Back to a DSLR?

marcg868

marcg868

marcg868

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Joined
16 Oct 2016
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424
Location
East Lancashire
Currently using a Panasonic FZ330 which is packed full of features and has a massive zoom range.
Also has weather sealing, 4K video, touch screen,wifi etc etc.
Now I'll admit for its small sensor in good lighting it takes nice images. However at night it isn't brilliant due to the small sensor. However I have a canon g7x which is my pocket cam and that takes reasonably good images for nighttime stuff.

I used to own a canon 700D which I traded for a Panasonic gx80 due wanting something smaller. But then I realised I couldn't afford a long zoom for Aircraft photograpy on the gx80 so I bought the fz330 bridge camera.

Is it worth going back to a DSLR just to get better image quality or should I stop pixel peeping. I got rid of my DSLR because I was sick of changing from a 75-300 for Aircraft to a 18-55 general purpose lens and then a 50mm f/1.8 for night shots.
 
Every camera/system/sensor format is always compromise, or really combination of various compromises.
You'll never get away from need to have many lenses for different purposes, like separate wide zoom, tele zoom and big aperture lenses for dim light...
Or possibly even multiple cameras to further complicate things.
Because the bigger the format the less you'll have zoom range in single lens.

And it's not like increase of pixel count inside decade has been easy for bigger formats...
Because making bigger lens elements at high precision is more costly. And of course there's the vastly increased size and weight for similar focal ratio for same field of view.
Also for big depth of field decreasing aperture with bigger formats will bring diffraction into play to spoil pixel peeping.
Heck, APS-C isn't really much different from Four Thirds.
With CaNikon also missing in body stabilization which gives extra possibilities to handheld shooting for any lens.


You should really start by thinking what you need most and what things are secondary/can be compromised.
Though obviously you'll still need at least two cameras if you want to have both fully pocketable camera and also something with more range.
And for bigger sensors there just aren't lenses from good wide angle to good tele. (because it would be really big and expensive)
At least instead of another system swap you should consider getting lens for m43 for area where you would need most improvement.
No other mirrorless system has anything near in lens selection.
 
Yeah use a tripod. I mainly take photos of planes at Manchester Airport and the bridge is ideal for it. It's burst rate is quicker than my past dslr also 12fps Vs 4 it's weatherproof and has a huge zoom.
The only thing I miss is the lovely dof shots of my reptiles and dogs.
 
Your other option to explore is getting a mirrorless camera and a faster lens such as a G85 + a 25mm f1.7.

If video is your jam, you're really stuck as:
Canon = no 4k as a decent price point
Sony = overheating issues + no vari-angle display + no touch screen
MFT/Panasonic = poor low light performance, crap auto focus compared to the other 2

I think the NEXT generation of these cameras will be very very interesting. Sony seem to have fixed battery life issues with the A7r3 and are kind of listening, Canon will probably add 4k but that'll also probably be another 18month wait and I'm not sure if Panasonic can fix the autofocus + poor low light performance issues as they seem to be limitations of PDAF and MFT.
 
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