Image quality at base ISO has not meaningfully improved since 2010-2013. DSLRs are still great at photography and many lenses can easily be adapted to mirrorless cameras.
Manufacturers have made large improvements in video features, resolution, and image quality. Around 2016 is when good quality 4k at 30fps became widely available on consumer cameras.
The shift from DSLRs to mirrorless has resulted in a selloff of Canon EOS EF and Nikon F cameras and lenses. It is possible to get absolutely obscene price to performance value on used gear.
Used Camera Gear Shopping
If you’re looking for your first dedicated camera, it rarely makes sense to buy new. Spening thousands of dollars on new gear doesn’t mean you’ll actually like using it. My two recommendations for camera shopping are:
Don’t discount the importance of size and weight. Smaller and lighter is better.
Think about the lenses you’ll want. Don’t spend your entire budget on a camera body to get stuck with a kit lens.
Just like all new tech, camera gear quickly depreciates. Last year’s best in class camera is often this year’s 50% off used deal. That doesn’t even mean it is worth buying because until you have experience, you don’t know what camera features are actually important to you.
The difficulty in finding deals is that there are hundreds of different camera models. Dozens of them might fit your needs. To make your life easier, I’ve been going through series of models to create used buying guides.
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
Have you ever been paranoid about the capacity of a battery? Especially if it was from a third party? I was.
I have figured out how ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. I have written a guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires a screwdriver and pair of wire strippers.
Nothing Depreciates Faster Than A Camera.
Cameras are the fastest depreciating pieces of photography gear. That’s bad if you buy a new camera. If you buy used, you can get a high-end camera from 10+ years ago for pennies on the dollar.
Being able to use flagship cameras of years gone by is an interesting experience. Medium format in both film and digital become obtainable for non-professional uses. Or owning many cameras is remarkably affordable.
The camera reviews section showcases all of the cameras I have reviewed. You can also find information on camera manufacturers that are no longer in business.
The M42 lens mount, is referred to as the “Universal thread mount”, “Praktica thread mount”, and “Pentax screw mount.” It’s history spans several decades and has seen use by many of camera manufacturers.
Overview of M42 Mount History of the M42 Mount Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic F The M42 lens mount is a screw thread mounting standard designed for 35mm film cameras. One example being the Pentax Spotmatic. Its technical specification is the M42 × 1mm standard, indicating a metric screw thread with a 42mm diameter and a 1mm thread pitch.
The Pentax K-mount, also referred to as the “PK-mount” has been around since 1975. It is a bayonet lens mount that was originally designed for 35mm film SLR cameras. (Single-lens reflex)
The mount is still being used by Pentax for their DSLRs. This can lead to compatibility problems as there have been significant modifications to the mount to allow for autofocus and electronic controls.
Different Versions of the K-mountAs cameras added features and technology, lenses and the camera mount needed to be modified.
The Minolta SR-mount, a bayonet mounting system, was used in 35mm SLR cameras produced by Minolta from 1958 to 1998. Over the years, several iterations of this mount were introduced, leading to occasional references to the mount by the names of the corresponding lens generations, such as “MC”, “MD”, and “X-600”.
It is also common to see the camera mount referred to as the Minolta MD-mount. This is because the MD series of lenses were the last widely available lenses before the mount was discontinued.
The Nimslo 3D camera is the original quadra lens camera. The design was to allow for the creation of lenticular prints from 35mm film.
A lenticular print would combine the four different images into a single print. That print would appear 3 dimensional when moved.
The Nishika N8000 and Nishika N9000 both have four lenses. They were released after the Nimslo 3D.
I am not aware of printers that can produce lenticular prints for individuals.
Sports and wildlife photography requires expensive and often heavy telephoto lenses. The cheapest interchangeable lens camera kits can still be close to $1,000.
Bridge cameras offer an inexpensive entry point into a super telephoto field of view. Another huge benefit is that they are relatively light. This makes them the ideal choice for taking on nature hikes or to children’s sporting events.
The reach on many of these cameras is quite impressive.
Take advantage of the Nikon D600’s full-frame sensor with a great lens. The camera uses the F-mount, which has a huge selection of lenses to choose from.
Whether you’re into portraiture, macro, wildlife, or simply want an all-rounder, we’ve got you covered with our carefully curated list. Featuring prime and zoom lenses, as well as third-party options like the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art and the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.
