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Thread: A nikonian Observation (rant)

  1. #1
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    A nikonian Observation (rant)

    This is an observation about my Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). It's relevant from the perspective of 'encouraging a non-photographer' to participate in the 'hobby' (professionals will understand the clear difference - I am not a professional).

    About six or seven years ago, I went through this GAS issue with my other half - ultimately it ended up being a futile exercise.

    My GAS / Nas / Leicophilia was escalating tremendously and I was being silly with purchases.. It spiralled out of control..

    I used the excuse of encouraging my other half to participate as a reason to make indiscriminate purchases of whatever camera/lens/accessory suited my whimsical notioning at the time.

    I already had a huge nikon F lens investment at this point, so there was no consideration given to splitting funds into a different mount (canon / fuji / minolta-sony)So, we went with a Nikon, naturally..... (not really surprising).

    The D7000 we purchased for her to use (still have it, with less than a few K on the shutter) was (still is) a fantastic camera.

    Had to expand the lenses to DX focal lengths at the short end, so we bought a dx35mm, the 10.5 fisheye, and the dx55-300 (kit lens swapout by dealer)
    This worked for a while, until SWMBO lost interest. It left me with extra gear, and no love for the camera or the lenses.

    Until I bought the D500. Again the 35mm and the 10.5 became useable. the 55-300 still sits in its pouch unused.

    Years on I still use the 35mm and the 10.5 on my d500. the 55-300 gets no love, because I have other fx lenses that actually cover the same range, and the 200-500vr which is phenomenal for what it offers at the price point. I expanded the dx lens purchase to the 12-24mm some years back to cover the short end up to the 35mm and it turned out to be an epic purchase which has been very rewarding on the D500.

    I felt that Nikon make great cameras and lenses, but until the d500 I have always felt that they really dumbed-down DX bodies to the point where they simply allowed their direct competition an avenue to outsell them at every level.

    By that, I don't mean every camera had to be a pro-level body. It's the simple things like the mount restrictions, the focusing system which would cost less to produce in large volume across the board, instead of offering 3 levels.
    and Sensors... don't get me whingeing on that one.

    When I bought the d500 body for myself, it was smoking hot off the press. I knew the camera had more in it than I could ever need. It still does. It will be the last digital body for me, until something comes out and utterly blows everything away for the next 2 decades.
    I consider this "investment" to be the one with the most ROI I have ever had from a dslr body.

    All my nikon lenses (save for a few pre-AI) still work on my DSLR F cameras - and that is probably the key to understanding why nikonian types like myself loathe to consider the 'cheaper' end of the dslr body line-up, and yet the d7000 is still an excellent body and packs a huge number of features - but it doesn't make the cut against a D500.

    And all the D800/e owners who thought wow.... this will be it..... got banged over the head by the arrival of the D850. Which... IS that good it hurts.

    All this $$$$ invested in bodies and lenses rarely gives a bloke time to just stop buying and selling gear - to stop and smell the roses - which ironically is most of the reason we carry cameras - to capture the memory.

    If I were in the position again where I would be buying another dslr body, be it for me or swmbo, I would probably buy a 2nd hand low shutter count body that was just superceeded and offloaded by someone with a bad case of NAS/GAS. The bonus is getting a good condition hardly used piece of gear that otherwise would make no sense in purchasing whatsoever when new.

    I did buy the D500 new. It wasn't available used, after all. The D800/850 thing was still just a bit inflated price-wise and I "knew" exactly what it was going to be for. It hasn't disappointed me.
    Having said that - in the last 6 months, I have hardly used it. I'm still shooting medium format, I'm still shooting 35mm RVP. I hand the D500 off to the missus, she will use it on Ch with af-c and mow down whatever she points it at ten times a second - IF - she feels like coming with me and lugging a 200-500 on the front... which is not often.

    and today, here I am with my faithful rz67ii and taking maybe 2 shots a minute - if I am lucky.

    I enjoy the slow life more it would seem.

    From a price point, I completely understand to a novicethat an entry level body makes sense. it's low outlay, and for someone who may not sustain an interest in photography (or prefers to use their iPhone) it is very difficult to persuade them to lug a dslr and a lens around.

    Even so, I'd buy one used. I don't think I'd ever buy another new body again, given how quickly they become obsolete.

    I've "been that fool" before, the guy who bought new bodies every time. I was acutely aware of the financial implications, was prepared to take that 'loss' based on the fact I wanted a new unit with zero shutter count and a full warranty.

