schneiss wrote:
Considering changing brands from Nikon as Im upgrading to a new camera. I have only 2 lenses so im not tied to Nikon. D7500 is a heavy brick. Considering lighter and smaller mirrorless. Maybe Sony or Olympus? Any suggestions?
PANASONIC LUMIX.
Both Panasonic Lumix and Olympus make Micro 4/3 cameras and compatible lenses. Over 100 lenses are available for them. With minor exceptions, you can use Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies, and vice-versa. Several other manufacturers make Micro 4/3 lenses, too. The Micro 4/3 market has been around for 11 years, so cameras are robust and mature with lots of great innovations.
The ONLY camera SYSTEM that will save you significant size, bulk, and weight over full frame/FX or APS-C/DX is Micro 4/3. By system, I mean body plus lenses and accessories. Micro 4/3 lenses are much lighter, because they are shorter for any given field of view, and therefore contain less heavy glass.
I would certainly LOOK at Olympus gear. They make excellent stuff, but the usability factor isn't there for me. Panasonic's ergonomics and menus are much easier for most people to adapt to than Olympus's.
I would look at the Lumix G95, G9, and GH5. They are most like your Nikon D7500. The G95 is the all-around balance of reasonable price, great stills, great video. The G9 is the flagship stills camera that also records great video. The GH5 is a great video camera first, but delivers excellent stills, too. (As an aside, I have two last-generation GH4s that my son and I use to make short films.
If you can afford them, get the Panasonic Leica lenses. Made by Panasonic, they use Leica glass and Leica optical designs, and they provide that superb Leica bokeh and color subtlety.
I used Canons and Nikons from 1968 to 2012. I fell in love with Lumix gear the first time I used it. My kit includes two GH4s, plus Lumix GX Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.8 zooms, and a Lumix G Macro 30mm f/2.8, all of which are optically stabilized.
I bought Nikon F to Micro 4/3 and Canon FD/FL to Micro 4/3 adapters for my ancient Nikkor and Canon FD lenses. After using them, I DO NOT recommend adapters for older lenses unless you are comfortable working with full manual controls. We use those old primes sparingly for video filmmaking work. They work, but are manual in *every* respect.
My advice would be different if you had Canon EF lenses. But you have Nikon gear. You should probably get new or used *native* Micro 4/3 lenses for your new camera. They're made to work with it, and will provide all the automation features adapters don't (automatic diaphragm, automatic focus, optical image stabilization, EXIF data transfer, automatic distortion correction for JPEGs, focus by wire, diaphragm control from the camera...).