Ok, guide me gently...

[katie279]

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]

How far are you zooming in? Zoom in far enough and any picture will have "smudgy" pixels.

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

 

[katie279]

Ah excellent - will dig in!

 

[katie279]

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??

 

[katie279]

Oh ok, will have a look to a) understand what the heck that means and b) look at the cameras!

Sony's a7 III seems to be very well reviewed, so figure if I start with that as an option, is there any obvious better/worse models/competitors?

 

[katie279]

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.

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]

Ah ok, I googled and looked at a couple - eg Canon R7 and couldn't see a huge difference in price, hence question if I was missing something!

Will bear in mind when I order though!

 

[katie279]

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 used Photoshop for about 20 years professionally, so no issues at all doing this - ideally they'd be great SooC as you describe though!

Have you though about using the camera for video or just stills?

I've got some 4k cameras for video, but wouldn't be against it

Have you considered renting, or buying something used to get a feel for various systems as they differ greatly?

Yes, not a bad shout - although not sure I can be bothered to buy new and then resell (time poor with kids!)

Would you be fussed if you lost the data stored? If so only look at cameras with dual memory card slots.

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?

Are you going to be printing any of the photos, if so how big would you envisage?

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

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.

Yes, simplicity for me is a key factor - idiot proof!

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.

Heheh, yes - this may ultimately be the limiting factor!

Thanks for the advice!