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I know Colonial Crester and Milehiiu would love that I'm starting this random thread.  

I need a camera that is versatile. I want to take good pictures in daylight and in dark. I want to take landscape pictures and pictures or birds, since I live on a lake. I also want to take pictures of the stars and moon and sky/sunsets. I have one little boy and another on the way and I imagine that they'll play sports and I will want to take good pictures of them and maybe even video as well.  

I know that's a lot.  I don't want to spend  thousands.  I was looking at the fujifilm Tx200.  Was rated high all over when I was looking around black friday.  They had a smoking deal and I never pulled the trigger.  

It's mirror less and that seems to be the future even in canon and nikon.  

Thoughts, advice, personal experience?

 

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I'm a Nikon guy. I got into photography for a while when my youngest was riding in a lot of horse shows. Pretty complex stuff if you're looking to shoot in low light, especially action shots. But in broad daylight I was dynamite! 😁

Don't know much about the mirrorless cameras though. My go to was a Nikon D40 DSLR which was great for a budget camera. It's outdated now, but for its time it was probably the best low priced camera on the market.

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I'd get the latest Samsung Galaxy or Apple IPhone and call it a day.

My wife has had a couple Nikons. One of them might be the D40. You need to have the right lenses and plan on spending a lot of time learning how to use it in all those different conditions. Prior to my honeymoon a few years ago, we spent hours watching videos , learning how to take landscape photos- especially those of moving water. I bought a new lense that could capture wide angles. I bought a spotting scope that can attach to the camera. We took a couple thousand pictures. My wife was juggling 3 cameras at times.  Half the time missing the view because she was fiddling with the camera. At the end of the day, it was faster and easier to use the phone that you always have with you and at the ready.  Often times the phone produced better quality images as well.

Take a look at this- https://www.cnet.com/how-to/samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra-all-the-cool-new-camera-tricks-and-how-to-actually-use-them/  Then invest the time learning to master it.  It captures raw images and you can manually adjust your shutter speed and other stuff.

The last thing I'll mention is a photographer once told me that 50% of a good picture is done in the editing room after the picture is taken . Spend some time learning how to touch up your photos.  For me, I realized that, until I retired, I'd never have the time or interest in mastering photography and learned to be happy knowing just a few tricks available with the camera on a good smartphone.

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35 minutes ago, Reacher said:

I'd get the latest Samsung Galaxy or Apple IPhone and call it a day.

My wife has had a couple Nikons. One of them might be the D40. You need to have the right lenses and plan on spending a lot of time learning how to use it in all those different conditions. Prior to my honeymoon a few years ago, we spent hours watching videos , learning how to take landscape photos- especially those of moving water. I bought a new lense that could capture wide angles. I bought a spotting scope that can attach to the camera. We took a couple thousand pictures. My wife was juggling 3 cameras at times.  Half the time missing the view because she was fiddling with the camera. At the end of the day, it was faster and easier to use the phone that you always have with you and at the ready.  Often times the phone produced better quality images as well.

Take a look at this- https://www.cnet.com/how-to/samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra-all-the-cool-new-camera-tricks-and-how-to-actually-use-them/  Then invest the time learning to master it.  It captures raw images and you can manually adjust your shutter speed and other stuff.

The last thing I'll mention is a photographer once told me that 50% of a good picture is done in the editing room after the picture is taken . Spend some time learning how to touch up your photos.  For me, I realized that, until I retired, I'd never have the time or interest in mastering photography and learned to be happy knowing just a few tricks available with the camera on a good smartphone.

I’ll agree, stick with the AI of the phone software to figure things out! Remember the 35mm days, and trying to master the combinations of Fstop, shutter speed and the Bain of all, film speed! How do you blurr the background or make it crisp? And on and on! You needed a Masters Degree to do low light! I remember my first visit to the Hermitage one of the top two art museums in the world! I needed 800 film! Bought a roll from a kiosk. Took a bunch of pictures of Rembrandt’s and such! When I had the film developed I got an interesting picture of several incredible images overlaid on top of each other! Seems the film was old and brittle and stripped out as to not advance.

Just a suggestion use the distance lense as much as possible, the standard lens is good for selfie’s and close portrait photos but after that they tend to be fisheye! 

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4 hours ago, IUFLA said:

I'm a Nikon guy. I got into photography for a while when my youngest was riding in a lot of horse shows. Pretty complex stuff if you're looking to shoot in low light, especially action shots. But in broad daylight I was dynamite! 😁

Don't know much about the mirrorless cameras though. My go to was a Nikon D40 DSLR which was great for a budget camera. It's outdated now, but for its time it was probably the best low priced camera on the market.

I was also a Nikon guy. Have used Leica, Hasselblad, 8x10, 4x5, and every camera under the sun. But I always came back to Nikon. About 8 years ago I started shooting for a locak arts organization Sing for Hope and I found myself shooting in a lot of very unpredictable places. Hospital rooms, senior citizen centers, VA medical centers, cancer wards, backstage at Broadway shows. I needed something a little smaller and quieter. 

