Never Thought I Would Say This; I'm Now Mirrorless Only

This is the kind of image at which the D810 excelled.  It would lock on to my subject and hold focus (click to enlarge)
I found myself using the Fuji system for everything but moving wildlife.  Now, with the advances Fuji has made,
I think my Fuji gear will fit my wildlife needs as well.
Nikon D810, 70-200 f/4 VR lens @ 200mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/10; ISO 1000; 50% image crop

I never thought I would say this, but I now own only mirrorless digital photography gear. "We've come a long way, baby," so to speak, in digital photography terms.

Recently, if became apparent to me that my use of my full frame Nikon gear was minimal at best and seemingly each time I picked up a camera to go out and photograph, I almost never picked up the Nikon gear.  I've only used the Nikon gear on 6 occasions in the past 9 months and, in all but one of those uses, I could have used a mirrorless camera.  So, I sold off my D810, 6 lenses and associated accessories this week. 

Wow!  This is major for me! Its kind of traumatic to a guy who was only a Nikon digital photographer for many years and Nikon film camera user since 1974.  Now, I still have a Nikon film camera and a few old primes but all the digital gear is gone.

A few months ago, I sold all of my M4/3 gear and, although I felt I missed it (for a while), that decision was a good one (not to say I will never buy another M4/3 camera as I love what Olympus and Panasonic have created).  So, I thought that using the same process and criteria I used for that decision, I would use for this current one.  The result you now know.

The biggest reason the Nikon gear has been sold is that my Fuji gear is fully satisfying my photographic needs.  The Fuji gear not only satisfies the image quality I need for stock and personal photography, but I love what Fuji did with the engineering of the camera bodies.  As I have written in the past, how a camera feels in one's hands, how it works and it integrates with how you think and work are more important to me than strictly what kind of images it is capable of producing.  Add to that,  a line of excellent lenses that is just as satisfying and my decision became apparent.

Referring back to the first paragraph, digital photography technology, both cameras and lenses, has advanced so far in the past 15 years that I feel most of us no longer need a 35mm-sized sensor camera.  APS-C certainly fills the bill for me.  I couldn't say that just a few years ago.  And...it will only get better in the next few years.  Also, as you long time readers know, for the past three years I've been on a quest to go smaller, lighter, less expensive but at the same time keep excellent image quality.  I am now there.

I'll let you know if I have any regrets, but I really don't think I will.  I think the Fuji system has evolved into the perfect system for me and what I do photographically.  It may not fit as well for you, but that is the beauty of all of these many photographic gear manufacturers and all the different types of gear they produce.  They provide choices—enough choices—that each of us can find exactly for what we are looking to meet our individual needs.

I am looking forward to the future and plan on enjoying my current gear for a long time.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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