I sold my Nikon D500 in February this year. I figured I would never find a better time to sell it because dSLRs are giving way to mirrorless cameras. Treated properly it could produce lovely images – like this for example:
So why sell it? Well with the battery in it and a card, it weighs 860g (1 lb 14.4 oz). I shot this photo of a fallow deer with a AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR lens that weighs 680g (1 lb 8 oz)
Add that lens to that and it’s a package that weighs more than one-and-a-half kilos that you can’t ignore hanging on a strap from your shoulder.
I have a little Fuji X-E3 and a tiny Ricoh GR III and between the two of them they deal with everything up to a certain distance. Beyond that I don’t have a longer lens, and I have been looking for a camera body that will handle a longer lens. The Ricoh is a fixed lens camera with a wide 28mm lens so it is a camera for close ups shots or candids.
I have a 27mm lens on my Fuji and I could put a longer lens on it, but it is such a tiny camera that a longer lens would make the setup unbalanced.
So in thinking about what to do I have been testing a few cameras, thanks to my accommodating local camera shop – WexPhotographic.
Today I shot a Nikon Z6 ii with a 24-120mm f4 lens, and here are the shots taken in horribly bright and contrasty midday light. The first photo is the full frame and the others are crops.
I am looking for the ability to resolve detail, and hair is a really good test of lens sharpness.
I was pretty cocky in setting up the camera in the shop (after all, it is a Nikon) and I missed the setting that regulates what the second card does. The Nikon has a CF Express card and an SD card for the second slot. So all these shots are JPEGs, and given the high contrast light, I am pretty sure I could have processed RAW files better than the tweaks on these JPEGs. Ah well.
The Nikon Z6 ii weighs 705g (1lb 9oz) with battery and a card, so that isn’t exactly nothing either. The lens I would pair it with is the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens that weighs 500g (1 lb 1.7 oz)
The image quality is better than the D500, but do I need it, or is something lighter weight going to be enough?
Well yes, there is Canon – they recently brought out the Canon EOS R8 that weighs 461g (16 oz) with card and battery, and it too is full frame like the Nikon Z6 ii.
Then there’s the Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM lens that comes in at 160g. So camera plus lens comes in at 574g, which for a full frame combo is amazingly light.
Canon do not yet make a 24-70mm RF f4 lens. If they did then I would have a better idea of which way to jump – if at all.
Although Nikon and Canon have full frame mirrorless cameras, Fuji does not. So now I have to test the latest Fuji camera with a longer lens. They make an XF 16-80mm f4 R OIS WR Lens that weighs 440g. Pair that with say the X-T5 that weighs merely 476g and that is starting to look like an answer if the image quality holds up. I have the Fuji X-T2 with the 18-55mm kit lens, and here is a crop of about one third of the frame.
Why am I bothering looking at a new camera? It’s fun and I get to shoot with different cameras, but beyond that I don’t know.
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