Will you change camera manufacturer for lighter weight camera?

rmp

I have a D4, D810, and a D500 and a bunch of lenses, and I still want something lighter in weight. I love the image quality of my cameras but, when it comes to travel and all-day shoots, they are just too heavy. I pray the new L16 camera will be the answer, but for some reason, I doubt it. So, I am considering switching to something lighter like a mirrorless. What would make you dump Nikon?

WestEndFoto

Failure to introduce medium format when the market settles, and I am not talking about the "medium format light" currently on offer from Hasselblad, Fuji or Pentax, would make me dump Nikon. Say something like a 60mm by 60mm or larger. If Canon, Fuji, Pentax, Leica, Olympus, Hasselblad (Not Sony or Samsung) comes out with something like that that is not limited to the studio and Nikon does not, I would switch.

As far as lighter? If I was really concerned about weight for travel, I would get a DF or D610 with a 14 2.8, 35 1.4 and 58 1.4 with a lightweight RRS tripod/BH-40 head (already have the tripod head combo). I simply cannot imagine complaining about that from a weight perspective.

Perhaps not the answer that you were looking for, but this is my honest response.

Ironheart

I love my Nikon 1 V3 for this exact trade off.

DaveyJ

I suggest you read Thom Hogan's assessment on DSLR cameras being what he considers right compared to mirrorless for many reasons. I my self have ABSOLUTELY no interest in mirrorless. Nikon though really dropped the ball on their recent D3400 introduction! It though is really light. Reducing features is not what customers from veterans to amateurs want and need! Small, light, and packed with power! That's what I want and BUY!

Pistnbroke

If I retired and did not need 4 cameras then I would look for something lighter .But if its too big to go in your pocket then it might as well be big and heavy.
Picture quality would be a big influence on what I buy which is why I dumped 4/3

heartyfisher

Small and light..? if you go with fixed lense Point and shoots, then any manufacturer would be fine. For "small&light" I have been using my tiny N1-J5 that can even take Nikon lenses when I want some reach. ( It will tide me over till the N1-V4 arrives. :-) ) I was considering the Nikon-DLs, but they are still not here.. oh well.

I go shooting with several groups with a fairly wide variety of subjects and durations.. Many have a variety of other manufacturer's small and lights. They seem fine. But at the end of the day My Nikon D7200 or D610 or other's Nikons or Canons, still out performs the Mirrorlesses. I see first hand, issues with.. Battery Life, Lense options, Accessories, Flash. ease of use of settings. Sure there are advantages.. but a 50 year legacy of "tried and true"s does play a part. In a few years it should be fine. Things are changing very fast. but still not yet. Unless you narrow the usecase to the subset niche that it currently fills. then yeah go for it! but not for me .. Not Yet, close but...

GPDen

Not me at the present time at least. Usually have my cameras with grips attached most of the time (ready for what I shoot the most of which is golf) and when on hols or just out for the day I'll drop the grip and stick on the 50mm or 18-35mm depending on how I feel on the day - nice and light combos for me. Obviously no particular shots planned so just use what I have with me to best effect.

Coastalconn

No thanks, for small and light, I take the grip off of my D500 and use my Tamron 150-600 G2. For normal day to day, I put the grip on and use my 500 F4, for a medium day my 300 F2.8, I'm all set.

WestEndFoto

Yeah my D800 without the grip and one of my 50mm lenses feels like a feather to me. I never even bother. Even the 24-70 isn't a big deal.

heartyfisher

@Coastalconn LOL !!

Ironheart

Perhaps a bit more explanation, The N1V3 goes on trans-oceanic flights in the overhead. 6lbs inside my carry-on and I get 6 lenses, plus goodies, extra batteries etc. I cover focal range from 6mm-300mm, (18-800mm equiv) with a combo of zooms and primes. Usually I'm on a business trip and get at most a few hours to shoot, so not worth dragging a full DSLR rig and lenses halfway around the world.
For "point and shoot" I use my D7200 with a 35mm DX lens. Feels like a feather compared to my usual rig and I get my full manual mode that I crave, plus I can put in on Auto and hand it over to a novice to fire away.
@rmp if I were you, I'd grab a D3xxx or D5xxx series with the new 18-55 AF-P lens and call it a day. Or if you are felling primish, a 35mm DX. Way better than any mirrorless on the market.

Coastalconn

@heartyfisher I had to do a calender shoot at a friend's coffee shop. I used my D800 and Tamron 28-75.. I had to keep looking down to see if I had a camera in my hands it was so light. It just confirmed again why I prefer birds over people. I honestly don't understand why everyone wants a lighter camera, I just don't get it, it's a camera not a phone... I use a camera because IQ is my first priority. If I don't,ant,to be burdened by IQ, I use my LG V10 phone which has full manual controls.. Also don't understand the appeal of snapbridge, personally I would much rather edit everything on my 40" 4I monitor before I present it to the public..

rmp

Like you, @Coastalconn, image quality is my primary problem (or issue.) I want a lighter rig to carry all day and on trips. I keep trying to move to something lighter. Then I take a picture and I am right back to my D810. Image Quality is still king.

spraynpray

If I were you I would look at the Fuji range.

WestEndFoto

Yes, I agree with Spraynpray. If this was truly an issue for me I would invest in Fuji.

