What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

Prints vs. scans is up to you really, as for where I think Snaps Photo Services online (not Snappy Snaps) is cheapest for colour stuff.

Belated thanks to @CYOA for filming camera advice - I finally got round to purchasing an A6500 off ebay and from initial playing around it seems great. Have just bought an 18-105 lens to replace the rubbish kit lens and now just trying to face paying for a black magic 4k video assist and I should be set up.
Now need to sell a bunch of older equipment to cover all this.

What older equipment you talking? I keep meaning to get some sort of digital camera...

A canon 7d, a Canon XA20 video camera. Not decided on selling lenses until I've tried them with an adaptor. Nothing hugely exciting basically.

7D is a fucking tank. It really is a baby 1D.

dibs on the XA20 please, if you're selling it

Fair does, prob more exciting than what I am after, kinda just want a compact for filming but I keep forgetting to buy one. Have just had some fun making a little video so have the urge to get better equipment again....

Not that I want to undermine my own sales, but I probably wouldn't go for a 7D for filming - it's a nice camera, but modern ones seem much better (e.g. just being able to autofocus off a touchscreen will save me hugely amounts of hassle).

@platypus yes, will definitely be selling it - it's in very good condition, have box, etc. I need to check ebay sold values, obviously they've depreciated quite a bit since I bought it so it's going to be painful... but it's not really what I need now. If you want to look at midrange ebay sold prices and then knock a bit off to cover lack of fees/less hassle then am interested. Though am too busy to give it full attention today.

cool - could probably give you about £550 for it, but would need to have a warranty please...

That doesn't sound unreasonable, but let me research when I'm not so busy - will PM you after the weekend probably. Obviously warranty expired but would be happy to refund if it explodes within a few months (it won't).
What would you be using it for out of interest?

sounds good! I'm busy for the next week or two in any case.
would be used for documentary work, I film a lot in very remote places, hence the warranty q

That sounds exactly what it should be used for... I think when I bought it I had fantasies of using it for something exciting like that, but in the end I mostly just used it for the odd event where filming on a DSLR was too annoying. I think they were quite popular as stealth documentary cameras weren't they? With the handle removed it can just look like a regular camcorder.
Not quite sure how I could warranty it exactly... I think I'd just have to sell it with the condition that I'm reasonable and not out to rip anyone off and would refund if any issues occurred within whatever time frame.
Send me a PM at some point and can discuss.

yeah, should be quite good as a B cam for serious stuff or an A cam going light.
thanks! feel free to PM me if I forget to get back to you, which I probably will

Recap: was looking to buy a higher end Canon Powershot for portability, but then family bought me an A6000 as a gift. Been loving it, except awful kit lens.

Got a semi-bargain for a used 16/2.8 pancake for the A6000, should arrive tomorrow. Preferred the look of 20/2.8 but used prices are silly. So that’s street and snapshot sorted.

Thinking about the Sigma 30/2.8. Seems a good size, good focal length without much bulk. 2.8 is plenty fast.

May have to give in and buy some of those 7Artisans/Meike/Neewer offerings to fill focal length gaps.

Anyone use any of the above happily? Before I spend out on other lenses, anyone got any for sells?

Started reading up about digital medium format backs today. I hope this slope isn't too slippery, cause it certainly is expensive

Don't go there. We had Phase One digital medium format cameras where I apprenticed. Makes really hard to look at anything less than 24x36 ever again.
.. it's slippery all right.

Sadly it appears as my Dad's Pentax ME Super may be getting terminal. It was very much his camera and 'ME Super' was burned into my brain when I younger for the amount of times it was pointed at me.
I got it serviced by 'the' Pentax guy a year ago and worked perfectly up until recently where it appears as though its developed a front light leak (see below). Not lens, film or dev related and there's nothing obvious on shining my bike light through the front of the camera. I'm guessing shutter ?
I'll probably send it off for a service again to another guy (the original guy has retired) just to see.

Anyhoo, TL;DR I've bought a Mamiya ZM to try in the meantime. Last 35mm SLR Mamiya made, and the E/EF mount lenses are dirt cheap. If someone has the 28-50mm zoom I'd be interested

1 Attachment

Oooh, that's shame.
Hope it can be fixed (and for reasonable amounts of money)!

I need the hive mind advice here.

I'm getting tired of hauling my 5d1 or 6d and Sigma 35mm f1.4 around everywhere. Results are always spot on and really love the rendering of this combo. (more the 5d1 body that has the great rendering)

I have resorted to film compacts in 28 and 35mm flavour for when I need to travel light. But looking for a compact digital camera in either 28 or 35mm that will produce equal or better results.

I have looked at the Sony RX1 R2, but it seems way overpriced. Any alternatives I should be looking at?

iPhone X

Ricoh gr2, you’ll love it

It's easy enough to pick up a compact digital camera for not very much money that matches the IQ of 35mm film. I use an old Olympus e-p3 with 17mm (35mm full frame equivalent) lens and IQ is fine for instawebs and for prints up to A3.
I'll normally take the e-p3 and an Olympus Trip 35 when I go on holiday

Or alternatively, a phone.

Ricoh GR unquestionably

On paper the Ricoh GR II does look like a good option, I had a GR Digital IV and was quite happy with it, but the lack of viewfinder really bothered me. Using a clip-on optical viewfinder would just be a work around and not a real solution imo.

I thought it would be an issue but found it never bothered me in the end