What,,, A new Camera.

[WRUE951]

Well folks,  i just shot a big hole in my radio budget for the next 10 years.   Just pulled the trigger on my first hobby.   A new Nikon Mirrorless Camera..   Rest assured, i made sure i had plenty of radios on the shelf before making this huge leap...   

[RoadApple]

Have fun with it!!

[Bogieboy01]

Nice! Have not made the jump to mirrorless... in fact, all my dslrs are so old, none of them shoot video even.... newest i own is a canon xsi,followed by a pair of xti, an xt, and a pre xt rebel(cant remember what it is, its a model number on the bottom but cant be bothered to go pull it out and look.... )

[OffRoaderX]

Welcome to the Camera-Dork club...  

...Nikon D5100, Lumix GH5, Lumix GH6, Blackmagic 6k .....20+ lenses...  The sickness is real so i guess I'll have to get some mirrorless now!

[NCJeb]

I’ll admit the only cameras I own are the ones mounted in the iPhone I’m using to type this…but…do I detect the same thing is true about photography as radio, hunting, and any other hobby? That one cannot have too many:

-Radios

-Cameras

-Flashlights

-Pocketknives

-Pieces of hunting gear

-Fishing lures

-etc etc etc

…am I right?

[WRKC935]

Can you explain what mirrorless is?

I have a D3100 and D3200 (I think).  Both are Nikon.  The one does bluetooth and all that and automagically copies the photos to the laptop as soon as it's in range.

I don't actually know what the resolution is on either camera.  But when I save them as RAW format, the files are huge.

 

Oh, and the funny part is that I bought BOTH of them at Hamvention, a couple years apart.

 

 

[LeoG]

D70s and D3300 here.  D70S came with the AF-S 28-70mm.  Picked up a Sigma 10-20mm superwide zoom and a AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 stabilized zoom to balance things out.  Also a Nikon 50mm prime portrait lens but the autofocus on that isn't that great.

[SteveShannon]

15 hours ago, WRKC935 said:

Can you explain what mirrorless is?

In a regular film SLR a mirror reflects the image to the optical viewfinder. When you trigger the shutter, the mirror flips up out of the way so the image can get to the film.  When DSLRs were first introduced the film was simply replaced by a sensor, but an optical viewfinder was still used and the mirror was still needed.  As video displays got higher resolution the optical viewfinder was replaced by a digital display that shows what the sensor actually sees and the mirror was no longer needed. Thus, mirrorless cameras with the same shape as SLRs were born.  
After writing this I remembered that my first serious attempt at photography involved a twin lens reflex Yashica camera that my high school owned. Then the school allowed my cousin and me to order a SLR which was a Mamiya Sekor. Geez I’m old. 

[WRUE951]

11 hours ago, WRKC935 said:

Can you explain what mirrorless is?

I have a D3100 and D3200 (I think).  Both are Nikon.  The one does bluetooth and all that and automagically copies the photos to the laptop as soon as it's in range.

I don't actually know what the resolution is on either camera.  But when I save them as RAW format, the files are huge.

 

Oh, and the funny part is that I bought BOTH of them at Hamvention, a couple years apart.

 

 

Nikon's mirrorless is a large frame digital camera.  There is no mirror, like in a regular DSLR to drirect light to the viewfinder.  Instead a mirrorless has an electronic viewfinder that allows for much smaller and lighter camera bodies and advancded features like real time exposure preview.  Also the video cababilites on mirrorless is like no other camera.   Also because of the larger full frame leneses you can shoot in extremely dim lighting. Camera makers are getting away from the DSLR style cameras and moving to mirrorless, the wave of the future. 

[WRUE951]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

Welcome to the Camera-Dork club...  

...Nikon D5100, Lumix GH5, Lumix GH6, Blackmagic 6k .....20+ lenses...  The sickness is real so i guess I'll have to get some mirrorless now!

