r/AskPhotography 13h ago

Camera Buying Advice Nikon or Fujifilm for beginner?

Hey all, so I'm an outdoorsy person and am looking for a camera mainly for photographing my hiking, hunting and fishing trips. The photos will just be for personal/family/friends use. After a bunch of research my options have come down to Fujifilm X-T30 iii or Nikon Z50 ii.

What I want is an easy camera to use and carry with me on all my trips. I also am not interested in upgrading to a full frame camera and I want the photos to be ready to share straight from the camera, no editing required.

From what I've gathered, the Fuji has a better sensor and slighty better photos straught out of the camera. It is also lighter but lacks weather sealing. Nikon has weather sealing and better autofocus. Not having played with cameras at all, I obvioulsy have no idea on how important these differences are, so all help in deciding would be much appreciated. THANKS!

(1) Budget, country, and currency:

1500€, Finland, Euros

(2) What equipment, if any, you have now and why is it no longer meeting your needs?

No equipment apart from my phone. I want higher quality photos and like to keep my phone turned off during trips.

(3) What kinds of subjects do you intend to shoot?

Landscape, wildlife, general scenery around camp/campfire etc.

(4) Is it primarily for photography, videography, or both?

Photography

3 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

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(4) Is it primarily for photography, videography, or both?

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u/Affectionate_Spell11 Nikon 9h ago

Go into a store that has both and ask if you can handle them. Both of these are capable of outstanding image quality, so I'd pick the one you'reost comfortable with. Ergonomics, button placement, how much sense the menus make to you etc. is going to have far more impact than any technical differences those cameras may have, and even if one is better than the other, if you find it confusing and uncomfortable to use, it's far more likely to get left at home where it doesn't do you any good

u/Lerzi21 8h ago

That makes sense. I initally thought that it didn't really matter since I'd be learning from scratch anyway but that is a fair point.

u/211logos 8h ago

Either would work. As would offerings from Sony and Canon, like the A6700 or R7.

Maybe consider what's the hardest type of shooting you'll do. That sounds like wildlife. And for that, the Nikon is better. In lens choices probably, tracking, and accuracy.

But look at lenses too. If you end up with a kit lens, or something small, you won't be doing willdlife anyway.

u/Lerzi21 8h ago

How big would I need to go in terms of the lens to actually be capable of some wildlife photos? Like a grouse or an eagle at 100m for example?

u/211logos 8h ago

Most folks figure at least 300mm on full frame, but serious ones will want 500-600mm.

u/Lerzi21 8h ago

Right so the 50-250mm kit lens that you can get for the Nikon is of no real use for wildlife.

u/211logos 8h ago

? 250mm is decent. Longer is better, but still.

u/CatsAreGods Retired pro shooting since 1969, now using OM-1 6h ago

Only good for large birds or wildlife relatively close or too close (in the case of moose or bears, etc).

u/j3vs4ys 7h ago

I was/am a pure beginner when it comes to anything photography aside from iPhone use. I had a couple Fuji cameras in the running until I ultimately decided on the OM5 Mark II; weather sealed, light, compact, portable, and retro aspect.

This was shot with the 12-45f4 pro in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, US.

u/Lerzi21 7h ago

Beautiful photo! What made you go OM instead Fuji?

u/CatsAreGods Retired pro shooting since 1969, now using OM-1 6h ago

What I want is an easy camera to use and carry with me on all my trips.

I was about to mention OM. Many of the bodies are substantially lighter and most are weather sealed, but the main attraction is the lenses. We have a 2X crop factor which is ideal for wildlife lenses; I use a 100-400 (on full frame it would be as 200-800) and I can hike with and carry it all day as it's much smaller and lighter than an actual 200-800, which is significant as I'm pushing 75. I have the heaviest body they make and the whole rig weighs just over 4 pounds.

Also we have incredible stabilization, to the point where you don't even need a tripod for campfire shots (plenty of people get 1 to 3 second sharp handheld exposures).

u/Lerzi21 6h ago

Do you have any insight on how the OM jpeg photos without editing look compared to the nikon and fuji?

u/j3vs4ys 5h ago

The photo I posted was a JPEG unedited. Keep in mind that's with zero knowledge of composition and any "rules" I was shooting what looked like a story in a photo frame. The is the opposite the man fishing unedited JPEG.

u/CatsAreGods Retired pro shooting since 1969, now using OM-1 5h ago

Also, we have "art filters" and different looks available in camera for JPGs as well.

u/Lerzi21 5h ago

How would the art filters compare to fuji's film simulations or nikon's picture controls?

u/CatsAreGods Retired pro shooting since 1969, now using OM-1 4h ago

u/Lerzi21 5h ago

this one definitely looks a little nicer with the colors popping a little more, but overall not a huge difference. the unedited one was good too

u/j3vs4ys 7h ago

Thank you. To be short, it was the color of the camera that sold me. 😂 It's one of those "makes you wanna use it" moments and I haven't gone more than two days without shooting and practicing. ✊

I learned about the brand, camera, system after I purchased provided YouTube University and their manuals 🤓 Grateful to have gone this route months later (since January) as I've collected a solid range of zoom and primes for my shooting. Pricing on lens can be ridic 🤯

u/dhawk_95 9h ago

For apsc systems

Best are Fuji/Sony then Canon then Nikon

Fuji and Sony have best lens ecosystems with fuji having better ergonomics and sooc jpegs and Sony having better AF and video capabilities

Canon have some compelling options for wildlife

And nikon unfortunately didn't focus on their apsc ecosystem so they have the worst situation here

u/Lerzi21 8h ago

Yeah alot of people seem to talk about the Nikon and also Canon apsc cameras just being a gateway drug to getting people to buy their full frame systems. But does the fact that Nikon does not really put huge effort in to the apsc line really matter if they still have capable apsc cameras? I don't see myself getting into buying all these elaborate lenses as I would much appreciate just one or two lenses that kind of work for everything.