Another "what should I buy next?" post

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Juliette

Juliette

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Hi, I've gotten the best advice on this forum. I have been using the time since my last question to focus on practicing instead of buying gear.

I think I'm now at the point where I feel ready to up my game but need some advice.

1. Should I keep using the Fuji XH2S and purchase the longer 15-600mm lens instead of relying on my 70-300mm with the 1.4x TC? I have no other long lenses but plenty of other Fuji x-mount lenses and a two extra bodies.

Or

2. Do I take advantage of the deeply discounted Panasonic G9 which includes at 24-60mm variable aperture lens on Amazon right now for about half the cost of the Fuji lens? I have a bunch of Panny lenses that I use with my GX9 for street and portraits, but nothing suitable for wildlife. However, the additional cost of the Lumix Leica 100-400mm used would probably equate to the Fuji lens itself.

As info, I use my cameras for both paid and personal but anything I do with wildlife or birding is very minor - about 20% and mostly while traveling.

Thank you!
 
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Changing brands always means that besides buying the new body, you are also buying lenses, batteries, and sometimes different memory cards ,etc. I think the 150-600 for your Fuji would be a better use of your money in this case.
 
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I have an X-T2 with the 150-600mm lens and I quite enjoyed my time with it, but recently moved over to Nikon full frame. I think that given you're considering two crop sensor bodies, sticking with Fuji is a wonderful choice. The 150-600mm lens performs great alone or paired with the 1.4x TC, the one caveat being you're giving up a lot in terms of aperture and depth of field. For the weight of the body + lens, it's a solid combo and I found it super easy to hand hold. And unlike the latest Nikon lenses, the foot on the Fuji is Arca-Swiss compatible 🥴
 
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Hey @jcollins that's pretty great feedback! OK I'm sold on sticking with Fuji. That 150-600 is on sale right now so that's good but now hearing from Fuji Rumors that a possible 400mm f/4 or a 550 f/4 is about to be announced so.... eek! Would much prefer that prime lens, so might wait just a bit longer.

Thanks all!
 
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All about the goals in the end, I know there are many here who love the 500pf and other primes for their performance, but having 4x zoom in the field for me is incredibly convenience as I'm a hobbyist. In regards to aperture... For lighting, I either find there's A LOT OF LIGHT and I don't care too much about f6.3 or stopping down to f8 for more depth of field on the subject, or there's nowhere near enough light. It looks like the 550mm is rumoured to be a f5.6 which I don't find would give a HUGE improvement to the noise characteristics of the photo, as I usually find that between dawn and early morning I'll go from 16,000 ISO down to 1,000 or below. f8 > f5.6 is maybe only 16k to 8k? And for the expected cost of the lens, I simply wouldn't continue investing in the Fuji system.

The main reason I ended up switching to Nikon is that I find it unfortunate that Fuji decided to only do crop / medium format, with the entire full frame lineup in between missing. I wasn't doing wildlife in the beginning, so my priorities shifted away from what they can specialize in. Love their cameras, but there's no getting around physics... FF will be heavier, but will always offer better light performance and narrower depth of field. And if your goal with a prime lens is better bokeh, I'm not sure I'd stick with Fuji or even switch to another crop body. The Fuji supertele costs more than the Nikon / Sony super teles, the Fuji is 600mm f8 while others offer 600mm f6.3, and the *VERY BEST* Fuji body on the market has only one cfx-b slot limiting your bursts to whatever the SD card can handle (assuming you want redundancy, which I do given the $$ cost of these systems).

I think Fuji right now is mostly competing in the lightweight / portable category, which may be a great option for some people. I just couldn't look at their 200mm F2 or other lenses and want to buy them, when I'm willing to accept the heavier package from other brands to get better performance. If you think you could buy the 150-600mm and be happy with it forever, despite the weaker light performance and depth of field, that's a good option. But if you're already thinking you'd prefer a higher performance prime lens, there'll always be a nagging feeling in the back of your mind knowing you can get even better performance from a full frame solution.
 
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@jcollins you are hitting some important points in your response that kind of stand out as the huge hesitation I have with continuing to invest in Fuji. In fact, you worded my concerns perfectly!

