Thinking about a getting a digital camera...

Paul Howell said:

I know that the new Sony A1is 50mp and can shoot 30 FPS, don't know why anyone needs 50MP, and who wants to edit all those shots.

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Local birders like this. Saves them having to frame a shot, they just fire off a burst then go find the sharpest or the one with the wings in the right place, then crop it down to half its original size and STILL have a 4000 pixel wide shot to play with.

Of course, the guy that showed me how he does that only posts pictures on instagram, and I can't see them because I don't have an account, so who knows. Maybe he's full of crap and a terrible photographer. But he's not the only guy I've seen walking around the lagoon with a 50mp Sony and a long lens.

Otherwise 50mp is great if you want to print a tack sharp...umm... billboard, I guess.

If it doesn't break the budget, I do think the 3rd generation of Sony's A7-series is where things really got interesting: New NP-FZ100 batteries improved battery life from meh to terrific, and it was also about the time Sony incorporated Olympus technology into their cameras. and the IBIS was much improved as a result.

I don't particularly advocate loading up on Yet Another Credit Card, but if you already have a Sony credit card, you may be able to use it to gain points with Sony's USA Rewards Program. For a time in 2020, they had a killer deal where I think you could get something like 12 points per dollar spent on qualifying Sony camera purchases on top of regular discounts. And for an A7R3-sized purchase, that was easily worth a couple of hundred bucks of merchandise.

The Pentax K3III is getting solid reviews, only trouble is a limited selection of lens, Sigma and Tamron do offer current lens in Pentax mount which leaves out long zooms and primes. Pentax has a fine line of basic lens nothing in the range I use for wildlife.

Wallendo said:

I also am thinking about getting a new digital camera. My current dSLR (actual an dSLT but that is a minor thing) has a crop sensor and was bought in December 2011. It still works and has 24 megapixel images. It can use all my Minolta A-mount glass and works well with m42 adapters. On the other hand, the lenses behave quite differently with an APS sensor. I shoot mostly film, but with the new CT scan equipment at airports becoming more common, foreign travel with film may more difficult. I personally am looking at a Sony A7 Rii since adapters are readily available to use almost all of my existing lenses.

The only thing that has stopped me from picking this up so far is the fear that I would be compelled to pick up a number of full frame e-mount lenses to go with the camera.

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I was at Yodobashi and have to admit that I liked the Sony A7iii better than I thought I would. The Fuji cameras are also very enticing - but I'm not keen on spending a ton of money on a new camera and lenses either. Zooms are usually more efficient (especially for digital where you don't want to change lenses in certain environments) but they are heavy. I've been shooting primes for so long I forgot about that.

mooseontheloose said:

I was at Yodobashi and have to admit that I liked the Sony A7iii better than I thought I would. The Fuji cameras are also very enticing - but I'm not keen on spending a ton of money on a new camera and lenses either. Zooms are usually more efficient (especially for digital where you don't want to change lenses in certain environments) but they are heavy. I've been shooting primes for so long I forgot about that.

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Trust me on this- as someone who shot a LOT (and still does) with mechanical film cameras, having the major controls exposed on the body as dials/knobs/buttons rather than hidden in menus is a HUGE deal. And you can get lens adapters to put just about anything you want on the Fuji - if you have existing Canon or Nikon AF lenses, you can even get adapters that will let you use those lenses in full AF. Another big plus to the Fuji is the color - Fuji is renowned for their color science, and they have a number of film emulation modes (Provia, Astia, NPS/NPH, black&white, black&white plus red filter, etc) that are terrific. As to the budget issue, just buy used. Pick up an X-T2 or X-T3, and then add a couple used primes and you're good to go.

TheFlyingCamera said:

Trust me on this- as someone who shot a LOT (and still does) with mechanical film cameras, having the major controls exposed on the body as dials/knobs/buttons rather than hidden in menus is a HUGE deal. And you can get lens adapters to put just about anything you want on the Fuji - if you have existing Canon or Nikon AF lenses, you can even get adapters that will let you use those lenses in full AF. Another big plus to the Fuji is the color - Fuji is renowned for their color science, and they have a number of film emulation modes (Provia, Astia, NPS/NPH, black&white, black&white plus red filter, etc) that are terrific. As to the budget issue, just buy used. Pick up an X-T2 or X-T3, and then add a couple used primes and you're good to go.

