Current kit showing its age

[bex]

Lens are timeless but my setup is starting to show its age

DX format

D7000 - no wifi, no live HDMI
Nik 35mm f/1.8g
Sig 85mm f/1.4
Tam 17-50 f/2.8
Sig 18-35mm f/1.8
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8g

Looking at getting a wifi camera with live HDMI out. Not doing any studio stuff anymore. Mainly for candid shots of my newborn son and really need some sort of image stabilisation.

Any thoughts for an upgrade path that does not cost much. Would be even better if I can sell and purchase something else 2nd hand with not too much addition funds.

[ricktas]

Curious as to why you have chosen beginner experience level and posted in the New To Photography forum when you mention not doing studio stuff 'anymore'? Sounds like you have more experience as a photographer than a beginner.

[ameerat42]

Lens are timeless but my setup is starting to show its age

DX format

D7000 - no wifi, no live HDMI
Nik 35mm f/1.8g
Sig 85mm f/1.4
Tam 17-50 f/2.8
Sig 18-35mm f/1.8
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8g

Looking at getting a wifi camera with live HDMI out. Not doing any studio stuff anymore. Mainly for candid shots of my newborn son and really need some sort of image stabilisation.

Any thoughts for an upgrade path that does not cost much. Would be even better if I can sell and purchase something else 2nd hand with not too much addition funds.

Hi Bex.
Welcome to AP.

My reply is only on housekeeping.

I have moved your thread to Gear Talk.

You do not sound as if you are a Beginner as suggested in the guidelines on AP (Section 1 here) (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/misc.php?do=vsarules).
Please adjust your user profile to make your Experience Level at least "Intermediate", or "Advanced" if you think.

You are welcome to join in and post some images, give critique, etc.

[bex]

Adjusted. Probably compared to you guys, I'm a beginner :lol:

[ricktas]

Now on to camera body.

When upgrading it is generally best to go with the most recent releases. As you noted, lenses can be used decades later. Camera bodies improve all the time, so when upgrading why not go with the current model as it has the newest tech on board.

Given you have the D7000, why not go up to the same model line, but the most recently released: https://www.nikon.com.au/en_AU/product/digital-slr-cameras/d7500

it has both wifi and hdmi.

image stabilisation is in the lens, not the camera body with Nikon, So you would need to by some lenses with VR notation to get that.

[ameerat42]

The D7500 referred to in Rick's post is an APS-C camera, like your present one.
Therefore you can use all your current lenses with it.

...And some additional good news...

The two Sigma lenses would have to be optically stabilised. Look for "OS" on them. If they are the
fairly recent "Art" lenses, then they will have this feature.

The 180mm lens is a DG lens, meaning it is suitable for a "full-frame" camera (35mm sensor size).

The 18-35 lens should have DC < "C", not "G"", meaning it is only suitable for APS-C cameras.

From what I can scrabble about from the web, the Tamron is an APS=C lens only...
And similarly, the Nikon 35mm and the Nikon 24-70...G are also "full-frame" lenses.

So you have (I hope):
"Full frame" lenses: Nikon 35mm, Nikon 24-70mm, Sigma 180mm
APS-C lenses: Sigma 18-35mm, Tamron 17-50mm

So, it looks like you can find some SAVINGS by updating only your camera body.

[Glenda]

I'd go mirrorless and you'd be able to use your current lenses with the adapter. They only have one crop sensor at present the Z50 and it's a brilliant little camera. I got mine with the 16-50 kit lens and was stunned at its quality. The Z50 doesn't have in body image stabilisation but the full frame Z5 does and both these and the D7500 suggested by Rick are all in a similar price range. I've found most of my current lenses which are a variety of Nikkor, Tamron, Sigma and Tokina, work without problems with the adaptor. The only one I've had problems with was my fairly old Sigma 150-500 lens.

[torro]

I’d go the z5 with the lens adapter, that way you can use your lens.

[richtbw]

My choice would be the Z5 (with lens adapter), if i was in your shoes.

[arthurking83]

YAP! ... another vote for the Z5 here too.

Some info stuff that you could benefit from.

It's full frame, so your Sigma 85 and Nikon 24-70 lenses will give you totally new 'perspectives' compared to a Dx only camera.

All Nikon Fx cameras are usually set up by default to switch to Dx mode, so you won't notice any real difference when using the Dx only lenses on an Fx camera.
But! .. I'd change this setting to maintain Fx mode when using Dx lenses.

The Nikon 35/1.8 G lens is almost full frame capable at infinity focus setting, and has 'a lot' of vignetting on Fx mode. ie. quite dark corners, but not 'hard' darkening.
When focusing closer the vignetting just gets darker. No amount of vignetting correction will counter this. .. so the 35 Dx lens is still quite usable.

The Tammy 17-50 will show very hard vignetting(called mechanical vignetting) the lenses internals give you hard black edging on the corners.

I'd guess that the Sigma 18-35/1.8 will also exhibit the same properties as the Tammy.

Nothing wrong with using Dx lenses on Fx cameras .. you either set it to Dx, or crop later as required.

I chose to do the latter.
What you will find if you do go Fx(and say a Z5) .. is that if you crop Dx lens images to the least objectionably vignetted areas of an image, your field of view in that resultant image will be wider than it would have been if you shot in Dx mode.

I used to do this with my Sigma 10-20mm lens(Dx lens) on my D800.
Where in Dx mode it looked like a 10mm setting, in Fx mode the FOV gave the equivalent to about a 13 or 14mm lens, not 15mm that it would otherwise should be. A small amount of vignetting, easily dealt with, but usually left as is(to give some mood).

The other option is that the vignetting is usually more extreme at the horizontal edges of the image in landscape orientation, and almost zero at the vertical edges.
What this then allows is a much wider 1:1(square) format from that lens if you find it suits the scene.

With many software it was very easy to set them up to do batch cropping if it ever needed a crop to remove the hard vignetting, which is what I used to do when required .. hence why I left the D800 to shoot in Fx mode with Dx lenses .. more flexibility overall.

Why is this important? It's not, but can help in a small way.

Lets say you want to travel lightly, and you decide to go lightly to some place and you have to choose a lens(or two).

instead of taking the larger heavier lenses on a small very light camera body .. you can choose instead to take the smaller lighter "equivalent" lens.
In your case, that could be a choice between the Nikon 24-70 or the Tamron 17-50 .. which give similar FOV respectively to each other.

Hope all that gibberish makes some sense.

EDIT: (note) I initally misread the list of gear, and thought I saw 35 1.8G Dx for the Nikon lens, but then read it properly and didn't see Dx in that listing. If you have the Fx version of that lens disregard the comments about the 35mm/1.8 Dx I wrote .. my bad there. I had Dx on the brain at the time.