The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
Third Party Battery Paranoia
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
Picking Out Vintage Lens Winners
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.
The Nikon D7500 may use SDXC, SDHC, and SD memory cards. A memory card with fast enough write speeds is crucial for continuous shooting and video.
An inadequate SD card can mess up the functionality of your camera.
If you’re in a rush, here’s the best card you can buy for the Nikon D7500:
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The Nikon Df may use SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards. A memory card with fast write speeds is crucial for burst shooting and video.
You can decrease the functionality of your camera by using the wrong memory card.
Want to skip the technical details? This is my recommendation on the SD card to get for the Nikon Df:
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The Nikon FE needs a good lens to take sharp photos. We will go over the 5 best lenses for the Nikon FE. Alternative lens suggestions are included for different price points.
Best Lenses for the Nikon FE:
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The Nikon EM is a very good film camera. This webpage will go over the 5 best lenses for the Nikon EM, plus a handful of alternative lenses.
Additional details are further down, but if you are limited on time, below is the list:
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The Nikon FM10 can be a fun camera to use with the right lens for the type of photography you want to do.
I hope this doesn’t surprise you, but the best selling F-mount film lenses were the cheapest. They are the easiest to find today in good usable condition.
The “best” lenses to me are the ones that make you want to take your camera out and shoot. Yeah, vaporizing backgrounds with a giant tube fill with glass is fun. However, it’s not something I’d want to do on a daily basis.
The Nikon FA can be a fun camera to use with the right lens for the type of photography you want to do.
I hope this doesn’t surprise you, but the best selling F-mount film lenses were the cheapest. They are the easiest to find today in good usable condition.
The “best” lenses to me are the ones that make you want to take your camera out and shoot. Yeah, vaporizing backgrounds with a giant tube fill with glass is fun. However, it’s not something I’d want to do on a daily basis.
