atanabe
Member
I have shot with Nikon throughout my professional career, starting with the Nikon F and progressing through to the F2AS and the F3. I chose Nikon because a camera was an essential tool that you relied on. You did not know if the camera malfunctioned until you got the film back - after the job was done. Nikon at the time, had their West Coast repair center at 501 Folsom St, around the block from my studio in San Francisco. There I could drop off my camera for a CLA with a 24 hour turnaround with a loaner camera in return at no charge to NPS members. This was way before rental houses where you could rent your gear for a specific job like it is now. So having a dependable camera and back up cameras was essential, it also helped that if needed, Nikon had my back. While I did have a Leica M3, I never considered using Leica for commercial jobs. I did however love the look that the DR Summicron had on Kodachrome!
In retirement, I have gone through many routes, buying into the Leica family starting with the R4s through the R8. Then digital came about, 1 mB images!!! The cost, $$$$ and the image quality were far from what I have come to expect from Kodachrome. I bought a Canon D60 so that I could use my Leica R lenses on it to start with. I did not like the quality of the Canon lenses as I had many a QC variance that required too many trips back for adjustments. So I took the plunge and bought a Nikon D1X, a 5.47 mp brick. Limitations on high ISO were still better than the film options but nowhere near the capabilities of today. A few years later I did fall back into the Leica family with the M8, M9, M10, Q and Q2 and oh, the S2. Let me say that my life with the S2 was no honeymoon. Long delays on lenses and promises of lens upgrades to the central shutter (CS) were not kept. Broken AF motors, corroding sensors were too much of a gamble to keep with the S system for me. While I loved the images that the camera produced, the risk was too great. A brief affair with the Fujifilm GFX had me engaged for a year when I left for the Hasselblad X1D. I loved the handling of the X1D, the lenses are very good, I put up with the slow startup.
If I have still kept your attention after all of this, thank you. So after all of these diversions I have come full circle back to Nikon, why? First, as I age, I do not have the same ability to handhold cameras, I needed IBIS. Second, I want a compact form factor, body and lenses. Third, image quality. Well, Sony, Canon, Panasonic and Leica all have IBIS. Sony, I do not get the joy in handling their cameras, their journey into the camera market had a lot of speed bumps. Yes, Sony has fantastic AF but it is not an important deciding factor for me. Canon, when they came out with their 28-70 f2 zoom-who will carry that huge lens? All of their initial offerings were large fast aperture glass that had no practical use for me. Panasonic, heavy bodies, but great lenses. Leica, the L lenses are fantastic, but they are large and heavy. So when the dust settled and after renting for a week, I decided to switch to the Nikon Z7II. I will pare down my system(s) to the Z7II and the Leica Q2, I am in flux as to what lenses that I will finally get for the Z7II, 24-120? All primes? Either way a nostalgic journey back to Nikon.
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