Help me choose a camera - Nikon D5300, Nikon D7100, Sony A77 II or something else

Forums › Digital Imaging › Help me choose a camera - Nikon D5300, Nikon D7100, Sony A77 II or something else

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Master Geek

#1237060 13-Feb-2015 09:48

I would second the pro-Olympus recommendations. Have used an OM-D EM5 for a couple of years and had nothing but good experiences. Perfect for rugged use with the right lens.

For a $2500 budget new it would be hard to go past one of the OM-D with 12-40 kits. Hard to believe, but currently it appears you can get the EM-5 and 12-40 (a $1300 lens) for $1400. Yes, the EM-5 has just been replaced, but still a pretty useful little body.

Tinshed

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Ultimate Geek

#1237124 13-Feb-2015 10:33

Understand you have made your decision but I always found looking at Flickr and exploring photos by camera type (e.g. https://www.flickr.com/cameras/nikon/) a useful data point in any camera decision-making process.

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#1237128 13-Feb-2015 10:35

someone that understands the limitations of a camera can produce stunning pictures on any camera. so i suggest that looking a flickr will leave one none the wiser.

Jaxson

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#1237129 13-Feb-2015 10:35

Geektastic:

A 36 mp FX is rather more portable than mf. Cheaper too. I had an email from CRK this very morning offering special deals on the Hasselblad H5-D50 for a mere $27,770 + GST.....

FX also makes more sense because it matches the true 35mm film.

Anyone seriously requiring the capabilities of MF should be considering the Pentax 645Z, at a substantially reduced price than the other MF contenders such as Hasselblad or Leica etc
Film has always been available in a range of sizes.

dman: (I did almost buy a A7s however, but certainly not because it is a full frame camera! Heck, I'd probably mostly use it in APS-C mode a lot of the time anyway. Hopefully the future A7000 will over the video features of the A7s I want but in an APS-C body)

I too am very interested in the A7000 camera, hoping very much that it both includes the sersor shift stabilisation of the new A7-ii, the newer video XAVC S codec, and some lower resolution approach to boost the high ISO low noise capabilities (like the A7-s).

Pentax have just released their K-S2 DSLR camera, which packs weather sealing, prism 100% coverage viewfinder, mic input, focus peaking, sensor shift stabilisation, wifi, flippy screen etc all in an affordable package, and with a lens mount that makes it compatible with years of legacy glass. Seriously for the price point I'd struggle to recommend a comparable Canon offering.

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#1240931 17-Feb-2015 15:42

Jaxson:
Anyone seriously requiring the capabilities of MF should be considering the Pentax 645Z, at a substantially reduced price than the other MF contenders such as Hasselblad or Leica etc
Film has always been available in a range of sizes.

Yup, if I was in that market for one (sadly I'm not...) I'd be leaping for a Pentax 645Z! It looks amazing.

Jaxson:
I too am very interested in the A7000 camera, hoping very much that it both includes the sersor shift stabilisation of the new A7-ii, the newer video XAVC S codec, and some lower resolution approach to boost the high ISO low noise capabilities (like the A7-s).

I highly doubt it will have a lower resolution like the A7s (doubt it will be higher resolution either like the A7r), as it needs to be a mainstream enough camera for them at the upper end of the APS-C range. Thus it is likely to be more like the APS-C version of the A7 than the A7s/A7r models. But one can hope an A7000s model will come out! :-D Even so, just getting IBIS and internal 4K (there is no doubt it will get XAVCs for sure) will make it an epic camera. And means I'll very very likely get it. If I love it enough once I get it and the price is right, I might even get four or more of them for when I need to do multicam shoots (such as this will probably be my setup for next wedding season? I'll wait and see. My workhouse Panasonic GH1 setup is still a surprisingly hard camera to beat, it is so good).

Jaxson:
Pentax have just released their K-S2 DSLR camera, which packs weather sealing, prism 100% coverage viewfinder, mic input, focus peaking, sensor shift stabilisation, wifi, flippy screen etc all in an affordable package, and with a lens mount that makes it compatible with years of legacy glass. Seriously for the price point I'd struggle to recommend a comparable Canon offering.

Yup, at basically *EVERY* price point it is impossible to find a Canon DSLR that is worthwhile recommending. As Nikon/Sony/Olympus/Pentax/Panasonic are all sooooo far ahead in one way or another.

Fred99:
There's nothing new here. Many people have been happy to pay considerably more for the "extra stop" in lenses, same with sensor size. Full-frame has over a stop advantage over APS-c, two stops over 4/3.

You're missing the point. In the past the performance of all digital cameras was so poor that people really really did need whatever little extra advantage they could squeeze out. Not so true now. As many cameras now are good enough to cover the needs of a new casual photographer in 95%+ of their use cases. Unless they are a multi millionaire, what is the point in spending more? It Is better they spend the money in areas where they'll really actually notice the difference in real life such as:

a) lenses / tripod / flashes

b) put it away for an upgrade in a couple of years time once they've grown into their current camera

c) a nice night out and dinner with their wife

Fred99:
There's nothing wrong with shooting a wedding using DX format, but most pros will use Fx - those I know use either Canon 5DII/III, or Nikon FX. I'm not going to write a thesis on why, but they have good reason and (with some exceptions) know what they're doing - their livelihood depends on it.

