Photography • Page 14

35mm. Band is Anxious, rest is life.

 

Wife and I cleaned out our shed yesterday and I found a binder with some prints I made in my photography class my last semester of college, Spring 2020.

Class was all B&W film but once campus shut down, it turned into digital photography.

I need to get back at it. Film photography was my biggest hobby for a while but I haven’t shot anything in over a year. Hoping these inspire me to get back to it.

(These definitely aren’t great. I was just a beginner lol)

 

Oh the joys of experimental film...

 

Going to a camera show today. Going to put my fingerprints on everything!

On a less silly note, really trying to narrow down what mirrorless system to switch to. I've been asked to take pictures at some friends' wedding in August and I'm thinking it might be finally time to upgrade my D5500 to something a lot more modern.

 

I love my Sony(s) but if you already have a D5500, the people I know who shoot Nikon only have good things to say about the Z line and still use their DSLR lenses with the adapter. My friend let me play around with his Zf and it was fun to use, kind of reminded me of the Fuji cameras.

 

nikon bodies are definitely a better value in terms of price for features. sony's top of the line cameras are 1k+ more than nikons with the same or less features. sony has a better lens ecosystem though and has opened the e-mount up (with some limited restrictions such as FPS and teleconverters that really only impact $20k+ setups) to dozens of manufacturers. overall, I'm happy with sony and won't ever switch, but Nikon I think has the best value for mirrorless full frame bodies

 

So, I got to get my hands on everything I wanted to see in person.

OM 5 was there. Love the shape, but the control wheels are poorly spaced and it feels disappointingly plasticky.
OM 3 is really nice. Wish it had the grip from the OM 5, but otherwise it's really nice. Also, I've not used a modern digital camera at all and found the control system really quick to get around.

Had a little look at Fuji, since they were there. The guy excitedly shoved the new XE-5 in our hands. Feels miles worse in the hand than the similarly priced X100VI. Also, I didn't get on with controls on that one at all. Also, given it's seemingly the same internals as the XT-50 (which is better laid out, in my opinion), feels a weird one.

The XT-5 on the other hand, was very nice. I found the Fuji controls a bit weirder to get around and there's more obliquely named switches than I'd like, but it feels like a serious piece of kit. Was doing an annoying thing when focussing that it would zoom the screen/EVF into a specific point. Unsure whether someone had turned that on, but I didn't care for that at all.

The Z5II was just in a different league. Absolute brute of a camera. Quickly found features I liked. The EVF on it seemed really nice compared to the others too.

Ultimately, I still have a tricky decision to make, as the OM-3, XT-5 and Z5II all seem like they'd be pretty great to have. I'd probably rule out the XT-5 on the basis that it sort of sits firmly in the middle, whilst the other two standout more for different things. The OM-3 is crazy portable and seems like it would be the one I'd be confident to take out with me the most. The Z5II seems the best camera of the three to me in real terms, but the lenses are large and quite a bit more expensive.

Also, I'm a fairly simple user. I mostly use a Pentax MX at the moment, so a lot of the crazier features of digital cameras aren't things I'll miss by not having. I'm very tempted by the OM-3 (partly because there's a very good deal on them in the UK currently), as I think I'd use it most, but that Nikon is so nice.

Notable mentions were the Zf (which is fundamentally a bit silly, but it really is glorious) and the Ricoh GRIIIx. First time I've managed to see the GR in person and have a play and I was mega impressed. If I wasn't trying to buy a mirrorless camera, the Ricoh would be the thing I'd be working out how to buy.