What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

Some years ago one of my kids wanted one of the new Polaroids. We bought one as present.

First one was faulty, never worked. Returned and was replaced with one which worked but the photo quality was really bad. It was worse than Polaroids from the 80s. It got used for about 2 film cartridges and then that was that.

Not sure if they've got better in the last few years but could not recommend on my experience.

Interesting, only had experience of friends keeping them around for parties so makes sense they wouldn't survive a bike tour
Probably an idea for another decade then

Apparently the newer stuff is loads better than it was when it first came out. The original impossible project stuff was so shit and we paid for the development of it while they fucked about.

Power banks, I'm confused. If I want to run my camera for a good few hours, am I right that I need a pack which has 'PD-Power Delivery' in order to provide enough juice? I have 22K mAh one but its max output is 5V and I think my fuji X-t3 needs 7+ to sustain operations. Help plz.

Maybe get a USB power meter, connect to a mains adapter and see how much it really uses? Will help calculate how long a battery pack will last.

Can recommend the Fuji Instax (I’d go for SQ models personally)

The current Polaroid isn’t the same company as it used to be (they just bought the IP when it went bust), and the film is shit. Super dark, everything looks like it’s been soaked in tea.

Ditto above comment re instax. I like it, and they even just do an instax printer which can link to a phone (or possibly Bluetooth camera?) which I find gives a satisfying “take a photo and print” bit with the benefits of a digital camera. It’s about the size of a large power bank, so pretty small overall

I find the film a little soft in the images it prints, and instax cameras definitely prefer bright lights (sunny summer days look great, grey winter days less so) but good fun and likely able to be picked up cheap on eBay as it seems tk be a common “buy for a wedding, never use again then sell” type camera

Thanks, I would probably borrow one if I knew someone but for the money I may as well just swallow the cost into a new power bank.
I’ve watched a couple of YouTube explanations now and it does seem my current pack is ok for phones but won’t help much with electrically hungry cameras.

Quite intrigued by the Nikon ZF. Sold all my Nikon gear years ago to get the Fuji X-Pro 1, and have stuck with Fuji ever since - I wanted something smaller and less conspicuous because it was peak ‘photographers are nonces’ panic era.

Now I’m looking at the dynamic range of the sample images from the Z6 (which has the same sensor) and the fact on the ZF (which has the Z9’s processor) the AF algorithm works with MF lenses (showing you when your subject’s eye in is focus, for eg) and the 8-stop IBIS and, well, just wondering… Apart from the 28mm f2.8 and 40mm f2 lenses and some Voigtlander MF glass, all the new Z-mount lenses are huge, though, as is the adapter to make old Nikon glass fit Z-mount.

Granted, most new Fuji glass is going the same way but at least there are still the f2 Fujicrons which are great.

Same, been eyeing the various a7 models for ages thinking they look nice and compact but the lenses are massive.

Straps!

I am planning a trip to Canadia next year, which will involve an amount of schlepping through national parks, I want to take my DSLR, but the neck strap makes for a bouncy camera and gets uncomfortable pretty swiftly, and if I have a 2-3 hours walk ahead, I think I'll leave it behind.

Are there alternatives? I will have a backpack full of snacks and drinks, so stowing it is the cheap option, but removes the spontaneity option of quick snaps.

Is the bag big enough and the camera light enough to comfortably support a Peak Designs capture clip on one side?

Something by Peak Design? Their harnesses seem pretty popular from the corporate photogs I’ve seen at events but no idea how they’d cope with a hike vs an event floor.

Their QR clip thing that attaches to a rucksack strap and the tripod mount of your camera could by an option? At least the weight is semi supported by the rucksack straps and it’s still fairly quick access?

Cheers friends, that looks like it might be ideal.
Will grab and see how I get on with it.

The clip is very good. You can combine it with a wrist or neck strap for added security and mainly use it to reduce the bouncing.

What about the three other lenses and tripod? :)

Can vouch for the peak design slide, good strap for multi hour walking with camera and telephoto

I’ve started using a Blackrapid Curve shoulder strap and it makes light work of a DSLR and 150-600mm lens

for me nothing beats the comfort of Optech strap

Blackrapid Curve shoulder strap

Do you attach the strap to just a single point on the lens foot?

