Nikon shooter wanting to go mirrorless

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

Hi Broch! I kind of came from the D-750 but my route wasn't direct. I started out with a Nikon D-40 then moved to a couple Pentax DSLRs then back to Nikon with the D-700, D-800, D-750 then finally the D-810 before taking the leap to the Fujifilm X-T2. All in all I wish I had done it earlier. I only shoot for my enjoyment nowadays and in my opinion that's where Fuji obliterates the competition. I still have the X-T2 and what a piece of equipment it is. There is an initial hump to get over with the Fuji as far as processing the X-Trans files which a forum search here could help. A lot of folks here have switched from Lightroom to Capture One for that reason alone including me.

The 2 pieces of Nikon equipment that I do wish I'd have kept is the 70-200mm f/4 lens and my all time favorite Nikon, the D-700.

The X-T2 has been and still is everything I need and more and is every bit the equivalent to the D-700 in my heart. That being said my wife just gave me the go ahead to pre order the X-Pro 3 and I'm pretty stoked. The resale value of the X-T2 has dropped enough that I think I'll just hang on to it even if I don't use it as it's a work of art in my eyes.

I wish you the best on your decision!

[S]4[/S]Broch Gerling said:

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

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Hi, I use the Fuji X-T3 in parallel to my Nikon D850, because it is lighter. In the meantime the X-T3 is my main camera due to it‘s convenience.

I use these lenses
Wide Zoom: Fuji 10-24/4 is light and pretty good.

Standard zoom: Fuji 16–55/2.8 comparable und quality to Nikkor 24-70/2.8, my working horse

Tele zoom: Fuji 50-140/2.8 is a great lens

Standard prime: 35/1.4 is pretty small, causes some times chromatic aberrations, not as sharp as my Sigma 50/1.4 used on Nikon, but I like it.

Portrait prime: Fuji 56/1.2 is a great lens, but the aperture ring is to close to the mount

In general compared to the Nikon with lenses in a comparable FX range, it is much lighter and delivers astonishing quality.

Broch Gerling said:

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

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I've used lots of Nikons since 1979, most recently the D700. I still have it, but I do not use it very much. It's still a great camera in my view, but just too big and heavy for my current situation. For interchangeable lens stuff, I use the X-T2, which is a fantastic deal right now on sale. For travel I use the X100F. It's the digital equivalent of my Nikon 35Ti. I am very happy with my move to Fuji. I still love Nikon though, and I sometimes use my AI/AIS lenses with an adapter on the X-T2.

Don

i went from dual D810's to a single XT2 with 10-24, 18-55 and 55-200 and never looked back. i added the fuji arca-swiss baseplate ($100 or so) to get a meatier handgrip; i didn't need the battery grip. to me, the transition was virtually seamless, with the additional factor that the Fuji sensor is pretty consistent regardless of ISO, so auto-ISO became my default setting,

the biggest negative is that the fuji (or compatible) batteries don't last as long as Nikon (I could easily go a full shooting day without changing Nikon batteries; now i keep a spare or two in my pocket), but that's about it.

i didn't see enough more bang for the buck with the XT3, so if i were buying new, i'd probably get an XT2 and put a couple of bucks back in my pocket.

good luck!

Thank you all for your very insightful responses! I genuinely appreciate the time that each of you took to respond. I have a lot to think about!

I wanted to go mirrorless for a vacation camera, thinking it would augment my Canon 5D2. My research narrowed the field to Fuji. This was before the Canon EOS R was an option.

I rented the Fuji X-Pro2, XT-2 and X-E2 for a vacation week to test. I bought the newly released (then) X-E3 and have purchased the X-E2 and X-H1 since.

Changing systems is a big step. I heartily recommend you rent your finalists before making the switch. I also suggest you do some analysis of system costs, including the body and any lenses you intend to buy, both when switching and also down the road.

I'm curious why you are not also considering the Nikon Z. How many Nikon lenses do you have? If you are looking for a small kit, including lenses, then I would give Fuji the nod.

I never shoot with my Canon 5D2. I will keep three of my favorite Canon lenses - the 85mm f1.8, the 135L and the 70-200 f2.8. They work great with the Fringer Pro adapter.

Broch Gerling said:

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

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I also switched from Nikon and am a very happy X-T3 shooter. What I have not seen mentioned is the great advantage that mirrorless brings to choosing your exposure as you will see in your viewfinder what your exposure will look like. The Fuji cameras withered retro controls and highly configurable menus will allow you to set your camera up so you never need to go into the menus.

Morris

Broch Gerling said:

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

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My brother-in-law also wanted to abandon Nikon DSLR, and did for the Canon RP, partly because a nearby camera shop supports Canon. He likes it.

After looking closely at the studio scene comparison, I conclude that the RP is not any better than the X-T30, even at high ISO, despite being full frame.

On the plus side, you can buy an RP in a kit with the excellent RF 25-105/4 and use it on a better R body, when available. On the minus side, this is lots more money.

Speaking of money, the X-T100 is quite a bargain, if you don't plan to shoot 4K video.

I replaced my Nikon D4 with an X-T3 system and never looked back. I still use my D810 and Zeiss macro lens for copying artwork for clients, but for all other editorial work, the X-T3 shines. My working trio of lenses is the 14 f/2.8, 23 f/2, and 50-140 f/2.8.

After using Nikons all my life and going to Fujifilm X100S last year because I needed to simplfy my shooting life (health reasons, ergonomic stuff), I'm very happy. I found the fixed-prime-lens inspired creativity in me, and the small size means I carry it always.

