The flip up screen touch screen is big for me, I think I would be lost without it. I mostly use an EPL5 with 45mm lens, in conjunction with the Ricoh GR, and I like that particular set up for "street"*because you can hang back a bit from the scene and look down into your LCD to take your photos. So use the GR for up close (sometimes from the hip, which never works for me but I keep doing it - and sometimes using an OVF). And the EPL5 with 45 for everything else. That's been working for me, but I've had the feeling that I wanted a little bit more IQ overall. So I've enjoyed reading about your experimentations over the last few months, and I thank you for so thoroughly documenting your decision making. Big change indeed, doing to FF Nikon! As you explain it, this last move makes a lot of sense to me. A D610 with a 24-120 f4 and a small D prime or two makes sense to me. But I don't really have the budget for that unless I liquidate my M4/3, and I'm not really sure I want to do that. Very interested to know that you aren't bothered by the size of the D610. I can't quite picture if for myself, but then I, believe it or not, have never once held a DSLR of any sort (except an SL1 for about a second), so what do I know? Everyone I see on the street looks like they're holding a big ole volleyball of a camera up to their face, and I just can't see having something that big as my only thing besides the GR. I think I need to get to a brick and mortar and see if I can try out some cameras and see if I agree with you on the size.
Can I ask what your take is on the IQ on D610 files after a heavy crop? That's one way the set up could work for me. FF with a short telephoto prime, then cropped a lot.
Well, it's all a matter of personal preference and where you're coming at it from. I grew up shooting with twin lens reflex cameras and I loved the flip up screen when I first had one, because it sort of simulated that experience. But I just found myself using it less and less over time, to the point that I wouldn't mind having one, but it was easy enough to give up.
In terms of size, I have a Nikon A, basically the same size as the GR, and love it as a street / pocket camera. Like the GR, it's amazingly great for what it is and on some days, it's a huge part of my kit. I've used an EPL3/5 and did OK with them, but my sweet spot has always been bigger - closer to the EP5, XE2, even X-Pro 1 or EM1 size, which is notably larger but I find gives me more room for controls that I can get to a point of second nature with. I ended up with an EM1 and XT1 for their various capabilities and from there, the D610 is larger but it's not a huge leap and I just found it really easy to adapt to. It's larger but soooo well laid out and easy to hold it's a pleasure to use. I'm sure to some I probably do
LOOK like I've got a big ole volleyball up to my face, but the key point is it doesn't FEEL like that to me. It just feels like a camera. It's heavier but not enough to be a negative to me at all as long as I keep the lenses under control.
The lenses are the deal maker or breaker for me. The 24-120 is not a particularly large lens, but it's not small and the D610 with that lens is a pretty beefy, heavy combination. I'm happy enough carrying it around for a few hours if that's ALL I'm carrying, or almost all. But carrying a bag with multiple lenses of that size would get really old, really fast. Some DSLR shooters have a lot of the best, fastest glass, not to mention bodies that are a lot larger than the D610, and that stuff get's really big and really heavy and is outside of my tolerance level. My big lenses are that one, the Rokinon 14mm, and a Nikon 70-300. The 14 and the telephoto are specialty lenses that I don't carry around or use often - if I want to go do some shooting with that specific lens, I take it out and do it, but they're never part of my walk around kit. The 24-120 usually isn't either, but when it is, that's gonna be pretty much the WHOLE walk around kit because it is a small tank...
I'm much more likely to be carrying the body with a few primes, mostly quite small "D" lenses, which are slightly larger than m43 lenses, similar to or smaller than Fuji primes. I have one larger prime, a 28mm f1.8 "G" lens, just to have one really good, pretty fast lens at my favorite focal length that'll handle the lowest of low light. It's not huge or unweildy (similar size and weight as the Olympus 75mm), but it's notably larger than my other primes. I won't take that out all the time (it's usually
either a 24 or 28 in the bag, not both) but it'll be a staple for low light shooting. But I have (or soon will) 20, 24, 50, and 85 "D" lenses, all quite small and light, and a bag with 2-4 of those is still quite acceptably small and light. The 20 and 24 are f2.8, the 50 and 85 are f1.8, more than fast and narrow enough for me with full frame. The D610 with up to 4-5 of these primes (or up to 3 and the Nikon A) all fit very easily in an Ona Bowery, my favorite small bag lately and a good assurance that anything that'll fit in it I can carry comfortably all day. Any combination that won't fit in that bag doesn't come with me for an extended photo outing...
As long as I don't get sucked into the large lens syndrome, it's a really comfortable package. If I was big user of zooms or telephotos, I wouldn't have gone this route because full frame zooms and telephotos are generally just BIG. But for what and how I like to shoot, I like the feel of it. And the files are simply sublime, which was what got me here in the first place...
-Ray