Finally Going Mirrorless

Mirrorless Maybe?

In 2020, I decided it was time to finally go the mirrorless route. I was a devoted Nikon DSLR shooter for the past 7 years and I dabbled with the Sony A7 when it came out. Bought the shiny new toy, could not hold its weight against the D800. The subpar features were an absolute failure and the ergonomics were bad and the battery life was what I would call “laughable at best”. The part I enjoyed was the electronic viewfinder. Being able to see my exposure in realtime was nice, however the lag pretty bad and inconsistent. There was an issue with the raw files missing information compared to my D800 and D610. The sony A7 had to go back to B&H Photo and stayed with my DSLRs. 

2015 came and granted me the opportunity to buy the Fuji Xpro1 for under $500. Similar to some film cameras I grew up shooting, I fell in love despite its many shortcomings. This would not replace any Nikon I owned but would fill my void of a street photography camera due to the size and manual controls. I longed for the Nikon DF, but the rangefinder-style made the camera more inconspicuous when shooting. I began my dive back into mirrorless, but a full-frame would Nikon would be what I would need. Flash forward to 2016, my Nikon D800 fell into the ocean. I thought about getting the D810, but for my needs, the D750 fit the job better. 

The year is 2019 and the Z6 and Z7 have been out for 1 year. Their lens collection started to grow, but the autofocus was still lacking behind the DSLR’s they sought to replace. With no battery grip available for portrait orientation shooting, still reliant upon the ZTF adapter for lens support, I was patient for a mirrorless version of the already light D750. Some would say that is the z6, but without dual sd cards for backup, I could not justify the move. Nikon released a firmware update to bring the autofocus up to speed and added eye autofocus. Suddenly Nikon was looking like it would be would take my money for a mirrorless body. 

Now here we are, 2020, the worst year ever. Nikon had rumors of a Canon RP killer that punched above its weight class, enter the Nikon Z5. The perfect portrait camera taking the best parts of the D750 and Z6. I was sold and finally bought a camera on the release date, something I usually avoid due to issues I will address. Before I go into the issues, I have to address the positives. Price-wise, I traded in the D610 and D750 for this and paid close to nothing & got the FTZ adapter. The Z5 was a joy to use, despite not having a vertical batter grip to shoot in portrait orientation like my previous bodies, I did not miss it. Maybe 2020 taught me to shoot less but every shot I took nailed focus, I could finally focus on composition as I do when shooting film, but at a faster pace. The only con I had on the z5 was just the lack of support for processing raw files in Lightroom. I found a fix and was quick to post it online, but it was a reminder of why I avoided being an early adopter.  Nikon called this an entry-level camera similar to the Z50, but they mislabeled this camera. It is a portrait shooter’s delight and hits the sweet spot on the price as the D610 once did.

Having said that, the Z6ii and Z7ii were just released a month ago and I cashed in my chips for the Z7ii. I intended to trade the Z5, but in my honest opinion, that camera is going to stay with me for a bit longer. Nikon fixed the issues and addressed the concerns holding me and many others back from the initial purchase when the 1st gen came out in 2018. The trouble in switching brands like many who went to Sony on the A7II & A7III is being invested in your system and having to sell it to transition. I refused to and waited for Nikon to bring it home as they did in 2019-2020. The camera is my tool and it works for me, get what works for you.