Fuji to Nikon ?

justa1972

justa1972

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Just after some advice from people who have left Fuji and gone to Nikon or even Canon.

First let me start by saying I love the X-Series cameras, the image quality, the ergonomics, build quality and the general interface are outstanding and genuinely make me want to get out and be creative!

So why am I thinking of changing ? Well I am a GAS sufferer but it's more to do with the lenses and the price of them. I am going on a trip next year and want an ultra wide angle. The choices with Fuji are the 14mm (not wide enough) the 12mm Samyang (don't want manual focus) and the 10-24 which is not only pretty huge but way outside my budget...

When I look at Nikon there are far more options including the tamaron 10-24 and with Canon the cheap, light and cheerful 10-20.

But what I don't want to do is leave Fuji and then regret it - I know I will miss viewing an image in the EVF, the film settings and the ergonomics of my XT-1 but would it be worth it to get the UWA I want ?

I would be looking at a light SLR to something like the D5500....

Thanks
 
If you're looking to go wide consider going full frame - perhaps a Canon 5D - the original one, or the MK II if you can find one cheaply (like this one: link) - I had the MK I years ago and it was pretty good although you will miss the new tech alot.

You may will notice a bit of weight gain though and you'll miss the EVF.

Opens up the choices without breaking the bank.
 
I've all Fuji kit, 3 bodies and 6 primes and I absolutely love it all! I also have a 7D and numerous lenses including the 10-22. I've just pulled the sale thread on the canon (had it as a bundle) because I can't bring myself to sell it. As much as I like the Fuji kit there's just some small things that keep bringing me back.

1 - Speed! It may be a 7 year old camera now but even the XT1 struggles to perform as well.
2 - Cost of glass. To replace my canon zooms with the fujis would cost in excess of £2400.!?! That's not an easy pill to swallow!
3 - Robust build quality. All the Fuji kit is built well and would probably fair well as knocking a potential attacker/thief for six but it just wants to be cherished. The canon however would happily knock nails in to a wall and then take faultless images when it's done and I probably wouldn't care too much if it got bashed about as its a tank.

Would I change the 7D out for a smaller and probably just as good/better 760D? Hell no! And if I had a chunky D300S I'd not swap it out for an 5300 or similar either!

Would I sell up the Fuji gear if I was only allowed to keep one lot of kit? Probably not.. The canon as much as it pains me would likely be the kit to go.

The Fuji has its own magic that I can't shift as does the canon however if I had lesser canon gear it would be long gone and the last thing I'd be thinking of doing is swapping back.
 
Many have made this move and vice versa.

I shot with Fuji X for a couple of years, starting with the XPro1 and moving to an X-T10. They are great cameras and the lenses are superb.

I recently sold it all on however as I found that the bigger lenses felt really big on the X-T10. Even the 56mm felt front heavy at times (stunning lens though!)
I was considering going down the SLR route again for a while, for wide angle landscapes, telephoto and so on. The JPEGs always looked great from the X series. As a 50mm shooter, I think the X series is great. It taught me a lot. I'm not sure wether I would have another just yet though. Curious to see how far things move with it in the coming year or so.

The X-T1 or XT-2 looked to be a good option for the bigger lenses but having used a 5DC in the past, I felt that moving it on and going back to SLR was the better option.
I purchased a 6D yesterday and I'm pretty happy so far. I didn't think I would say it, but its nice having an optical viewfinder again and the liveview feels great too. I had a 5D classic a while back and loved the results, so coming from that, it felt very similar but obviously more advanced. Having used it with a 24-105 in store, it didn't feel as cumbersome as I thought it would either. Using the centre point in low light, seemed really quick too. Sometimes my X-T would hunt a bit or not lock on correctly. Obviously the 6D is bigger but it feels nicely balanced. Being FF too, it felt a win for me and the right move. Just need to get a couple of zooms now and I will be there.

As mentioned, the original 5D is a great bang for buck option if you wanted to give FF a try. Try a couple of cameras out in a camera store if you can though, just so you get an idea.
 
