Advice Required, Please Help

Ridz

New member
Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum, so apologies if this post is in the wrong section.

I’m an enthusiastic amateur photographer who’s just starting out. I originally used a Nikon D3000 and am now looking to upgrade. Based on my budget, I’ve narrowed my options down to the Z50, D800E, or D750.

I’ve spoken with a few dealers, but I feel their recommendations may be influenced by what they currently have in stock. My main interests are architecture, landscapes, and portraits.

I’d really appreciate some expert, independent advice on which of these would be the best choice for my needs.

Many thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to reply.
 

Clovishound

Senior Member
Mirrorless is the direction that almost all manufacturers have turned to. Nikon no longer develops new DSLR cameras or lenses. If you are looking at a crop frame Z mount, I would highly recommend getting the new Z50ii over the Z50. My daughter has one, and I am surprised by it's features and performance.

If you are looking at new, I would suggest looking at the D850. They are selling for $2000 new right now. It is a total beast of a camera with a high resolution sensor and built like a tank. It doesn't have some of the newest features, but it was aimed at serious amateurs and professionals when it was initially designed. While there won't be any new DSLR lenses designed by Nikon anymore, they continue to produce current models, although they drop models from current production all the time, and at some point may not make any new ones. There will continue to be lots available on the used and 3rd party market for a long time to come.

Personally, I switched to mirrorless a few years ago and have never looked back. A lot depends on what you shoot, though. I shoot mostly wildlife and macro. Wildlife makes much higher demands on good AF and benefits greatly from some of the newest features. Landscape and portrait photography are a different kettle of fish and much less demanding from a gear standpoint.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Any one of those would be an upgrade for the D3000. I, a current D810 user for 3 years, would not recommend going the DLSR route. First you will need to make an investment in FF glass. Both the 800 and 750 had some problems early on, think is was a shutter issue with the 750 and the 800 a frame and focus adjustment issue, which is why I settled on the 810, the 850 still being pricey even used.

Even if you start with the Z50 and get some Z FF glass, as the budget permits, you can latter move up to a FF Z camera. As model recommendations for the Nikon mirrorless I will leave it to the Z users.

If you are not adverse to ordering on line you could check out MPB and KEH. Were are you that you have local Dealers?
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
On the most basic level, any of those cameras would be a major upgrade for you.

I have some feelings on this, and they favor getting into a mirrorless body early and not be hindered with having to buy 10 year old gear and keep looking through used sales to find even older stuff as the years go by. F-mount DSLR bodies and lenses are now the old way and there will be no new stuff to look forward to. Who still produces a DSLR? Pentax, that's who. But let's review your options presented, then I will present my case on an alternative.

D800e? The oldest option here and I would take the D750 before that option. The one truth in digicams is that newer is almost always better in terms of sensor capabilities. ISO performance gets better with newer generations, pixel count often is higher, and the noise levels with higher ISO improves. But the D800e does have a higher MP sensor than the D750 and the anti-aliasing filter is removed. That does improve sharpness at the cost of potential moire artifacts in some subjects, such as architecture. Helps with portraits and wildlife. It's a trade-off, no free lunch.

I do still have a D750 that is on the shelf waiting to be traded-in for the next Z-mount lens I buy. Personally I loved that camera when I upgraded from a D7000. There was an early recall on production for lower serial numbers, but mine was always good as I bought it at the end of it's run. The tilt screen on the back has been more useful than I first imagined. It can take and use any of the same F-mount lenses that the D800e can, including the screw-drive autofocus types of the 1990's and 2000's. Really a nice option if you want to collect vintage lenses. But I have a reason for not recommending film-era lenses on digicams.

Z50: Newest option, but the lowest MP sensor of the lot. 20MP sensor and it is also an DX crop-frame sensor. Here is where we need to qualify you as far as lenses. It is Z-mount so Z lenses are what you will be shopping for. But the FTZ adapter works well for adapting F-mount lenses to work with it, as long as they are the type with internal AF motors. I have to assume any lens you have currently with the D3000 is that kind since that has the same limitation. Wildlife photographers love the DX cameras since they are concerned with filling the frame with their subjects even more than keeping the ISO noise levels down. But as somebody who has transitioned to full-frame after years of crop-sensor bodies, I cannot overstate how nice it is to work in the ultra-wide range for landscapes and architecture. People argue that you can buy a DX lens as wide as 8mm or 10mm, but have you compared the prices and availability of those against a typical 14mm full-frame lens? I do not see the advantage of a DX camera unless you shoot 75% of your photos with long telephoto lenses.

