Which camera from this line up?

[Yasha Hase]

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get any of these for free through my work as a gift for tenure and am only really interested in using them to shoot my aquarium and frag tank so other use cases aren't much of a concern. I'm relatively inexperienced with photography so not sure which camera would be the best baseline to start from. All that said these are the options I have.

Sony a6400 Mirrorless APS-C Interchangeable-Lens Camera Body

Nikon - D7500 DSLR 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Nikon - Z50II Mirrorless Camera Body

Nikon - Z50 Mirrorless 4K Video Camera with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens

Nikon - Z 30 4K Mirrorless Camera 2-Lens Kit with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR Lenses

Canon - EOS R50 V 4K Video Mirrorless Camera with RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens

Canon - EOS RP Mirrorless 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Right now I'm leaning towards the Nikon D7500 as the Tamron 90 mm lens for DSLR is half the price of their mirrorless offering and portability isn't a huge concern for me; But knowing as little as I do I'd love to get some second and third opinions.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get any of these for free through my work as a gift for tenure and am only really interested in using them to shoot my aquarium and frag tank so other use cases aren't much of a concern. I'm relatively inexperienced with photography so not sure which camera would be the best baseline to start from. All that said these are the options I have.

Sony a6400 Mirrorless APS-C Interchangeable-Lens Camera Body

Nikon - D7500 DSLR 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Nikon - Z50II Mirrorless Camera Body

Nikon - Z50 Mirrorless 4K Video Camera with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens

Nikon - Z 30 4K Mirrorless Camera 2-Lens Kit with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR Lenses

Canon - EOS R50 V 4K Video Mirrorless Camera with RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens

Canon - EOS RP Mirrorless 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Right now I'm leaning towards the Nikon D7500 as the Tamron 90 mm lens for DSLR is half the price of their mirrorless offering and portability isn't a huge concern for me; But knowing as little as I do I'd love to get some second and third opinions.

Cool that your company is offering you this!

I can't speak to the Sony or Canon, but I would get the Z50 with the 16-50 lens. Cost-wise, that is much more of a value than the D7500, and about the same as the Z50II body alone. The lens seems slow by the numbers, but with image stabilization, it works really well.

Nikon has stopped making new FX lenses, and overall support for that platform is dropping fast. I have a D800 and a Z50, and I shoot the latter exclusively now.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get any of these for free through my work as a gift for tenure and am only really interested in using them to shoot my aquarium and frag tank so other use cases aren't much of a concern. I'm relatively inexperienced with photography so not sure which camera would be the best baseline to start from. All that said these are the options I have.

Sony a6400 Mirrorless APS-C Interchangeable-Lens Camera Body

Nikon - D7500 DSLR 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Nikon - Z50II Mirrorless Camera Body

Nikon - Z50 Mirrorless 4K Video Camera with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens

Nikon - Z 30 4K Mirrorless Camera 2-Lens Kit with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR Lenses

Canon - EOS R50 V 4K Video Mirrorless Camera with RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens

Canon - EOS RP Mirrorless 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Right now I'm leaning towards the Nikon D7500 as the Tamron 90 mm lens for DSLR is half the price of their mirrorless offering and portability isn't a huge concern for me; But knowing as little as I do I'd love to get some second and third opinions.

If you have no other interest in photography I'd suggest an iPhone or similar :)

They can take great pictures without all the hassle of learning to use a complex camera.

 

[maroun.c]

I second the Z50 choice as mirorless is the way to go as dslr lenses production is stopped. U can slowly build a lense collection as u learn photography more and assess lenses u need .

 

[Yasha Hase]

Any reason in particular to go with the Z50 with one lens vs the Z30 with two? Do you find yourself using the viewfinder much when shooting your aquarium?

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

I’m still a huge fan of the Olympus TG line for aquarium photography. Especially if you plan on shooting macro. It’s waterproof up to 15m without an additional housing, so you can stick it in the tank to get better shots. No more being limited to only head on through the glass or top-down. It also has a built-in microscope mode, eliminating the need for additional lenses. I have a TG 5 and it can take pictures like this.

 

[Yasha Hase]

I’m still a huge fan of the Olympus TG line for aquarium photography. Especially if you plan on shooting macro. It’s waterproof up to 15m without an additional housing, so you can stick it in the tank to get better shots. No more being limited to only head on through the glass or top-down. It also has a built-in microscope mode, eliminating the need for additional lenses. I have a TG 5 and it can take pictures like this.

I had looked at those, and they seem great! unfortunately they aren't one of the options I have through work so I have to stick to one of the more traditional mirrorless or DSLR cameras.

 

[pete.healey]

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get any of these for free through my work as a gift for tenure and am only really interested in using them to shoot my aquarium and frag tank so other use cases aren't much of a concern. I'm relatively inexperienced with photography so not sure which camera would be the best baseline to start from. All that said these are the options I have.