.  Yea, i have a D5100, a D700 and many before those two cameras that have served me well.  Also  have 9 lenses that could have bought my first house  and the reason i've been holding off on getting a mirrorless.  Nikon has and adapter for their mirrorless cameras allowing one to use their DX&FD DSLR lenses on the mirrorless camera, retaining all automatic functions.   It's only taken me two years to make the decision to go mirrorless.  I almost said scerew-it and just get the D850 but I made the plunge and got the Z8.   I did get one Z lense with the purchase, 100-400 Zoom

[WRUE951]

10 hours ago, LeoG said:

D70s and D3300 here.  D70S came with the AF-S 28-70mm.  Picked up a Sigma 10-20mm superwide zoom and a AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 stabilized zoom to balance things out.  Also a Nikon 50mm prime portrait lens but the autofocus on that isn't that great.

D70 was a nice camera for its time..  My lense investment was holding me back from going mirrorless but I learned Nikon has an adapter mount (FTZ mount) for the Z mirrorless cameras allowing you to use all DX&FX lenses on the Z mirrorless cameras while retaining all auto functions of the lenses and no loss in picture quality.   The Z8 is mind blowing with all the capabilities it offers.  Honestly, i will take me at least a year to learn all of its functions and capability.  

[SteveShannon]

14 hours ago, Bogieboy01 said:

Nice! Have not made the jump to mirrorless... in fact, all my dslrs are so old, none of them shoot video even.... newest i own is a canon xsi,followed by a pair of xti, an xt, and a pre xt rebel(cant remember what it is, its a model number on the bottom but cant be bothered to go pull it out and look.... )

Last year I switched from a Canon EOS DSLR to an Olympus OM-10 Micro 4/3 format mirrorless camera that’s capable of shooting video.  Everything is smaller, lighter, yet much higher resolution than my old Canon (and Konica 35 mm SLR that’s 46 years old, bought with wedding gift money!)

[LeoG]

Going from the D70S to the D3300 was a big jump.  The 70 is much closer to a pro camera than the 3300 but the 3300 is much more advanced and had a CMOS sensor which was soooo much better for low light conditions.  The 70 always struggled in lower light conditions with noise and the 3300 was able to get around that.

Even phones do better in low light than the D70S could do.

[WRUE951]

6 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Going from the D70S to the D3300 was a big jump.  The 70 is much closer to a pro camera than the 3300 but the 3300 is much more advanced and had a CMOS sensor which was soooo much better for low light conditions.  The 70 always struggled in lower light conditions with noise and the 3300 was able to get around that.

Even phones do better in low light than the D70S could do.

low light photography is fun and i love getting evening & early morning shots over lakes, mountains & trails while camping.   i cant wait to start playing with the Z8 which has amazing capabilities in low light  shooting  

[HHD1]

Wow!  I didn't know so many of us were also into cameras.  I'm a photographer as well.  In fact, that's all I did for a living at one point in my life.  I shot for a couple local newspapers and well as portrait photography.

[TrikeRadio]

2 hours ago, HHD1 said:

Wow!  I didn't know so many of us were also into cameras.  I'm a photographer as well.  In fact, that's all I did for a living at one point in my life.  I shot for a couple local newspapers and well as portrait photography.

I guess there must be some connection between the technical fascination with radios and the technical aspects of photography. Maybe even the creative communication of views in photography might have a connection to wanting to communicate... Or maybe not.  

I also made my living as a photographer years an years ago, both in industrial photography and product studio photography. I did get into digital cameras as they became more typical and film cameras became less used... but I kinda let my photography hobby lapse a bit as I got more into computers and web design. Still have a medium format film camera and a few others but have not made use of them much. I still enjoy photography but I guess interests has shifted.

Good to see others out there enjoying the camera work! 

[LeoG]

7 hours ago, HHD1 said:

Wow!  I didn't know so many of us were also into cameras.  I'm a photographer as well.  In fact, that's all I did for a living at one point in my life.  I shot for a couple local newspapers and well as portrait photography.

Haven't you figured it out yet?  We're electronic nerds.

[WRKC935]

I got into digital camera's and taking more photographs due to it being digital.  

While no one seems to talk about it.  The main reason to go digital is the lack of requirement for film. 

You have a more or less one time expense of a memory card that will allow you to take and store how many photos?  Film was 12 / 24/ 36 if I remember right.

