A new Nikonite. an experienced photographer from Russia.

Snowcat

New member
Hello, Nikonites!

My name is Paul and I am from Russia. I have rather large experience of shooting, coming from film era. I have used Soviet "Zenit" cameras loong time ago.

Next I used some digital "bridge" cameras (Sony, Panasonic, Canon), then Pentax DSLR (K10), did not like it, moved to Olympus 4:3. Then that system was killed by Olympus, and I moved over to Sony because back then it had the most pleasant colors to my taste. Lately, I've tried to move to FF and bought Sony A7II. I was not very happy with it so in order to MAKE myself to stick with it, i've sold all my Sony A77II stuff... That was a mistake as FF was clearly not for me at all. If you want I can elaborate... Anyhow, now I still have A7II with some lenses but my main camera now is Nikon D5500 which I see as an ergonomic miracle. I've bought several lenses for it and now I finally became a happy Nikonian. Why "finally"? Because my father was a Nikonian for last 30 years and always tried to convert me to his "faith".

Anyway, I am glad to be here!
 
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Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
hello and welcome. i hope you post up some shots of your country, its always nice to see a different part of the world.
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your interesting history of cameras and equipment. This is a great place to share photos and knowledge. Enjoy
 

Snowcat

New member
Thanks everyone for such a war welcome!

Hello, first I've heard of going from a Sony to Nikon.
Good move !

I liked A77 and A77II caneras (those are crop SLT cameras), but then I've decided to move to A7II (FF mirrorless) and for me it was a disaster... It's image quality is good, no problem with that, but other then that A7 series are awful for my tastes...

It has a TINY-TINY battery, while the camera itself constantly draining power. So if you use it while walking around it drains the battery while I take only 100 (ONE HUNDRED!) pictures. It's not about number of pictures, it's about keeping the camera on. 3-4 hours and it is drained. That was really getting on my nerves, I have 5 batteries, I always don't know which if them are full, which are empty, e.t.c...

It has an eye sensor that switches between screen and EVF and back. This sensor is TOO sensitive, it switches off the screen if you are as close to the camera as 10cm. Even more, if you turn the screen up, the sensor sees the screen and... turns if OFF! Camera has LOTS of cusomizable buttons but you cannot assign ti one of them a simple function of switching between screen and evf. That is pure stupidity, everyone wants this function and sony does not want to add it with a firmware update. I tend to use turning screen alot so this was bugging me regularly... Additionally this sensor prevents camera going to sleep.

Camera has awful grip. It is very uncomfortable if you use good zoom lenses (which I like to use). A battery grip can be added, but it is gigantic and cumbersome, turning the camera into a square monster - not THAT comfortable also.

A7II has significant shutter lag. So if you are taking pictures of your kid, most of the pictures are like "this is the moment just AFTER my child had a cute smile". All A7 series are plagued with huge shutter lag.

AF system of A7 series is not that good. I never realized that actually before I took a modern Nikon in my hands.

And finally, Sony's E mount lenses are fantastically expensive. You can use Canon and Nikon lenses with AF via adapters, but their work is not perfect. Some better, some worse, some are not working at all.

All that bugged me for 6 months when I had A7II as my only camera. I hoped I will get used to it. But that did not happen.

My father gave me Nikon D5500 and said "go and try it". I've shot some test pictures with BOTH camera. And surprisingly I have found that APS-C D5500 is at least as good as FF A7II. It lost only in ONE THING - it has 1 stop worse noise. Well of course there is a difference between FF and crop (lesser DOF) but that is rarely really used by me so I decided to move to D5500. Now I am in a trip in China and I can say that I was totally right.
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
Welcome. My wife and I have many great memories of our trips to Moscow, St Petersburg, and the train ride between the two cities.
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
Welcome Paul , another member in Russia. I have a friend who wants to do model shooting here in St Petersburg that I advise. He is an American living here for about 1 year. He has the a7II and struggles. It captures a fine image but shooting side by side, with me using a D800 and soon to be a D850, the usability of the a7II is a joke, everything is in a menu like a point and shoot, and ergonomics are the worst for studio or event shooting. I would make a suggestion on settings for a scene and he could not duplicate it without screwing around with layers of menus. He has only one lens, and has no easy access to lighting control. It is hard to see why people think these are pro cameras, when the basic controls are further than 1 button press away like in a Canon or Nikon higher end camera.