A great deal of time ago I bought a Nex-3N from someone on-here, and it gets used very occasional. The A6000 I’ve owned from new 5 years ago, and I think the Nex came into my possession around the same time.

Anyway the Nex has had the 16mm pancake on it and we all have our opinions on that. The A6000 has the 20mm not-pancake.

I noticed recently the ‘biscuit’ lens from 7Artisans so bought one on a punt.

Being a glorified body cap, it isn’t provided with a lens cap even though it kinda needs one to avoid instant destruction in a pocket or jacket.

Made one from a skimmed down jar lid, and some canvas. At some point I’ll replace with plastic pipe cap when I find suitable diameter.

As far as image quality, the lack of adjustable aperture is a big ‘miss’ but the focus works well.

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Optech

This was my go-to when I used to carry Hasselblad/RB67/etc.

So I went to the Wex in Putney to have a look at the Nikon ZF.

I guess 10 years ago when I last shot Nikon, DSLRs were still quite tactile things - but even with the dials that are on it, it took me ages to figure out just how to switch the autofocus mode on the ZF (there’s a menu option on screen, no physical switch).

The shutter button is a weird hair trigger compared to anything I’ve handled recently. And because there’s no real grip, I couldn’t hold it without accidentally pressing one of the few function buttons. I definitely wouldn’t want to put a long lens on it, as there’s no leverage. But Nikon only makes about 3 small primes for Z mount and everything else is big and would be tough to handle without attaching the accessory grip (which for the moment they’re bundling free with it).

They’re also very cagey about weather resistance. The 28mm and 40mm primes have no rubber gasket. Nikon says the lenses and the camera independently are weatherproof but won’t vouch for combining them, which is just asinine. The Wex staff said they’d asked but that Nikon support was a bit shit compared to Fuji.

The one thing that I loved, though, was using the autofocus algorithm in manual focus - you put the focus box on what you want in focus, focus manually and it gives you a guide at the bottom of the viewfinder and the focus box turns green in confirmation. I think it will automatically face detect in manual focus as well, but I didn’t want to start pointing it at the Wex staff!

It’s not worth getting a camera with bad ergonomics just for that and a smidge more dynamic range. So I will stick with the x-pro 3 and see if the next generation of the Fuji is impressive enough to consider a trade-in when it eventually arrives. If Fuji could add a similar focus function to the X pro 4 I would be in heaven - manual focus confirmation in OVF without having to use the subscreen would be bliss.

TL;DR - Nikon ZF has bad ergonomics if you have large hands and too few small prime lenses to replace a Fuji set-up.

TL;DR - Nikon ZF has bad ergonomics if you have large hands and too few small prime lenses to replace a Fuji set-up.

Its weird the obsession to make smaller cameras has totally disregarded ergonomics; Fuji eventually admitted that with the X-S10 what they call an "SLR Style" camera 😂

I'd argue that the FM2 style bodies were always bad for ergonomics. F100/F90x style of cameras all the way to DSLR have the best ergonomics.

DSLRs were still quite tactile things

Nikon actually made a thing about ZF having loads of buttons and dials in comparison to their other Z cameras.

I have an FM2 which I never really use any more. Because it isn’t covered with buttons I can accidentally press and I’m not using it with long lenses, it’s basically fine but equally if I’m shooting manual wind film I’m not shooting enough for the boxy shape to give me claw hands.

Nikon actually made a thing about ZF having loads of buttons and dials in comparison to their other Z cameras.

This experience has made me realise how much of modern photography has become fly-by-wire - point a computer with a lens on it at something and the computer makes most of the the focus and exposure decisions for you, and then load it up in Lightroom and adjust the colours to fit whatever weird tonal fad is dominating instagram at the moment.

At the same time, that level of automation can be tempting when I am carrying a camera out with non-photographers who don’t want to be sucked into an impromptu photo walk. There’s not the time to consider every shot.

I think my solution is going to be to use the focus limiter function to effectively do zone autofocus - overcome Fuji’s relatively weak AF algorithm by massively limiting its choices, but get things a bit sharper than by zone focusing in manual (which works fine on my wider lenses but not so much with the normals where the plane of focus is a bit too shallow for me to judge it right consistently).

Equally, I’ve also realised I never use AF-C and maybe the Fuji AF would actually be fine for my needs if I started using that properly.