Only thing I found difficult was that I struggled a bit with the difference in menu/settings/logic of the two systems.

Edit: I meant to reply to OP, but I still struggle with the threaded structure of this forum. I'm used to a 'flat' forum structure.

Curious to know why not a Z6 or Z7?

i like my Fuji kit, but also enjoy the Z7 and with the FTZ adapter your lenses still work

just a thought

Andy

After using Nikons all my life and switching to a used Fujifilm X100S last year because I needed to simplfy my shooting life (health reasons, ergonomic stuff), I'm very happy. I found the limitation of the fixed-prime lens inspired creativity in me, and the small size means I carry it always.

Only thing I found difficult was that I struggled a bit with the difference in menu/settings/logic of the two systems.

Going the other way, I've just upgraded from micro 4/3 to z6, where I considered fuji as well in the decision process.

Eventually ended up with Nikon, because

1. IBIS is important to me and the only stabilized fuji, the x-h1 is actually bulkier AND weighs more than the equivalent z6 configuration:

https://camerasize.com/compact/#772.448,795.784,ha,t

2. 4/3 to APSc is not a giant leap in terms of DR/Noise, about 1/2stop, whereas there is 1+stop difference between APSc and FF. If you don't have to carry much more weight (see point #1), there is little reason to stay on a crop format.

3. In-house adapter provided cheap in the kit, recent f-mount lenses work as good as native glass on it! 3rd party manufacturers (sigma and tamron) recognized the FTZ platform and keep adjusting their firmware to stay compatible. Elsewhere (fuji, sony) the adapter manufacturer is a completely separate player, has to keep his FW up to date towards both sides.

4. Z-mount lenses are really, really impressive.

5. Price difference isn't really huge. Actually the nikon can be cheaper at system level... The z6 body+FTZ adapter + 64GB QXD card(!) costs 1600€ , while the x-t3 body alone is 1400€. And you have to add a 300+€ adapter if you want to try and 3rd party lenses on the Fuji. Looking at equivalent lenses: 1.2/56 is almost 1000€ , where the nikkor z 1.8/85 is 850€ minus a 100€ discount, same goes between standard zooms, fuji 2.8/16-55 and the really good performer z 4/24-70. All in all, it seems actually cheaper(!) to build an equivalent system on FF while you have the opportunity to grow or keep "average" glasses for some purposes and top ones for your focus areas.

What I am missing from the nikon body are the superior video features of the x-t3.

Huge thanks to everyone who has taken their valuable time to reply to my post! I have decided that for now, I'm going to keep my Nikon D750 system, along with my X100s, which I forgot to mention having in my original post. I"m finding myself using my X100s more and more these days, and only when shooting my daughters events, does the Nikon system come out. I will definitely upgrade to the new X100V when it does make an appearance. If it doesn't review well, I'll find an X100F.

Broch Gerling said:

Hello, I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 35 years, and I’m feeling the itch to move to a smaller and lighter mirrorless setup. The two cameras that are leading the pack for me right now are the Canon RP or the Fuji XT30. Have any of you made a move from a Nikon D750 to either of these, and how did you like the change?

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I would suggest you price out the body with lenses and use camerasize.com to judge the size differences between the systems. Curious why you aren't interested in one of Nikon's Z cameras instead of the Canon RP.

FWIW, at the same apertures full-frame gives you around a one stop less noise and shallower depth of field over APSC.

--
www.darngoodphotos.com

AndyGordon said:

Curious to know why not a Z6 or Z7?

i like my Fuji kit, but also enjoy the Z7 and with the FTZ adapter your lenses still work

just a thought

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Z7 has the best image quality without going to medium format I think, based on the studio scene comparison.

Sony is popular among trolls on this website, but seems not quite as good, especially JPEG.

CAcreeks said:

AndyGordon said:

Curious to know why not a Z6 or Z7?

i like my Fuji kit, but also enjoy the Z7 and with the FTZ adapter your lenses still work

just a thought

Click to expand...

Z7 has the best image quality without going to medium format I think, based on the studio scene comparison.

Sony is popular among trolls on this website, but seems not quite as good, especially JPEG.

Click to expand...

Aha, so this comparison based on DPReview is wrong?

BTW: I own Fuji and Nikon cameras and don‘t own or use a Sony.

Michael Gebauer said:

Michael Gebauer said:

Z7 has the best image quality without going to medium format I think, based on the studio scene comparison.

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Aha, so this comparison based on DPReview is wrong?

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I dunno, I never pay much attention to their ratings or image quality assessments. My remark was merely based on looking at objects in the studio scene. Sony has the A7 with lower resolution than the Z7 and the A7R with higher resolution. Taking the latter, here's what I see at very high ISO. Z7 looks better to me despite fewer pixels.

CAcreeks said:

Michael Gebauer said:

CAcreeks said:

Z7 has the best image quality without going to medium format I think, based on the studio scene comparison.

Click to expand...

Aha, so this comparison based on DPReview is wrong?

Click to expand...

I dunno, I never pay much attention to their ratings or image quality assessments. My remark was merely based on looking at objects in the studio scene. Sony has the A7 with lower resolution than the Z7 and the A7R with higher resolution. Taking the latter, here's what I see at very high ISO. Z7 looks better to me despite fewer pixels.

Click to expand...

Sony’s JPEG clearly provides more details, despite that ISO 25600 is insane anyway.