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Scott, that's exactly why I'm interested in the Fujis - I hate menus more than anything, and being able to use dials is a real plus. I'm going to have to go into a deeper dive to make sure I'm getting all that I need and want (so many other things too - new computer, maybe a new scanner, learn how to use LR and PS properly since I've only ever just messed around with them, figuring out storage, etc.)

What I can say about the A77 is that unlike the E bodies most of the features that I change often are controlled by a button and command wheel, ISO, white balance, + or - exposure, what I wish was controlled by a dial is the metering mode. It's very seldom I need to stop what I'm doing to open the menu to change a feature.

Analog dials makes sense on cameras where nothing else could be in use. Mechanical cameras. Those dials are next to useless in low light or if you have to wear reading glasses and wearing camera on short neck strap.
Dials aren't absent in digital cameras, it just another way. Look in VF/EVF (or even screen), rotate corresponding dial. It will show you your parameter change and else corresponding change. And EVF will show you how chosen exposure will affect the image. Here is no need to have dials with tiny numbers. Smaller, better placed dials are instead. But it requires some discipline. Check your settings and keep them in mind.
I have learned it with DLSRs ten+ years ago.

If camera renders without quirks, then SOOC image is sufficient. Many good photogs with taste I have seen are using JPEG1. Because if you are able to get correct exposure, nothing else is needed. LR is just to bring it on the disk, tag, resize and so on. PS is really optional. Most of the time it is not really needed.

Ko.Fe. said:

Analog dials makes sense on cameras where nothing else could be in use. Mechanical cameras. Those dials are next to useless in low light or if you have to wear reading glasses and wearing camera on short neck strap.
Dials aren't absent in digital cameras, it just another way. Look in VF/EVF (or even screen), rotate corresponding dial. It will show you your parameter change and else corresponding change. And EVF will show you how chosen exposure will affect the image. Here is no need to have dials with tiny numbers. Smaller, better placed dials are instead. But it requires some discipline. Check your settings and keep them in mind.
I have learned it with DLSRs ten+ years ago.

If camera renders without quirks, then SOOC image is sufficient. Many good photogs with taste I have seen are using JPEG1. Because if you are able to get correct exposure, nothing else is needed. LR is just to bring it on the disk, tag, resize and so on. PS is really optional. Most of the time it is not really needed.

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Some people like dials. I like dials. I like being able to glance down at my camera and see the settings for shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation. It makes handling my digital camera like handling my film camera. I bought a Fuji. You may not care one way or the other, in which case you may want to look at other cameras to see how you like the way they handle.

I shoot RAW because I treat digital capture as just the starting point for an image. I modify virtually every image I take, some a little, some a lot. Others like SOOC (straight out of camera) and use JPEG. It depends on what you want to do.

Versatility is pretty cool with these cameras.

Couple days ago I went into an old growth rain forest intending to use a neutral density filter for 1 to 2 minute exposure times at 200 ISO. While the camera was on the tripod I took the ND filter off, bumped up the ISO a bit to get a faster 1 second shutter speed at the aperture I wanted, and took some photos between breaths of wind for sharp foliage. Then, because image stabilization is so good, I took the camera off the tripod, ramped up ISO to 2000, set the shutter speed for 1/15th second, and had fun with more spontaneous, hand held, dynamic compositions at a small enough aperture I was happy with.

While out there, a Pacific Wren showed up, so I swapped lenses, put the ISO on auto, shutter speed at 1/500 the aperture at f8, and I was in bird photo mode in maybe 30 seconds.

Of my digital bodies, my old Sigma SD14 and 15 are connivant, mirror up, drive mode, bracketing is controlled by one dial on the top, metering by a button and the command wheel. My ever older SD9 and 10 are built on the Sigma SA9 body, even the shutter speed is controlled by a wheel on the top. As Sigma has gone mirrorless I have no idea how the new bodies are set up.

Rereading my post above, the thing which I find so interesting about these cameras is ISO flexibility.

Decades ago, I gravitated to 4x5 sheet film because I could expose & develop each negative for its own particular needs instead of developing them all together on roll film. These days I can do pretty much the same thing, where each image can have wildly different ISO's to get the shutter speed/aperture combinations I want. Yes, 'noise' becomes a factor at higher ISO's, but there are AI (artificial intelligence) noise reducing and sharpening plugins which are calling my name...

I do miss LF camera movements, but there are ways around that which I haven't explored yet.

Regarding traditional-style controls: I think people underestimate their ability to adapt to new ways of doing things. But it may take more than a couple of weeks before these things become the new comfort zone. That sort of thing happens with every major new release of Microsoft Windows. If I could make the jump from Leica M to Sony, then anyone can.

