Camera Buying Mistakes
Derek Smith • 19 April 2022
NT Belton House
Photo By: Derek Smith
Sony Alpha A7ii + Samyang 24mm lens
Sand Racing
Photo By: Derek Smith
Sony Alpha A7ii + 70-300mm lens
The Glory Days are Over
Photo By: Derek Smith
Olympus OM-D E-M5iii + 12-40mm Pro lens
Snow Bunting
Photo by: Derek Smith
Fuji X-T3 + 70-300mm lens
Choosing the right camera is such a hard job, harder even, I would contend, than choosing a wife, husband, or significant life partner. You’ve got size, weight, and features to consider (that’s the camera!!), as well as price, and lens selection.
For me buying the Sony A7ii full frame camera was a huge mistake, I had owned Sony APS-C cameras for a number of years, starting with the Sony NEX 3 in 2014, upgrading through the Sony A6000, until the Sony A6300, I knew Sony, the tortuous menu system, and the flawed ergonomics, and I had several Sony lenses, including one designed for the full frame Sony cameras, which was the Sony FE 70-300mm OSS f/4.5 – 5.6. So, it made good sense to upgrade to the full frame Sony A7ii, it was being advertised at the time at a “cashback” price of £800, (you have to pay full price up front, then claim the £200 cashback after a month). The camera was weatherproof, had “in body image stabilisation”, and better controls than the Sony A6300, what could go wrong?
I hated the Sony A7ii camera from the very beginning, I had problems with the Sony website, and didn’t receive the promised £200 cashback. The lens mount was so close to the front hand grip that my fingers were tight against some lenses, the front control wheel was placed under the on / off switch and I invariably ended up turning the camera off rather than making any adjustments. I bought the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 lens to use for portraits, and wasn’t happy with that lens either, the depth of field was so shallow, almost razor thin, at f/1.8 and while YouTube reviewers where almost shouting from the rooftops “get the 85mm, and use it wide open”, I hated using the lens wide open, it was also a big heavy lens at 371g. I had also kept the Sony A6300 as a backup camera, and the trouble with that plan was that I was using full frame lenses with an APS-C sensor camera, and my 35mm full frame lens suddenly became an effective 50mm lens on the A6300, and the 70-300mm full frame lens, became a 105-450mm lens. The mental agility of having to calculate effective focal lengths when changing lenses between cameras became very wearing.
I sold all the Sony cameras, and lenses, getting a good price on MPB, but what to buy next?
Looking at the options, the choice came down to the Fuji X-T3, or the Olympus OM-D E-M5 iii. I had owned an Olympus camera before, and had been very pleased with the handling, and image quality. Olympus had the 5 axis “in body image stabilisation”, and the lenses that I wanted, the 12-40mm f/2.8, and the 40-150mm f/2.8 both constant aperture weatherproof lenses. The Fuji didn’t have the “in body stabilisation”, the lens choice of 3 approximately effective 24-70mm focal length lenses was confusing, and the long focal length zoom lens of 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, was a hulking great monster of a lens at 1436g. The Olympus was a known camera system, the Fuji was a leap in the dark, so I chose to buy something I knew.
I’ve been extremely pleased with my Olympus camera system, and taken some great photos with the camera, however as my photography skills grew, I desperately wanted a joystick to move the focal point quickly onto the subject for more accuracy, and I needed a camera with two SD card slots, one for RAW, and the other for the JPEG images, to speed up my workflow.
In the intervening two years that I had owned the Olympus, Fuji had introduced the X-T4 camera with “in body image stabilisation”, but more importantly the lens selection had markedly improved, with the new 16-80mm f/4 zoom (24-120mm full frame equivalent), and the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 zoom (105-450mm full frame equivalent). So, selling the Olympus gear, and buying the second hand Fuji X-T3, with dual SD cards, and joystick, the second hand 16-80mm f/4 lens, and a brand new 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, became an easier choice to make. It’s been a steep learning curve with the Fuji, but I’m comfortable with the camera now, and getting some great images.