    But years of experience has told me that I am doing it the wrong way.

    Right now, if I were to want to 'get into' photography, I'd look for a used d800e. or a d500. yep, too many bells and whistles for a beginner you may say..... but here's the catch.

    1. resale will still be ok if you don't wish to persist.
    2. FX always has a price premium (unwarranted) over DX
    3. top-end used bodies sell for the same price as new lower-rung (less features, less resolution, less dynamic range) dslr bodies.

    So up until the coming of the D850 and D500, I think that would have been absolutely the way to go.

    Now, with the mirrorless crew knocking on the door, I'd have ditched my Nikon gear (if I wasn't so heavily invested) and gone to Fuji.

    Sony is not a brand I have any desire for and I have been burned by their junk quality before and poor customer service. Never again.

    Insofar as the little red dot is concerned, my M6 and D-lux4 (panasonic under license made) serve me well for compact film and little digital p&s.
    but there is a lot more functionality on that little digital body than many would know - and certainly one would also think that because panasonic parallel produced a body almost the same, that it 'is' - but they are two very different beasts (and the leica requires some callibration in the bundled capture one software, so it's not for a novice)

    I watch a lot of youtube stuff - and note that the panasonic GH4/5 and the sony a7 series and the canon 70D/80D are the 'vloggers' staple, nothing from Nikon... yet the video on the d500 is quite impressive, considering it's a stills camera.

    So the problem I see is this:

    A novice wants to be able to take fantastic pictures right from the first frame (and they don't understand why this gear isn't delivering NatGeo spec covershots when they review their own work), they want the camera to be able to take video that looks like anamorphic lenses on panavision... yet they have a 50mm/1.8 on the front.

    They want everything, and want it yesterday. They don't understand that it is a skill that takes decades to master, and even then, there is no guarantee your images will be 'celebrated' like Bresson or Ansel.

    And while there is a huge sideways shift in photographic tech at the moment, the familiar brands are all trying to out-manouvere each other, without really focusing on the photographer.

    What they ARE doing is playing the feature game. Bringing out new models and updates and product marketing BS for every little subtle nuance they change. In this game Sony ar7 are world leaders in BS marketing.

    Does anyone here watch the marketing shift that the big youtube influencers have made to sony? $$$$ shill for gear. Look at that once-credible objective australian 'nikon guy' Matt Granger. Look at the 'canon can do no wrong' Northrup channel. Have a look at the channels which are extensions of online retailing (formerly digital rev Kai, Lok, Warren) or the reasonably balanced TCS in Canada. They are all still positioning themselves to sell gear and promote a brand, but they are not being critically open or honest.

    And this influencing network is how people are buying gear. Buying without testing, buying without proper educated unbiased research, buying because someone else told them to "buy that one".

    Ted Forbes "The art of Photography" channel has been a staple of mine for many years, simply because he exposes the creative side and the art history. The shill-for-gear-review channels like northrup / granger etc. don't deliver anything other than really basic skillset education (stuff you can get from google, a subject-matter textbook or any photography forum/website) so long as it fits within their 'branding affiliation' amazon or bit.ly links - like the Fro knows how to market himself photo...

    Another blatant (and strange) biased channel "the angry photographer" Ken Wheeler has declared openly his reviews do have some bias, but not at the technical level. On the tech level he's upfront about shortcomings on everything, but from a user-experience you can detect some natural bias to Nikon and Fuji - both systems he is heavily invested in himself.

    Which brings me almost back to square one.

    When I started out in my hobby, I was already familiar with a Nikon F mount, and the camera body. My father had an F, so I learned the basics from him when I was young, but the interest never came until my late 20's, by which time the darkroom was defunct and full of cobwebs (so to speak) and my sister had not persisted with the 'taking over' bit.

    I wanted to buy my own gear - and that ultimately ended with me on eBay, looking at Nikon F2 photomic and F3Titans, like my fathers. Why? Familiarity.
    The other reason was that the Olympus gear was just not 'available', the canon gear had about 3 different mounts and different bodies, which confused me. Leica was simply not affordable - but it was what I wanted - an M3 or M6 and 3 lenses would have done me forever.....

    It still would - but crikey, prices are crazy.

    And that is where Nikon filled the void for me. Not because it was better. It was consistent, had a reputation as being solid, reliable and the image quality was superb.