Having familiar controls makes it easier to move from camera to camera. My Fujis have shutter speed dials and aperture rings like most analog 35mm cameras, the pro Nikons have controls in the same places. Just a bit less confusing when you pick up a camera, you don't have to search for essential functions.

Pieter12 said:

Having familiar controls makes it easier to move from camera to camera. My Fujis have shutter speed dials and aperture rings like most analog 35mm cameras, the pro Nikons have controls in the same places. Just a bit less confusing when you pick up a camera, you don't have to search for essential functions.

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Which also means you can make all the changes you need/want without taking your eye from the viewfinder.

Pieter12 said:

Having familiar controls makes it easier to move from camera to camera. My Fujis have shutter speed dials and aperture rings like most analog 35mm cameras, the pro Nikons have controls in the same places. Just a bit less confusing when you pick up a camera, you don't have to search for essential functions.

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Where one exists, front control wheel usually defaults to aperture, and the rear wheel is for shutter speeds, and the rotation direction can likely be changed as a menu option. With traditional controls, there never was a standard as to which direction of rotation was + and which was -. And sometimes manufacturers changed their minds, as happened with the Leica M6TTL and newer cameras, which reversed the direction of the M camera shutter control.

MurrayMinchin said:

Which also means you can make all the changes you need/want without taking your eye from the viewfinder.

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Don't your cameras display ISO, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation and more in the finder?

Only if I want it there. It makes the image size smaller, so I usually have all that stuff turned off. If I lose track, then I have to pull my eye away and check, just like in the olden days.

4season said:

Where one exists, front control wheel usually defaults to aperture, and the rear wheel is for shutter speeds, and the rotation direction can likely be changed as a menu option. With traditional controls, there never was a standard as to which direction of rotation was + and which was -. And sometimes manufacturers changed their minds, as happened with the Leica M6TTL and newer cameras, which reversed the direction of the M camera shutter control.

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There's the rub. Aperture rings sometimes are at the front of the lens, sometimes the rear. Some controls turn clockwise to do what others do counterclockwise. Sone lenses mount clockwise, some counterclockwise, the lens release could be on either side. But in most cases, these remain constant from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Pieter12 said:

There's the rub. Aperture rings sometimes are at the front of the lens, sometimes the rear. Some controls turn clockwise to do what others do counterclockwise. Sone lenses mount clockwise, some counterclockwise, the lens release could be on either side. But in most cases, these remain constant from manufacturer to manufacturer.

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And yet amid all the chaos people were able to make photographs. Sort of blows your mind doesn’t it?

faberryman said:

And yet amid all the chaos people were able to make photographs. Sort of blows you mind doesn’t it?

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It has happened to me to try to focus and instead turn the aperture ring, wondering why the damn thing isn't focusing. Just slows you down especially if you carry different cameras.

mooseontheloose said:

Scott, that's exactly why I'm interested in the Fujis - I hate menus more than anything, and being able to use dials is a real plus. I'm going to have to go into a deeper dive to make sure I'm getting all that I need and want (so many other things too - new computer, maybe a new scanner, learn how to use LR and PS properly since I've only ever just messed around with them, figuring out storage, etc.)

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To be fair, with my Canon, for instance, the most common changes I make (aperture, exposure compensation) are easily accessed via the front and rear dials. Since the change is displayed in the optical viewfinder, I don't need to take my eye off the subject to change the settings. Similarly, AF zone can be tweaked with the joystick. Further, using back-button focus and the shutter to lock aperture, I've got pretty good control over what I'm doing without having to take my hands off the "usual grip"-- and most of these controls are customizable.

The closest I get to a menu during normal shooting is the "Q" button and navigating the quick display on the back of the camera.

But I'm not convinced I like the direction Canon is headed with the RF lenses, so adapters and a Fuji body may be my path away from EOS / EF.

A few years ago I had a horrible time travelling overseas with parents to their home country in 35 degree Celsius weather or 95 Fahrenheit. I had with me a Nikon Fm2n for BW film and a Nikon F100 for color slides and also a Nikon D600 full frame digital. I even had a 70-200m f4 lens and a tripod while it was a Gitzo traveler. I also had a Nikon SB-800 flash thinking I could pull off some great family portraiture. After a few days everything got left in the hotel and I went out with 1 body, 1 lens only in my big empty bag - Crumpler 7 Million Dollar bag. Only if I was going to a vantage point then I might had taken my tripod and 2 lenses. Maybe my F100 and maybe the FM2 but now seeing it. It was a waste because I just had the same shots with different media forms.

