Just Getting Along

 
D90, 16-85VR

The D90 was a camera I just never got along with. on paper, it was exactly what I wanted from Nikon when the D300 came out, and I eventually owned one when I went back to DSLR's in 2016. I'm not sure if I was spoiled by the D300 or if it was something else, but I just never clicked with the D90 and that put me off shooting with it. Unless I was really feeling the shooting bug it stayed home, a situation that changed almost immediately when I got the D300 to replace it. These cameras never last long, but the issue may occur for a couple reasons. Either I don't get along with the camera, or I get annoyed with the post-processing workflow or both. The A7II slowly slid into this category because I never could get the colour I wanted from it in post, the X-E1 got there quickly largely due to the X-Trans post issues that were a major barrier back in 2014 and the D600 got there due to my annoyance with the body's handling and reliability.

A camera I click with will make me want to take it out and shoot with it. The D300's definitely been one, and that's one reason why I expect my current D300 will stick around until it eventually expires. Even with just the 16-85VR, it's just a delight to shoot, even if it really is too big & heavy for my uses these days. Other cameras that have been that for me were the GX7, NEX-7, the A700 and the D800.

Sometimes I end up with a camera that I just don't much like for one reason or another, but it's also not getting in my way. They don't make me want to shoot them, but they also don't make me not want to shoot them. The E-M5 and E-M1 both fell into this category for me (as have most of my m43 stuff), and the A7II mostly was as well.

The X-T1, with just shy of 500 shots in the first week of ownership, seems to be falling into the category of 'makes me want to shoot it'. It's also very much a camera that just gets out of my way, largely because it handles like the FE/FM/FA bodies that I've spent so much time shooting over the years, and where it doesn't, the changes make sense. It's fitting very well, although I won't be sure until I'm out of the New Toy zone, which I expect will be in the next couple weeks, and hopefully through the Equivocation zone as well (My 3 zones of camera ownership are defined in the post 1101 Shots In). At the rate I'm shooting I should be well into the Comfort Zone by mid-March.