The D5x00 series of cameras are certainly capable cameras, as are the D7x00 series. I have a D7000 that I use as a second camera for events and weddings and still marvel as how well it works overall. A very good balance between performance, handling, weight and cost. It also seems bullet proof, and with 160,000 frames in sometimes rugged conditions, its lower weight contributes to being impervious to knocks and bumps, still looks like new. Image quality on the D5x00 series cameras is actually better since going to the 24mpx lower noise sensor, but the D7000 with very good ISO'less sensor at 16mpx is plenty good enough with higher pixel density than my 36mpx D800.

One advantage you have over the Sony is lens choice, another is lighting systems. The Nikon CLS is very good and industry leading.
 

Snowcat

New member
Welcome Paul , another member in Russia. I have a friend who wants to do model shooting here in St Petersburg that I advise. He is an American living here for about 1 year. He has the a7II and struggles. It captures a fine image but shooting side by side, with me using a D800 and soon to be a D850, the usability of the a7II is a joke, everything is in a menu like a point and shoot, and ergonomics are the worst for studio or event shooting. I would make a suggestion on settings for a scene and he could not duplicate it without screwing around with layers of menus. He has only one lens, and has no easy access to lighting control. It is hard to see why people think these are pro cameras, when the basic controls are further than 1 button press away like in a Canon or Nikon higher end camera.
Yep I felt the same way. In my camera review (i write reviews on my site) I mentioned that A7 cameras cannot be called professional at all... They ate like a case without a handle... That's why I am here.

One advantage you have over the Sony is lens choice, another is lighting systems. The Nikon CLS is very good and industry leading.
Well, Sony with adapters has access to almost every lens in the world. That what was addictive for me in E mount. But still, native lenses work better anyway, while natives are VERY EXPENSIVE or are crappy (as 28-70/3.5-5.6). And again, with E mount your have lots and lots of ergonomic compromises. From this perspective Nikon is much-much better.

There are things I miss in D5500. But that's nothing in comparison with A7 flaws... I miss a digital level, ideally, shown in the VF. And I miss AF adjustment, but that can be overridden with Sigma's new console for their new lenses...
 

carguy

Senior Member
Hello, Nikonites!

My name is Paul and I am from Russia. I have rather large experience of shooting, coming from film era. I have used Soviet "Zenit" cameras loong time ago.

Next I used some digital "bridge" cameras (Sony, Panasonic, Canon), then Pentax DSLR (K10), did not like it, moved to Olympus 4:3. Then that system was killed by Olympus, and I moved over to Sony because back then it had the most pleasant colors to my taste. Lately, I've tried to move to FF and bought Sony A7II. I was not very happy with it so in order to MAKE myself to stick with it, i've sold all my Sony A77II stuff... That was a mistake as FF was clearly not for me at all. If you want I can elaborate... Anyhow, now I still have A7II with some lenses but my main camera now is Nikon D5500 which I see as an ergonomic miracle. I've bought several lenses for it and now I finally became a happy Nikonian. Why "finally"? Because my father was a Nikonian for last 30 years and always tried to convert me to his "faith".

Anyway, I am glad to be here!

Welcome to the community :)
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
It IS a good community with a lot of good photographers but as you say, it costs money to get full access. In any forum community someone pays the bills and they do cost to keep up. That allows a few advantages like a full time developer team. I am a moderator there, mostly helping solve problems, but also like this more casual group here. We need lots of choices and luckily we have them. ALL of them are better than the forums on DRP in attitude and helpfulness however.
 
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