirm 100% focus.

All this to say that, unfortunately, the D5200 and D7000, as well as the D600, lack this feature. In my opinion this is a huge error on Nikon’s part. This is why, at my current situation and hobby, (adventure landscape / night time lapse photography) …my top pick camera is absolutely the Canon 6D. That is not to say that I wouldn’t take a D600 into the wilderness any day, especially if dynamic range was important. Heck a D5200 would deliver gorgeous image quality too, and it’d be so dang light I’d probably be skipping up the wilderness trails. I’d just have to make do without that zooming function.

For general and heavy-duty work, on the other hand, I cannot live without the zooming feature and I would absolutely not consider my system complete unless I owned a camera with such a feature.

Take care,
=Matt=

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:03:40 +0000

Roger,
You’ll regret getting a camera without autofocus fine-tune, which Nikon omitted from their D5200.

By: Andrew Herd

Andrew Herd — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:08:52 +0000

First, many thanks for writing such an outstanding blog – I learn every time I read it. Curiously, I have gone through much the same kind of evaluation, and shoot at work with Canon gear and at home with M43. The latter has its shortcomings, such as a lack of long telephoto primes, and no focus tracking capability worth mentioning, but it does have a huge advantage that you haven’t gone into here, unless I have missed it, Roger.

M43 kit is so incredibly light and compact that I am temperamentally inclined to cut it some slack for its drawbacks. When a 150mm F4 gets released (hey, why are they all competing in the sub 30mm segment?), my calculations say I will be able to put it in a coat pocket. Now you try doing that with a 600mm 35 mm lens and see what size of pocket you need! I gain the impression that no-one at Olympus expected the E-M5 to do as well as it did and that its success in dragging the company out of a financial hole has changed some things. It surely has changed my perceptions about what kind of lens system I personally want – given a camera is basically a bucket into which you pour light through a lens, I am beginning to think that maybe a small, really efficient bucket ticks a lot of boxes.

By: Max

Max — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:06:05 +0000

I like the idea of using a camera that crops like the NEX7 for telephoto shots and using a full frame for wide angles. I am also willing to stitch some panoramas but in reality the Zeiss 21mm 2.8 does well on my NEX7 and will be ‘expansive’ on a full frame. I bought the Sigma 19 and 30 after reading Roger’s enthusiasm for the 30 but a little testing makes it a no brainer to use the Zeiss when it really counts.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeissgeist/8454684962/in/photostream/lightbox/

The Zeiss c/y 21mm 2,8 @ 4.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeissgeist/8448403473/in/photostream/lightbox/

The Sigma 19mm 2,8 @ 4.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeissgeist/8449487600/in/photostream/lightbox/

(Yes I know the bottom right ROI is dodgy but in the Sigma’s favor – even still…. )

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:43:09 +0000

I commented similarly on the other post (just fyi)

Another consideration is to ditch the heavy zooms. For the D800e (as an example), mount a 24-120 f/4 and pick up a few primes. The trinity of 28, 50, 85 f1.8s are spectacular.

Add the Bigma you mentioned and you are done. Or if you are in need of a truly ultra-wide field of view, add one more zoom, either the 16-35 f/4 or the 14-24 f/2.8.

D800e – 3000
24-120 f/4 – 1300
28 1.8 – 700
50 1.8 – 220
85 1.8 – 500
Bigma – 1020

= $8900

Pretty reasonable for (arguably, barely) the best 35mm provides.

By: Heidfirst

Heidfirst — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:04:49 +0000

As already mentioned it’s not surprising about Pentax sensor performance as they use Sony sensors (as do a lot of the Nikons).
Where they may fall down for your needs is in availability of long (400mm & above) lenses & possibly in AF.

By: JonR

JonR — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:37:04 +0000

Your two “system” articles are excellent! I too have been going through this process having decided to adopt a lighter (weight) system (D300 & FX/DX lenses) due to my advancing age and emersion in nature photography requiring fast telephoto lenses. For about two years, I have been shooting with a lot of m43 (EM-5 & GH2 bodies & many lenses), Four Thirds Oly Pro telephoto zooms and my Nikon DX/FX gear (plus the Sony RX100 and the Nikon N1 V1 for special purposes).
My assessment is similar to yours re the OM-D EM-5: it’s a great camera that meets my needs for macro, landscape, architectural, street and even multi-flash photography using the Pani 7-14mm f/4, 12-35mm f/2.8 & 45mm f/2.8 macro lenses plus the OLY 14-150mm walk around lens. The less than stellar performance of the m43 system comes in the telephoto range especially with consistent AF-C of moving birds in low contrast light. The Pani 100-300mm is a decent lens for nature telephoto work but the not nearly the optic quality of the OLY 90-250mm f/2.8 or the more compact OLY 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 zooms even when the latter are combined with a 1.4x TC. These two lenses are surpurb but were designed to focus optimally with phase detect sensors. On the EM-5 they will focus under 3 seconds in AF-1 + M but not near instantly and continuously as they should.
Olympus is very aware that they have mostly orphaned their excellent Four Thirds lenses and have repeatedly announced their commitment to solve this issue with a new “pro” m43/43 camera body in 2013. It should have a mirrorless hybrid sensor – I hope – similar to the design used by the little Nikon N1. This little CX sensor has 77 (?) phase shift detect sensors buried in the same plane as the more abundant contrast focus sensors. (The N1 V1 with the TF1 adapter focuses my 200-400 F/4 instantly while producing an equivalent 10MP image @ F/4 and 549-1024mm!)
Clearly, there is proven technology for Olympus to build a new m43/43 camera with an excellent sensor with a hybrid focus systems. (Note that the new Nikon D5200 has both focusing systems but no micro adjustment capability to correct for front/back focus issues.) Therefor, it seem advisable to wait for the new Olympus body before abandoning ones excellent m43 or Four Thirds gear and investing in more expensive an heavier APS-C or FF systems.

By: sbiessel

sbiessel — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:12:37 +0000

Thanks for the informative posts. I had a similar quandary a while back. I had been shooting with a Canon 5DII and Pentax K5. I wanted the DR of the Pentax K5 in a full frame sensor, so ended up going with a D800. Happy with the decision, though I find the D800 to be less comfortable than either camera. The ergonomics on the K5 are fantastic, and I know I’ll be kicking myself when they finally release a full frame. Though their lens selection has left me pretty frustrated at times. There’s no perfect camera, unfortunately.