Longevity and F Mount Questions
I am a PhD student with the budget of... Not much. I had a D3200 for the past year and took it to Kenya for field work, shooting a lot of wildlife. The camera got me hooked, but the Nikkor 18-55 left me lacking in reach.
For some reason, I was on Marketplace and got a D7000 with a AF Nikkor 300mm 1:4 ED for 300$. I already had a 50mm f/1.8D that the D7000 can now autofocus, and may get another 50mm AF/S from the seller.
I started getting even more excited by this camera and wanted to upgrade to the length I could in this system, arriving on the conclusion that it is a D850. For wildlife photography, general purpose, it seemed to make sense to have an amazing resolution, great features for wildlife. However, it's aging out. The old lenses are not going to work on Z mount moving forward...
For my personal and scientific work, I want to shoot wildlife photography and all around portrait, landscape, artistic photography at the highest technical level. Where skill is the limit not any resolution or quality of camera. But I also want video capacities and the ability to take my camera with me on a thru hike, where weight and size are a much bigger concern.
I'm confused by people who hate mirrorless, and people who hate DSLR now that mirrorless is the craze. Is a one tool for all jobs approach possible in 2026? Or is my use case, and budget, naturally tending toward investing in legacy glass and keeping the 300 and 50mm I already have and working towards a D850 body? I've heard the 850 is also loud, and comparatively heavier than mirrorless. But
It seems a tradeoff of buy now cry now for a mirrorless and good 24-120mm lens , and trying to sell my 3200, 7000, and F Mount lenaes... or buy the 850, and go into more used glass to have a really capable wildlife setup. It seems like no inherently right choice, but one will cost me in the long run if I end up wanting a mirrorless for video anyway and have incompatible systems... I need guidance.