Thinking of coming back to Nikon DSLR, should I?

CaptainNapalm

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Hey guys. I've enjoyed photography as my primary hobby for a solid five years however for the past year and a bit I haven't been as active with my camera as I'd like. I attribute part of that to being extremely busy with other things but as much as I want to deny it I also think it's largely due to the fact that about a year ago I sold all of my Nikon DSLR gear in favour of the Fuji mirrorless system.

A bit of a background. I started off with the D5100 back in 2011, a year later moved onto the D7000 and about a year later I got the D600 which I got to enjoy for a solid year before I sold all my gear. Over the few years I accumulated a small collection of decent glass, external flash among other goodies, which I also all liquified over a year ago. My excuse for selling everything was that the full frame Nikon system I was using was bulky and I found that I would leave my camera home more often than not just so I don't have to lug that around with a few clunky lenses all day long, or constantly worry that someone would sit on my expensive gear at a function. I convinced myself that going mirrorless would give me a good compromise of decent photo quality and cut my gear weight in half which would encourage me to take it with me everywhere.

After a few months of research I decided to go with the FujiFilm XE2 which I bought all in one shot with the 18-50mm lens and 50-200 telephoto. Initially I was pleasantly surprised with the image quality and the amount of features the fuji system offered however after some time the lack of optical viewfinder, inferior focus system and lack of full frame sensor started getting to me a bit. Yes the set up was easy to carry but in addition to the above mentioned shortcomings there was just that "something" missing from my photography that was certainly there when using a DSLR. After using the XE2 for over a year I find it excellent for vacations and still shots/ landscape photography but for anything else, especially where any kind of motion is involved, I just miss my DSLR.

So call me crazy but I'm thinking of selling off my Fuji gear and again investing into the Nikon DSLR set up. I've been out of tune with the latest and greatest in DSLR photography for a bit but I gather Nikon now offers a nice D750 camera, perhaps I could couple that with a few primes to start and take it from there. I'm also tempted at just replacing the D600 I used to have with the D610 and save a good $1000 over the D750, perhaps put that extra money towards some better glass. For those of you familiar with the D750, is it really worth it over the D610? I was extremely happy with my D600. Also, anyone else out there with similar experience where the mirrorless system just didn't cut it for you and you ended up back with DSLR set up? Looking for some experiences from others. I just hope it's not some temporary phase that will just cost me $2500. Any feedback, encouragement/ discouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Are you shooting at high ISO a lot? What is your style of shooting? The autofocus on the 750 is a bit better, and the high ISO/noise is better as well. It was worth it for me to pay extra and get the 750 over the 610, but it may not be for you. I shoot at iso6400+ a lot
 
If i was ever considering the D750, i wouldnt think of the D610.
 
Are you shooting at high ISO a lot? What is your style of shooting? The autofocus on the 750 is a bit better, and the high ISO/noise is better as well. It was worth it for me to pay extra and get the 750 over the 610, but it may not be for you. I shoot at iso6400+ a lot

Yes a good chunk of my shooting is high ISO which I f0und the D600 to be excellent in that department. I never had any autofocus issues with the D600 either, but then again I never shot the D750 so I don't know what I'd be missing. Perhaps I'll rent one for a day before I invest into it...
 
If i was ever considering the D750, i wouldnt think of the D610.

Well the D610 would allow me to allocate an extra $1000 towards better glass, that was the only reason I'd consider it over the D750. I currently have about $2500 to spend and it will likely be at least 6 months before I can allocate another $1000 towards gear.
 
D610 is an excellent camera but the D750 has a superb AF system and slightly better low light performance.
Would I choose the D750 over the D750 ?
Yes I would, I got it at November last year and its nothing short of amazing!
 
About 2 years ago I was in Croatia on hols any my 24-105L caved. I had a 5d and luckily a 50 f1.8 with me also so luckily not a total disaster. However fo me the 50mm didn't get all the shots I would have liked being at tourist areas etc.

I looked and loads of had mirrorless, so many that I found the stats about 1% or so people bought these cameras hard to believe at the time. Having said that a lot of the tourists seemed to be from Asia and the sales were reportedly high there.

