checking out cameras with the girl
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
When my brother and I were small my mum would occasionally ask what kind of gift to get for our dad. Our answers were always the same: a camera or a trophy.
Now that The Girl's got a camera I took her for a drag to her first camera shop. Mari had told me about a decent camera shop in the area and the weather was nice so we went and had a look. It was a longish walk but nice enough - we had bentou from the local Ootoya (a decent chain restaurant) and The Girl and I checked out the new and used gear. They had a tonne of stuff like old film gear in "junk" bins including a medium-format Polaroid-style thing. But they had better film cameras for sale as well, and of course a range of digital gear used and new.
I had a look at the Nikon Z5, a full-frame mirrorless number. It was astonishingly heavy, and I found the ergonomics a mess. The front dial was right next to the on-off switch, and that's what my finger found when I was exploring the front dial's purpose in the different (PASM) modes. The rear dial was straightforward but I couldn't make it do exposure compensation without holding down a tiny button on the top of the camera with the side of my index finger. In other words, I couldn't change the exposure and take a photo at the same time. I've been looking at cameras again because my now 5 1/2 year old Olympus takes good pics but they need a tonne of post-processing to look right. I frequently find myself looking at images that don't even remind me of where/when I took them until I play with the exposure, contrast, etc. Which is a drag. But the answer isn't going to be Nikon's full frame mirrorless offering!
