Help for my sister

stuartjgeddes wrote:

SilvanBromide wrote:

stuartjgeddes wrote:

Hi all after some opinions

My younger sister is looking to get into kids and baby photography to go along with her face painting and kids parties business. She recently completed a diploma in photography

She is looking to buy her own camera as she was using my dad's old d300 for her course. She is deciding between the following and I would like to point her in the right direction

Option 1

Nikon d750 or d780. Benefit DSLR nikon so she can share gear with me and my dad plus she is used to using DSLR.

Option 2

Nikon z5 or z6. Again benefit of the nikon layout and access to equipment with ftz

Option 3

Sony a73

She hasn't used mirrorless before but has mentioned she likes the idea of seeing her exposure in the evf.

My go to reaction is nikon DSLR as a DSLR user or the z but is there significant risk with either the older tech or is there a greater risk with the z system which has less lenses and I don't know if there is the same support for it as dslr.

Sony I have never used but I have seen the huge support in terms of lenses and seems to be growing while nikon seems to be shrinking

Im bias as a nikon user and want to give her the best help i can. I also posted in the nikon fx forum. Any thoughts appreciated

A lot depends on what lenses your sister wishes to use, and whether they are available and affordable (for her) for the system she decides to enter.

That said, speaking as a former Nikon shooter, and all other things being equal, I could not in conscience recommend that anyone starting out go with a dSLR of any kind (it's a clunky, limited and backward-looking platform) and I would not personally recommend the Z cameras at this point either (at least for anyone not already heavily invested in the Nikon ecosystem), thought they would be a far better choice than buying into antiquated dSLR tech.

One of the limitations of Z is that the mount size dictates that the bodies *must* be large. As part of that, the smallest Z body is still bigger than the largest FE body. Another is that, as you've noted, Z lens selections (adapter options aside) are limited and likely to remain so for quite a while, especially as the mount protocols are not open.

Others may disagree, but I'd say if you steer her towards Nikon you're unlikely to be doing her any favours.

Sorry, but you did ask. ; )

To be honest this is what I'm worried about personally for me I don't see myself ever seriously using any brand but nikon (besides my wife and my graphite xpro 2 she takes everywhere with her) but in saying that I'm heavily invested in nikon and so is my dad so I feel I can't have an unbias view.

I prefer DSLR personally and I know for me if I were to buy mirrorless it would be a z6, but Sam doesn't have any of her own lenses and she played with a friend's a7r2 and said it was different but liked the evf.

Would it be a significant learning curb coming from a DSLR?

There is no real learning curve from DSLR to mirrorless, they are both cameras, they function the same way the technology is just different as there are no mirrors.

I used to have a canon DSLR before my Sony mirrorless, didn't take me much time at all to adjust.