Anyway I fixed my lens, sold all Canon gear and bought m43 gear in the guise of an olly epl5 only to like the camera but hate it had no viewfinder. Next an em5, viewfinder inclusive and a much better shooting experience.

I ended up buying a dslr again because I like shooting birds and the em5 isn't up to tracking, sure you can pre focus and you may even get lucky sometimes with caf but in general a dslr is better for this.

Long / short. Each system has benefits and definitely in my case if I enjoy using the camera I'll use it more. I would suggest looking at a fuji with viewfinder and the newer af system that supposedly can do what a dslr can do but you don't seem to be very invested in your current set up. You probably could sell them without losing much. If you had another system and feel you are lacking now, that itch probably won't be scratched til you go back.
 
I right now carry the D750, the AF-S 28mm f1.8 and the AF-S 70-200mm f4 VR on me. I need a backpack, but its hardly any additional weight. Maybe 2kg total.

Sometimes I also carry the AF-S 16-35mm f4 VR and/or the SB910 flash and the flash cable as well. With all items together, it actually starts to take most of the space in my backpack and weights quite a bit; especially the SB910 is surprisingly noticeable in this respect. But I can get very far with just the 28mm and 70-200mm, and I'm not the biggest fan of flash ever born anyway.

All in all I'm quite happy with this system and dont feel its overweight or anything.

About the D750, it has so many small improvements on it that I would never ever consider the D6x0 line again. The mere fact that you can get to 100% magnification in review mode with a single button press, thus being able to check if you nailed focus pretty much instantly, thats already a huge difference in practical use, as is the better autofocus system including having a bit larger AF field, and the tiltable monitor for pictures from unusual angles. Another instant and constant benefit is the improved grip. I use RAW+Basic mode. With the D750, ooc JPEGs are already very useable. I use the 3/4 resolution, for 13.5 megapixel JPEGs; this removes the losses from Bayer interpolation. Another thing that IIRC wasnt possible on the D600, you could only get full resolution JPEGs if you used RAW. Havent done anything with WiFi yet and it seems the support for that one so far is rather rudimentary. I also hope the next model has a touchscreen because boy is selecting an AF point in lifeview slow. So all in all this camera is just so much more fun than my old D600 and I'm actually almost happy the later broke.

The AF-S 28mm f1.8, well I'm not completely happy with its performance. If Zeiss could offer me a 28mm f1.4 with autofocus, I'd be all over it. Instead I work with the 28mm and stop it down whenever I can, usually to f3.5 to 6.3, but at least to f2.5 or f2.2 unless its getting really dark and massive noise reduction will destroy the better part of the image quality anyway.

Finally the AF-S 70-200mm f4 VR is just awesome, tack sharp even at f4. If I ever get a mirrorless system, thats the lens that will stay on my Nikon DSLR, just like my old D5100 had "married" its AF-S 35mm f1.8 DX.



About Fuji, I hope they are indeed working on a medium format mirrorless system, as the rumor mill suggests. And I hope unlike Pentax they will have a reasonable number of good lenses - Pentax basically has the 90mm macro and thats it, the 55mm is already borderline in respect to the sensor resolution and all the older glas is dirt cheap, but needs to be stopped down considerably for propper performance.

Their current system is pretty and all, but with APS-C these lens prices just dont make much sense to me. If I spent this much on a lens, I want at least a full frame sensor as well.
 
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The mere fact that you can get to 100% magnification in review mode with a single button press, thus being able to check if you nailed focus pretty much instantly, thats already a huge difference in practical use, as is the better autofocus system including having a bit larger AF field, and the tiltable monitor for pictures from unusual angles.

stuff like this is a ridiculous shame for Nikon. copy and paste the code, release a new firmware and all Nikons could have this.

there's probably more powerful code in this forum than a dslr's.

I really hate when silly like things that take up two lines of code are considered amazing features. The basics functions of a DSLR haven't changed in years. like since day one. and here in 2015 we are applauding a zoom to 100% button? sad and embarrassing. meanwhile mirrorless systems continue the actually innovate everyday. Nikon's idea of innovation? changing the model number.
 
