Thinking About A 2nd Camera?

RonaldAlv

On the fence about purchasing a 2nd camera or back up camera. I currently shoot with a Sony A77II. My question is... would you stay with the Sony line? I have 3 Sony lenses, 70-300mm kit, 18-55 kit, and a 50mm f1.8. So you can see that I do not have alot of coin wrapped up into lenses. I originally went with the Sony due to the 10 fps for sports shooting, but those days are long gone for me. Been getting more into portrait and landscape. I know this is a pretty vague question, but I would like to know your thoughts. What other camera would you go with, or would you invest in better lens?
Thanks for any information.

ziggy53

Sony still makes fine cameras, and the Sony a7 III makes a lot of people happy as a reasonably affordable full-frame (FF) body.

Quality lenses for FF system, including mirrorless FF, are quite a bit more than crop system lenses, so you may wish to remain with a crop body like the a6500, which would make a fine upgrade compared to the A77 II. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't make reasonably priced, high-quality lenses for the Sony crop system, so you might consider a different manufacturer for lenses.

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I'm very pleased with my Nikon D7200 body and Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 Ex Dc OS HSM standard/normal zoom lens. I couple that with a Flashpoint Zoom Li-ON R2 "N" TTL flash and appropriate flash modifier to make a fairly compact system, capable of professional results for environmental/outdoor portraits, groups and events, plus typical landscape and scenics. It would also do a good job at weddings and events. Add a decent tele-zoom in the 70-200mm, f2.8 variety and you can do head-shots, head-and-shoulders shots, and even nature and wildlife (within reason).

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Then again, I'm extremely pleased with my Canon systems, both APS-C/crop and FF. For me that means the Canon 5D Mark III, which continues to impress as a FF body, and a Tamron SP 24-70mm Di VC USD in Canon EF mount. That makes a great system center, and then I add another Flashpoint Zoom Li-ON R2 "C" TTL flash and modifiers, or an old Canon 580EX with an external power supply for bam-bam-bam flash shooting.

For APS-C in Canon it's still a Canon 7D with a Canon 17-55mm, f2.8 IS USM EF-S zoom, and then one of the flashes from the Canon FF kit above. That combination works great for event photography, as well as pretty much whatever else I want to do photographically.

I've built a fairly complete Canon system since 2004 so I can build whatever capability I wish now.

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So I can easily recommend capable and competent systems from Sony, Nikon and Canon, and other folks like Fuji and Pentax, Olympus and Panasonic.

The reason I continue to recommend Canon and Nikon dSLRs is partly because of the relatively vast supply of used cameras, lenses and accessories from which to choose. Mostly it's because they are know to perform faithfully and consistently, throughout their lifespan.