In some posts I refer to our (new) camera. This hobby of ours goes hand in hand quite well when being outdoorsy. Of course the camera on smartphone’s these days are awesome. But there are some major differences.
First of all the quality of a mirrorless fullframe camera is unparalleled. Especially in low-light conditions. Sure, you can photoshop a lot. But the photo’s we shoot are being processed in Lightroom at most. I mean, if you don’t like the color, composition or whatever, then just change the scenery. Your phone can really up the ISO, but you will see that in the picture. We noticed that when we have the ISO on auto, it can go up to 10000 or even more without there being noise.
Second, you worry more about the composition. So unless you want to shoot something from a less normal position (and use the adjustable monitor), you will watch wat you shoot through the finder. This way you are not distracted by your surroundings.
Third, and this could be the biggest… It’s you, the camera and whatever you want to shoot! No active filters, no distractions form one of the thousands of apps. People nearby are more likely to leave you alone or give you a wide berth. Of course there are exceptions… some people won’t notice that they are in the way. Most of the times that’s because they are more focussed on their… phone ;).
Fun fact: Our previous camera (Nikon (of course) D7100, which also was a really great camera had the disadvantage that photo’s had to be copied via one of the SD cards. Somehow this always turned out to be some of an obstacle. The 7ii has Bluetooth and Wifi on board. So when done shooting and the camera being put in the backpack you can see the photo’s directly on your phone.
The reason to upgrade to the 7ii was merely because we wanted more lenses. But throughout the years we hit the maximum of the DX system and were thinking about going FX. And, investing in more lenses for a system of which we knew we wanted to let go was a no-brainer.
So I went to the store (Kamera Express Amsterdam) and explained my decision and wish to go for the D850. While expecting an reaction like ‘good choice’ or something like that I was set of my game a bit because the reaction was ‘why the D850?’.
Short story… For anyone who isn’t familiar with SLR camera’s, the D850 is The Beast of Nikon. But, the ‘why’ came paired with the explanation that SLR is outdated nowadays. In the newer camera’s there isn’t a mirror present anymore. I had to take this in for some time.
There was another big difference that I had to take in consideration. Because the 7ii was so new the second hand market is a lot less saturated. Therefore lenses have to be bought new.
The price of the body of the 7ii was not extremely higher compared to the D850. But a new FX lens starts at 1k easily. In the end it was the combination of the (really good) advice to start with the allround 28-75 f2 zoomlens and the discount action from Nikon that gave the final push. I really wanted an portait lens as we had one with the D7100 and I have become quite fond of that lens.
So our current setup is the Nikon 7ii in combination with the Nikkor 28-75 f2.8. And the Nikkor 40mm f2.
When we were in scotland we soon learned that there was too much light for shooting with long exposure times during the day. So we will have to buy a density filter. However, I haven’t made up my mind yet about replacing the current zoomlens for the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S. That lens has a bigger filtersize. Decisions, desicions…. (and a awful lot of money :().