10 reasons why a Pro Photographer left Nikon...

[Scatterbrained]

..........................Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

........until it gets dark. . . . or things are moving quickly. . . . . EVFs have a lot of promise, but lag time kills them for fast moving sports and using them in a poorly lit environment, fuhgedaboutit. I love the promise. I love using focus peaking. However, they just don't hold up in challenging conditions. They also mean the sensor is charged all the time, increasing heat in the sensor which increases noise. Something you don't want to be dealing with if you're already maxing out your iso.

 

[ConradM]

..........................Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

........until it gets dark. . . . or things are moving quickly. . . . . EVFs have a lot of promise, but lag time kills them for fast moving sports and using them in a poorly lit environment, fuhgedaboutit. I love the promise. I love using focus peaking. However, they just don't hold up in challenging conditions. They also mean the sensor is charged all the time, increasing heat in the sensor which increases noise. Something you don't want to be dealing with if you're already maxing out your iso.

What's the last camera you tried with an EVF? All of the things you mention are non-issues. Those are complaints that might have been valid a few years ago. The EVF on my a77 is amazing and is actually a bonus when it get's dark. With an OVF you can't even see when it get's dark.

 

[Scatterbrained]

..........................Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

........until it gets dark. . . . or things are moving quickly. . . . . EVFs have a lot of promise, but lag time kills them for fast moving sports and using them in a poorly lit environment, fuhgedaboutit. I love the promise. I love using focus peaking. However, they just don't hold up in challenging conditions. They also mean the sensor is charged all the time, increasing heat in the sensor which increases noise. Something you don't want to be dealing with if you're already maxing out your iso.

What's the last camera you tried with an EVF? All of the things you mention are non-issues. Those are complaints that might have been valid a few years ago. The EVF on my a77 is amazing and is actually a bonus when it get's dark. With an OVF you can't even see when it get's dark.

The Sony A7. I had a chance to play with one and while it would work great for half of the shooting I do (tripod/studio/daytime walk-around) it's still not there yet.

 

[gsgary]

..........................Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

........until it gets dark. . . . or things are moving quickly. . . . . EVFs have a lot of promise, but lag time kills them for fast moving sports and using them in a poorly lit environment, fuhgedaboutit. I love the promise. I love using focus peaking. However, they just don't hold up in challenging conditions. They also mean the sensor is charged all the time, increasing heat in the sensor which increases noise. Something you don't want to be dealing with if you're already maxing out your iso.

What's the last camera you tried with an EVF? All of the things you mention are non-issues. Those are complaints that might have been valid a few years ago. The EVF on my a77 is amazing and is actually a bonus when it get's dark. With an OVF you can't even see when it get's dark.

The Sony A7. I had a chance to play with one and while it would work great for half of the shooting I do (tripod/studio/daytime walk-around) it's still not there yet.

What won't it do ?

 

[e.rose]

Too long, didn't watch (past 2:52), looked up his work while he was word vomiting and found that I'm not impressed. At all. Not even a little. I'd even go as far as to say that I don't *like* his work. At all. Not even a little.

Therefore, his opinion is invalid and I could give two sh*t as to why he switched to Sony.

 

[gsgary]

Manual focus lenses work pretty well on static or slow-moving stuff, like the dogs or cats lounging about, or horses jumping over equestrian jumps, where all one needs to do is PRE-focus, and wait, and click.

In the video, the only photos we saw were of starving Ethiopian people, staring ahead at yet another American who had traveled to their country to photograph their plight. Those images could have been shot with any one of 200 cameras. They were unremarkable photos in every way.

Not a lot of real challenges being overcome in ANY of these three types of scenarios.

Just like Galleries | Steve McCurry and he is one of the worst photographers

 

[Derrel]

99% of McCurry's entire work has not been shot with anything with the name "Sony" on it...some of those pictures are 15 years old...he might be shooting Sony today, but the majority of the stuff in that portfolio is OLD, and was allll pre-Sony.

On the flip side, how about Dave Black: "NOT a Sony shooter". Sports Image Portfolio

As we say above in that world championships photo...NINE big, black Nikons, and EIGHT big, black Canon 1D series cameras, the shooters all packed together...and the one videographer there? Well, maybe he had a Sony. The vast majority of working professionals across the world use either Canon or Nikon cameras for their "small camera". Medium format rollfilm has been driven to the brink of extinction as a professional staple. It's probably safe to say that 85% of all professionally-made photos today are shot with a Canon or Nikon d-slr. View cameras and rollfilm cameras are almost dead now. It's been only about 15 years since film ruled the roost in areas like architectural photography, but now that tilt/shift lenses are so good, and software can now easily make multi-shot stitches as well as distortion corrections, using 4x5 film cameras even at the high end has almost stopped.

It's pretty hard to argue that today's d-slrs are "bad imagers" or "bad tools". What Lanier argues is that Sony cameras are light and small, and inexpensive, and people will look at you and think you cannot possibly be a professional because you're using a tiny camera like the one they might own, and that by directly uploading from weddings, he will not, "Have people with their iPhones...stealing thunder," by posting first to social media. Wow...some great points he raises. Those are some of his most enthusiastic arguments...

 

[Derrel]

Interesting little piece from Thom Hogan:

A Nail in the DX Coffin? | byThom | Thom Hogan

This is one thing that seems like long time DSLR's struggle with -

Thing is, how would Nikon get someone like Bob Krist back? It’s a long list. Better video with an EVF instead of an LCD.

Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

Interesting little piece from Thom Hogan:

A Nail in the DX Coffin? | byThom | Thom Hogan

This is one thing that seems like long time DSLR's struggle with -

Thing is, how would Nikon get someone like Bob Krist back? It’s a long list. Better video with an EVF instead of an LCD.