    Medium format was a studio camera when I was younger. they were only for pros. Serious Pros, with Huge bank accounts.

    I looked to all of the 'big names' with a historic reputation - the Hasselblad, Rolliflex, Mamiya, the Contax, Pentax, Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Leica, even minolta (80's).

    Ebay was a source of bargain camera gear. My local camera store owner would always be trading bodies and lenses, and I'd go there every other day, just to check out stuff. We became friends - he took my money, I bought his trade-ins, and retraded them and he made more money off me....

    But what I learned, is that of all the quality gear out there, the Nikon stuff was the best cared for and most affordable on the whole. Canon stuff was more 'modern' and less well looked after, and much cheaper, but also less reliable. Leica was still not affordable even if it had been through 4 or 5 owners.

    Eventually, one has to 'commit' to a 'system' in order to bring costs under control. I ended up in Nikon F system, with lots of lovely 35mm bodies, and eventually took the plunge on the DSLR's when I had enough AI lenses to make it worthwhile.

    I still have a couple olympus 35mm cameras, a couple of canon rangefinders, and some vintage TLR's, some cool minox micro stuff - but all of that is ancillary to my Nikon gear. The Mamiya RZp2 is a staple, and the full compliment of lenses was a lucky purchase. I still love it's HUGE negs.

    Now that Nikon are allegedly dumping the F mount, I am thinking that there will be no sense in investing in dslr in the future.

    So I'm going back to my 35mm and the MF, and enjoying film again.

    I think Nikon have lost their direction. They are not the highly focused (no pun intended) imaging company that they have been for 95 of the last 100 years. Sony have outflanked eveyone with marketing and mirrorless investment, and bled their competition dry on sensors, then storage media.

    Things are looking more like a corporate monopoly from where I stand, and Nikon / Canon haven't got a competitive offering which smacks down the sony marketing machine.

    I've used an a7/3. I find that the images are ok, but on the camera I used, they have a colour cast. I hate the menu, the body doesn't feel ergonomic to me, and I understand what people do like about it, but I also feel that those who do, are not 100% truthful with themselves. The camera has some huge flaws which canon, fuji, leica and nikon do not have.

    I'm stuggling to understand what all the hype is. Really, I am. I can't see the value in the G-master lenses either. It appears to be mass-marketing in the style of the third reich.... people are just 'believing' the propaganda.

    I'm not sure where this is going to end up.... either the F mount stuff will become cheap (and I'd like that) because of the move to mirrorless or it will go the way of all vintage stuff and the price will go through the roof to the point where I'd buy leica 35mm stuff for less....

    I don't have the gift of foresight, but now would be a good time to have it. I'm not using my DSLR as much, I do appreciate the convenience of it, but the reality is that the iphone is ALWAYS available and when I'm going out specifically to take pics, I end up with the RZ or the (lately) F4e hanging off my neck.

    So now would be a good time to either buy a used D850, or sell all my dslr bodies. Or sell all my camera gear and buy a new iphone.

  2. #2
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    Ah GAS!

    The ideal is that the artist or craftsman knows which tool to use, when to use it and how. So the gear should disappear or at least take a subsidiary place and not get in the way of the objective. So if the I phone fulfills that requirement then that is all that is needed.

    So unfortunately at our discomfort we need to suffer from GAS in our quest.

    Mahn England

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  3. #3
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    Nice rant..... with lots and lots of very valid points.

    I'm pretty heavily invested in the Nikon system, there are still one or two lenses that I would like if I find them second hand at the right price..... but no matter what Nikon do going forward, I can see what I currently have in my bag(s) doing me for many many years to come.

    Funny how many of us have to go through a phase of serious GAS. I don't regret it , because it taught me a lot about what I want and what I don't want....and a process of "trading up" glass has got me to a point I've got a collection of quality glass that suits nearly all of my needs.

    But if you looked at this purely through a financial lens (pardon the pun)..... you wouldn't even start down the new DSLR path in my view.

    Glad I did though, that "investment" has brought be thousands of hours of pleasure.... and one or two quite reasonable images as well.
    Mark

    Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most

    2015 TDV6 D4.... the latest project... Llams, Traxide, Icom 455, Tuffant Kimberleys and Mofos.... so far.
    2012 SDV6 SE D4 with some stuff... gone...
    2003 D2a TD5...gone...
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    https://bymark.photography


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