Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
Please forgive this strictly personal rumination, which I realize is ALL this is after reading it over...
Since about March or April, I've been using the RX1 and Nikon A as my primary every day shooters - they're in a focal range I basically live in and am very comfortable with. But I've also been maintaining a slimmed down m43 system, primarily for portrait length and longer lenses, and a slimmed down Fuji system, for the wider angle lenses. And as much as I liked all of this gear, I started to feel like it was just purely stupid to have TWO systems to cover two types of shooting that, together, don't account for more than about 10-20% of my overall shooting. So over the past couple of weeks I've gone through a period of trying stuff and deciding which way to go.
I thought about going all in with Fuji which would have meant adding either a Zeiss Touit 12mm or the coming Fuji 10-24 wide angle, both of which are pretty large and almost certainly quite expensive. AND I'd have to figure out a telephoto setup. The 55-200 is a very nice lens, but slower than I'd want for low light portraits and there's really nothing north of about 85-90mm in a portrait lens, either today or anywhere on Fuji's roadmap. The 60mm is a really nice lens but the AF is very slow. And the coming 56 f1.2 will no doubt be an amazing lens, but 85-90mm effective is not a portrait range I'm happy with. If they had a fast 85-100mm lens, I might have gone with Fuji and hope that they come close to m43 for auto focus performance in the next year or two. I don't care much about AF speed for most focal lengths, but for longer lenses I still do and Fuji just doesn't touch m43 for AF in any number of ways that matter with longer lenses.
On the m43 side, I already have an Olympus 75mm f1.8, a Panasonic 35-100 f2.8, and an Olympus 75-300 for really really long reach. So I'm set on the tele end. And on the wide angle side, I have a 9-18. I'd like to go to a 7-14, which may have required getting a Pany body instead of my Olympus OMD (in the process of irrationally upgrading from EM5 to EM1) due to the purple flair issues with that lens and Oly bodies. The GX7 is a great camera but I don't like it as much with the long lenses as the Olys. The 7-14 on an Oly body is something I might be able to live with, or maybe not. BUT, it appears that Olympus now has a pro level UWA zoom on their roadmap for 2014 that's rumored to be a weather-proof 7-14 f2.8, which would be simply wonderful. It won't be small or inexpensive, but it should be incredible and should more than meet my long term UWA wants and needs. In the meantime, I have the 9-18 which is a pretty nice little lens in it's own right - just not quite as much range as I'd like on the wide end. And if the Oly 7-14 turns out to be a pipe dream, I'll likely just get a Pany 7-14 and, if necessary, a cheap G5 body or something to use it with in another year or so...
So after trying stuff and changing my mind a couple of times, I've sold my Fuji gear, am slightly upgrading my m43 kit, and feel really nice being down to three cameras! Two fixed lens, one "system" body. Once the new camera smell of the EM1 wears off, I probably won't shoot with the EM1 a whole lot (although I'll use it a TON for family stuff over the holidays), but I can see a travel bag with the RX1, Nikon A, EM1 with the UWA mounted (9-18 for the next year or so) and the Pany 35-100 in the bag. And of course I'll still probably just go out with the RX1 and/or the Nikon A a lot of the time. But I like the range of options I have covered with a pretty small kit. I loved my Fuji gear but there was just less and less reason to keep it. Hopefully I won't miss it too much. But paring down feels pretty liberating.
-Ray
Since about March or April, I've been using the RX1 and Nikon A as my primary every day shooters - they're in a focal range I basically live in and am very comfortable with. But I've also been maintaining a slimmed down m43 system, primarily for portrait length and longer lenses, and a slimmed down Fuji system, for the wider angle lenses. And as much as I liked all of this gear, I started to feel like it was just purely stupid to have TWO systems to cover two types of shooting that, together, don't account for more than about 10-20% of my overall shooting. So over the past couple of weeks I've gone through a period of trying stuff and deciding which way to go.
I thought about going all in with Fuji which would have meant adding either a Zeiss Touit 12mm or the coming Fuji 10-24 wide angle, both of which are pretty large and almost certainly quite expensive. AND I'd have to figure out a telephoto setup. The 55-200 is a very nice lens, but slower than I'd want for low light portraits and there's really nothing north of about 85-90mm in a portrait lens, either today or anywhere on Fuji's roadmap. The 60mm is a really nice lens but the AF is very slow. And the coming 56 f1.2 will no doubt be an amazing lens, but 85-90mm effective is not a portrait range I'm happy with. If they had a fast 85-100mm lens, I might have gone with Fuji and hope that they come close to m43 for auto focus performance in the next year or two. I don't care much about AF speed for most focal lengths, but for longer lenses I still do and Fuji just doesn't touch m43 for AF in any number of ways that matter with longer lenses.
On the m43 side, I already have an Olympus 75mm f1.8, a Panasonic 35-100 f2.8, and an Olympus 75-300 for really really long reach. So I'm set on the tele end. And on the wide angle side, I have a 9-18. I'd like to go to a 7-14, which may have required getting a Pany body instead of my Olympus OMD (in the process of irrationally upgrading from EM5 to EM1) due to the purple flair issues with that lens and Oly bodies. The GX7 is a great camera but I don't like it as much with the long lenses as the Olys. The 7-14 on an Oly body is something I might be able to live with, or maybe not. BUT, it appears that Olympus now has a pro level UWA zoom on their roadmap for 2014 that's rumored to be a weather-proof 7-14 f2.8, which would be simply wonderful. It won't be small or inexpensive, but it should be incredible and should more than meet my long term UWA wants and needs. In the meantime, I have the 9-18 which is a pretty nice little lens in it's own right - just not quite as much range as I'd like on the wide end. And if the Oly 7-14 turns out to be a pipe dream, I'll likely just get a Pany 7-14 and, if necessary, a cheap G5 body or something to use it with in another year or so...
So after trying stuff and changing my mind a couple of times, I've sold my Fuji gear, am slightly upgrading my m43 kit, and feel really nice being down to three cameras! Two fixed lens, one "system" body. Once the new camera smell of the EM1 wears off, I probably won't shoot with the EM1 a whole lot (although I'll use it a TON for family stuff over the holidays), but I can see a travel bag with the RX1, Nikon A, EM1 with the UWA mounted (9-18 for the next year or so) and the Pany 35-100 in the bag. And of course I'll still probably just go out with the RX1 and/or the Nikon A a lot of the time. But I like the range of options I have covered with a pretty small kit. I loved my Fuji gear but there was just less and less reason to keep it. Hopefully I won't miss it too much. But paring down feels pretty liberating.
-Ray