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Agree with you both re Nikons.

My favouritist 35mmm camera has been with me some time now…

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This FE2 is always the preferred option from the stable…It works splendidly and just feels so right in my hand.

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D700 is one of the the best DSLR camera ever made. I will never part with mine. The skin tones its sensor creates are unmatched.

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That’s just gorgeous.

I learned photography at school on a very beaten up old F (I wanted an F2, but it was too expensive for me). The shop where I bought it told me it had been used by a local photographer who had been assigned to South East Asia, so doubtless it had seen plenty of “action”. But it worked brilliantly and I later moved up to an EL and an FM until I gave them away about 10 years ago.

These days I still favour using one of my old Nikkor lenses - a 55mm Micro Nikkor - but this time on a modern D600.

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Canon 7D Mk.1, with a stack of L series lenses. Now that I’ve given up trying to be an electronics engineer, I feel the need to go “full frame”, so will use my 25% bit of the pension pot to fund a 5DMk.4, and a black XPS (for my nDAC).

Thanks, Richard, I still use my 55mm f/3.5. Not the best for infinity setting but great at a shorter distance. Here is a sample taken with a D700:

I was stationed in Singapore and took the opportunity of cheap camera prices to switch from Pentax to Nikon. I was getting tired of screwing in an out their lenses and Nikon’s quick Bayonet mounting was quite appealing.

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Canon R
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More specifically Canon R mirrorless full frame, full spectrum modified, used with RF-EF adapter with filter slot, and a range of lenses: Sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.6 DG, Canon 24-105 f/4L ii, Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 DO, Canon 100-400 f/4-5.6L ii.

The 100-400 is a new addition for a particular purpose, after which I will be evaluating which of that and the 70-300 DO to keep. The former is noticeably sharper as well as slightly more powerful, but a lot larger and heavier and so less likely to be carried unless for something very specific.

The filter slot adaptor means convenient use of a single set of filters, and the polariser one also has the advantage of providing easy insertion and fingertip adjustment regardless of size of lens and lens hood.

I was waiting for full frame ever since I went digital with my previous camera (Canon 500D), the R being the first that was affordable and relatively light. It is also small, but its slimness only realised with RF lenses - that is a disadvantage of using the adaptor, but the advantages of keeping my old lenses and the very significant advantage with filters makes the added depth (closer to that of Canon’s full frame DSLRs) tolerable.

I also have an Olympus TG4 with underwater housing (the camera is also a full underwater camera in its own right, but this provides belt-n-braces against leakage, having had that once with a previous camera on the first day in the Maldives, so no photos!). Also an Olympus take-anywhere-including-underwater (providing lightweight point and shoot plus second backup underwater).

My rather older Canon AE-1 is in a cupboard, not being able to face selling for the peanuts it would raise - initially kept when I went digital, but usage all but stopped when I sold all my darkroom gear. And I think I have my very first camera, a Zeiss Icon bellows 120-rollfilm (12 exposure) that I smuggled into the first gig I went to and snapped Ritchie Blackmore playing a Gibson - but sadly the picture got lost in the midst of time.

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I have a friend who’s really into the hobby. He sold me his somewhat used Canon 6d a few years ago, with the 24-70 f4 L lens. It seems plenty of camera for me. My wife and I just got back from a holiday to Patagonia, and I brought that plus I rented the 70-300 L lens. That 70-300 L is awesome, but I just dont shoot often enough to have it make sense to own it.

Things change pretty quickly . . . mirrorless is now a thing . . . but again this seems fine for me. A smaller body wouldn’t be THAT much lighter.

Depends what THAT is! The Canon R is about 1/4 lb lighter than 6D, and 3/4 lb lighter than the current 5D or the 7D crop frame. And in terms of size, with the equivalent RF lens the total length is about 1.5” shorter but pretty similar using the adaptor and EF lenses, and width/height not a lot different.

One of my sons decided to go for one of the Canon M range (mirrorless with same sensor size as EF-S DSLRs). It is tiny and very light, and if he uses the adaptor and one of my EF lenses it looks as if there’s no camera! Feels like a toy in comparison, but that is unkind as it is as capable of good photography as most of Canon’s crop-frame DSLRs, with the advantage of being so much more portable if used with native M lenses. Horses for courses: if I had limitless money I’d be tempted to have both, but as it is we can both borrow the other’s (he still lives at home), though haven’t done so yet other than to check out.

FE2 again, with some of her cousins in the ‘archive’…

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That reminds me of…
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I had the Nikon FM2 as it doesn’t rely on batteries. I only bought it as a back-up camera for my F6 and Hasselblad on jobs. I never used it in all the years I had it and it was absolutely mint. I ended up selling it on Ebay for quite a bit, but sometimes feel I should have kept it.

The ultimate camera for me was the Nikon F3 titanium, but never could afford one in the days.

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Yes I like the F3 too, have a regular and an HP.

The regular one gets a run out every now and then, never felt the need to stretch to a T but of course need and want are not quite the same :wink:

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My first proper camera in 1983. If you’re old enough, you might be able to remember this revolutionary work of art. I think it changed the design of all cameras. I got the motor drive, but it didn’t sound very good. A mate at school had the Nikon FE2 and his motor drive sounded so sweet. I never did get over that. I sold my A1 to my brother and he still has it. I’ll no doubt buy it back one day.

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Rx10 m4 for me as well. Got it for a New Zealand trip and didn’t want to lug around camera and lenses. Would swap it for the world so versatile.

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Micro Nikkor 55mm on a D600;

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If I was starting with no camera, and buying retail, I’d not go for a 5, 6 or 7 today. Probably Canon R.

The 6d plus that 70-200 2.8 L was pretty heavy; I took it on some longish walks. But this is a once a year thing for me, thus no desire to “upgrade.”

Look out for the R5 then. Won’t be cheap but it may be the right balance between my 5d iii and X-T3.

The R is a proper decent camera imo and unfairly maligned, at least since it had a strong firmware update. But it’s not as nice to use as a full on Canon dslr or a Fuji X series (though very little is as nice to use as a Fuji), so fingers crossed.

Richard, compared to the quality of the old manual, super smooth focus metal made Nikkors, modern plastic lenses are a joke.

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Yes my first was an AE1 program, which I got hold of as my dad had an A1 and a bag full of fd lenses🙂

I kinda knew I liked photography but was never enamoured with that camera though. Then I tried the Nikon which changed things for me completely, swapped the Canon out and never looked back. Still had a go with Canons of the day but never really got into them pre EOS times. The exception being the T90 which is pretty damn nice imo. And is also sat on my desk with the FE2 :wink:

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Having played with my brother-in-law’s 5D2 and 1DX, I prefer the lightness of the R. But it could do with a few more features, in particular I wish it had multiple instead of just one custom white balance.

One potentially useful feature the R has is true silent mode: not akin to mirror lock, when the shutter is audible, instead opening the physical shutter and applying an ‘electronic’ shutter instead. (Which reminds me I have never understood why some digital cameras give an audible simulated shutter sound or, worse, a simulated SLR mirror+shutter sound - and people don’t mute it even though they can! The only usefulness I can envisage is taking a self image with timer or remote control, alerting that it has taken.)