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Some good information to think about above and I can't argue any of it (I shoot Canon). I'm not sure that these are the only two bodies to consider in the Nikon stable. From some of the stuff (video's and photos) that I have seen in low light, the D810 is AMAZING! It may be out of the price point that you are wanting to be in but I feel that we should at least mention it in here for you to consider.

I only mention this because you say that you shoot a lot in the low light high ISO range.
 
Hey guys. I've enjoyed photography as my primary hobby for a solid five years however for the past year and a bit I haven't been as active with my camera as I'd like. I attribute part of that to being extremely busy with other things but as much as I want to deny it I also think it's largely due to the fact that about a year ago I sold all of my Nikon DSLR gear in favour of the Fuji mirrorless system.

A bit of a background. I started off with the D5100 back in 2011, a year later moved onto the D7000 and about a year later I got the D600 which I got to enjoy for a solid year before I sold all my gear. Over the few years I accumulated a small collection of decent glass, external flash among other goodies, which I also all liquified over a year ago. My excuse for selling everything was that the full frame Nikon system I was using was bulky and I found that I would leave my camera home more often than not just so I don't have to lug that around with a few clunky lenses all day long, or constantly worry that someone would sit on my expensive gear at a function. I convinced myself that going mirrorless would give me a good compromise of decent photo quality and cut my gear weight in half which would encourage me to take it with me everywhere.

After a few months of research I decided to go with the FujiFilm XE2 which I bought all in one shot with the 18-50mm lens and 50-200 telephoto. Initially I was pleasantly surprised with the image quality and the amount of features the fuji system offered however after some time the lack of optical viewfinder, inferior focus system and lack of full frame sensor started getting to me a bit. Yes the set up was easy to carry but in addition to the above mentioned shortcomings there was just that "something" missing from my photography that was certainly there when using a DSLR. After using the XE2 for over a year I find it excellent for vacations and still shots/ landscape photography but for anything else, especially where any kind of motion is involved, I just miss my DSLR.

So call me crazy but I'm thinking of selling off my Fuji gear and again investing into the Nikon DSLR set up. I've been out of tune with the latest and greatest in DSLR photography for a bit but I gather Nikon now offers a nice D750 camera, perhaps I could couple that with a few primes to start and take it from there. I'm also tempted at just replacing the D600 I used to have with the D610 and save a good $1000 over the D750, perhaps put that extra money towards some better glass. For those of you familiar with the D750, is it really worth it over the D610? I was extremely happy with my D600. Also, anyone else out there with similar experience where the mirrorless system just didn't cut it for you and you ended up back with DSLR set up? Looking for some experiences from others. I just hope it's not some temporary phase that will just cost me $2500. Any feedback, encouragement/ discouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
You were my hero when you went from the d7000 to the d600 (same path I did)
:)

Then you sold it all
:(

Now you are coming back
:bouncingsmileys:
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I'm heading in the D750 direction. I'm going to check it out in person at a local photo shop this weekend and knowing myself I'll likely walk out the door with it. I'm pretty sure the "gently used" Fuji System I currently own will sell well on the net.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I'm heading in the D750 direction. I'm going to check it out in person at a local photo shop this weekend and knowing myself I'll likely walk out the door with it. I'm pretty sure the "gently used" Fuji System I currently own will sell well on the net.

Just be sure to check photoprice.ca before you jump. Canadian Nikon deals on bodies and lenses are ending in a day or two.

Take it easy on yourself and stop seeing camera buying as an "investment." It's not.
 
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Why not? Go ahead and replace your equipment once more. You did that often enough in less than 5 years.
 
The mere fact that you can get to 100% magnification in review mode with a single button press,
stuff like this is a ridiculous shame for Nikon. copy and paste the code, release a new firmware and all Nikons could have this.
Agreed, but ... alas, its Nikon.

Adding new features in firmware upgrades, thats more a Fuji or Sony or Samsung thing.
 

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