I adore the system for street photography and casual shooting, but just not feeling it for wildlife. Up until now, I haven't wanted to take the leap into a new system because obviously, there are cost implications, but at this point I'm once again on hold because I keep hoping Fuji will really head in the wildlife direction.

It has crossed my mind to trade in my XH2s for a Canon, Sony or Nikon system to cover both events and wildlife and just use Fuji for street. I'm starting to consider this again. I am a huge stickler for image quality and I think you may be right. I don't know that the current system will satisfy me.

If I do go that route, because of some old hand/wrist injuries that I don't want to resurface, I need for the whole package - body and long lens to not exceed 4-5 pounds and that's limiting me.

I'll wait and keep pondering I guess, but may rent a couple of options over the break, including the Fuji 150-600 just to see how it goes. Open to suggestions!
 
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Ah interesting, knowing that you have to stay conscious of the weight I imagine that Fuji will be the best option for you. Having a library of lenses to use in different bodies (XH2S or e.g. an XT5) will make it a lot easier to jump between street / casual and action / wildlife (for me the biggest difference being dials v.s. PASM controls). I have the Nikon Z9 now with the 180-600mm Z lens, and the weight difference compared to my Fuji setup is MASSIVE. I'm lucky that I can manage it, and I'd say it's just below the weight limit where I'd want a tripod for extended shooting. The body footprint of the Z9 v.s. the XT5, with a lot more weight distributed towards the outside edges, makes everything feel heavier to move around (similar to / opposite of how the latest iPhones "feel lighter")

What's great about Fujifilm is that because they only have crop + medium format, they put a LOT of work into making their APS-C offerings top notch. Their APS-C lenses are all (mostly) beautiful metal builds with exceptional image quality, and you're going to get the full range of lenses available specifically for APS-C. The impression I got researching Canon/Nikon/Sony APS-C was that all of their crop body / lens options are all "introductory" / amateur, and they are unlikely to put their full R&D effort behind making top-quality offerings for crop bodies. I think you can put a lot of the FF lenses on crop bodies, but because they're designed for FF bodies their internal optics are much larger and heavier which is the opposite of what you need (e.g. my Nikon 180-600 ALONE weighs 4.3lbs, the Fuji is about 3.5lbs and the Fuji bodies are all quite lightweight).

Fuji has also been pushing a lot more heavily in the direction of wildlife / action, with longer lenses for both crop + MF, and bodies like the XH2S show that interest as well. They're still a good bit behind, but mirrorless hasn't been around for that long in the grand scheme and every brand is pushing R&D hard and fast.

Last thing I'd mention, I jumped to Nikon after they released the 4.1 firmware (w/ bird subject detection) because autofocus problems were my biggest issue with Fuji. They already checked all my other boxes, such as the ability to customize buttons to jump between focus modes. I often found myself going from single focus > continuous or having to change focus zones because the camera was just missing the subject, even when it was perfectly centered in frame. Ergonomics of the camera are another thing to pay careful attention to when making a choice, as with wildlife photography you want something that can quickly adapt to changing situations when you're out in the field.
 
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@jcollins - I really appreciate your insights and the info about APS-C vs FF efforts within the brands. This does influence my options and just grateful you replied! I knew that I couldn't go back to Nikon with all that weight. It's a shame, really but it's what is.

I'd like to give Fuji a chance. I'm not in a hurry. I've been hobbling along with my 70-300 and the 1.4x TC all this time and it's not bad, just wanting more a tad more light and more reach. As far as autofocus, for what I do it has not impeded me after the recent firmware update.

There's a Tamron 150-500 that I'd like to try along with the native 150-600. I'll plan to do that over the holidays (Lensrentals.com is offering 7 free days). There's also the hope that Fuji will continue to work on their AF and lens offerings. It's a matter of choosing to remain patient!

Funny enough, I was thinking that as cameras get smaller and more advanced, eventually we will have a really nice set of discounted kits to choose from ten years down the road. The birds/mammals aren't changing so what's to say in 10-15 years we won't be able to get some really great deals on kits that we once longed for!

Thank you again for your advice!
 
