USB Chargers - Where Are They

 
X-T1, XC 16-50 OIS II


There's one product I cannot figure out why camera makers aren't making.

Today all the devices I want to use in the field are now coming with USB-C. My laptop uses it for power/connectivity, my phone does, new tablets do (I'm still on older units), even the cameras themselves are now starting to show up with USB-C for connectivity and charging.

So why is the last thing in the bag without it the camera's battery charger?

Imagine if the camera came with a charger, USB-C cable and USB charge adapter, instead of charger, charger cable, USB cable, etc.

That way you could charge your batteries off a Power Bank while working with the camera unencumbered, and share 1-2 chargers between all your devices in the field. Additionally if properly implemented you could power your camera off that same USB-C cable and charge adapter/Power Bank.

Much better eh?

There's some cheap 3rd party USB chargers for most battery types, but they're slow and using old USB 2.0 with its low wattage output. Still better than nothing, but the camera makers have a chance to make a real difference in an area that's mostly ignored.

July Update

 
X-T1, Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 AI


I've been on an unexpected 2 month break from shooting, which finally ended this weekend. Buried in work, RC flying season arrived and ate up my limited free time and a humid June/July were all factors.

The X-T1 broke 2000 shots this weekend, putting it well up on the A7II, and I'm still really enjoying it as an all-round camera. I acquired an MHG-XT Large handgrip or it which takes the handling from good to great (and is also an Arca-Swiss rail, for tripod mounting). I'd also come into an XF 18/2, but sold it on because it's just too close to the 23/2 and the 23/2's better AF and close focus wins. My everyday kit is for now the 23/2 and the Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5, which works pretty well all told. I do need a wide in the 12/14/16mm range to fill things out though.

I'm planning on making a more significant effort to get out and shooting through July & August. I need the shutter therapy and the walking.

Thoughts on the X-H1

 
X-T1, Nikkor 50-135/3.5 AI-S


There's been a lot of discussion over at Fred Miranda on the X-H1, especially with regards to its apparent recent discontinuation so shortly after it was released a little over a year ago.

The X-H1 sits uneasily at the top of the X Series line. It really doesn't fit either silo that the X series is split into, not the classic SLR style of the various X-T bodies or the RF-ish style of the other X bodies. That does limit its appeal to Fuji shooters, who in many cases were largely attracted by the classic UI and non-DSLR ergonomics of the lineup.

That said, it does bring a number of things to the lineup, the larger build allows better handling with the big Red Badge series zooms, it offers IBIS, heftier build and a better EVF and more powerful processor than the other 3rd gen bodies.

The caveat is that in being released only about 6 months before the X-T3 brought the 4th generation of the platform it really only had a short run before it was exceeded in terms of performance. Combine that with a somewhat high number of bugs on release and it's been a bit of a lackluster release that is to some extent undeserved.

I do think Fuji needs an X-H2, and to bring it out sooner rather than later. IMHO they need to give it clear performance advantages over the X-T3 as well. Keep the IBIS, give it a deeper buffer (100 RAW @20fps minimum), try and improve the readout speed and either add a second processor or clock the current one faster so that AF tracking can see an increase in performance (some of these will also benefit video, especially any improvements in readout speed).

As to me, I've been thinking where my kit will eventually evolve. I'd been thinking of the X-T1 as the high end of my usual high/low body mix, but it really does well with the uses that traditionally were the low side of my high/low mix. The X-H1's better large lens handling, overall performance improvement over a 2nd gen body like the X-t1 and IBIS to me make me think that it could readily be paired with the X-T1 as the high end of an X-H1/X-T1 mix, and also replace the D300 permanently. Not anything I'd buy soon, but maybe in the fall...

Rules of Acquisition

X-T1, XC 16-50 OIS II

With a couple months and ~1700 images on the X-T1, I've settled into a decent working system. Right now I have 2 native lenses, the XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 OIS II kit zoom and the 23/2 WR 'Fujinon' weather-sealed wide/normal prime, I also have the correct adapters to use all but one of the lenses I have lying around. I usually have at least 1 adapted lens with me as well as the native lenses.

In terms of what I have lying around, right now that covers 3 mounts. Specifically Nikon F, where I have a 28/3.5, 50/1.8D, 55/3.5 Micro, 50-135/3.5, 200/4 and 300/4.5, plus access to a 16-85 f3.5-5.6 VR. I also have my Nikkor 5cm f1.4 in LTM mount (with 50/75 M adapter) and an SMC Takumar 35/3.5 in M42 mount. The SMC Tak is the only lens I cannot use today on my X-T1. Thankfully it's probably the least interesting of my lenses for those uses.

In terms of currently used adapted lenses, the 55/3.5 Micro sees the most use, the 200/4 and 50-135 have also seen a fair bit and I'm pretty happy with the results from the 55 and 200. The 50-135 is a mixed bag due to handling and optics.

I'm looking at a kit which will be a mix of native lenses and a selection of adapted primes, mostly in the mild telephoto range where Fuji's selection is most limited, to round out my needs. My mount priorities as such are pretty much X & F mounts, and I want to support Leica M, Contax/Yashica & M42 because I find those interesting.

The adapter front is a little frustrating for a single reason. There are good AF adapters for Canon EF lenses, but not for Nikon F lenses (not even the all-electronic E lenses). There's certain parts of the system that I would like to pad out with less expensive small Nikon SLR lenses (I'd love the Nikkor 10-20VR for example) especially as I still have my D300 and have zero interest in getting rid of it anytime soon.

