Is upgrading my camera worth it?

[Original katomi]

Agree with above, post num 14 I think what we have said in one way or another is do your homework look up reviews, see what lenses are available what costs get some hands on. My local camera shop {on their used items digital } will let people who are serious about a camera/lens shoot a few shots to take home for review

 

[Soocom1]

Agree with above, I think what we have said in one way or another is do your homework look up reviews, see what lenses are available what costs get some hands on. My local camera shop {on their used items digital } will let people who are serious about a camera/lens shoot a few shots to take home for review

I envy you!

 

[Original katomi]

Get a pad and pen, { ok I am a fossil} make a list of what you want do for both film and digital
Then add pro,s and cons. Think about the processing of the film and if you going to do that in house or have a lab.

 

[Original katomi]

Agree with above, I think what we have said in one way or another is do your homework look up reviews, see what lenses are available what costs get some hands on. My local camera shop {on their used items digital } will let people who are serious about a camera/lens shoot a few shots to take home for review

I envy you!

Why?

 

[Soocom1]

Agree with above, I think what we have said in one way or another is do your homework look up reviews, see what lenses are available what costs get some hands on. My local camera shop {on their used items digital } will let people who are serious about a camera/lens shoot a few shots to take home for review

I envy you!

Why?

We dont have that here.

Photo stores in NM are becoming an endangered species.

 

[zulu42]

I think medium and large format as a hiking camera would require careful treading for sure!

I do think a hobbyist level mirrorless and kit lens would increase the quality, but there's a lot more to the equation.

 

[Original katomi]

Agree with above, I think what we have said in one way or another is do your homework look up reviews, see what lenses are available what costs get some hands on. My local camera shop {on their used items digital } will let people who are serious about a camera/lens shoot a few shots to take home for review

I envy you!

Why?

We dont have that here.

Photo stores in NM are becoming an endangered species.

I see, we are loosing ours as well since I started digital, 3 old established photography shops have closed.



Just a tiny bit more advice, unless you really know what you are doing or really trust the seller I would be really careful buying from the chap down the road. I have bought used from car boot sale and got a duff.
I wish you the very best, I have done film both 35 mm and med format, in the past and really had fun. I have come back to photography after my disability forced me to give up work and my past hobbies

 

[dxqcanada]

Here is a shot from my Sony NEX-6 and cheap kit lens, which came out before the A6000
Not sure if you can see if the IQ is better than your Panasonic.
Its not the best image ... really a snap shot ... oh, and the camera was actually in an underwater housing at the time.

 

[Original katomi]

Please note my digital photography is canon based DSLR I can not comment on other brands/types as I have not used them.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Just get yourself an entry level DSLR. Or rent one for a week to see how you like it. They're cheap enough that you can get one and experiment with, and decide if you wanna stick with it and maybe pursue photography further.

A Nikon D5xxx or Canon Rebel are good starters. Kit lens will give you an idea of image quality with the given camera in terms of image resolution, but to get images that are truly magical, it'll take good glass, and good technique. You have to determine if it's worth the investment for you.

 

[Soocom1]

Medium format has an advantage with something called Enlargement Ratio. this ratio is NOT the aspect ratio but has aspects that is affected by it.

The simple way of explaining that is to simply point out that you don't need to enlarge a MF or LF image very much to be viewed or displayed and moreover, the DoF in a larger formats is not heavily affected so you don't get the extreme flat zoom effect that you get with 35mm and smaller.
Plus the images look more 3 dimensional.



New Mexico as I pointed out in a diff. thread was a hotspot of photography in the past.
We practically were the testing ground for a hell of alot of photography aspects with the Balloon Fiesta, Taos, Santa Fe and the pueblos, along with the most gorgeous sunsets in the galaxy!

As I said before, you couldn't throw a cat without hitting a store selling photo supplies.

But now, NM has about 6 stores all across the Land of Entrapment and shrinking fast.
Hell, Wally World doesn't sell much photo stuff anymore locally.

 

[ac12]

The huge majority of my pictures are mountains. I hike all the time and take many pictures of distant mountains and scenic landscapes including sunsets. I also take a decent amount of lake and waterfall pictures. Lastly, I love taking pictures of wildlife when I see them. That is it. I never do portraits, sports, cities or anything like that.

