New DSLR or Mirrorless?

[mpldenco]

Looking for some opinions on buying a new camera body. I'm feeling a bit weighed down by the literal weight of the camera system and the amount of equipment I have. I am looking to lighten up a bit by paring down what I have and upgrading my Nikon D810 camera body. I have Nikon lenses which I love so I think I want to keep them but I'm not totally sure. Is it worth it to get a new DSLR or should I be switching to mirrorless? And if I do switch to a Nikon Z6 or Z7 in order to keep some of my lenses, are there cons to using adapters to get them to work? Or should I try to get Z mount lenses instead down the line? Just starting to think about this and I'm open to suggestions! Thanks.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome, if you go Mirrorless you will save at least half the weight of DSLR gear..............

 

[ac12]

Hello and welcome, if you go Mirrorless you will save at least half the weight of DSLR gear..............

Maybe in the body, but not the lens. FX is FX, the image circle is the same size.
If you want to get the lens size/weight down, you need to go to a smaller format, or a lens with a new lightweight design.

 

[petrochemist]

I find the big advantage of mirrorless systems is their flexibility. Unlike with a DSLR I can use practically any old lens (modern lenses with electronic focus & aperture are a pain to adapt) The EVF also allows me to see in low light (useful for macro or at night) & also shows any IR etc effects the sensor sees (great for converted cameras but also when just adding a filter to a standard model)

When it comes to action shots like BIF & airshows my DSLR still wins out, but the mirrorless bodies have taken over with everything else.

Maybe in the body, but not the lens. FX is FX, the image circle is the same size.
If you want to get the lens size/weight down, you need to go to a smaller format, or a lens with a new lightweight design.

I use a Industar 50 on my A7ii (via a techart pro) The combined weight of the techart adapter & lens is pretty minimal for a FF AF 50mm lens. but it's hardly a new lens design!

There are quite a few old rangefinder lenses that perform quite well on this sort of set-up all are very lightweight compared to modern lenses.

 

[RVT1K]

I have too much invested in my lenses to switch platforms.

But if I were just starting out, I would go with a mirrorless system.

What is deficient in your D810 that makes you want to upgrade?

 

[beagle100]

Hello and welcome, if you go Mirrorless you will save at least half the weight of DSLR gear..............

at least .... and mirrorless can easily use DSLR lenses
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[ac12]

Hello and welcome, if you go Mirrorless you will save at least half the weight of DSLR gear..............

at least .... and mirrorless can easily use DSLR lenses
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

Only if you go to a smaller sensor, and use the smaller APS-C or m4/3 non-pro lenses.
If you put a FF pro lens (like the 70-200/2.8) on an APS-C camera, there is ZERO savings on the lens size/weight.

And NOT ALL dSLR lenses will work on all mirrorless cameras.
ALL of my Nikon AF/AFS lenses turn into fully manual lenses on my Olympus; no autofocus, no control of the aperture from the camera, no VR.
Nikon AF lenses will NOT autofocus with the FTZ adapter. The FTZ only supports the electronic AFS lenses, not the mechanical AF lenses.

 

[SquarePeg]

Looking for some opinions on buying a new camera body. I'm feeling a bit weighed down by the literal weight of the camera system and the amount of equipment I have. I am looking to lighten up a bit by paring down what I have and upgrading my Nikon D810 camera body. I have Nikon lenses which I love so I think I want to keep them but I'm not totally sure. Is it worth it to get a new DSLR or should I be switching to mirrorless? And if I do switch to a Nikon Z6 or Z7 in order to keep some of my lenses, are there cons to using adapters to get them to work? Or should I try to get Z mount lenses instead down the line? Just starting to think about this and I'm open to suggestions! Thanks.

Having had similar issues with feeling weighted down by my Nikon dslr gear, I made the switch to mirrorless (Fuji Xt2) 2 years ago and am very happy with the move. Originally my thought was to buy the mirrorless to use for travel and keep my Nikon gear for my more “serious” photography. I enjoyed the size and function and results of the Fuji so much that I soon sold off all of my Nikon gear. I’ve accumulated a bunch of lenses since then but my kit when I go out shooting is typically the 18-55, 50-230 and 60mm macro. This weighs less than half of what I was carrying for similar gear with my Nikon and has so many other advantages (search this forum for my posts about Fuji love). Best move I’ve ever made.

 

[Derrel]

do not listen to beagle,s blanket proclamation that all DSLR lenses work "easily" on mirrorless...that is a canard that he is fond of repeating here on TPF... consider what it means to lose auto focus and aperture control, etc. instead of a blanket endorsement of using mirroless cameras with legacy lenses, look at the advantages of using modern , autofocusing,system-native lenses on any camera that you buy and hope to use. for example using a 1950s Industar 50 mm lens on a 2017 mirrorless...that's kind of interesting .., bragging about using a 60-year-old lens on 21st century camera... with no autofocusing, with no evaluative metering, with only limited exposure methods, it's not a panacea, but merely a clever trick taking you back roughly to the 1950s in terms of The way your camera operates, versus instant autofocusing with system-native lenses. Keep in mind that many SLR wide-angle lenses of old are retrofocus and the newest designs are not, and Nikon and Canon and Sony's newest lenses are of extremely high-quality and are optimized for use on modern digital sensors. Remember the "Red dot "issue that came from using film era lenses on digital cameras? There is nothing quite like a big orange diaphragm-shaped ghost in the middle of your images... this was a real problem with many lenses about 10 years ago, and manufacturers repositioned the lens diaphragms and reworked their Optical designs to eliminate this issue. For example Tamron's line of DI lenses, which stands for digitally integrated, or The line of extremely high-quality new lenses made by Olympus, and Panasonic, and Leica specifically for use on mirrorless cameras.

