What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

Some of the compactless mirrorless are as good as or better than the low-end DSLRs but you pay a significant premium for it.

I'd say that a D5300 would be better than the RX100. The sensor is bigger, it's got an optical viewfinder (trying to use a screen for pictures is tough, particularly in the bright sun), it has interchangable lens so you can get a good zoom or a wide angle, focusing is much easier and faster.

I have a D3200 (base level Nikon) and it takes great pictures. I've spent a decent amount (compared to just buying a compact, not much compared to what you can spend) on lenses ranging from about £125 for a 35mm prime to £350 for a zoom which you'll probably end up doing with a DSLR at some point.

I also own a Sony Nex 5 which is a compact(ish). Also takes very good pictures, actually has the same size sensor as the DSLR, but isn't quite as easy to use. The pictures aren't quite as good which may be partly down to lens quality.

They'll all take great pictures. If you're happy to lug a DSLR around that will probably get you most bang for your buck and best in the way of upgrade options (loads of secondhand lens, etc).

It can be a faff to carry them round though which is the bonus of the compact ones. If you want to go that route I'd look at something like the Sony A6000 (or A5000 for the older model). Has a lot of the benefits of a DSLR like bigger sensor size, viewfinder, interchangable lens, etc and sizewise sits in between the two extremes.

A dslr is the easiest way to good pictures on a budget I think. And up from the D3300 you're not getting much more until the magnesium bodied cameras (is that the 7200 now?). They're just really practical and inexpensive, loads of battery life etc.

The lack of good zooms and wide angles on the dx cameras is a shame though.

Its funny the X Pro 2 is already the same price as XT2. I thought the pro2 was supposed to be more..

I'd echo the recommendations of a 3300 with a kit 18-55 and a 35 1.8.

But just to complicate things another option is to go second hand. You can pick up a venerable d300 for not much now. I still use them - they're indestructible, perfect for throwing in a bag when travelling. There's one on offer at Cameraworld on Wells st for £230 and then you can start adding a wider range of lenses including non-motored ones. I like the (much heavier) 11 -16 Tokina super wide angle for landscape stuff - there's one at Aperture Uk on Rathbone Pl for £250. Add a second hand 35mm 1.8 to the mix and you're looking closer to £550 but for a bundle really good quality stuff.

I think they're basically running with two flagship cameras now, one rangefinder style and one slr style. Once they update the firmware for the X-Pro 2 they're basically on a par.

The "pro" in the name makes it sound like it should be the better one though doesn't it. Maybe they should have named the T2 the X-Tpro or something.

Thanks for the detailed responses! I'll check out those other suggestions too.

They may be sold out now but I'm seriously impressed by the X-Pro1, its way beyond my capabilities to use correctly I am sure, but I can use it to take photographs that I like, and they're so cheap now.

I would suggest you go into a store and compare both DSLRs and mirrorless -
personally I'm Impressed with the pictures of these mentioned Sonys for example, but they would definitely drive me crazy because they are so fiddly!

yeah this .. I got one of the last bodies from jessops the other week for £279 and a mint used 18mm for £250 with my wileyfox swift combined thats still less money than iPhone 7.

The argument of DSLR vs mirroless is not about quality at all IMO. Focus on usage and what you can carry.

Fuji medium format is for realz. Looks like a bigger XT2

Oh yeah, that looks rad, I wonder how much?

They say "significantly less than $10,000".

I think it will be about £4K depending on what the yen and pound are doing. Solid lens lineup too. I'm impressed.

The new Olympus E-M1 looks great as well. And Sony have dropped a typically spec-sheet destroying but impossible to use a99 ii.

I dunno if it's age but who the hell needs 400 autofocus points and 60 fps burst with RAW? I know it's progress, which is great but I'm so used to using 1 af point, 3 fps (that I never use) and 12 megapixels that this new stuff would be wasted on me.

At least the sensors are getting better. Everyone can appreciate that.

New E-M1 you say...... starts googling

I hope the original A99 drops in price now so I can grab a body to use with my Minolta Dynax lenses.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/9740173952/olympus-announces-e-m1-mark-ii-development

lol

Tell you what, the last month or so has been pretty fucking good for new tech releases. I echo @Well_is_it in that I barely know how to use 1af point but that's not stopping me wanting a GH5 even though I've just bought an A6300. Really want something in that form factor that's a low light boss for video. a7s2 is still fractionally clunky for me.

Also, GoPro delivering a pretty competitive backpack of joy for smooth outdoors footage. Less than 1k for a fairly decent action cam (compression issues aside), a drone and a hand held gimbal? And a backpack to throw it in. Fuck yeah I'll be having one of those for chrismukkah

You can use the gimbal handheld :-O

It just pulls out and you use it like the DJI Osmo! Pretty sweet and seemingly decent value. Would love to know how much post stabilisation they've put on their promo footage. I've never been able to grade GoPro footage nicely unlike say the Zenmuse X5r so I'm still not a convert to GoPro footage quality but I think it's a really fun, good value package. Not sure if it can solve 233 million dollars in losses though :/

I had a melt down and never bought a new compact for filming. With all this new tech is there a new recommendation in the sub £500 bracket?

In the sense that all the stuff that was new and shiny will now be cheaper... I think the LX100 is still the best bet for compact + video at that price but @CYOA is probably the man to ask...

^ still a good bet and def will be cheaper now with new releases. But one of those has caught my eye (all of them have) - Panasonic G85. Slightly larger body than the lx100. It's also possibly fractionally over budget in the UK - about 800+/- USD body only - but it looks brilliant and has their already released great, great, great image stabilisation built in so you'd have an easier job getting silky footage of you and your chums horsing around in the woods. Also uses v. similar sensor to the GH5 so records gorgeous, rich 4K. It's got a mic input though no headphone slot for monitoring sound but you can get an adaptor. Also very rugged body so could be good for bumps and knocks / dirt flying etc.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/19/panasonic-g85-mirrorless/

The 5 axis image stabilisation really is impressive...
Weather sealing is also a pretty big step up.

Also, Chris - the 4K footage you see on YouTube is compressed weirdly so not really representative of what they're capable of. Most of it looks like iPhone footage.

https://slrhut.co.uk/product/ID1032C14/google?gclid=CK_2nMn2nc8CFRNmGwodtYkKgQ smirk

Cheers BROs I'll grab one of them. I'm still dreaming about making a film...