I like my current pictures, but wouldn't mind getting better quality pictures. So I'm thinking about upgrading. I like the idea of mirrorless simply to keep size and weight down.

. . .

With my point and shoot, I have noticed that really far off mountains are not super smooth, particularly when zoomed in.

Also, the colour is always a little on the dull side. I realize this is mostly likely my problem and not the gear's problem.

Since you hike, I presume bulk and weight is a major concern.

As you go up in camera format, so will the bulk and weight.

Going to a mirrorless camera will only reduce the size of the camera. For a given format, the mirrorless lens will be the same size as the dSLR lens (or bigger).

The Full Frame equivalent that @dxqcanada computed is staggering.

• I would NOT want to haul a FF 150-600 zoom hiking.
  • How many days of food will that lens displace?
• Much smaller and lighter is a micro 4/3, 75-300.
• But your Panasonic is even smaller and lighter.
• And for both the FF and m4/3 you will need other lenses to give you the wide coverage. More lenses = more bulk and weight.

Distant/long shots are always challenging.

• The farther the subject/scene, the more air, airborne "stuff" (dust, smog, smoke, pollen, etc.) and temp/heat effect of the air (mirage), will degrade the image.
  
• And the longer the distance, the more the color will be affected. The part of the song "purple mountain majesty," is due to the effect of looking through a LOT of air. Distant hills are more blue/purple than closer hills/landscape.

You will have to compromise on how far you shoot and how much magnification you want, and are willing to carry.

 

[smoke665]

Whoa! I had to go back and read through this thread a couple times to make sure I hadn't missed something. How have recommendations sprinted from a compact point & shoot currently used to a medium format?

From the OP post: "The huge majority of my pictures are mountains. I hike all the time and take many pictures of distant mountains and scenic landscapes including sunsets. I also take a decent amount of lake and waterfall pictures. Lastly, I love taking pictures of wildlife when I see them. That is it. I never do portraits, sports, cities or anything like that.

I mostly just use the auto mode."

I'm not sure about others, but if I'm hiking any distance the last thing I want to carry is a bag full of gear. Further on the OP states, "More accurate to what I saw in person. That's probably the best way to put it. I really just want my pictures to be as close to seeing the real thing in person".

I'm going to back up and offer a couple of suggestions based on your earlier comments.

1. If the camera is secondary to the hike and your primary objective is to create a memory, then there's nothing wrong with a light weight point and shoot. There are some new ones on the market that you might look at that would be an improvement over what you have, and still offer great quality images. One that comes to mind is the Ricoh GRII another is the Fuji X100F both offer at least some weather sealing, and both have the ability to take images on par with a DSLR and a bag full of gear. Both allow you to go full auto, or take control, and offer enough gadgetry to satisfy the need for tech.
2. Lastly, the camera doesn't "make good images". It merely records what's put in front of it. If you want to improve your landscape images, you first need to learn how to take good landscape shots. Learn about how to frame a composition, what to look for in lighting, how colors work together, and what makes a good exposure. There's a ton of Youtube videos out there that will help. Your local library may have a few books on photography that will help. One that I always recommend first to beginners, because it's easy to understand is Hedgecoe's https://www.amazon.com/Take-Great-Photographs-John-Hedgecoe/dp/1843403307 he has a whole series of books, that any one would help you.

 

[Derrel]

After reading this thread carefully I would tend to agree with 665smoke and Darryl Morgan.
I really do not think that a new camera should cost you more than $549 for the body and a two-lens kit with the camera being something like the Nikon D3400 or a Canon Rebel,with the two lenses being an 18–55 mm zoom and a 70–300 mm zoom.
As far as making your photos look as close to what you eyes saw:At distance haze in the air is recorded very clearly by a camera, but our eye is able to penetrate The haze in the atmosphere. Human vision is able to look past a lot of things, but the camera is an all-seeing optical and mechanical device.
There really is not a tremendous amount of weight savings in a mirrorless APS-Ccamera like the Sony A6000, when it and its two lenses are compared to a Nikon D 3400 or a Canon Rebel.
Since you say you do not print your photos, you don't need anything particularly high end, and you certainly do not need a medium format digital.

 

[Derrel]

In answer to your question "is upgrading my camera worth it?", My answer would be maybe, maybe not. I think what might be helpful is upgrading your post processing skills, and maybe your software