Saturday, April 4, 2015

Goodbye Canon. Hello Nikon!

Last week, I sold my last Canon body (1D Mark III), and for the first time since 2001, I do not have a Canon camera, except the infrared modified 20D.  After a long relationship with Canon, I have found the Canon cameras of late are getting stale; same iterations over and over again without much in ways of innovation. It's time for a change.

The Micro 4/3 and Sony mirrorless have been my primary camera system for the last few years, and the Canon was only used two to three times a year for swimming shoots, and occasionally used by Dillon for his school sports.  It was pure coincidence that I ended up with a Nikon D810, which was never even on my radar screen but after handling the camera, I found myself really drawn to it. This camera oozes quality but the one thing that sold me was the shutter. It's light, quiet, but with authority that instills confidence.  The 6 frames per second in crop mode is fast enough for my occasional swimming shoots.  I decided to buy it, essentially replacing my Canon 1D III.  But this has brought with it a dilemma for me.

I only have a few Nikon mount manual focus lenses, mostly Tamron Adaptall lenses plus the Sima 100mm f2 soft focus, Vivitar 24mm f2, and the Nikkor 105mm f2.5 in original F-mount that I bought from the camera show last year.  This camera really deserves a few nice fast primes, and hence the thought of selling some or all of the Canon lenses to fund the Nikon lenses.

Despite my less than enthusiastic feeling towards recent Canon cameras, I love the L lenses currently still in my possession.  Some of these lenses have no Nikon equivalent, like the 50mm f1.2L, 85mm f1.2L, and the 180mm f3.5L Macro.  So I have decided to sell the Canon zooms and I will just get a smaller set of Nikon mount AF lenses: wide zoom, Sigma Art 50mm f1.4, and a tele zoom(probably a 70-200mm or 80-200mm f2.8) which will allow me to do the occasional swimming shoots if needed.

So far, I have no problems with the D810.  It really is a nicely balanced camera that produces exceptionally good image quality.  I do hope that I will use it more often than now departed Canon 1D III.

Sony A7 compared to Nikon D810 in size.  Click for larger.

Fire Hydrant - Nikon D810 & Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 Adaptall.

9 comments:

  1. Yu-Lin,

    Nikon 終於出頭天!!

    希望Nikon將來也生產一些 Mirrorless 的相機
    讓使用者有配搭老鏡的機會.

    感激你精湛的研究跟詳細的解說.

    謝謝!!

    May

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    1. Thanks May. I think Nikon really hit the sweet spot with the D800/D810. It really is a nice camera. Also, Nikon has the V1/V3/V5 mirrorless cameras, but small 1" sensor.

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  2. Thanks for posting this. As a long term EOS user I disinvested in it starting from when the G1 was released. Now I only have two of my first EOS film bodies (630) and nothing else.

    I wonder about Nikon a lot, but suspect that for me the A7 will fill my full frame needs :-)

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    1. If you like your GH1/G1, which I am sure you do, you won't like the Nikon as much. I like the Sony A7 over the D810 for the size, weight, and portability. I carried the D810 with me walking to work the last two days and I can really feel the weight, even in my backpack.

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    2. :-)
      Thanks. You're correct and I like my GH1 more than the GH3 and still like my GF1 ... I would be tempted to swap the GH1 for an A7 but my GH1 is worth perhaps $150 now so selling it makes no sense

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  3. your L lens still has a use on your A7, just get a Canon EF Lens to Sony NEX Smart Adapter from metabones and enjoy Electronic aperture, EXIF, image stabilization (if the lens has IS), autofocus

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    1. I did try, and wrote a few usage reports on it. Mostly usable, but focuses was way too slow to be practical. Some lenses just won't work at all, at least with my adapter.

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  4. Yu-Lin,
    It seems you are not alone in this. My Canon 5DMk3 gets little action these days and my IR full spectrum 5DMk2 sees more. I don't have many L lenses just the basics but I will keep them for use on my A7's and IR 5DMk2 unless I find a buyer.

    By the way, I landed some work with Sony Singapore.

    http://www.sony-asia.com/microsite/ilc/sg/profile.html?p=3

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    1. Congrats Chester! That's great news!

      Yup, my Sony A7 is my daily camera. The Nikon gets used once in a while, and the only Canon camera I have left is the IR 20D.

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