Ok, guide me gently...

katie279

katie279

katie279

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Ok, so I have all the usual camera phones which are all 50000m megapixels and so on, but they always have loads of blur/distortion on the actual end product in Photoshop - not photo blur, just the pixels are all smudgy when you zoom in Photoshop.

I've also got various compact cameras - eg z90, zv-1 and Panasonic's equivalent.

So looking at mirrorless SLRs as thought it might be worth getting a really nice model now they're maturing.

a) is this bad woman blaming tools or will I see a noticeable improvement in image quality?
b) what's the best brand at the moment? I get the sense Sony are ahead, but Canon have the history/experience?
C) any other recommendations??
 
katie279 said:
Not at all really, agree obviously zoom does that - I just find camera photos Vs even compact ones tend to be less sharp when you zoom? More artifacting and the like
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So it's the image that is poor quality rather than pixels being weird. That I can understand as I have a Sony phone and their cameras have never been great.

I'm a Nikon user personally (D500) but a good DSLR of any brand would be better than a phone. Can I suggest that you have a look at the dpReview website? They do excellent reviews of photography equipment and you can balance your requirements against price, etc. The website is at https://www.dpreview.com/ but you can skip straight to their mirrorless buying guide by going to https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/buying-guide-best-mirrorless-cameras
 
It's hard to make any recommendations without knowing what you're photographing and how large/heavy a camera/lens combination you're prepared to carry. Plus budget, of course. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, OM System (ex-Olypmus) and Panasonic are the main brands to consider with the first three offering full-frame (heaviest) and APS-C (lighter); Fujifilm is APS-C while OM System and Panasonic offer the Micro Four-Thirds.

Things are complicated by availabilty issues and it's worth looking at camerbricebuster.co.uk to check prices and availability at the various retailers. It's research that can keep you busy for a while.....
 
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Photography wise - ideally fairly broad; portraits, landscape, plants/macro, be great to have good low light/rapid shutter.

Budget - not particularly fussed, prefer to go high end if it gives me significantly better quality (eg probably for base camera, happy to spend £3-5k and could go higher if anyone tells me significantly better). That said, if £1k gets me most of the same capability, than will go with that. I'd 'imagine' just as much, if not more should go on lenses also?

Size - as most photography will be local, I guess weight shouldn't be too big a deal

Full frame - excuse my stupidity, but assume this is better quality??

From DPReview links shared, it seems Sony are the most advanced mirrorless cameras and the rest are trying to catch up??
 
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I think there’s a lot of Olympus and Panasonic users who might argue over which company makes the most advanced mirrorless cameras, but there is no doubt that Sony have a range of excellent cameras and lenses.

Don‘t discount crop sensor mirrorless such as Micro Four Thirds format and the Fuji cameras as they offer excellent image quality for many applications in a smaller footprint.
 
To be honest the big 3 have all pretty much caught up with each other. The competition is great for consumers. If you're spending that much get a full frame, focus on one genre initially with 1 frame until you feel your photography has developed before you spend more money.

If you like to photograph daily life then I'd suggest a full frame and a 23- 35mm lens. This is essentially as close as you can get of human eye view. The fixed lens will force you to think about composition and really hone your skill.

Oh and save a bomb using grey import like pan-amoz. They use local repair specialists for warranty claims.

The recently released Canon R8 is competitively priced and has some great tech.
 
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depends on so many factors, in general you should try a used lower end mirrorless with a kit zoom lens first.

something like a Fuji X-T2 with 16-55 f2.8 - 4 zoom lens.

they hold their value incredibly well if you pay the going rate and dont get ripped off.

and they are highly reliable and tough with mostly metal construction.

Fuji is made in Japan although i think they also have factories in Thailand or somewhere now.

One thing to note about Fuji is many of the models such as the X-T2 have actual old fashioned dials and look quite retro, i really like them.
 
Buddy said:
To be honest the big 3 have all pretty much caught up with each other. The competition is great for consumers. If you're spending that much get a full frame, focus on one genre initially with 1 frame until you feel your photography has developed before you spend more money.

If you like to photograph daily life then I'd suggest a full frame and a 23- 35mm lens. This is essentially as close as you can get of human eye view. The fixed lens will force you to think about composition and really hone your skill.

Oh and save a bomb using grey import like pan-amoz. They use local repair specialists for warranty claims.

The recently released Canon R8 is competitively priced and has some great tech.
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That's some brilliant advice! I may pinch all of that if I may - sorry, for the silly question, but what is pan-amoz? Do they make lenses?

Hadn't seen the R8 - this looks pretty compelling!
 
katie279 said:
That's some brilliant advice! I may pinch all of that if I may - sorry, for the silly question, but what is pan-amoz? Do they make lenses?

Hadn't seen the R8 - this looks pretty compelling!
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Just Google pan-amoz , forget the dash - , for some reason it censors it on here. They are a grey company importer. Really reliable , I've bought a lot off them over the years and you often save quite a bit. Just compare UK price vs their price before ordering.
 
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Well a few things to cover really, some of them impossible to know until you've used the camera systems sadly.

Do you want to spend time editing images, or are you looking for great images SooC (straight out of camera)?
Have you though about using the camera for video or just stills?
Have you considered renting, or buying something used to get a feel for various systems as they differ greatly?
Would you be fussed if you lost the data stored? If so only look at cameras with dual memory card slots.
Are you going to be printing any of the photos, if so how big would you envisage?

Sometimes less is more, I really like using the Fuji system with physical dials for a vast majority of the settings so less faffing in onscreen menus, it is a more tactile approach, some people like the more 'computer' approach with buttons and menus.

Size and weigh can be a factor if lugging around kit all day, and once you get the bug and you want to take your gear on holiday, or further afield, so it is worth considering as you'll not want to leave it behind.

Finally great kit helps create great photos but ultimately the best results come from your skills, both technical and artistic, so make sure you spend plenty of time learning about what you want to achieve and practice whenever you can. :)
 
Journey said:
Well a few things to cover really, some of them impossible to know until you've used the camera systems sadly.

Do you want to spend time editing images, or are you looking for great images SooC (straight out of camera)?
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Have used Photoshop for about 20 years professionally, so no issues at all doing this - ideally they'd be great SooC as you describe though!
Journey said:
Have you though about using the camera for video or just stills?
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I've got some 4k cameras for video, but wouldn't be against it
Journey said:
Have you considered renting, or buying something used to get a feel for various systems as they differ greatly?
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Yes, not a bad shout - although not sure I can be bothered to buy new and then resell (time poor with kids!)
Journey said:
Would you be fussed if you lost the data stored? If so only look at cameras with dual memory card slots.
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I don't 'think' that'd be too big a deal as I'd be not on safari or anything, so should have access to a PC every day to upload/backup?
Journey said:
Are you going to be printing any of the photos, if so how big would you envisage?
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Heh, bit of a piece of string - not planning to, but I have a digital photo frame for example that I made in the hall - so that's 4k and about 43 inches, so would want it to be super sharp on this
Journey said:
Sometimes less is more, I really like using the Fuji system with physical dials for a vast majority of the settings so less faffing in onscreen menus, it is a more tactile approach, some people like the more 'computer' approach with buttons and menus.
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Yes, simplicity for me is a key factor - idiot proof!
Journey said:
Size and weigh can be a factor if lugging around kit all day, and once you get the bug and you want to take your gear on holiday, or further afield, so it is worth considering as you'll not want to leave it behind.

Finally great kit helps create great photos but ultimately the best results come from your skills, both technical and artistic, so make sure you spend plenty of time learning about what you want to achieve and practice whenever you can. :)
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Heheh, yes - this may ultimately be the limiting factor!

Thanks for the advice!
 
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