Help me choose a "fine art" travel camera!

[paullgj]

A few years late, but a reply to my own thread - I just ordered a D7500 LN- from KEH - $756 incl. tax and shipping.  Cost wise it was a no brainer for me - I have the DX lenses and FX primes, plus flashes.  Didn't want to go the Z route with adapter and/or new lenses, plus learning curve.  Hopefully I'll be heading out to the Peten in Guatemala May of 2023 and the western highlands (Dia de Todos los Santos) November 2023.  My D700 is fine, but a little big, heavy, and no video.  Probably my gear will be D7500, on zoom (either 16-85 or 18-200) and one prime.
Admin: A 0 has been added for clarity; D7500 

[golunvolo]

Sorry, it is not clear if you got a d750 or d7500... The former, with fx sensor size has amazing output. If the d7500 has the same output as the d500, it is top notch dx.

[paullgj]

Sorry - typo - it's a D7500.  Several reasons, in addition to the lenses, why I went this route instead of Z50.  The D7500 has the wired remote release, top LCD plate, and my existing Nikon flashes work without glitches.  Yes, I did consider a Z5 with 24-200 lens (on sale right now), but adding cards, flash, etc. jumps the price way over $2,000, plus the learning curve et al.

[mxbianco]

lots of these on ebay

Lots of Dfs on eBay, but the cheapest one is 1500€ so it's off-budget. The Zfc instead can be found around 750€.

BTW, A Df (and a Zfc) will be seen as an obsolete camera (less likely to get robbed of one). Many people ask me why do I still use a film camera when they see me shooting with either one... 

Ciao from Massimo

[Matthew Currie]

It's been a while since I posted on this, but in the mean time my 16-85 let me down on a trip to Bhutan, with an intermittent aperture problem, and I replaced it with a 16-80, which I like a good bit more - sharper and less prone to fogging, which was also a problem on my 16-85 in humid Cambodia.  The 16-85 was a nice package in size and range, but the 16-80 is faster and sharper. The 16-85 was OK, but the 16-80 and 18-140 both beat it handily on sharpness.

[Hans_S]

...  Lots of petty crime and best not to be too obvious - one camera, and maybe one or two lenses.  ...

And some not-so-petty crime unfortunately. We visited Petén in 2018, flew into Flores and went to Tikal and Uatactun from there. I left the big gear at home and carried only a Sony A6000 and Sigma 19, 30 and 60mm f2.8's.
The Sony is a miserable camera to use but it does make a discrete package. I'm not suggesting that an APS-C camera like the Sony would meet your IQ needs, but perhaps having a second, smaller camera available would let take pix in "tense" circumstances that you would otherwise miss out on.

[Hugh_3170]

Mate, just keep smiling and enjoy that D4 sensor!

Lots of Dfs on eBay, but the cheapest one is 1500€ so it's off-budget. The Zfc instead can be found around 750€.

BTW, A Df (and a Zfc) will be seen as an obsolete camera (less likely to get robbed of one). Many people ask me why do I still use a film camera when they see me shooting with either one... 

Ciao from Massimo

[mxbianco]

Mate, just keep smiling and enjoy that D4 sensor!

Yes, I happily keep shooting (183K actuations on the Df, 10K actuations in 8 months with the Zfc), what I wrote was meant towards potential robbers, they will see my little jewels as worthless items and leave me alone

Ciao from Massimo

[Bernard Delley]

if 24-120mm is the FL range you want for the D700, I suggest the AF-S 16-80mm f/2.8-4 + D7200 as crop camera travel combo. It has been the cardinal travel set for me during several years. At the risk of causing uproar I mention that there are well founded reasons to expect higher image quality from the D7200 than from the significantly older D700. Several others have also proposed this lens here. It matches the very important 24mm equivalent wide end. I judge the sharpness across the frame as more satisfactory than with the crop 18-140mm lens or the AF-S 24-85mm FX lens on FX body, which I have both tested. D7200 has the same AF module as the D7500 yet offers 24 Mpixels instead of the 20 for the D7500. AS older model the D7200 may come cheaper at Ebay. Flare resistance of the 16-80mm is quite excellent. The camera+lens looks significantly less impressive if you leave the lens hood at home. -- If this is too much camera, for example allowed in a museum, I regretfully fall back to  a RX100 camera with its 24-70 equivalent FL range.