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Just remember that a 600mm in FF doesn't give you the same reach as a 600mm in APS-C. So you're trading less reach at the cost of more weight, that's one reason many of us prefer MFT to FF. Since you already have some MFT gear and the G9 is selling at a steep discount, it would be well worth taking a look at the G9 and the new Panasonic 100-400mm lens which would give you a FF equivalent of an 800mm lens. Although I don't think Panasonic is a good for wildlife as the comparable Olympus bodies and lenses, it's not terrible by any means and many folks are very happy with it.
 
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I don't know what you budget is or if this would be of interest, but a used Nikon D500 and 200-500 can be found for under $2000 total and would be a great bang for the buck wildlife set up. You'd probably want XQD or CFExpress card(s) and a reader as well, so figure that in.

Just an idea to throw into the mix. I haven't moved to mirrorless and am quite happy shooting with the D500, so I am a bit biased. :)
 
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Woody Meristem said:
Just remember that a 600mm in FF doesn't give you the same reach as a 600mm in APS-C. So you're trading less reach at the cost of more weight, that's one reason many of us prefer MFT to FF. Since you already have some MFT gear and the G9 is selling at a steep discount, it would be well worth taking a look at the G9 and the new Panasonic 100-400mm lens which would give you a FF equivalent of an 800mm lens. Although I don't think Panasonic is a good for wildlife as the comparable Olympus bodies and lenses, it's not terrible by any means and many folks are very happy with it.
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Someone else here poo-poo'd the G9 in a way that completely dissuaded me, but seriously - for the cost of the G9 mark 1 and the 12-60 lens I might just get it anyway since it's so cheap. I know it's not the G9ii but many wildlife/birders shot with the mark 1 so it may be worth it just for the deal today. Who knows? Maybe it'll be nice to have another body to go along with the GX9 for fun and for other kinds of walk around photography.
 
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Woodyg3 said:
I don't know what you budget is or if this would be of interest, but a used Nikon D500 and 200-500 can be found for under $2000 total and would be a great bang for the buck wildlife set up. You'd probably want XQD or CFExpress card(s) and a reader as well, so figure that in.

Just an idea to throw into the mix. I haven't moved to mirrorless and am quite happy shooting with the D500, so I am a bit biased. :)
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That is a good idea @Woodyg3 - and I did consider the D500 but I sold most of my Nikon gear so I'd basically be starting from scratch and if I did that, I might as well go Z. Either way, Nikon weight is not going to work for me until the day lenses miraculously come down in lbs! Not likely :).
 
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Woody Meristem said:
Just remember that a 600mm in FF doesn't give you the same reach as a 600mm in APS-C. So you're trading less reach at the cost of more weight, that's one reason many of us prefer MFT to FF. Since you already have some MFT gear and the G9 is selling at a steep discount, it would be well worth taking a look at the G9 and the new Panasonic 100-400mm lens which would give you a FF equivalent of an 800mm lens. Although I don't think Panasonic is a good for wildlife as the comparable Olympus bodies and lenses, it's not terrible by any means and many folks are very happy with it.
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I'm less familiar w/ MFT, but one thing to note comparing APS-C v.s. FF is that you're often dealing with similar pixel density at the end of the day, with the latter sensor simply being larger giving higher resolution. Sony and Nikon both packed more resolution into their flagship bodies, at the expense of increased noise. Comparing a Z9 with 45mp v.s. a Fuji with 26mp, you end up getting a similar amount of resolution when cropping the FF picture to a smaller portion of the frame. There's even a built-in DX mode that allows you to take 19mp shots live with a 1.5x zoom factor, making it easier to focus on smaller targets.
 
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Juliette said:
Hi, I've gotten the best advice on this forum. I have been using the time since my last question to focus on practicing instead of buying gear.

I think I'm now at the point where I feel ready to up my game but need some advice.

1. Should I keep using the Fuji XH2S and purchase the longer 15-600mm lens instead of relying on my 70-300mm with the 1.4x TC? I have no other long lenses but plenty of other Fuji x-mount lenses and a two extra bodies.

Or

2. Do I take advantage of the deeply discounted Panasonic G9 which includes at 24-60mm variable aperture lens on Amazon right now for about half the cost of the Fuji lens? I have a bunch of Panny lenses that I use with my GX9 for street and portraits, but nothing suitable for wildlife. However, the additional cost of the Lumix Leica 100-400mm used would probably equate to the Fuji lens itself.

