Welcome! Like many people, I’ve been taking photos for a while now for fun with some success (and some failures).
Again, like many people I love a gadget and have rapidly been sucked into buying more and more stuff to make my photography “better”. I fell into the bigger must be better frame of mind with the camera itself, buying a large, bulky SLR camera (actually a Sony SLT, but who cares about that) because they must be better, right?
The problem is, it is so big that I never took it anywhere, and when I did, I was really conscious that I had it hanging around my neck. I started to use it less and less, preferring to take my older, smaller but perfectly serviceable Sony mirrorless camera instead (NEX 5, if you’re interested). OK, it had no viewfinder, no hotshoe, not the best lens in the standard kit lens and a painfully slow autofocus, but suddenly I felt free again.
Pretty soon after, I sold the SLT and my lenses and started using the smaller camera full time. It was then that I realised that mirrorless was for me and I looked into it a bit more. After a bit of wavering, I bought a used NEX 6 off eBay. It seemed the perfect fit, only slightly bigger than the NEX 5 but with a hot shoe, viewfinder and significantly better autofocus. I was smitten the first time I used it. The stock kit lens (power zoom 16-50) is much smaller than the NEX 5 18-55 due to a clever telescoping mechanism and the image quality is a noticeable step up, which might just be the body.
This setup, with a couple of extra lenses, has been working well for a couple of years now. I’ve taken some great shots and rarely feel that the camera is getting in the way. I do occasionally try old lenses out using adapters, which is easy on the mirrorless format.
My next step is to move to using film more. Stay tuned for my experiences with a newly acquired Olympus SLR (35mm = full frame!).
No responses yet