And film couldn't be reused.  Once it was used, you bought another roll.  And that was something you had to take into consideration when taking photographs.  A roll of film had X number of total photographs you could take.  Yes, a memory card is limited too, at least to some degree.  But even shooting really high resolution. a RAW photo is how big, and how many can you fit on a x sized memory card?  So blasting away with the shutter on a DSLR is WAY cheaper than with anything requiring film.  

And yes, you can take video with them too.  

 

[Bogieboy01]

On 10/10/2025 at 10:19 AM, SteveShannon said:

Last year I switched from a Canon EOS DSLR to an Olympus OM-10 Micro 4/3 format mirrorless camera that’s capable of shooting video.  Everything is smaller, lighter, yet much higher resolution than my old Canon (and Konica 35 mm SLR that’s 46 years old, bought with wedding gift money!)

The amount of lenses i have for the eos platform makes it hard to switch.....LOL 50mm, 85mm,135mm primes, all f1.8, 18-250mm f4-5.6 telephoto ultimate "walkabout" lens, then theres the 500mm F8 prime with a 2x teleconvertor, the yagi of the photo world.... i also have a smattering of 18-55mm kit lenses, and a 70-200 kit lens, but those only get used on the "loaner" cameras...LOL i think theres a 25-85mm in the mix too? I forget now....LOL Some day i will likely upgrade to a canon mirrorless and adapt said lenses.... but if i want video, my samsung s20fe can shoot 4k and its in my pocket everywhere i go... past that i also have an autel evo 1 drone that shoots eye in the sky 4k if needed, with 50x digital zoom too....hehe (and before anyone asks, yes i am licensed to operate the drone with the faa, since we all love licensing talk in the radio world)

[Bogieboy01]

On 10/10/2025 at 5:51 PM, LeoG said:

Haven't you figured it out yet?  We're electronic nerds.

Who you callin' a nerd, nerd????

 

I am squarely in the spectrum disorder geek camp myself, not a nerd....

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, Bogieboy01 said:

The amount of lenses i have for the eos platform makes it hard to switch.....LOL 50mm, 85mm,135mm primes, all f1.8, 18-250mm f4-5.6 telephoto ultimate "walkabout" lens, then theres the 500mm F8 prime with a 2x teleconvertor, the yagi of the photo world.... i also have a smattering of 18-55mm kit lenses, and a 70-200 kit lens, but those only get used on the "loaner" cameras...LOL i think theres a 25-85mm in the mix too? I forget now....LOL Some day i will likely upgrade to a canon mirrorless and adapt said lenses.... but if i want video, my samsung s20fe can shoot 4k and its in my pocket everywhere i go... past that i also have an autel evo 1 drone that shoots eye in the sky 4k if needed, with 50x digital zoom too....hehe (and before anyone asks, yes i am licensed to operate the drone with the faa, since we all love licensing talk in the radio world)

If I had that collection of lenses I would have probably upgraded to a new Canon body.  

[WRUE951]

20 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

If I had that collection of lenses I would have probably upgraded to a new Canon body.  

I tried out the FTZ adapter on a couple of my fav FD lenses yesterday,.  Works good and retaining all the features..  Anyone thinking they will loose their Nikon lense collection swithing to Mirrorless,  rest assured, you won't.     I'm not a Canon fan but i woule think they have a similiar adapter for their DSLR lenses to Mirrorless.  

[LeoG]

The one good thing about Nikon is they stuck with their F mount through out their camera line until the mirrorless.  I think Canon has had several different mount systems, but don't quote me on that.

[WRUE951]

54 minutes ago, LeoG said:

The one good thing about Nikon is they stuck with their F mount through out their camera line until the mirrorless.  I think Canon has had several different mount systems, but don't quote me on that.

Yes, Nikon has always statyed with their F mounts systems..   I think Canon in some way has similarly as well.  I have friends who have used Canon for decades on DSLR and i know they have used their lenses and flash systems as they upgraded their DSLR Camera body's..  As i recall, some of Canons auto focus features on older DSLR's didn nto carry over to newer models but the leneses were still functional in manual focus.  

[LeoG]

Not a Canon person myself so I don't know much about them.