Sony a6400 Mirrorless APS-C Interchangeable-Lens Camera Body

Nikon - D7500 DSLR 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Nikon - Z50II Mirrorless Camera Body

Nikon - Z50 Mirrorless 4K Video Camera with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens

Nikon - Z 30 4K Mirrorless Camera 2-Lens Kit with NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR Lenses

Canon - EOS R50 V 4K Video Mirrorless Camera with RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens

Canon - EOS RP Mirrorless 4K Video Camera (Body Only)

Right now I'm leaning towards the Nikon D7500 as the Tamron 90 mm lens for DSLR is half the price of their mirrorless offering and portability isn't a huge concern for me; But knowing as little as I do I'd love to get some second and third opinions.

I have a Canon RS50 and love it

 

[maroun.c]

Any reason in particular to go with the Z50 with one lens vs the Z30 with two? Do you find yourself using the viewfinder much when shooting your aquarium?

Yes inuse the viewfinder pretty much whenever Shooting any pictures. It simply provides more stability vs holding ur camera away and looking at the lcd, especially when shooting is sunny areas where the lcd isnt aleays bright enough. I would favour the z7ii or the z6iii as its more recent and a better overall camera than both z30 or 5 but the 7ii or 6iii are not in the choices OP gave

 

[X-37B]

I have a Nikon D850. It's only a few months old. The reason I did not go with the Z is I can get great lens for what I need for a bargain. The D850 is new but the lens are used at 75% less than new.
Used D850's are a good choice.
If I was younger I would get the Z as this is the direction of current cameras.

 

[Yasha Hase]

Thanks for all the input guys, after doing some more research and looking at the market for lenses I went with the Nikon Z50 the lens it comes with should be great to get me started and if I have any talent for it I can invest further into a proper macro lens. Excited for it to come in so I can share some photos.

 

[maroun.c]

Congrats

 

[Yasha Hase]

Camera came in! Took over a hundred photos and these were the only ones worth editing but the difference is night and day between these and what I was able to get off my phone before.

 

[maroun.c]

Great shots!

 

[IrishReefer234]

Camera came in! Took over a hundred photos and these were the only ones worth editing but the difference is night and day between these and what I was able to get off my phone before.

Can I ask what camera you went with in the end? The shots look amazing

 

[RoanokeReef]

Can I ask what camera you went with in the end? The shots look amazing

Thanks for all the input guys, after doing some more research and looking at the market for lenses I went with the Nikon Z50 the lens it comes with should be great to get me started and if I have any talent for it I can invest further into a proper macro lens. Excited for it to come in so I can share some photos.

 

[LovinlifeinGuam]

The thing with cameras is that the quality of unedited pictures depends on the skill of the photographer. You can have the most expensive model from any brand and take terrible pictures or great pictures or you can have a less expensive camera and take incredible or terrible pictures depending on your experience with the camera. The most important factor is experience.

I would tend to say that a digital camera that can take better pictures that any phone is more affordable than a new phone though. It's still completely dependent on what you're looking for though. Some people prefer to heavily edit the pictures and oversaturate the colors so there's very little need for a quality camera, for example.

 

[Yasha Hase]

The thing with cameras is that the quality of unedited pictures depends on the skill of the photographer. You can have the most expensive model from any brand and take terrible pictures or great pictures or you can have a less expensive camera and take incredible or terrible pictures depending on your experience with the camera. The most important factor is experience.

I would tend to say that a digital camera that can take better pictures that any phone is more affordable than a new phone though. It's still completely dependent on what you're looking for though. Some people prefer to heavily edit the pictures and oversaturate the colors so there's very little need for a quality camera, for example.

This is a very good point and downloading lightroom probably improved my photos as much or more than the new camera did coming from a pixel 6. Being able to remove distractions from the photo is huge.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

This is a very good point and downloading lightroom probably improved my photos as much or more than the new camera did coming from a pixel 6. Being able to remove distractions from the photo is huge.

@Yasha Hase are you still happy with your purchase? I want something to shoot my tanks with, but am freaking clueless to cameras, I think we are similar. I’m not worried about spending a little, but, I suck with my iPhone as it is. So I don’t think learning how to drive a stick on a Ferrari F40.

 

[Yasha Hase]

This is a very good point and downloading lightroom probably improved my photos as much or more than the new camera did coming from a pixel 6. Being able to remove distractions from the photo is huge.

@Yasha Hase are you still happy with your purchase? I want something to shoot my tanks with, but am freaking clueless to cameras, I think we are similar. I’m not worried about spending a little, but, I suck with my iPhone as it is. So I don’t think learning how to drive a stick on a Ferrari F40.

I still like the camera and enjoy using it probably take around 100 shots a week with it, the shots im taking now haven't improved markedly from what I've shown already in this thread. Parkers reef had a good video on fish photography that I followed initially that made it easy to pick up to the point of those initial photos. Still haven't pulled the trigger on a proper macro lens to shoot coral but im sure I will eventually. I'm happy with the camera I don't know that I would be if I hadn't picked up lightroom as well it's definitely an integral part in putting the polish on the images for me at least.