Need advice! Wanting to buy a camera to use with my 35mm prime nikon lenses

Deuceofspades

Deuceofspades

Veteran
Hi there,

For those who don't already know me, this is Faith Granger, filmmaker, currently working on DEUCE OF SPADES, a do it yourself no budget period film of epic proportions :beer: (see: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=160032 ).

I use a HVX 200 Panasonic camera with a nice collection of Nikkon 35 mm prime lenses which I love. I have used my camera to take photos, but let's face it, the resolution is just not there.

I would like to invest in a digital camera that would provide me with the res I need, with good quality AND allow me to use my current collection of lenses. Note that these lenses are manual focus types. Which is fine by me.

When it comes to photo cameras I know next to nothing, so I need your advice. Let me know what the best choices are, and if buying "previously owned" is an option.

Here are a few shots I recently took using my HVX, as you see, the res is not there, which is too bad because I like those photos.

AARON%20KING%202.jpg



El%20Mirage%20Johnny%201.jpg



JOHNNY%20CALLAWAY%20HEAD%20SHOT%2012.jpg


El%20Mirage%20Johnny%2017.jpg
 
well because your using nikkor glass it is pretty apparent you want/should use nikon bodies, if they are ai'd and they are full manual then they will meter with the D200/300/700 and the D2h/D2x/D3 series cameras. any of the cameras listed above are very solid and capable, i heard that bestbuy.com had new D200's going for $599 which is an awesome deal, also look into Keh.com they have lots of used bodies and they are usually in great cond. any other nikon body will work with your lenses, they just wont meter, and to me thats pretty important.


Hope that helps.


Jon
 
Jon Neely said:
well because your using nikkor glass it is pretty apparent you want/should use nikon bodies, if they are ai'd and they are full manual then they will meter with the D200/300/700 and the D2h/D2x/D3 series cameras. any of the cameras listed above are very solid and capable, i heard that bestbuy.com had new D200's going for $599 which is an awesome deal, also look into Keh.com they have lots of used bodies and they are usually in great cond. any other nikon body will work with your lenses, they just wont meter, and to me thats pretty important.


Hope that helps.


Jon
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Jon, this is how ignorant I am: what does "meter" mean exactely? does it mean focus automatically? Or??

:huh:
 
meter as in showing what amount of light coming into the camera to get proper exposure, this is achieved by adjusting iso/Fstop/shutter speed. if you have manual lenses, they will never autofocus, if you have AF lenses tho, any of those bodies will drive the lens.


Jon
 
Jon Neely said:
meter as in showing what amount of light coming into the camera to get proper exposure, this is achieved by adjusting iso/Fstop/shutter speed. if you have manual lenses, they will never autofocus, if you have AF lenses tho, any of those bodies will drive the lens.


Jon
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I see. when I use my HVX200, everything is manual. I rely strictly on what I see in my monitor. Granted, my monitor is big. I assume there is not way to plug a monitor onto a photo camera, is there :) ? I like everything being manual just fine, I am so used to it by now. But it might be a concern if all I am looking at is a tiny screen :(...

Suggestions?
 
D200-D700 a prosumer bodies, therefor they dont have built in vertical grips and they are mainly used by full time pros, think of a D200-700 as the Dvx or Ex1 of video, not the D2-3x series are like the Red and Genesis of the video world. The Single digit D series have no flash, but last longer, are all metal, and generally shoot faster. The D200-700 have a pop in flash that can be utilized as a commander unit for nikon speedlights where you can adjust power levels from the camera and trigger them wirelessly, the D2-3x can do this but they need a Sb-800 or Sb-900 speedlight, or a Su-800 commander unit. all of these cameras are great, used probody D2h go for around $400, D2x are still around $1000, D3 are around 3500 used to $4500 new, D3x are going for $8000, D200 are going for about $450 used and $600 new, D300 gor for about $1100 used and $1300 new, and D700 are going for around $2300 used or $2600 new. if you are as new to this as you sound "no affiance" then i would recommend the D200-700, the 300 and 700 have liveview, but it doesnt display a realtime exposure of the picture to be taken, it add gain to try to give you detail to focus, in order to take decent photos you will learn how to properly expose using a meter, it is super simple, plus the big plus is that you can mount your lenses on these bodies, tell the camera which lens you have on it, set the aperture to where you like it set the camera into aperture priority and shoot away. the camera will automatically adjust shutter speed for you for proper exposure. I have had the D2x before my D700, and there is no comparison in build quality, that is where the $5000 that the D2x came into play, but the D700 kills it in every IQ and ISO rating.

hope my little novel helped.

