All images - Leica X Vario 18-46mm and Fuji X-E1 18-55mm
Posting has been a bit haphazard recently as a result of the fact that I'm very busy taking advantage of the best summer in years. I'm shooting virtually every day in a variety of locations and amassing a vast number of unedited images that will take well into next year to finish off. Still better to have them than not.
I've been mostly using the Leica X Vario and Fuji X-E1 fitted with 18-55mm for weeks now. Simple, light, effective. Not that I have that much choice anymore. Lots of lenses, one Nikon 1 V1, and the two Nikon DSLR's D7100 and D800E have already been sold. Everything else apart from the two cameras and the one interchangeable lens mentioned above is also up for sale. I mentioned in a previous post about mundane household matters, such as paying off our mortgage, which has left me without a lot of spare cash to indulge my camera buying / owning habit. So no great epiphany, just finance.
I haven't got anything against what I've sold / am selling, in fact I've liked virtually every camera I've ever owned, and I've certainly appreciated the quality of the Nikon DSLR's and loved using the Nikon 1 system. However the simplicity and quality and ease of use of the Leica and the Fuji is becoming less easy to resist. As much as 90% of what I've always shot is via the focal lengths in a 'standard zoom' its what I'm used to and comfortable with. I like wide-angles and telephotos, but its been interesting to see how I don't really miss them. If I take them out with me, then I will use them, but if I don't then I'm perfectly happy with the 28-70mm and 28-82mm 35mm approximations I'm currently using. (However see below. *)
Will it stay like this? Well no, I have no plans to stick with just this outfit. However, it struck me as a good idea to go back to the simplest, smallest outfit I would need to work, use that for a while and see what I would wish to add, if anything.
Lots of things do look interesting, I admit. The Olympus E-M1 for example. *Plus after I posted about using the Sigma 12-24 on my Fuji the other day, a photographer friend emailed me, urging me not to continually write off the Zeiss 12mm Touit. Like me she was underwhelmed by the internet examples available, but after borrowing one and being blown away by the results, she had bought one. To convince me to think again (Not sure what a good idea this was since the lens costs close to £1000!) she sent me some raw samples and unfortunately I was indeed VERY impressed. Still haven't made up my mind but I'm very tempted.
So thats the current situation, gear being 'rationalised', lots of driving, walking and the occasional burst of cycling (plus camera of course) and I'm certainly getting a suntan. If the weather continues then this recent habit of missing a few days here and there posting may well continue. As a matter of principle I do like to post every day, but that just hasn't been possible of late, and unlike some others, writing a blog and doing all the lens 'reviews' is very much secondary to earning a living in my case, and pretty much a hobby.
I must apologise if I've failed to do some of the comparisons I promised because I don't have the camera or lens any more and there were certainly a few I was planning. However sorting out our long term finances and assuring that myself and my wife Ann have a roof over our heads for the future takes priority. Since its quite a large roof, I have decided to return to 'planet sensible' for a while and put the search for 'my precious' in photographic gear terms on hold for a while.
So thanks for bearing with me and if the UK weather returns to its customary state, expect more posts. However the sun is out again today, so its going to be throw some rice and veg. in the wok and get out out the door again. Since as I ended my favourite post of recent times, I really do have the best job in the world and its time to go back to work.