Goodbye Nikon after 28 years ...

Please don't take any offence by this post, this is a gear forum and I want to stress that I am not against something here, but merely sharing my personal way! (yes, this is a disclaimer!!!)

Bought an F3 in 1985 after many years of using Pentax, remember how I took the viewfinder off and looked at the ground glass, replaced the glass with a different one with etched gridlines ... had a 70-210/3.8 Tamron adapt all and a 24/2.8 ... then later reduced the travel weight to the 24/2.8 and a 105/2.5. Mini-tripod and polarisers, 50 rolls of AGFA 50s Chrome and off I went .. glorious days! The F3 looked like s*** when I sold her in 1997, but still working just fine.

Then used an F90x, then a SONY Mavica, then back to Nikon a Coolpix 5000, then D70, D200, D2Hs (fantastic piece of engineering!!!) and then a D300s. I thought for a long time that the D300s was possibly the most accomplished camera I have ever used, it just fitted my needs regarding photography, but of course had some minor issues too.

I then waited, as many DX users were, for a successor, not because the D300s was bad but because of boredom and excitement as to what could be next ... got tired of waiting and looked into other systems, found that the only camera that interested me was the Fuji X-Pro1 ... read some tests and rejected the idea of getting into that system, mainly because of rather poor AF and the lack of RAW support, a double no-no for me, but generally liked the idea of the mirrorless camera. What intrigued me was to see how the omission of the anti alias filter would pan out on a DX size sensor.

When the X-E1 was released, I hardly took note since the issues re RAW still persisted, but when PhaseOne published version 7.0.2 I took the plunge and bought an X-E1 with 18-55/2.8-4.0 zoom.

Originally as a little travel camera I soon realised that I would possibly only pickup the D300s when I would use fast moving objects (which I don't do very often...) so decided after some hoo-humming to sell the lot.

Have been using the X-E1 exclusively now for 4 or so weeks and must say that one thing I re-discovered, if you like, was the joy of taking photos. An aperture ring and shutter dial, A plus exposure compensation, just like in the olden days ...

Just pure fun to use, slows you down, but not by much!

Taken with an iPHONE ...

ONA bag, 1 body, 2 lenses, filters, extra battery & SD cards. 1kg for all of this ...

X-E1 with 60/2.4 Macro, RRS BH-30, L-plate and yes, that is a cable release!!

Today I had a look at the DX forum for Nikon and found a thread pointing at Thom Hogan's website regarding his predictions for DX support in 2013 ... thought that I didn't really care less, felt really quite dull in fact how so many people can be waiting for a camera manufacturer to offer something that would fulfill their needs - or wants ...

In the meantime I am ejoying my newly found camera and in fact feel like I have gone back a few decades as far as handling goes, but forward as far as image quality goes. This is not a contradiction!

In fact I am amazed as to how many ex-canon shooters, ex-nikon shooters and the like now use mirrorless. I only hope that Nikon doesn't miss the boat here!

What would make me buy another Nikon DSLR? Well I started a thread some time ago pondering as to how I - or anybody - would like a D400 without anti alias filter, just like the Pentax K5IIs or the D800E or the Leica M9 etc. I got a lukewarm response, but thought that I would still be excited about this! So what would win me back for at least some Nikon gear? At this point in time a D400 with a Fuji 16Mpx X-Trans sensor!!! No anti alias filter, naturally! They have worked together before, but this would - or could - be a bombshell!

Or not ...

Here are some pictures I posted a few days ago on the Fuji forum, in case somebody is interested!

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50870623

Will keep an eye on future Nikon products, but not with the same enthusiasm, shall we say ...

All the best!

Deed