It’s an interesting exercise to compare the weight and size of the cameras, and lenses:
Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro 880g 79mm x 160mm
Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5 – 5.6 OSS 854g 84mm x 143.5mm
Fuji XF 70-300mm OIS WR f/4.0 – 5.6 580g 75mm x 133mm
Sony Alpha A7ii 599g 127 x 96 x 60 mm
Fuji X-T3 539g 133 x 93 x 59 mm
Olympus OM-D E-M5iii 414g 125 x 85 x 50 mm
Sony Alpha A6300 404g 120 x 67 x 49 mm
The lightest camera setup is the Fuji X-T3 at 1119g with the 70-300mm lens (maximum full frame equivalent focal length of 450mm), the Fuji lens is designed to cover the smaller APS-C sensor, and can be smaller than an equivalent full frame lens. The full frame Sony A7ii camera is the heaviest with the Sony 70-300mm. The heaviest lens is the Olympus 40-150mm, constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range, constructed of metal, and has a full frame equivalent focal length of 80-300mm.
So was it a mistake to buy Olympus? No, I don’t believe so, Fuji did not have the lenses I needed at the time, and I’ve learned a lot about photography in these last few years. I had a lot of pleasure using the Olympus cameras, and now I’m enjoying the Fuji camera, with the associated lenses.
Louth Photographic Society
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Roger Hance Memorial Lecture 16th October
Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham
At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.
Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham
Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club members had 15 minutes to show what they had done over the summer. It was a very interesting evening with eight members taking part. There were many locations on show and as usual some excellent photography. There is a full report on our blog. This week, Wednesday 16th September, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition, this is part one showing all the PDI's that were accepted. This is the highest standard of photography we as individuals take part in as a club. Members sent around 50 entries but only 3 were accepted. If you are inspired to enter the 2027 Exhibition after seeing the show, I send the clubs entries and I can give you more information. Closing date is the end of September. The Maximum size for N&EMPF is 1600 x 1200 3MB sRGB Harry is still taking entries for the monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry did ask about what can be accepted, and we couldn't really say as long as it's an object in the Air. The best way is to look up the definition of an object first. Harry is also accepting entries for the Local and Open competition in October. Robin is going to judge the Open competition, does anyone fancy judging the "Straight from the camera" category? Regards Graham
The Louth Photographic Society has returned after the summer break. It was an incredible return, with members providing us with some stunning images from over the summer break. A full, and varied smorgasbord of well executed photos, many of us visited Whitby, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and further north images from Staithes, and Sandbanks. Tony showed us his long exposure minimalist calming coastal scenes, from the Lincolnshire coast, and Whitby.. Chris brought us some beautiful photos taken of local churches, many of which many of us have never seen. Now I’ve never really seen the attraction of an expensive Leica camera, but when Mark showed his photos from his visit to the German Leica factory in Wetzlar, I now understand, camera bodies, and lenses milled from solid blocks of aluminium, hand polished, hand finished lens glass, and textured leather applied to the camera body, not a robot in sight, just craftsmen, and women making a superb photographic instrument. Sue brought us “pink” ladies driving tractors to raise money for cancer research. Last but definitely not least Richard showed his monochrome, and infrared images of trees, his compositions, and photographic eye bring these tree studies to life, we appreciate them even if some judges don’t understand. Many thanks to all of those members who contributed.
Good Morning All We spent last week on the Isle of Wight visiting many of the attractions. This week, Wednesday 9th September, we are back at the club with 15-minute PDI shows of what you did during the summer break, I have Derek Smith, Tony Gaskins, Harry Kerman, Chris Birchmore and Richard Hildred on the list, if I have missed you off, please let me know. I should be there but could be late as away playing golf. Harry is taking entries for the September PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry will miss the October local competition but will sort the entries out for us, The competition categories will be "Local-Not Edited" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so could do with two volunteers to judge. The local competition is a .jpeg photograph taken and straight from the camera, no cropping, or post processing etc, like the old days taken no more than 25 miles from St James church. Regards Graham