That's a pretty expensive operation for just one trip.
What's wrong with the Samyang? Manual focus isn't a problem for all those who have one and focus peaking helps enormously.
It's likely that you'll finish up with a bulk greater than putting a 10-24 on the Fooj. If it's too expensive see if you can hire one or buy one from MPB and sell it back to them on your return. You will loose far less £££££ than changing systems.
I'm off to Norway in a couple of hours with the X-T1 plus 18.55 and 10.24. Doesn't seem too bulky from my perspective.

Of course if you have incurable GAS then nothing anyone says on here will have any effect on your decision.
 
I just don't like or get manual focus ! I mean I use it when I want too but not all the time.

I don't think it would cost me much as the Nikon/Canon lenses are so much cheaper..
 
Id agree with that in most cases. I have the 17-55 f2.8 canon and at £599.99 from wex is a whole £250 cheaper than the 16-55 from Fuji. Factor in second hand values and I'm down £300+ before I even look at the 10-22 to 10-24 or the 70-200 to the 50-140 + 1.4tc.

He canon 10-22 is circa £450 less and if you go 10-18 it's £650+ cheaper which buys you a decent body to go with that wide angle zoom.

Failing trading it all in for Nikon or swallowing an expensive Fuji pill you could always rent for a week or buy and sell on return?

The losses you'd make on the Fuji kit may well be more than the saving you'd make buying the Fuji 10-24 in the first place.
 
I didn't think the Samyang MF was a problem with the X. The focus peaking is pretty good. Very often I used peaking for long exposures etc although I didn't like using MF on the Fuji lenses as it felt quite clunky.

You've praised the image quality, ergonomics, interface etc from the Fuji from a point of view of making you want to get out and shoot! This is key as well as cost. You want to be happy with what you are using. I know 'gear doesn't matter' and all that, but I think you need to be getting the best and enjoying what you are using.

Re: Cost. When I had the Canon 85 1.8 on the 5Dc, I found this just as good as the 56mm 1.2 (light performance aside) on the Fuji for me and you can get the Canon lens for around £200 used. You're paying a lot more for the Fuji option. I'm with you on cost. As I said in the other post though, the Fuji lenses are pretty steller performers but I haven't found the Canon lenses I have used, anything to be sneered at.
 
For the way you plan to use the ultra wide angle then manual focus on the Samyang 12mm cannot be likened to manual focusing on another lens.
The reason being is that you are shooting wide and probably shooting anywhere around f8-f11 thus chances of getting something out of focus are slim to no chance and focus peaking will help re assure if you are unsure.
I genuinely believe you could manually focus the samyang in a matter of seconds for all shots.
If shooting wide open then focus peaking is defo your friend and only adds on an extra nano second to your time spent focusing.
 
That Fuji 10-24 ain't small, but it's still smaller and lighter than a Canikon combo:
http://camerasize.com/compact/#493.584,580.37,ha,t

Surely half the point of getting into Fuji was the decent lenses?
You don't say what you want to shoot, but if UWA is your thing then as above full frame may make more sense. Perhaps a Sony?

FWIW I was a Canon full frame and crop shooter, I'm now a Canon crop and Fuji (crop) user. I wouldn't take the SLR kit away with me unless it was a wildlife shooting holiday- the Fuji stuff's much more convenient. I have the Samyang 12mm on the Fuji and there's an extent to which it's a 'no focus' lens as much as it's a manual focus lens- a deep depth of field will do that for you.

Like Stuart said:
stupar said:
For the way you plan to use the ultra wide angle then manual focus on the Samyang 12mm cannot be likened to manual focusing on another lens.
The reason being is that you are shooting wide and probably shooting anywhere around f8-f11 thus chances of getting something out of focus are slim to no chance and focus peaking will help re assure if you are unsure.
I genuinely believe you could manually focus the samyang in a matter of seconds for all shots.
If shooting wide open then focus peaking is defo your friend and only adds on an extra nano second to your time spent focusing.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the cost of spare batteries, postage, and all the other guff that goes with changing system.
 
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justa1972 said:
I just don't like or get manual focus ! I mean I use it when I want too but not all the time.