Jon
 
I don't know Nikon cameras, so I can't say for sure which of them are full-frame or crop chip sizes - that would be an important difference for your lenses because the picture angle obviously changes when you use another chip size with the same focal length.

I'm not exactly sure what size the 35mm adapter is, but if it's Super 35, then it's roughly 24x18mm. That would be really close to the Nikon DX crop, which is roughly 24x16.
A full-frame chip is the size of 35mm film in photo cameras, which is 36x24mm - this is substantially larger and changes the perceived focal length by a factor of 1,5.
So, your now moderate wide-angle 18mm will suddenly be an ultra-wide-angle. That is if the lens is a full-format lens - it might be a DX lens for 1,5x crop only, then it will show a bad black vignette on a full frame chip...

I think you're actually better off with the (much cheaper!) crop sensor, because it is almost exactly the size of super 35mm and therefore keeps your lenses picture angle exactly like you know it.
 
Wished I had seen this last week. I had a D200 for sale that had a Split prism installed that would have been perfect for your manual lenses. Oh well.
 
I'd like to suggest that you consider a FILM camera body instead. I know that's being contrary to what you want - a digital camera. But if you have been exposing your picture by eye (from the monitor) and you're not clear on the principles of metering, you might shooting film on a regular used Nikon manual focus film camera because to people who have shot only digital or video, it can be educational, and very insightful into the fundamentals of exposure, aperture and shutter. I would recommend the fantastically compact and well built Nikon FG which is a mere $50 used on ebay and elsewhere. Which such a small investment, you can then get a digital camera like the d200/d300 or full frame D2/D3 and shoot pictures with a better understanding of all the fundamentals which will only make you a better photographer.

You seem to be very bright and ambitious, I'm sure you would be a great photographer too. So why not start from the basics if there's such a small investment so you can master that too?

One warning is that if you have Nikon NON AI lenses, these will only work on older manual focus bodies like the Nikon F and FM.
 
I just got a D300 to use with my Brevis lenses. Quality is excellent. A few days ago I put some pics on the Nikon thread. The body was (barely) used, and cost less than a D90.

The D300 can be very simple and get great pictures if you use "Program" mode. A bit of fiddling and you can get outstanding photos.

Take your lenses into a photo store and try them out on a few different cameras to see how well they work.
 
If you use your HVX on full manual, you won't have too much trouble adjusting to the world of stills. I got a Nikon D300 in "BGN" condition off of keh.com for about $800 and it's absolutely awesome and in perfect shape. At Best Buy new, they're going for twice that. I also have a Nikon FE2 35mm camera which works great as well.

The D300 is a high-end Nikon, but it's a crop camera. D700 and above are FX (full frame) sensors, and emulate the frame size of 35mm film. Basically a 50mm on an FX camera is 50mm, but on a crop camera (D300 and lower), it's essentially a 75mm or so. Depending on the amount of money you want to spend and your lens selection, this may or may not be a consideration.

The D300 does have live-view mode and HDMI out, and you can also tether it to shoot directly to a computer. That way you could use a laptop or monitor to aid you. The LCD screen on the back is a decent size, pretty sharp, and you can zoom in on your image to check for sharpness. You can also see histograms etc. to aid you in exposure. Nikons are also really sturdy. The new D90 is less full of pro features than higher-end Nikons, but it does shoot HD movies so it's getting a lot of hype. This might be cool for some quick pickups or something (although the movies are compressed, they look pretty nice). Anyway, just some things to consider. KEH is definitely a great resource for used gear. If you're just wanting to shoot promotional stills, a more inexpensive camera like the D50 would still yield great results because so much relies on your lenses. My wife has a D50 and it's a killer camera and pretty cheap if you get it used off craigslist or something. Good luck!
 
dadoboy said:
One warning is that if you have Nikon NON AI lenses, these will only work on older manual focus bodies like the Nikon F and FM.
Click to expand...

I just recently bought a F4S..Very rock solid camera and has the best of all worlds in being able to use old lenses, even non-ai all the way to AF-S lenses. Doesn't have VR capability and cannot use DX lenses and uses film, but it has matrix metering and is fun to use. Also with film you can go into using different film stocks and also you can have cross processing capability. And if you want real raw...Film is RAW not simulated RAW.
 
I love film as much as the next guy, but I can't see a film camera being useful on set in a digital workflow like the OP described.
 
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