What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

all the details on the post: http://www.bikepacking.com/plan/trans-ecuador-video/

I really like it. No bro-packing nonsense, no cliches, just a guy who clearly loves this route

I run a production company in Brighton (and soon to open an office in Plymouth or Exeter assuming I can find a location that works as I've just moved down here). We do all sorts.

TV commercials are the main focus - we generally shoot on our own Scarlet or will rent. That said we do shoot on just about anything - a lot of studio based food stuff on Canon DSLRs, quite a lot of run and gun stuff on Sony/Panny mirrorless rigs, a lot of mid budg corporate stuff on our own FS7/FS5 with A6300/A7S2 providing back up duties. Used to work in broadcast/news/current affairs and still have lots of friends that do - generally, they're all shooting FS7 or C300mk2/C200.

All solid advice here. A few bits that I might chip in on that I feel may not have been touched on.

I wouldn't rule out the GH4. Pair it with the 14-45 3.5-5.6 Lumix lens and that solves the lack of in-body stabilization. This combination can be obtained cheaply and gives you a tonne of bang for the buck. Represents considerable saving over the GH5 (500 quid i'd say?). The 14-45 could be the workhorse lens and a cheap (£60ish) M42 Zeiss 50mm Pancolar w/ adapter (or similaR) could be your "beauty" lens, compact as they are.

GH4/GH5 batteries will outlast an A7S battery threefold in my experience, having shot with a GH4 and A7S for daily work duties for a year.

The GH5 is probably 30% bigger in size than the GH4 and the same percentage heavier I'd say as a conservative estimate. This is tangible.

My $0.02: in your heart of hearts you know what the primary function of this will be, if the primary function is simply capturing your travels somewhat decently, go phone/ gopro/ point and shoot. If it is to set yourself up as a shooter, get a GH5 or A7S2 with all the gubbins to go with. As someone said earlier, the crux of it comes down to being honest with yourself as to whether you will be willing to take out camera from padded bag, attach/ change lens if necessary, wipe optics, check settings, manage battery circulation, wrangle memory cards and all the related faffery that goes with shooting "properly".

Also seems super logical to me. But part of me does want to use this as an opportunity to get fully to grips with a ‘proper’ camera if you know what I mean.

In my opinion, this is reason enough to go with the simple option.

If you use your holliers as your teeth cutting exercise in upskilling in a proper DSLR/ mirrorless you will get frustrated at how long it's taking with faffing about with settings and you won't be happy with the results, leaving you lumbered with an unnecessarily large camera kit.

Everyone is pretty crap at everything until they get the hang of it. your sentiment is bang on, but if you aren't a good shooter at the beginning of your jaunt, you still won't be at the end. Better to dedicate time at home and self learn without time obligations, it will be much less stressful.

This.

Boy, these video guys geek out over camera equipment even more than I do.

Any advice/ideas on a first medium format camera? I'm shooting a bit of film at the moment but would like to slow down a bit.

Someone suggested a Yashica but, really, I have no idea.

Bronica ETRS/ETRSi
Mamiya RB67
Pentax 6x7 MU

all with an 75mm/80mm/90mm lens

Rolleicord

Cheers for the suggestions!

Reccomendations for a 35mm slr? Currently only use a mju ii so want something with more settings and ability to change lenses. Also found it difficult getting photos level with how small the Mju is.

Budget less than 100 preferably, im very much still an amateur so nothing too fancy. Was thinking something like a 35mm prime lens. Anyone have anything for sale or just know what i should look out for? Canon AE1 keeps popping up in research

World is your oyster really, most of them from the big manufacturers of the day will be fine. Depends on the features you want - ie manual/app priority/program; mechanical or electronic shutter etc

AE1 is shutter priority rather than the usual standard of app priority, that may or may not make a difference for you ?

lots of options depending on what u prefer as @ste_s said. I would go with any of these (easy enough to get em for less than 100 on ebay if you are not in a rush):

Pentax K1000
Pentax ME (Super)
Pentax MX
Minolta XD7/11
Minolta X-700
Canon A1
Canon AE1 (Program) not my cup of tea due to lack of aperture priority
Nikon FM/FE/FA
Olympus OM1/OM2

Just one lens? Think about which mount you want, AE1 has FD which is very obsolete (consequently cheapish). With an EF mount you can buy/resell modern lenses which may not be appealing - extra cost, but better resale and compatible with modern digital if you ever decide to get one of those

the bodies are ridiculously cheap anyway, I got my EOS 50E for like £10

Where'd you see a GX80 for £90?! MBP the cheapest is c.£300 quid.

Depends. With that sort of budget you'd probably get a whole system if you wanted, unless you fancy the rangefinder route?!

Yup - body for 304 used on MPB, but new + 12-32 stabilised lens for 399 everywhere else. If only it had an audio in!

Are you looking for an old 35mm SLR or new-ish? If new-ish, I have a Canon EOS 300 with a basically unused 50mm Canon STM you can have for a good price.

EF is all modern lenses? Never bought my own SLR so this is new to me. Being able to steal my dads lenses would be ideal...

Sounds like aperture priority is what i should go for, not the AE1. Buying a cheap body and experimenting with lenses that can be swapped around sounds like the best shout. I'll have a trawl through eBay using @Uoeno 's list and look out for a deal

Thanks all!

Old manual. Eos 300 is full auto wind etc right? Not what im after for the same reasons i think youre selling

Yeah, it's well boring to use, hence why I am ditching it. The K1000 I have is a beautiful thing to use. My local camera shop is selling one in VGC with a 50mm lens which is also very lovely. It's £115, if you're interested, which is much less than many on eBay.

All of the body's Uoeno listed are cheap in comparison to modern digital :-)

EF is all modern lenses? Never bought my own SLR so this is new to me. Being able to steal my dads lenses would be ideal...

Not quite. There are some EF-S lenses which are designed for crop sensors and won't fit on an EF camera (even if it did, you'd get extreme vignetting). 35mm will be EF mount.

EF-S (crop-sensor) cameras take EF lenses as well as EF-S though (with increased equivalent focal length).

Check whether your dad's lenses are EF or EF-S. Even if it's an EF-S camera he might still be using EF lenses.

Edit: there's also the mirrorless ones, EF-M - body can take EF or EF-S but EF-M lenses won't work with EF and EF-S mounts

You can still find Pentax Spotmatics in charity shops for a few quid.

They’re bigger/heavier than many later slrs but feel well made and simple to use. No gimmicks.

Any advice/ideas on a first medium format camera?

Figure out first a) your budget and b) the aspect ration you want to shoot - would be my suggestion, and let's go from there!

Ok all good things to know. I know for sure the only camera he uses is a 5D mk4 which is full frame, not crop sensor. Does this mean all lenses for that camera will be EF?

Does it matter between brands which lenses you use? Ie canon lenses on a pentax