So a Z50 with the FTZ adapter gives some versatility for future lenses and maybe consider using your current lenses with it. But you are missing out on some sensor ability. I however might make an arguement that your listed interests favor making a switch to full-frame camera body and upgrading to full-frame lenses also.

I did the experiments with using DX lenses on my D750 early on, it is very unsatisifactory. On an optical viewfinder, what happens is that a frame illuminates in the middle of the viewfinder which becomes the frame of the photo. So it's harder to see what you are trying to frame. Just consider that full-frame cameras want to have a full-frame lens, but it is easy to go the other way with full-frame lenses on a DX camera.

My alternate recommendation is going to be the Z5. It is the entry-level full-frame mirrorless body, and as such gets overlooked. It was recently replaced with the Z5II in the new lineup, and yes that is an even better choice if the money is available. The Z5 is nearly the mirrorless version of a D750. The sensor specs out as the same. Most of the other specs are close to each other. Same kind of tilt-screen on the body. Same dual SD card setup, same battery, same accessories to plug-in for the most part. The D750 does have some advantages such as burst exposure speed, 3D AF tracking, and built in scene modes. The 3D tracking and burst exposures are going to play for sports and wildlife subjects. The scene modes I barely tried using on my D750. There is also a difference with the LCD top screen for showing camera settings on the D750 that is not there for a Z5 (or a Z50 for that matter). I do miss that a bit. You are going to want to switch to full-frame lenses. The good news there is that there are basically 3-tiers of full frame Z-mount lenses for individual budgets. DX format Z lenses are all mostly budget-minded and fewer in options.

As of today a used Z5 is about $750+ on KEH's website and a used Z50 up to $500. I think the extra is worth it, but that is about the cost of a lens or FTZ adapter in the difference.

Edit: A few notes I forgot to mention. D750 features a pop-up flash for convenience, this is also there on a Z50. But the Z5 and other full-frame mirrorless bodies do not have built-in flash. They would require a hot-shoe flash. Any hot-shoe flash should outperform a pop-up but that is a thing for trying to add fill-light on an outdoor portrait. Also adapting lenses for Z-mount is very easy. There are 3rd-party mount adapters to fit Sony, Canon, Leica-M, and many others to a Z-body. And manual-focus is stupid-easy on a mirrorless body with focus-peaking visible in the EVF. It literally draws a yellow outline around anything that is currently in focus as you adjust.
 
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Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
First of all, what lenses do you currently own? If they are crop sensor frames, you won't want to use the with a full frame camera,
 

Ridz

New member
Thanks to you all for the support it’s really appreciated. I think I’ll bite the bullet and go for the Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR & the Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lenses and sell the D3000 plus all the lenses private.
 

Ridz

New member
Z50, I wanted the Zfc as aesthetically it looks better, but it was £100 / $135 more plus an extra £45 / $60 for the grip. I had to stick rigidly to my budget as I kept justifying to myself the extra money for a better spec cameras, had to remind myself I’m an enthusiastic beginner and not a pro.
 

Ridz

New member
Any one of those would be an upgrade for the D3000. I, a current D810 user for 3 years, would not recommend going the DLSR route. First you will need to make an investment in FF glass. Both the 800 and 750 had some problems early on, think is was a shutter issue with the 750 and the 800 a frame and focus adjustment issue, which is why I settled on the 810, the 850 still being pricey even used.

Even if you start with the Z50 and get some Z FF glass, as the budget permits, you can latter move up to a FF Z camera. As model recommendations for the Nikon mirrorless I will leave it to the Z users.

If you are not adverse to ordering on line you could check out MPB and KEH. Were are you that you have local Dealers?
Thank you for the MPB recommendation, spoke to Danny and he was awesome. So I placed an order.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Z50, I wanted the Zfc as aesthetically it looks better, but it was £100 / $135 more plus an extra £45 / $60 for the grip. I had to stick rigidly to my budget as I kept justifying to myself the extra money for a better spec cameras, had to remind myself I’m an enthusiastic beginner and not a pro.
Hope it serves you long and well. Let us know your impressions and post some images.
 
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