These professional cameras were the industry standard , and arguably remained until only a few years ago, before the obvious advantages of mirrorless cameras put them within reach of the majority of the photographic community. I've demoed a couple of Nikon cameras in the past, but they were always in less than functional condition. However, the Nikon D200 we currently use works perfectly. I paired it with a Nikon 24mm lens which comes as a full frame 36mm equivalent on this crop sensor.
Speaking of this sensor, it is a CCD sensor. As you know I have demoed two Canon CCD cameras in the past and have been in love with the images these cameras produced. I want to focus on the externals of the camera only briefly, and on the three different keys which were a bit confusing for me, but I learned to fall in love with one of them . On the front we have this switch here, this is the focus mode selector. We have manual focus, single auto focus and continuous auto focus . This switch is nothing out of the ordinary, as you see this switch on many cameras including Fujifilm.
Then at the back we have two more keys. At the bottom we have the autofocus area selector. This is useful, but I don't use it much because I don't use autofocus on this camera. When I tested it at 2.8 in different lighting conditions, it worked really well. And of course it has an autofocus assist beam to illuminate any subject where there isn't a lot of light. This is really autofocus, it's good, it's just limited to points. Good little test. Look yeah, it's very fast. Then at the top right next to the viewfinder, we have the metering switch. This measurement key is the one I used the most. This allows us to change the metering from multiple to spot and center while looking through the viewfinder. This is especially useful because in a DSLR we only have an OVF, so we don't see any live view of our exposure. So having that ability to change the meter and point towards the shadows or the lights or the subject in our image makes it very easy to lock in focus without having to check your images on the back of your monitor.
If you're sitting there now wondering why you would get a DSLR from 2005 and take street photography with it in 2024? Well, there's a very big reason. I shoot a mix of film and digital. All my digital is mirrorless and all my film is on film and most of them are mechanical cameras these days. And I just wanted to get a little bit of balance between the two. The main feature I wanted from my film cameras was having an optical viewfinder back. I've tried things like the Fuji X100 in the past and the Fuji X Pro in the past but they both use an inaccurate type of fake rangefinder window. They are not true rangefinders and are not even accurate in terms of their framing except when you put them in EVF mode which then eliminates the point of having a hybrid OVF.
Fuji. But within the photography community, I think we actually want a low OVF and there's a reason the Fuji X100 is so popular and why Leica digital rangefinders are so popular. That's because having that balance of digital sensor and digital amenities combined with an OVF is actually a great way to shoot especially for street photography. So why does no one like to hype up DSLRs? Well, maybe because it's big and bulky and not really great for most things. But maybe for street photography, if you don't mind a little extra weight, it could be useful to you. The obvious advantages of mirrorless photography are size and weight. Not having to carry something big and bulky and being able to save size and weight and being able to use smaller lenses in the process.
When it comes to street photography, the biggest problem you might have with DSLR cameras is thinking that it's too obvious that you have a big camera with you and that the shutter is also too high. This guy's painting actually looks pretty nice. Oh man I love your whole outfit. Oh looks great. I'll get one. We're kind of spoiled today with mirrorless cameras being very low profile and having completely quiet shutters and even electronic shutters or silent shutters that we can use in some situations as well.
However, as someone who has tested and sort of looked for the quieter, more discreet cameras, something I've realized in all of my camera testing is that the camera you hold in your hand is much less important than how you hold it. 'Re-contract it. So the way you approach someone to take a photo, how you raise the camera to your eyes , your body language, and your demeanor all matter much more than the size and sound of the camera you choose. I mentioned briefly before that I don't use the autofocus on this camera much and you probably already know what I'm going to say but I'm going to say it anyway. I use manual focus on this camera and only use it with area focus. Since these DSLR lenses have physical focus rings, this means they already have hard stops at near and infinity focusing, and you can actually set up focus areas through the small focus range window which is a very good thing to do on this camera.