I don't think it would cost me much as the Nikon/Canon lenses are so much cheaper..
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Are you comparing like for like though? There are cheap Canikon lenses and expensive Canikon lenses, for example the Nikon 14-24mm is £1300. You can always buy cheaper but will IQ be as good?
 
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I can post more later (on my mobile just now) but I've just picked up a Nikon D810 having been all Fuji since March.. However if I was comparing Crop sensor v crop sensor then I don't think theres much in it, the Fuji 10-24 isn't really much bigger than the Sigma or Tamron equivalents you mention and IQ wise the Fuji is brilliant.
 
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Cheap Nikonon body and Sigma 10-20 to run alongside the Fuji system? Rent the 10-24?
 
Coyon said:
. I have the Samyang 12mm on the Fuji and there's an extent to which it's a 'no focus' lens as much as it's a manual focus lens- a deep depth of field will do that for you.
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This ^

For 95%+ of shots with the Samyang, the focus will be in the same position, just short of infinity so that you have biggest depth of field. Read up on hyper focal distances.

If AF really bothers you that much try and find a s/h Zeiss Toiut 12mm (and occasionally the 10-24 Fuji comes up s/h)

Personally I found the 12mm too wide and am very happy with the XF14
 
I get what you are saying about the Samyang but I tried one and hated it ! When its bright you can not tell if things are in focus - for me its not worth the risk of getting back from a holiday and finding some of my better shots out of focus ! I just didn't enjoy using it - similar to when I tried a Singlespeed mountain bike, gears are great !!

Andrew - thanks I meant the 10-18mm - this can be got for well under £200 and it weighs 233g !

Coupled with a 760d it would weigh 800g - my XT-1 with 10-24 would be 839g...
 
Hating it is a good reason not to get one ;-)
 
I don't see the point unless you are moving to full frame.
Some of the Nikon lenses are cheaper than their Fuji equivalents.
It will be expensive. I know because I did it in 2104/15.
 
I totally agree, if you can afford an easy in that allows you to keep both systems then give it a shot, otherwise just stick with yours and go for the 14mm as suggested above if you need to keep AF
 
Well just shows the value of going to a shop ! The Canon 10-18mm is very light and a steal at around £160 - but the command dial on the Canons is terrible ! So cheap and nasty and noisy it would drive me mad !

A small thing but these things matter !

The D5500 was much nicer and pretty small and light - the UWA would cost more and weigh more though.....
 
Fuji 10-24 is a great lens, not that big especially on a X-T1 and comparatively speaking not overly expensive.

My daughter has Fuji gear also a 5dmk2 and 24mm f/1.4 L II, latter never gets used, just so much bigger and heavier to cart about

Think you will notice the difference in image quality with some of the combos you are mentioning.

14mm is equivalent view of 21mm ff, very rare I ever want or need to go wider than that.

Sold all my Canon gear and can't imagine going back, to be honest apart from one or two (equally or more expensive than Fuji) lenses it would be a downgrade
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Fuji 10-24 is a great lens, not that big especially on a X-T1 and comparatively speaking not overly expensive.

My daughter has Fuji gear also a 5dmk2 and 24mm f/1.4 L II, latter never gets used, just so much bigger and heavier to cart about

Think you will notice the difference in image quality with some of the combos you are mentioning.

14mm is equivalent view of 21mm ff, very rare I ever want or need to go wider than that.

Sold all my Canon gear and can't imagine going back, to be honest apart from one or two (equally or more expensive than Fuji) lenses it would be a downgrade
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Difference in image quality ?
 
Its the D750, which would tick all your boxes (I know I have one) but at a price.
 
There are certainly a few things that the D750 (and other DSLRs) do better than the X-T1 but there are plenty of ways in which the Fuji system is better than the Nikon which is why I run both. For lightweight travel, the Fuji is a no-brainer - 3 lenses cover all the focal lengths I want, especially with the telecons behind the 100-400. The Fuji XF lens line up isn't cheap BUT it's bloody good!

I would hate to have to choose between the Nikon FF system and the Fujis but if I had to, I think the Fujis are what would stay.
 
