Changing Camera System

[elsa hoffmann]

I am moving from Canon gear to Nikon.

Clearly Nikon is more affordable in your nick of the woods
here every second guy wants to switch to Canon  - long lenses easily 30% more expensive from Nikon

[Mike G]

Frank thanks for your reply I'm afraid the D750 just does not cut it for me, one frustration I've had for years now is the ridiculous viewfinders the Nikon foist on us all, I mean an eye relief of 15/17mm is just plain stupid and insulting, I don't want to have to take my glasses off to look through the VF. Even the D810 and D4 are no good for spectacles which is surprising when you see an awful lot of Japanese men wearing them, I hold out very little hope that Nikon will address that very frustrating annoyance. Also a lens should be able to focus correctly without any faffing around it's not as if Nikon don't know the sensor to lens mount distance!!!!!!!

[Jørgen Ramskov]

If you're looking at the lenses, then Fuji's "pro" glass is heavy too. Compare the weight of the Fuji 56mm f/1.2 and the Nikon 85mm f/1.4. The 50-140mm f/2.8 is around 1100 gram. Not exactly light weight, but it's nice glass for sure and it looks good.

Added: I have a D750 and wears glasses. I have no problems looking through the VF or recall the X-T1 to be any better?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The eyepoint distance is not decisive in itself as one has to consider the entire construction of the ocular. A great many people worked up a frenzy over the Df's eyepoint measure (17 mm) and declared the finder to be a disaster without having had the camera in their hand. In reality the Df has one of the best finders around and definitively works well with glasses. More than I can say about the X-T1.

However, if one has set the mind on the grass being greener on the other side of the fence, there is no other solution than going all in and hope for the best. You can always switch back later.

[stenrasmussen]

You can always switch back later.

I detest people who do that 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

You have the experience or so I'm told .....

[pluton]

Mike, Shoot with the XT1 in all the same situations where you would previously have used the Nikon.  Do it for few weeks, if not months, and you will gradually form conclusions about how well the Fuji works for you. 
Good shooting!

[Mike G]

Jorge, I used to have the Nikkor 85mm 1.4, what a big beast that was, I traded it in for the 105mm 2.8 micro!

Bjorn, I still maintain that Nikon viewfinders for me are not good, why can't we have an eye point of say 25mm after all this is the 21st century, I want to see all of the VF screen, to be honest I can't remember what the Df VF looked like as it was a year ago, I was impressed by its size but its still the same glass!

keith indeed. That's the point of the exercise!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

You have to make your own decision, Mike. Nobody argues that basic fact.

On the other hand, its always sensible to think twice before potentially losing money on something one later might regret. That is the underlying reason for the advice to shoot with both systems concurrently for a while.

[Frank Fremerey]

Mike. My annotation on the D750 was a side note.

The main dish is in the other words ;-)

[bjornthun]

People can have very different prescription glasses too, so a viewfinder that works for one spectacle wearer may not work that well for another spectacle wearer. This means that it's difficult to draw general conclusions. Everyone needs to try out the camera in question with his/her specific spectacles.

[Hermann]

Bjorn, I still maintain that Nikon viewfinders for me are not good, why can't we have an eye point of say 25mm after all this is the 21st century, I want to see all of the VF screen, to be honest I can't remember what the Df VF looked like as it was a year ago, I was impressed by its size but its still the same glass!

Viewfinders are always a compromise if they are to cater for people with and people without glasses. I think the Nikon viewfinders are a compromise that works pretty well for many people, but obviously not for everyone. It's the same with the eyepieces of observation optics, like binoculars and telescopes. Eyepieces with a high eyepoint, say 20mm and more, have their own set of problems (large size, higher weight and higher price, more glare problems when viewing against the light), so most makers aim for something like 16-20mm.

Maybe it's an idea to try different glasses. With binoculars and scopes smallish, close-fitting frames usually work better than large frames. I know several people who always try to make sure they only get glasses that work with their binoculars/scope.

Maybe that works for viewfinders as well.

Hermann

[JBPhoto]

I own both, have used Nikon's since 1978 and bought the Fuji X-T1 on launch in Canada sight unseen. Overall I was pretty happy and bought the XF14mm F2.8, XF23mm 1.4, XF56mm 1.2 and the XF55-200mm f3.5-4.8 mostly as a travel kit when I wanted to haul less gear.

The relationship with the X-T1 hasn't gone so well and I have since purged the primes, added the XF16-55mm F2.8 and kept the 55-200. Ergonomic niggles confound me with this camera, it eats batteries(I had to buy 6 to keep it running for extended periods), exposure bracketing is pathetic, the buttons on the back are not responsive enough and just too small, the drive and metering dial are way too loose and get moved when the camera strap is wrapped around my wrist.  I could go on but why kick a horse when it is down? Anyway, I am keeping it BUT only as a compact lighter alternative, it certainly isn't a replacement for my Nikon's.

[aerobat]

Since the launch of the Fuji mirrorless system I use it alongside my Nikon DSLR.

Currently these are:

• Fuji X-E2 with 14mm f/2.8, 16mm f/1.4, 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 and 56mm f/1.2
• Nikon D750 with 20mm f/1.8, 35mm f/1.8, 60mm f/2.8 Micro and 85mm f/1.4 and soon the new 24mm f/1.8

Both systems are pretty much overlapping in focal lengths.
I was thinking about pursuing only one system on the long run but after years of use I can see each system's strengths and weaknesses.
Good idea to keep both for quite a while as you may regret ditching one or the other.
If I only had e.g. DSLRs I would want two of them. Now I keep one DSLR and a mirrorless instead.
For coverage of events you can mix and match two cameras and required focal lengths.
The different operation of the cameras doesn't pose too big a problem as I've had both long enough to know them well.

[David H. Hartman]

I find the Nikon F3 (DE-2, non-HP) the most comfortable Nikon viewfinder despite wearing glasses. I believe the eyepoint is 17mm. The viewfinder magnification is .80 with a 50mm lens focused to infinity. The Nikon F2As has the same specs in this regard but edges of the finder are a bit vignetted for me. There's more to viewfinder ergonomics than eyepoint.

Now there is the image magnification v. eyepoint. The F3 has a finder magnification of .80x while the F3HP with a higher eyepoint has lower finder magnification of .75x. I wonder if this eyepoint relationship is always the case?

I hope the pop up flash is gone from professional Nikon DSLR(s). I'd like to see the real estate on top given to the finder prism.

Maybe I'm all wet here?

Dave Hartman