WestEndFoto

Just an aside, I am in a photography program at the local college. It is a roughly 70/30/0 split between Canon/Nikon/everything else.

Also, Ironheart is correct. If you can't start with a D3300 35 1.8 DX combo, what do you REALLY expect? My wife has a D5500 with that 35 and access to my G lenses. I have a Coolpix A which fits in my shirt pocket. The IQ of both is very good.

BVS

Not so much "dump", but I've love to have a second camera with the aesthetics and features of the Sony a6500, but with the Fuji lens lineup, to use for family and social stuff.

Something like the Sony RX1R but with interchangeable lenses would be nice too.

CaMeRaQuEsT

I had the Canon M10 with its new 15-45mm retractable lens on my hands a couple days ago and boy is that combo tiny and light. Not much bigger than a P&S and not much heavier either, but it packs an APS-C sensor inside. The same views should apply to a Sony A5100 with its retractable zoom lens or the Fuji X-A line with their pancake lenses. I had both the Canon M1 and M2, and coupled with the pancake 22mm f2 I could take them with me inconspicuously to almost every situation were I would had used my smartphone but where the lighting was so poor it was pointless. A small camera with a big sensor inside is very liberating, but as offerings stand nowadays they are not a single solution to all shooting situations.

So, horses for courses.

Higher up the mirrorless world you've got the Sony A6300/A6500 and Fuji X-PRO2/X-T2 (some people will also include the Olympus E-M1/E-M1MK2 Panasonic GH4/GH5, but I think that's pushing it) that promise great AF, deep buffers and fast FPS, but would you be panning a 600mm equivalent lens through a viewfinder that, as fast as its refresh rates are, will always have lag? Remember, nothing stands between your eye and the photons entering the lens of a DSLR. And the LV nature of mirrorless cameras will always keep the sensors hot, so DR and high ISO noise will always be compromised, not to mention battery life, the greatest pitfall of these cameras. And then there are the Nikon colors. I have the Fujifilm X-E1 and I barely use it because, as "special" as its colors are, they are too far away from the natural colors out of a Nikon and they are a PITA to work with in LR to get something close to natural looking. And let's not even mention Canon's DR (or lack thereof), the main reason why I couldn't keep them.

Again, horses for courses.

NSXTypeR

If someone were to sponsor me, then sure, I'd be willing to change to a different camera!

Capt_Spaulding

Not now. In 5 years that may change. Not likely, but it may.

DaveyJ

The blunt answer to this post is NOTHING. I have owned well over 1/2 million in camera gear. My family makes a lot of their income from photography. WestendPhoto says he is in a college photo course where Canons are 70% of the class. I am at events where there are many cameras. I am seeing a very high percentage of Nikons anymore. With the D500 we are seeing more used by professional race photographers. They say it is the best right now for high speed imagery. But the big reason is that after many years, and large and medium format, that the Nikon DX cameras and lens seem the best for weight and speed, and finally price. I am not going to personally keep spending money on camera gear. The big money we spend now in camera gear is in special purpose video and NOT DSLR. If you are doing aerial and underwater, then this entire thread seems slanted towards cameras that are losing market share very quickly, not gaining.

DaveyJ

Nikons D3300 with a kit lens and then the new 70-300 DX VR is a great combo for today, why in the world Nikon went D3400 Snapbridge crazy and detuned the D3400 and then made the rather punitive move and jacked the price up on the D3300 really answers what it would take to move away from Nikon! Marketing arrogance and all that? Thom Hogan's take on all of this still seems the most advanced and accurate. Removing function for the sake of saving a few ounces is crazy. SnapBridge has yet to prove itself viable. Mirrorless has so many problems. I have owned so many mirrorless cameras I just am not going there. For darn sure you can make very good lens very light and small. I avoid very wide aperture lens like f1.2 like the plague as it is too big and expensive. The D3400 is a good price point, and probably the D7200 at $1,100 represents the practical high point for much sales volume, jack the price up to say $1,700 and you will lose much of your market and almost ALL of your new entrants.

IanG

To reply to the original question, one word - nothing. I simply have too much tied up (notice that I didn't say 'invested') in Nikon equipment to even consider the idea.

As regards weight, I have a remarkably light Linhoff - less than practicle for the sort of photography that interests me, but certainly light. I have Leica gear too - smallish, light, but again not particularly practical (for me).

I think for me the bottom line is image quality and therefore I'm stuck with AT LEAST an APS-C - this is my personal preference - I simply wouldn't be happy with anything less - so I'm probably doomed to stay with what I already own... (Until the X1-D comes down to Earth prices...)

paulr

Why change when Nikon make the Coolpix B700 No matter what manufacture you choose, If you are leaving your top professional cameras and lenses at home, no light camera will match that quality.having just come back from Cuba where I was limited to 10kg I took one pro camera and a 14-24 lens plus a P900 and a B700.. Other members of the party had tripods rucksacks and very heavy looking cameras with grips. I was still getting images they could not get due to focus length of these light weight cameras,when I returned home i was amazed by the quality of the small up today cameras.The B700 was capable of RAW images with its 20mp sensor. I assume Nikon do not market these little cameras due to the small profit margins that they retail these small light cameras for.

DaveyJ

paulr.......excellent Post!!! I take it the B700 was the best of these two smaller Nikons?

DaveyJ

What lens? My senior travel agent friend has these cameras and often leaves her D3200 and two lens home.