As I said, the most recent wedding I was second shooting for the professional photographer used Nikon DX. And he has been doing this full time for years and years, even has a D800 at home but prefers D7100 for weddings.

I myself do not regard myself as a professional photographer, but I am a professional videographer. And I use all APS-C or m4/3, as after all the standard in the film industry is Super 35mm which is basically exactly the same as APS-C.

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Fred99

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#1241875 18-Feb-2015 18:48

dman:

Fred99:
There's nothing wrong with shooting a wedding using DX format, but most pros will use Fx - those I know use either Canon 5DII/III, or Nikon FX. I'm not going to write a thesis on why, but they have good reason and (with some exceptions) know what they're doing - their livelihood depends on it.

As I said, the most recent wedding I was second shooting for the professional photographer used Nikon DX. And he has been doing this full time for years and years, even has a D800 at home but prefers D7100 for weddings.

That's very bizarre IMO. From the much better viewfinder, better control over shallow DOF, better high ISO performance, and the fact that with D800 you can get a dx crop of a full frame shot more-or-less the same as D7100 - there really isn't a downside (unless you want fast burst shooting).
But there is file-size, 36mp raw files can be a bit slow to work with, and unless someone wants poster-sized wedding prints, probably overkill.

mattwnz

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#1241881 18-Feb-2015 18:55

What do people think of the new Canon 760D that canon has released? Looks like some nice features including wifi uploading and HDR Video.

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#1241888 18-Feb-2015 19:16

Fred99:
dman:

Fred99:
There's nothing wrong with shooting a wedding using DX format, but most pros will use Fx - those I know use either Canon 5DII/III, or Nikon FX. I'm not going to write a thesis on why, but they have good reason and (with some exceptions) know what they're doing - their livelihood depends on it.

As I said, the most recent wedding I was second shooting for the professional photographer used Nikon DX. And he has been doing this full time for years and years, even has a D800 at home but prefers D7100 for weddings.

That's very bizarre IMO. From the much better viewfinder, better control over shallow DOF, better high ISO performance, and the fact that with D800 you can get a dx crop of a full frame shot more-or-less the same as D7100 - there really isn't a downside (unless you want fast burst shooting).
But there is file-size, 36mp raw files can be a bit slow to work with, and unless someone wants poster-sized wedding prints, probably overkill.

there are professionals, and there are budget services. that's the way it is.

Jaxson

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#1242129 19-Feb-2015 09:59

mattwnz: What do people think of the new Canon 760D that canon has released? Looks like some nice features including wifi uploading and HDR Video.

I bang on about this too much, I'll happily admit this up front, but I'm really frustrated Pentax doesn't have a stronger presence in NZ anymore.
Yes there are better products, but for the consumer DSLR price points they genuinely smash Canon out of the ballpark.

A quick google yields this:

Cripes, slap a GPS unit on the top and you get astrotracing!

timmmay

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#1242134 19-Feb-2015 10:06

mattwnz: What do people think of the new Canon 760D that canon has released? Looks like some nice features including wifi uploading and HDR Video.

Wifi would be handy, but much slower than a card reader. No idea why 24 or whatever megapixel is useful on a crop body, those are tiny tiny pixels. My full frame pro bodies (D700) are 12MP and I'm happy with them.

Jaxson

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#1242157 19-Feb-2015 10:40

timmmay: No idea why 24 or whatever megapixel is useful on a crop body, those are tiny tiny pixels. My full frame pro bodies (D700) are 12MP and I'm happy with them.

Fully agree. The MP race is just leaving us with tiny pixels, meaning reduced low light ability. I'd happily trade in any pixels above say 16MP for lower noise at higher ISO capabilities.
12MP on FF sounds like a beast, where as 50MP on FF sounds like crap performance to me.

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#1242175 19-Feb-2015 11:14

Jaxson:
12MP on FF sounds like a beast, where as 50MP on FF sounds like crap performance to me.

the expert will maximise the strengths and minimise the weaknesses.

whether 50MP is too much for the average expert is open to debate, but the term crap performance is premature (Edited rude words)

timmmay

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#1242187 19-Feb-2015 11:30

Inter-pixel noise on a 50MP camera will be markedly higher on a 50MP camera than a 12MP camera, just because of the quantity of light hitting each pixel is reduced on a higher MP camera. This noise will reduce significantly when the image is resampled down to standard print sizes as the inter-pixel noise will average out. For applications where large numbers of pixels are not required the overhead of large numbers of pixels, such as gaps between the pixels, will probably result in a relatively degraded image - though it's not likely to be hugely significant IMHO.

joker - I don't think your personal attack is warranted.

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#1242227 19-Feb-2015 11:50

Wasn't an attack. My apologies. Take it back if it hurt anyone.

But surely passing judgement of crap performance is a bit premature? I might eat my hat off it does turn out to be crap performance ... But it's a bit like saying who needs 500 hp in an m5 surely will have crap performance off the line with so much wheel spin ... ?

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#1242236 19-Feb-2015 12:01

Let me give another better example. A 50 mp on ff has larger pixel pitch than a crop Nikon 24mp and a crop Canon 7D2. Note that Canon and Nikon aps-c have difference sensor sizes. I haven't heard of crap performance on either of those aforementioned sensors, but I didn't look very hard I must admit.

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