I ended up switching to Sony mirrorless cameras and I’ve been sold on them ever since. I know that Nikon and Canon are trying to play catch up, but not sure they can catch Sony. They have the best sensors and their AF speed is getting to near pro levels. Sony has the cropped sensor A6000 sereies and the full frame A7 series, depending on how much you want to spend. Another gret feature of the Sonys is that you can adapt old film camera lenses and use them on your Sony body. 

 

 

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18 hours ago, Lostin76 said:

I was also a Nikon guy. Have used Leica, Hasselblad, 8x10, 4x5, and every camera under the sun. But I always came back to Nikon. About 8 years ago I started shooting for a locak arts organization Sing for Hope and I found myself shooting in a lot of very unpredictable places. Hospital rooms, senior citizen centers, VA medical centers, cancer wards, backstage at Broadway shows. I needed something a little smaller and quieter. 

I ended up switching to Sony mirrorless cameras and I’ve been sold on them ever since. I know that Nikon and Canon are trying to play catch up, but not sure they can catch Sony. They have the best sensors and their AF speed is getting to near pro levels. Sony has the cropped sensor A6000 sereies and the full frame A7 series, depending on how much you want to spend. Another gret feature of the Sonys is that you can adapt old film camera lenses and use them on your Sony body. 

 

 

My buddy has a Sony alpha ??? Mirror less that he has taken worldwide and gotten just amazing jaw dropping pics.  He also dropped $2000.  I was hoping to be around $500-$800 tops.  

I hear everyone about the phones.  When it comes to phones, me personally, I beat the piss out if them.  Between tossed around the back of a fire truck or doing construction projects around the house.  I can't justify a grand a year on phones.  For instance I have a $70 moto g on total wireless (uses verizon towers) for $35 a month unlimited for your 5g worlds largest network bla bla bla.  I'm not going to quadruple my monthly cell phone bill for life just a for a nicer camera on my phone.  My current specs are probably 3 years behind tech and I'm ok with that.  Still have 4 g ram speed.  Fast web browsing etc.  

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19 hours ago, Lostin76 said:

I was also a Nikon guy. Have used Leica, Hasselblad, 8x10, 4x5, and every camera under the sun. But I always came back to Nikon. About 8 years ago I started shooting for a locak arts organization Sing for Hope and I found myself shooting in a lot of very unpredictable places. Hospital rooms, senior citizen centers, VA medical centers, cancer wards, backstage at Broadway shows. I needed something a little smaller and quieter. 

I ended up switching to Sony mirrorless cameras and I’ve been sold on them ever since. I know that Nikon and Canon are trying to play catch up, but not sure they can catch Sony. They have the best sensors and their AF speed is getting to near pro levels. Sony has the cropped sensor A6000 sereies and the full frame A7 series, depending on how much you want to spend. Another gret feature of the Sonys is that you can adapt old film camera lenses and use them on your Sony body. 

 

 

How does it do on action shots, or like a DSLR is that mainly dependent on the lens?

I admit, I have not kept up with the technology...

I'm including a pic I shot at Arlington Race Track in Chicago back in the day with my D40 when we use to spend Mother's Day and Derby Day there...I'm not sure you'd even come close to getting pics like this on an action shot with a phone camera...

image.thumb.png.c6a472ec62c4b19ab20e31aa6c081f67.png

 

Edited by IUFLA
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On 4/25/2021 at 9:08 AM, NotIThatLives said:

My buddy has a Sony alpha ??? Mirror less that he has taken worldwide and gotten just amazing jaw dropping pics.  He also dropped $2000.  I was hoping to be around $500-$800 tops.  

I hear everyone about the phones.  When it comes to phones, me personally, I beat the piss out if them.  Between tossed around the back of a fire truck or doing construction projects around the house.  I can't justify a grand a year on phones.  For instance I have a $70 moto g on total wireless (uses verizon towers) for $35 a month unlimited for your 5g worlds largest network bla bla bla.  I'm not going to quadruple my monthly cell phone bill for life just a for a nicer camera on my phone.  My current specs are probably 3 years behind tech and I'm ok with that.  Still have 4 g ram speed.  Fast web browsing etc.  

You can get an older model for that. I’m a firm believer  in buying camera gear used. Check out Adorama or BH online, they often have used cameras at great prices. You can get an older A600 series and good lens for under $800 for sure. 

On 4/25/2021 at 10:01 AM, IUFLA said:

How does it do on action shots, or like a DSLR is that mainly dependent on the lens?

I admit, I have not kept up with the technology...

I'm including a pic I shot at Arlington Race Track in Chicago back in the day with my D40 when we use to spend Mother's Day and Derby Day there...I'm not sure you'd even come close to getting pics like this on an action shot with a phone camera...

image.thumb.png.c6a472ec62c4b19ab20e31aa6c081f67.png

 

I actually don’t shoot much action, but the Sony’s do really well these days. I don’t think they are on par with top of the line DSLR auto-focus, but I think they are like 95% there. And yep, the lens does make a difference. The AF is much better with a Sony lens than an adapted lens. That’s one of the things I love so much about Sony mirrorless lenses - if you have a bunch of old Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Zeiss, Leica, or Minolta lenses, you can use them on your Sony with an adapter. 

I’ve shot a lot less with an actual camera over the the last couple of years, the phone seems to deliver “good enough” for most things these days. Still, there are times when only a camera camera will do!

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