The question really is: what do you hope to achieve?

If it is purely an extra couple of mm at the wide end then is switching systems really the right course of action? Honestly,
you can't MF an UWA lens?
Do you want a different system to have better CAF? fine but then you lose some of the things that you like with Fuji
Are you chasing ULTIMATE image quality? in which case FF is a half way house but in reality it isn't that much different to your Fuji
Do you just have GAS and want to spend some money? Fine, knock yourself out but be under no illusion that it will do anything to your photographic ability.

If you have the money then do what you want but if it will cost you a few £k to switch systems then ask yourself what you could spend that money on instead. Going somewhere photographic would be top of my list - Tibet and Patagonia are on the list.
 
I have full frame Nikon cameras and the awesome 14-24 and a 16-35; 1300 and 800 respectively. They are both awesome but the second has challenging distortion and both require careful handling, composition and suitable subjects are limited. Before you commit that sort of money I'd be renting
 
Part of the fun of Talk Equipment is the random system change bee we get in our bonnets. You won't be happy until you do it, do you might as well crack on! Don't think you'll see a quality improvement going crop to crop, but it will scratch that itch, and set you up nicely for a return to Fuji in six months time :D
 
I wouldn't sell all my fuji kit, I did this once before and regretted it although I have trimmed my kit down recently which now consists of XT1, 23mm, 56mm and the X 70, so I have 18mm, 23 and 56mm covered.

One thing I find that the fuji doesn't do very well is tracking, though this will probably change with the XT2, but its our of my price range. I will be buying a cheap dslr and lens for shots of my son and spaniel something like a Nikon D5100 but I don't want to spend too much on this as It wont get used too often compared to the fuji.
 
I have to be honest.. after shooting some stuff today with the D810 that I had shot with the X-Pro 2 on an earlier trip.... I'm not seeing much of a benefit to the Nikon FF beyond larger image sizes and slightly easier PP.... very very very similar IQ from both cameras, I'm actually a little stunned.
 
So am I to be honest, the D810 is the go to for landscape, full frame and high resolution with excellent dynamic range should be an all round winner, in another thread I'd be interested to see some comparison shots, especially as the D810 is the newer so if anything your post processing will have improved.
 
chrism_scotland said:
I have to be honest.. after shooting some stuff today with the D810 that I had shot with the X-Pro 2 on an earlier trip.... I'm not seeing much of a benefit to the Nikon FF beyond larger image sizes and slightly easier PP.... very very very similar IQ from both cameras, I'm actually a little stunned.
Click to expand...
There are some situations where you see the advantage FF offers and then other situations where the difference is negligible. I've even got a pic I took with my old Sony bridge camera I can barely tell the difference (without pixel peeping). It's nice to have the advantage though when the scene is more demanding.
 
snerkler said:
There are some situations where you see the advantage FF offers and then other situations where the difference is negligible. I've even got a pic I took with my old Sony bridge camera I can barely tell the difference (without pixel peeping). It's nice to have the advantage though when the scene is more demanding.
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Your right there, I suspect when shooting with filters the extra dynamic range of the D810 has much less of an impact its awesome when you need it though!
 
chrism_scotland said:
Your right there, I suspect when shooting with filters the extra dynamic range of the D810 has much less of an impact its awesome when you need it though!
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I was thinking more low light, manipulation in post, dynamic range (although this isn't necessarily FF dependant) , and sharpness ;)
 
snerkler said:
I was thinking more low light, manipulation in post, dynamic range , and sharpness ;)
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Low light manipulation absolutely, this is the reason to go FF above all others IMHO.

Sharpness less so in my experience as modern lens designs for small sensors and computer correction seem to have nailed sharpness (I know the basic MTF theory about sharpness and contrast but in usage I don't see that much difference).
 
snerkler said:
I was thinking more low light, manipulation in post, dynamic range (although this isn't necessarily FF dependant) , and sharpness ;)
Click to expand...

I certainly notice the difference in Post, but then I can't see anything that matches the Nikons for that (not even the vaunted Sony A7's).... most of my shooting is done on a tripod at night so I don't find lowlight too bad.
 
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