In fact, the focus range only starts at f11, so I'm pretty much setting it to f11 at the moment. I'm going to test a little lower stops to see how those work as well but the topic of focusing on the zone leads me to something and it leads me to this, this Venn diagram. This is the Venn diagram I was looking for, I look for it late at night when I'm online, and this is a camera with an OVF like in a DSLR OVF or a rangefinder with a CCD sensor.
We have specified that in this camera and the ability to select focus using our lenses . So this camera fits right in the center of this Venn diagram and you would think that the George Leica M8 would fit the bill here as well and yes the Leica M8 I think it's also a 10 megapixel sensor, it's a CCD and it's a rangefinder. It would actually be amazing. I'd love to try that camera one day, but for now I'll save myself a few thousand and just use this camera that I literally bought for £180 with the lens.
Pretty good deal, man. I mean people go out there and spend £500, £2000 on a camera and their first camera. I'm very excited and just spent £200 and have a great time. While we're on the subject of this simple balance between film and digital as a photographic experience, I want to talk about the three cameras I already have with me on this trip. On the older end of the spectrum I have a Canon L3. This is a fully mechanical Canon 35mm rangefinder manufactured in 1957 that is paired with a Canon 35 f2.8 from 1961. This is probably my favorite piece of camera equipment I have ever purchased in my entire life. Then on the other side we have the Sony a7s3.
This is like my workhorse, has been for a few years and I usually pair this with the same 35mm Canon lens, but at the moment it has my trusty Tamron 2875 f2.8 lens for all my crap video. Then in the middle we have this ugly thing. It's a DSLR from 2005. It was a strange time for cameras. Now that I see where the cameras are and where the DSLR was it seems like a mistake but a beautiful mistake and I think a DSLR shares the conveniences of a film camera as well as the conveniences of a mirrorless camera which is having an OVF and the ability to set up a focus area Easily on a DSLR style camera then on a film camera than on a digital one with the ability to store many more images and the ability to edit the raw images long into the future after they are taken. So I think this camera is really suitable for three specific people. The first of these people is the budget-conscious beginner. So someone on a limited budget has about $300 to spend and just wants a camera for photography only. No videography here.
I think this camera is a great choice for learning photography and growing by testing different lenses , and if you are just doing street photography and posting online, you will never face many limitations. Another person is a movie shooter. Someone who's never shot film and loves photography but doesn't really want to get into mirrorless photography and I think a lot of film photographers go from film straight to Fuji.
For some reason, they think Fuji and Riko are the only mirrorless cameras they should consider, and I don't really think mirrorless is where they should go at all. If they're used to shooting on a film rangefinder or on a film SLR, moving to a digital SLR will be more natural for them and kind of emulates the film experience of not getting exactly what you see through the viewfinder, metering through the viewfinder Only then being able to review the photos afterwards. The third photographer I would recommend to these two is the mirrorless photographer who shoots without a mirror at all. So people who got into photography and videography since the mass adoption of mirrorless cameras, since DSLRs kind of died out and turned to mirrorless cameras right away.
If you've never tried shooting with a DSLR, I think there's a lot you can learn from shooting through an optical viewfinder and there's only limited information available to you . I think this actually makes you hit exposure much better when you go back to mirrorless mode as well. I'm so grateful that I first started shooting with a DSLR in 2011 and it took me until 2019 to get my first mirrorless camera. Now that I've become quite interested in mirrorless cameras for the past five years, it's really great to play with a DSLR for a while and be able to share that experience with you .
And if you're also a camera enthusiast and love street photography, have you checked out the Megapix Skills Discord server? I'll drop a link to that in the description of this video and in the pinned comment below. In this discord server we talk about everything related to street photography, other photography as well, camera equipment, technical support and motivation. I think it's a really great place for everyone to come together and chat about this interest that we all share . Thanks for watching and I'll see you when I'm back in Manchester..