As info, I use my cameras for both paid and personal but anything I do with wildlife or birding is very minor - about 20% and mostly while traveling.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Don't forget dynamic range and noise considerations. The bigger the sensor, the more dynamic range and less noise you would get. So if you expect to crop, for example, bigger sensors are better not just because of MP. In today's offerings, the best FFs come from Canon, Nikon, and Sony. The best APS-C come from Fuji. MFT, well, that would be a step backwards.
 
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Yeah, I've been thinking of this the last couple of hours, @Nimi and I'm not doing M43 right now for wildlife. It was a fleeting moment of consideration but I really need to hang tight and test those x-mount lenses. Thanks.
 
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Juliette said:
Someone else here poo-poo'd the G9 in a way that completely dissuaded me, but seriously - for the cost of the G9 mark 1 and the 12-60 lens I might just get it anyway since it's so cheap.
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Didn't mean to sound like I was poo-poo-ing the G9. I was just trying to point out it's main weakness.

Basically, it's a great camera for things like travel, macro, landscape, people and even static wildlife. There are 2 places where it falls short though.

1) Autofocus when it comes to fast moving targets ... more precisely, initial acquisition and reacquisition of lost subject. Due to the nature of the G9's contrast detect AF, it can easily lose the subject and it will need input from you to get back in focus and more often than not it will fail to do that. I've gotten some beautiful bird in flight shots with it but I've missed countless other.

2) Lenses for wildlife ... in order to get the full functionality of the G9 you'll need Panasonic telephotos and that means:

a) the PL 100-400 - I tried 3 different samples in 3 different years and all were underwhelming and felt very poor value for money. I'd take the Fuji 150-600mm over it anytime. Heck, I'd take an adapted Nikon 300mm f4 AF-S D over it anytime :D.
There is a new PL 100-400 II out but I wouldn't get too excited about it.

b) the PL 50-200 f2.8-f4 - beautiful lens, great for travel, a pleasure to use. But it's expensive for such a simple lens and it's on the short side for WL even with the 1.4x TC that isn't that easy to come by. Still, it's my travel telephoto and I've taken beautiful bird shots with it over the years.

c) the PL 200mm f2.8 - a stunning lens and great value for money on the used market. But the 1.4x and 2x TCs are a must for it (the 1.4x is usually included with the lens). No longer sold new.

And all those 3 lenses have in common that, for any medium or major repairs, Panasonic just issues a refurbished copy to replace the damaged one. And that makes out of warranty repairs expensive to say the least.

Juliette said:
That 150-600 is on sale right now so that's good but now hearing from Fuji Rumors that a possible 400mm f/4 or a 550 f/4 is about to be announced so.... eek! Would much prefer that prime lens, so might wait just a bit longer.
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I think I suggested to you in another thread to take a look at the Fringer NF-FX II adapter and the Nikon 500mm f5.6 PF if you don't want to wait for those to come out on the market. I've read plenty of encouraging reports, and the 500mm f5.6 PF seems to be coming down in price with people moving to the Z 400mm and 600mm PF.

Juliette said:
I need for the whole package - body and long lens to not exceed 4-5 pounds and that's limiting me.
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If your budget covers them:

OM-1 and Olympus 300mm f4 (and TC1.4x)
Nikon Z8 and 400mm f4.5 (and TC1.4x)
Canon R6 II and 100-500mm L

All should be around your weight limit, all are great to use and if you can't get great shots with them, it's most likely the photographer's fault, not the gear's :p
 
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Thank you @StefanSC for elaborating on your experience. I actually appreciated your clear statement when you called it, "the worst wildlife camera of the post 2015 flagships..." because I am really trying to place IQ at the very top of the list, (weight second) so I wanted to eliminate the G9 from the list if that's necessary. And I believe it is.

I also appreciate your suggestions. I will rank each one of those combos by weight and start by renting the lightest one first. I've also go the longer Fuji lens coming so this will give me an opportunity to pit them against each other in the field. If the first one doesn't work for me, I'll move noto the next on the rental list. I'll also try the fringer adapter.

And I agree, if after all that I'm not getting good results then something is terribly wrong with me!! 😄
 
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