 

[beagle100]

Hello and welcome, if you go Mirrorless you will save at least half the weight of DSLR gear..............

at least .... and mirrorless can easily use DSLR lenses
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

Only if you go to a smaller sensor, and use the smaller APS-C or m4/3 non-pro lenses.
If you put a FF pro lens (like the 70-200/2.8) on an APS-C camera, there is ZERO savings on the lens size/weight.

And NOT ALL dSLR lenses will work on all mirrorless cameras.
ALL of my Nikon AF/AFS lenses turn into fully manual lenses on my Olympus; no autofocus, no control of the aperture from the camera, no VR.
Nikon AF lenses will NOT autofocus with the FTZ adapter. The FTZ only supports the electronic AFS lenses, not the mechanical AF lenses.

actually mirrorless cameras (APS-C or full frame) can easily use DSLR lens (Canon)
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[D7K]

FWIW I tried moving to mirrorless from DSLR, It just didn't sit with me, the weight, once you add the lenses was not so different to be honest, I stuck with it for around 8 month, the main things I didn't like was how it was in my hand, the balance with some lenses was not great, battery life was absolutely awful. I sold it and moved back to DSLR picking up the D850. Never looked back, maybe in a couple of years I'll look into the whichever version of the Z series is out then but for now I'll stick with DSLR. I read about the Z9 and the other Z model coming out soon but I can't say I'm so tempted. To each their own however..

 

[petrochemist]

actually mirrorless cameras (APS-C or full frame) can easily use DSLR lens (Canon)

Adding the (Canon) makes a huge difference to your quote. Without it the statement implies all DSLR lenses, which they can dearly always use but sometimes only in manual focus mode & potentially without aperture control a few are impractical to focus as well such as the Minolta Vectris lenses (which are focus by wire & electronic aperture yet a unusual mount not worth reverse engineering). Modern Nikon lenses are considerably more awkward to adapt then EF models but this is now changing as new AF adapters are coming out.

FWIW my A7ii can autofocus the 1950s Industar lenses @Derrel mentioned. It doesn't do quite so well auto focusing long focal length manual lenses though. Auto aperture is still beyond it with this lens.

 

[jaomul]

Both have advantages. If I was starting now and buying new I'd probably look at mirrorless more seriously. Having said that even if DSLR sales are slowing there is enough gear available for the systems to keep things ok for years to come

 

[ac12]

Looking for some opinions on buying a new camera body. I'm feeling a bit weighed down by the literal weight of the camera system and the amount of equipment I have. I am looking to lighten up a bit by paring down what I have and upgrading my Nikon D810 camera body. I have Nikon lenses which I love so I think I want to keep them but I'm not totally sure. Is it worth it to get a new DSLR or should I be switching to mirrorless?

Maybe in the body, but not the lens. FX is FX, the image circle is the same size.
If you want to get the lens size/weight down, you need to go to a smaller format, or a lens with a new lightweight design.
What I am saying is that the weight savings on a multi-lens kit will be minimal, if any, because the Z lenses will not be any lighter than your F lenses.

What I did to reduce size and weight was to switch from DX to m4/3.
My m4/3 travel camera EM1-mk1 + Panasonic-Lumix 12-60 is significantly smaller and 43% lighter than my D7200 + 18-140.
The big weight savings is in the long lenses, where the crop factor plays to your advantage.
The 40-150 is equivalent to a 80-300 on FX, but MUCH smaller and lighter.
And the m4/3, the 75-300 is equivalent to a 150-600 on a FX camera, but again MUCH smaller and lighter.

And if I do switch to a Nikon Z6 or Z7 in order to keep some of my lenses, are there cons to using adapters to get them to work? Or should I try to get Z mount lenses instead down the line? Just starting to think about this and I'm open to suggestions! Thanks.

The FTZ adapter will NOT autofocus the mechanical autofocus AF lenses, and may some other lenses won't work on the adapter. You need to research the specifics on the Nikon site.
IMHO, for your primary lenses, you will ultimately want to switch over to Z lenses.

 

[beagle100]

actually mirrorless cameras (APS-C or full frame) can easily use DSLR lens (Canon)

Adding the (Canon) makes a huge difference to your quote. Without it the statement implies all DSLR lenses, which they can dearly always use but sometimes only in manual focus mode & potentially without aperture control a few are impractical to focus as well such as the Minolta Vectris lenses (which are focus by wire & electronic aperture yet a unusual mount not worth reverse engineering). Modern Nikon lenses are considerably more awkward to adapt then EF models but this is now changing as new AF adapters are coming out.
FWIW my A7ii can autofocus the 1950s Industar lenses @Derrel mentioned. It doesn't do quite so well auto focusing long focal length manual lenses though. Auto aperture is still beyond it with this lens.

true, mirrorless cameras can easily use DSLR lenses .... Canon EF and EFS
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless