Why I Chose My Camera
In photography, gear is important. There is no dancing around that fact. Yes, the person taking the pictures matters a lot, but the gear that they're using also has a significant impact on the final product. I've written about lenses on this blog before, but today I thought that I would talk about the piece of gear that most people think of when they think of photography: the camera.
For any novice photographers out there, I think that the lenses you have are significantly more important than the camera body that you are using. Better glass will almost always be preferred over a better body. However, that isn't to say that the camera body doesn't matter at all. In good lighting with a good lens, evan an old camera body with a small sensor can take stunning pictures. But when conditions become less than ideal, that is when a lower end camera body can struggle.
Take these two examples below. These pictures are a couple of my favorites from a spring break trip back in 2024. They were taken with a Nikon D5100—an entry level crop (or small) sensor camera that was released in 2011—and a Tamron 18-400 MM f/3.5-6.3 lens. Generally, lenses with wider focal ranges are entry level, meaning that they are less sharp and as such, considered "lower quality". Despite the old camera and entry level lens, though, I think that most people would say these pictures are pretty good.
a cotton top tamarin at animal kingdom in disney world in orlando, florida (Taken with a nikon d5100 & Tamron 18-400 mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 400 mm, 1/500 sec, f/6.3)
Spaceship earth (The EPCOT ball) and monorail at Disney world in Orlando, Florida (taken with a nikon d5100 & tamron 18-400 mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 21 mm, 1/125 sec, f/11)
As I said, though, it is when you get into more challenging shooting conditions that older cameras and smaller sensors can start to struggle. For example, hockey rinks are notoriously challenging to take pictures in due to inconsistent and often dim lighting. In the picture below, you can start to see a lot of grain due to having to increase ISO (sensor sensitivity) and just a general dimness because of the smaller sensor (which takes in less light) and a lens with a relatively narrow aperture (which lets in less light).
poor lighting in a hockey rink; a tale as old as time (taken with a nikon d5100 & nikon 55-200 mm f/4-5.6 @ 122 mm, 1/400 sec, f/4.8)
So even though I could take high quality pictures, I wanted to up my game. I think it's the natural progression that I wanted to upgrade my gear as my photographic prowess increased. So, I began looking into new camera bodies in the summer of 2024. There are so many choices, so the things that I used to narrow my search were: I wanted a Nikon camera since I already had Nikon lenses from my old Nikon body, and I wanted to buy a used camera because it would simply be cheaper (and still likely be in very good shape as cameras don't degrade super quickly). There is also an ongoing transition in the camera market to be aware of, with most brands shifting all new bodies to mirrorless cameras. Mirrorless vs. DSLR is a topic that I will save for another day, but I decided that it might behoove me to buy a mirorless camera to "future proof" myself in some sense, with most new lenses now being for mirorless cameras.
With my criteria in mind, I ventured to Robert's Camera in Indianapolis and went to the used section (called UsedPhotoPro). After talking with the staff there and looking at what options they had in stock, I decided to buy a used Nikon Z6. The Z6, along with the higher end Z7, were the first mirorless cameras released by Nikon in November of 2018. So while the Z6 wasn't the latest and greatest when I bought it, the used body I purchased was still in great condition, and the technological jump from my old D5100 was huge.
The biggest reasons that I went with the Z6 were that jump in technology, and the larger sensor size. Sensor sizes in cameras is, again, a topic for a different day, but suffice it to say, larger sensors perform better in less light and produce images with higher resolution. The Z6 is a full frame camera, which is the largest sensor size. The one caveat with getting a mirorless camera was that all of my existing Nikon lenses were for DSLRs, and the when buying new lenses, I wanted DSLR lenses because they are typically cheaper. However, this actually has an easy fix. Nikon (and most other camera brands) have an adapter that connects DSLR lenses to my mirorless body without any real negative side affects. So while I could take good pictures with my old camera, the upgrade to a new body was certainly worth it for me. Now, I can take higher quality images in more scenarios. Pair that with my continuing improvment of my photographic and artistic abilities, as well as some high quality lenses, and I've been able to produce some very good work with my current gear.
a tight shot of a merry go round in boston, massachusetts (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 50 MM f/1.8 @ 1/6 sec, f/7.1)
state road 31 interchange in carmel, indiana (taken with a Nikon z6 & nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 @ 82 mm, 2 sec, f/22)
a young buck in eagle creek park in indianapolis, indiana (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 200-500 mm f/5.6 @ 500 MM, 1/80 sec, f/5.6)
These are a few of my early favorites that I took with my Z6 in poor lighting. Since then, I've taken a lot of good pictures (many of which have been showcased here!), and plan to take many more in the future. Until next week!