So about 2019. I got back home and soon after I picked up some second hand deals. A Ricoh GR the first APS-C sensor version for like $280US equiv here and then later a Fuji X-T1. Party because I was sick of spending so much money on photographic equipment. That was the turning point for me. I normally don't carry a flash gun with me but I over estimated myself, I also never really carry a tele zoom so I took even more stuff that time than usual. At the end of the day for me I just take photos of buildings and tourist attractions and viewing points and walkabout stuff.

Just my 2c. Each person would decide what they want and prefer. Maybe it is full frame or sub full frame etc. I just went with a Fuji because it is smaller than Nikon Z since I have Nikon stuff. The Fuji lenses are smaller. Also Nikon Z are v new so not much second hand deals out there. I only have 2 AF-S lenses anyway so the other AF or AF-D lenses wont' autofocus with the FTZ adapter. So to me moving away from dSLRs it was kinda a fresh start anyway so I could choose any brand. For those who like using the adapter and manual focus, you can adapt lenses so no worries. You can pop a older Nikon lens onto a Sony or whatever camera.

I know the OP mentioned she has a old Nikon film camera. A Nikon dSLR with the feature to autofocus those lenses will work like a Nikon D750, D780, D800, D850, D600 and D610 for full frame. You can also get second hand deals. Nikon is also fading out dSLRs like Canon might not be a problem for the user but if you want to be tied to more current tech that might not be what you are after. You also mentioned 7kg. Depends on the lenses but a dSLR is certainly do-able. When I travelled myself I had a Nikon D600, a 18-35 and one prime lens usually a 50mm 1.8 or a 85mm 1.8. Don't forget not all but many mirrorless cameras have image stabilisation in the body. While one can get that with various dSLR lenses or film SLR lenses not all lenses have them.

Edit
Depends what you shoot. If you do shoot wildlife maybe M4/3 would be nice since the lenses more compact and a lot longer. I know some camera friends who have this set-up with a 300mm prime with the TC as well I think. I was thinking about Olympus as well but I went for the Fuji because I use modest lenses mainly and the physical size was not that diff to M4/3 like some of the F2.0 prime lenses like the 23m, the 35mm and the 50mm. Times 1.5x to be full frame equiv.

You also mentioned about scanning film. Any digital camera will do that with a tripod onto a film holder and a lightbox. Some cameras like the Nikon D850 will have a film scanning option in the camera menu so you can scan copy slide film and also color negative film which it would do the auto conversion for you from the orange mask not sure if it does BW film though automatically. Not sure if the Nikon Z mirrorless have that feature. But you can also use a software plugin into Lightroom called Negative Pro Lab.

Thanks @rayonline_nz - that's a lot of useful information. I too have travelled with too much gear in the past, either ending up with multiple of the same shots on different cameras, or leaving behind said cameras in the hotel room while I just went out with one. In more recent trips (pre-Covid) I just travelled with 2 cameras (one is always a backup) and I'd like to do the same going forward, but with a small digital setup (max 2-3 lenses) and in all likelihood, my Rolleiflex. There's still the issue of carrying enough film (and the room/weight it takes up), but at least I won't be carrying multiple rolls in multiple formats for multiple cameras like I have in the past. As you also mentioned, for me going to digital feels like a fresh start, so I don't feel the need to stay tied to the Nikon system, although having been to Yodobashi recently and spending time in the digital camera section, I found that I quite liked them as well, although that just could be familiarity from the film cameras.

Yes the Nikon Z when I tried them are quite familiar and also how it feels on the hand. The Z cameras are quite natural to migrate from a Nikon dSLR or a autofocus film SLR. The Z electronic viewfinder is also quite good without that sense of motion sickness. When I held it at a NZ wedding expo show here and they had the diff many brand sales reps letting you try the gear.

I went with a Fuji X-T1 cos cheaper and sick of paying retail new prices. It is more different than a Nikon Z but it is more compact.

Correcting myself before. M4/3 is 2x the lens to make it equiv to 35mm format. I know some photography friends one who has a 300mm prime 2x is 600mm he also has a TC so he can do wildlife and plane photography. 1.5x is APS-C which is my Fuji and others like the Sony A6000 series. I think full frame is superior but APS-C even a dated one like the one I have does the job for me .....