Talk me in or out of buying a dslr

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thomas
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To keep things short. For wildlife purpose.

I originally wanted to buy a used Nikon D750 again because I found it was an amazing camera and I miss it. When I had one I found it was amazing, apart from the very poor LiveView. But looking at the price for a very good condition one, you pay about £850 on eBay which seems silly money.

So I may as well get a D780 which is new and with a warranty and all the EVF improvement. I have seen the nikon D780 and tamron 150-600 G2 for about £2235 new from grey sellers. Anything used on ebay seem to be the same price or more.

Or maybe it is really silly because "DSLR are dead" and I should I go to mirrorless instead. But what mirrorless body/lens combo would work at this sort of price? It also looks like long lens choice on mirrorless camera are limited and expensive. Also camera body seem to be a bit more expensive that the D780 which is already very expensive for me.
 
I think it'll depend on what you want to take pictures of.

For example I'm happy with my 1st generation Sony A7 but the focus system wont be up to competing with newer cameras for tracking but as half the time I'm using manual lenses anyway that doesn't matter to me.
 
I think it'll depend on what you want to take pictures of.

For example I'm happy with my 1st generation Sony A7 but the focus system wont be up to competing with newer cameras for tracking but as half the time I'm using manual lenses anyway that doesn't matter to me.

That is the kind of stuff I mean, is there a good £2200 mirrorless wildlife setup.
 
If you want cheap, the D810 (starts at under £700) and the D800 (from under £500) seem like the Nikon full-frame bargains at the moment.
 
Go for it. The market may be moving towards mirrorless but that doesn't make DSLRs a worse option. I've just moved to mirrorless but I shoot landscapes and people - I think it will be a while before EVFs compete with the optical viewfinder experience. Also, tonnes of great used DSLR glass flooding the market.
 
Wow, Sure D750 was cheaper a couple of years ago!!!

I had one, great camera - used with a Tamron 150-600, Nikon 200-500 for aircraft. Would be perfect for wildlife IMO, good AF, amazing battery life. I now have a Fuji XT3, lighter, smaller, great IQ and the only 'downsides' would be battery life (compared to the D750) and at times the size (sometimes I miss the size and weight, other times I dont).

I hired the 100-400 for an airshow and that would be perfect for wildlife, especially if you get the TC. From Fuji refub you should be able to get that for around 2k give or take.

If you are using the camera for other stuff, then I would be inclined to go mirrorless, but I am a Fuji fan!
 
That is the kind of stuff I mean, is there a good £2200 mirrorless wildlife setup.

Closest I could get is about £2,800 which would be the Sony A7C (full frame and amazing AF) and the Sony FE 200-600mm.

Iit may be worth taking into account the D750 maximum shutter is 1/4000 whereas I think the D780 is 1/8000?
 
They're going up in price because they're all the camera many (most?) people need and new ones won't be around for much longer.
 
I see on e-infinity.
Sony A7 iii is £1300, while D780 is £1439
Also found out that samyang do very cheap 35mm 1.8 and 75mm 1.8 for sony with AF cheaper than nikon alternative.
 
I recently bought the D780 with the 24-120 f4 lens kit for £1699 from E Infinity, I was going to just buy the D780 for £1439 but it's well worth paying the extra £260 to get the lens (they retail in the UK for about £1000 sold alone).
I still have my Sony A7r3 + 24-105 lens, but I also have a collection of old film cameras and lenses including a Nikon F4 with 5 primes, (24, 28, 35, 50, 85mm all AF- D series), I love the F4's handling and ergonomics so bought the D780 as I longed for a DSLR with the same feel and ergonomics that I could use with the prime lenses., now I also have the 24-120 that I can use on the F4.
I love the D780, I'm still getting fully up to speed with settings etc but it's a lovely camera to use with the D series primes, just feels so good in hand and the IQ is excellent.

The A7r3 is a great camera and I think I'll keep both but I really prefer the handling and ergonomics of the D780, the extra size isn't an issue for me (that's why the ergonomics feel so good) and the 180grams extra weight of the body alone compared to the A7r3 isn't of any consequence.
 
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I recently bought the D780 with the 24-120 f4 lens kit for £1699 from E Infinity, I was going to just buy the D780 for £1439 but it's well worth paying the extra £260 to get the lens (they retail in the UK for about £1000 sold alone).
I still have my Sony A7r3 + 24-105 lens, but I also have a collection of old film cameras and lenses including a Nikon F4 with 5 primes, (24, 28, 35, 50, 85mm all AF- D series), I love the F4's handling and ergonomics so bought the D780 as I longed for a DSLR with the same feel and ergonomics that I could use with the prime lenses., now I also have the 24-120 that I can use on the F4.
I love the D780, I'm still getting fully up to speed with settings etc but it's a lovely camera to use with the D series primes, just feels so good in hand and the IQ is excellent.

The A7r3 is a great camera and I think I'll keep both but I really prefer the handling and ergonomics of the D780, the extra size isn't an issue for me (that's why the ergonomics feel so good) and the 180grams extra weight of the body alone compared to the A7r3 isn't of any consequence.


I know I would love the D780, it like a D750 where they ironed the annoying bits out. I use to have the 24-120 too, it's a good lens indeed.
It's a difficult decision. One of the big attractions of the A7iii is that mirrorless lenses don't require micro-adjustments. New dslr lenses seem to be really prone to good/bad copy that need fiddle with on a usb port.

With the A7iii i would sell all my MFT kit and be only sony.
With the D780 i feel like i should keep the MFT for when size is important. And no only size but also "conspicuousness", sometimes a small camera is just more discreet.
 
I'm just not using my MFT kit these days, it's mostly A7 for me now.

For me big advantages of mirrorless include being able to focus accurately anywhere in the frame not just in the central area where DSLR focus points tend to be, seeing the depth and exposure and being able to focus very very accurately manually.

Focusing anywhere and eye/face detect are real game changers for people pictures.
 
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I still say that if you can carry heavy camera gear without any problems, for wildlife, grab a decent DSLR for a good price then think about mirrorless in the future.
If you want something for landscape or street photography that is more compact, there are plenty of good older model mirrorless bodies out there still worth buyig.
Even though I really like my Olympus E-M10 mk2 and although there is no comparison, my 80D remains my wildlife camera as I'm not prepared to pay out for a new DSLR mirrorless body or change lens system or even buy a lens adapter.
When weight becomes an issue for me, then I will probably make the jump.
 
I manage to found a sony a7iii and a samyang 35mm f2.8 on here for £1240. Compare to a D780 for £1400 body only (best price grey import) it really makes sense.
Also, I'll try out that system and if it's small enough I could sell the Panasonic MFT and use only one system which will save a lot of money too.
 
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