My current cameras - Nikon D850 DSLR, Leica M10 rangefinder / mirrorless camera, Nikon F6 Film Camera.
Above Nikon F6 35mm film camera with battery grip, bought brand new.
Above Leica M10
It all started when I decided that I wanted a new film camera, I had lots of old S/H ones but I was getting fed up with things not working properly and the thought that if they went wrong, where would I get them fixed? So, the choice as I saw it was Nikon, who still make the F6 and Leica who make the M-A and M-P. In the end I went for the Nikon. It's got AF, it's cheaper than the Leicas and it's a great all round powerhouse of a film SLR.
And it was using the F6 and how much I enjoyed doing it that radically altered my ideas of what I wanted to use. It had been a while since I used a Nikon SLR and I was surprised at how it felt a bit like coming home. No more Leica Q2, Leica M7, no more m4/3, no more old film cameras. I have an SLR, a DSLR and a hybrid rangefinder / mirrorless camera. And I'm really happy. Happy because I've returned to what I really enjoy shooting. Landscape, Location / Travel and architecture. No more messing around with video, street photography or some kind of hipster / instagram smartphone pseudo art photography. Old school all the way, with the accent on high quality images. This kind of stuff >
I will probably get asked the question why a DSLR? To which my answer would be Why Not? There is nothing wrong with them as cameras. They are not old fashioned or too big and heavy compared to some mirrorless cameras.
Nikon D850 - 1005g
Panasonic S1H - 1052g
Nikon 24-120mm - 670g
Panasonic 24-105mm - 680g
So any notion that all mirrorless cameras are lighter and smaller is a myth. Anyway I have no problem carrying the D850 (+ battery grip) around. And with the grip attached I get the power to shoot close to 3500 images on one charge (with two batteries). Let's see a mirrorless camera do that. Add to that a crystal clear viewfinder, fast and accurate AF, access to Nikon's huge lens range and a superb 45MP sensor and you might see why many of us still see DSLR's as viable image creating machines.
And that image quality is truly breathtaking. The latest version (This is the third) of the 24-120mm lens, with VR, is very sharp indeed, so brings out the best in the 45MP sensor. Now I enjoyed using the 47MP, Leica Q2, but it was a fixed lens and the Olympus E-M1X did a good job with it's hand held 50MP image stacked option, but eventually I got fed up with the several seconds delay and I was missing shots. The D850 is so quick that it's ready instantly.
So mirrorless sites tend to have articles about people who switch from (D)SLR's to Mirrorless, so here's one about the reverse of that. For me the Nikons just feel more 'professional', more reliable and robust and yes I'm going to say it, 'proper' cameras. Now I never went away from SLR's anyway. A lot of my film cameras were just that. Nikon F4, Canon EOS-1 and Leica R8 were all big brutes.
LENSES
So what's happened with these. Well a lot of those have gone as well. I now have no Canon EF lenses, since I don't own any Canon cameras anymore. The m4/3 lenses have obviously gone as well. I'm keeping my Leica R lenses even though I don't have the cameras anymore. I've fitted them all with Leica R > Leica M adapters and use them on my Leica M10. I only have four lenses for my Nikons, the 24-120mm, a 35mm f/1.8 DX lens which actually works on a full frame camera and a couple a manual lenses, a Samyang 85mm f/1.4 and my 100mm f/2.8. Now I have no immediate plans to increase this as the 24-120mm covers pretty much all my needs.
So interesting times. It does feel good not to have a lot of cameras sitting on the shelf gathering dust and I now have three that I use all the time and love using. And yes, they are all 'Full-Frame' cameras. Though I prefer to call the sensors 35mm size. The F6 of course shoots 35mm film. Now I'm not that bothered about the size of the sensors in the cameras that I use and I used to love the results I got from m4/3. But, for me, it's more to do with the camera anyway.
THE 'FLY IN THE OINTMENT!!'
I do technically still own the Olympus E-M1X and the Panasonic Leica 10-25mm f/1.7, Olympus 12-100mm f/4 and Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lenses. They are currently being used by a good friend of mine who wants to buy them, but may not be able to raise the cash. This arrangement is going on to the end of my financial year (April 5th.) and then I may well have them back. Now I haven't decided what I will do then. The likelihood is that my friend won't be able to afford them, so depending on how I feel about them I may keep all or some of the outfit, or sell some or all of it. Watch this space.