Seems like a lot of you guys don't want to let go of OVF's but EVF's are so much more convenient.

Yeah. Bob Krist: one of the very few well-known professionals who INSISTED on staying with Nikon DX only, and refused to use a full-frame camera because DX Nikons are smaller and lighter. Krist carved out a niche for himself as being a "DX-only" Nikon shooter who favored light, small, "amateur-type" equipment and lenses. He was one of the first to be given Nikon's then new 18-200 VR-II, if I recall. One of the big new super-zooms from Nikon...they set him up with one, and allowed him to leak some images early, and it pretty much set off a huge pre-order rush for the thing. Krist was sort of the Popular Photography reader's idolized pro...that was his niche.

When Nikon shocked the world with the D3 and D3s, he struck with the D90 and D300, two poor performers noise-wise and DR-wise, clinging to small in the face of the world's best high-ISO and best focusing performance. Even though he could have used the world's best, he clung to smaller, lighter,inferior cameras; that is his money-maker.

As he mentions, he's shooting more and more video, and Sony has always been a video camera maker of high standing. He also complains that he cannot handle 18 pounds of equipment, but he can handle a 12-pound Sony bag. And since he makes his living jetting all over the world shooting travel photography, and he has made a name for himself as a pro who likes using consumer-type equipment (remember, that has been his niche, the pro who refuses to go full-frame!), it makes sense that he'd move partially to Sony. He's the perfect candidate for small,light, consumer-type gear. He's been using that segment of Nikon's product matrix for a long time now. He has been a shill for Nikon for a long time, and his magazine and on-line hawking of Nikon's DX-ONLY and superzoom type gear has made a lot of sales from the Popular Photography crowd that wants to buy what a particular pro endorses through a camera company's "ambassador" program. Thom mentions that amateurs want to buy what "the pros use". As Nikon has moved to an FX-centric line, with five full-frame bodies,I suspect Krist saw the writing on the wall, as the DX-only, no FX for me Nikon user base looks kind of doomed.

 

[JacaRanda]

Thanks for sharing the Dave Black link D! Enjoyed the heck out of his portfolio.

 

[gsgary]

Look what a Magnum photographer uses What's In Your Camera Bag?: Magnum Photographer Peter van Agtmael - Feature Shoot

 

[Ysarex]

OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!

It's contagious! By next week every squirrel across the country will be infected!! OMG! OMG!!!!!!

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok, so here's an interesting little experiment. Ask 100 people randomly off the street if they are going to buy their next camera based off what McCurry shoots. Or Krist. Or any of the other professionals named so far in this thread.

If you get more than 1 response that isn't something like, "Who the hell is McCurry" - well honestly I'd be surprised.

 

[Derrel]

ALBINO SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Run for the hills!!!!!

Well, doggone it... he's eating dried corn kernels, so that makes me think there';s some evil bast**d trying to fattern him up to make squirrel bacon this winter! so,so sad.

Anyway, this is Conrad's thread, and I know he's a Sony user. And I know Gary's sold on the new Sony A7 paired with some of his Cosina-made lenses in Leica mount. I own three nice Cosina-made lenses in Leica thread mount; the 35/1.7 and 50mm f/1.5 aspherical models, and the nifty little 75mm f/2.5. So far, the BEST digital camera for those would be the Sony A7, the 24MP model, although if I went for a SONY NEX, I could save a lot of money, and get to use them as crop-factor lenses. I think Sony did a pretty good job of proving that it is possible to make a small-bodied, full-frame camera that can accept MANY different lens brands with affordable, glass-free adapters. Right now the A7 series is really kind of a standout offering, and I can totally "get" why people like it. And the A6000 at $599 is a nice body, and the 16-50mm f/2.8 looks pretty decent.

I think if Sony wants to really gain more market share, they need to push that A7 series price down with a sort of economy model. $1699 keeps the 24-MP model in direct competition with very nice d-slr models. An $849 model might change my mind.

 

[robbins.photo]

OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!

It's contagious! By next week every squirrel across the country will be infected!! OMG! OMG!!!!!!

Can't we quarantine them or something? Make sure they can't get on airplanes? Spray paint them?

Do we need an Albino Squirrel Czar?

 

[gsgary]

ALBINO SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Run for the hills!!!!!

Well, doggone it... he's eating dried corn kernels, so that makes me think there';s some evil bast**d trying to fattern him up to make squirrel bacon this winter! so,so sad.

Anyway, this is Conrad's thread, and I know he's a Sony user. And I know Gary's sold on the new Sony A7 paired with some of his Cosina-made lenses in Leica mount. I own three nice Cosina-made lenses in Leica thread mount; the 35/1.7 and 50mm f/1.5 aspherical models, and the nifty little 75mm f/2.5. So far, the BEST digital camera for those would be the Sony A7, the 24MP model, although if I went for a SONY NEX, I could save a lot of money, and get to use them as crop-factor lenses. I think Sony did a pretty good job of proving that it is possible to make a small-bodied, full-frame camera that can accept MANY different lens brands with affordable, glass-free adapters. Right now the A7 series is really kind of a standout offering, and I can totally "get" why people like it. And the A6000 at $599 is a nice body, and the 16-50mm f/2.8 looks pretty decent.

I think if Sony wants to really gain more market share, they need to push that A7 series price down with a sort of economy model. $1699 keeps the 24-MP model in direct competition with very nice d-slr models. An $849 model might change my mind.

No because we will be getting all the chav's buying it, at the moment lots of Leica shooters are buying it