As to the current state of my adapters. I have F & M adapters today. I need to add a C/Y adapter, as that nets me C/Y and M42 support as I already have an M42 to C/Y adapter. Additionally I'd like to add a Speedbooster type adapter for Nikon F at a minimum, as that really expands what I can realistically do with Nikon kit on Fuji lenses.

Speedboosters, if you have not run across them, are adapters with integrated telecompressors, or focal length reducers. These are basically teleconverters with multipliers below 1.0. The effect is the focal length gets shorter and as a result, the f number gets wider. For a typical Speedbooster with an 0.67 multiplier, your 35/1.4 becomes a 23/1.0 which is a big win. And a 105/2.5 becomes a 70/1.7, filling a gap in the Fuji system for the very popular 105 equivalent. And for the 135/2.8, it can do double duty, functioning as a 200mm-e on the regular adapter and replacing the Fuji 90/2 when on a Speedbooster (as the 90/2 is a 135/3 equivalent in full-frame terms)

So my next steps in the system are really to acquire the 2 adapters I need, the C/Y and the F mount speedbooster. A C/&Y Speedbooster might be fun in the future, but isn't needed now. That's not a large investment thankfully. After that I'll be looking for a couple Nikkor's, specifically the 105/2.5 and 135/2.8 and probably a couple of the cheap chinese X mount primes, the Meike 35/1.7 for sure and something wider than 16mm.

All of that leads into the need to define Rules of Acquisition (lens edition).

They are, as follows:

Only buy X, F, M, C/Y or M42 lenses, in that order of priority
Only spend significant money on X or F lenses unless there is something truly unique, and even then it should be M or C/Y mount
Never sell Adapters.
No EF, no matter how tempting

2 Months and 1600 Images

 
X-T1, Nikkor 50-135/3.5 AI-S


So I'm a couple days short of 2 months into owning the X-T1 and a couple dozen images over 1600 taken with it.

It continues to impress. With the need for gloves gone, most of the caveats about the buttons are gone (although the D-pad remains marginal) and overall the camera continues to work very well for me.

The first teasers of spring have arrived and flowers are starting to come up, which gives me some more reason to get out which was largely missing in March (and I'm mostly recovered from the cold that plagued me for all of March).

X-T1 at 1200 Frames

 
X-T1, XC 16-50 OIS II

So I'm at 6 weeks and 1200 frames with the X-T1. Yes, shooting has taken a nosedive over the last two weeks, largely because the weather was cold and I've been sick. Now we're heading into the March blah's, where the city is grey and bland and uninteresting until the new growth arrives. For this year, I'm going to try and get some street shooting in to carry me over as normally this is a real dead zone for my shooting (as is the late fall/early winter blahs between the leaves coming down and the snow arriving).

I've now shot 50% more work with the X-T1 than with my previous Fuji's. I expect that by mid-April I will be up to the point that the work with the X-T1 exceeds all previous Fuji work.


I  traded a lens and an old Nikon body for another X-E1, which is mostly for backup to the X-T1, but may become a bag camera with one of the neat little cheapo Chinese primes that are available now, I'm thinking the 7artisans 25/1.7 might be neat, and it's all of $80 new. I don't expect to shoot much with the X-E1, it's really just a spare. It did remind me just what a big jump there was in responsiveness between the 1st gen X bodies (X-Pro1, X-E1) and the 2nd gen ones (X-T1, X-T10, X-E2)

I continue to really enjoy shooting with the X-T1. At this point I'm a few weeks away from exceeding how much I shot with the A7II last year. As long as the X-T1 keeps making me want to get out and shoot it will be staying in the bag. Fundamentally I'm just really happy with it.

Also as a result of this I've been doing more street shooting, most of which has been headed to Instagram. My Instagram is now dedicated to shooting & posting on the fly, nothing new gets posted after coming home and being culled (that goes to Flickr).

Looking Back - The NEX-7

 
NEX-7, Micro-Nikkor 85/3.5 VR G DX

The NEX-7 is one of the three mirrorless bodies that I shot a truly significant amount of work with, the other two being the Panasonic G1 and the original Olympus OM-D E-M5.

I found the NEX-7 to be an outstanding street & walkabout camera, but despite its then class-leading resolution, it was a truly poor landscape camera due to the utterly terrible tripod mount and complete lack of any remote release option. It simply wasn't possible to sturdily mount the NEX-7 to a tripod, you had to use a tripod foot on an adapter and/or lens for a solid mount. Ironically that made the NEX-7 the best landscape shooting option for APS-C A mount shooters as it had the best low-ISO IQ of all the APS-C Sony bodies since it did not give up noise/IQ performance for a light-stealing pellical mirror unlike its sibling the A77.

For street shooting the combination of small size, good overall handling and a high quality EVF made it work quite well for street shooting. The only real downside was the relatively large size of the E ZA 24/1.8, which was the go-to street lens for this camera. One overall challenge with E mount was the general lack of mid-speed/mid-size lenses. There eventually was a nice selection of smallish f2.8 lenses from Sony (16/2.8, 20/2.8 pancakes) and Sigma (the 19, 30 and 60 f2.8 trio) but aside from the 35/1.8 OSS, there aren't any really compact APS-C options. That's a significant contrast to m43 and Fuji X mounts, both of which are well supplied with compact f1.7-2 lenses in the mild wide to mild tele range.

As I was an early adopter (I had one of the very first NEX-7's to hit Canada, some 6 months after it was announced) this was even worse, as the earlier NEX bodies hadn't really driven development of lenses. Even with Sony's general ignoring of the APS-C side of things there is a really solid selection of lenses for APS-C E mount users, especially if you are willing to manual focus.

I also briefly picked up a NEX-7 last May, which I returned fairly quickly. While the handling remained good, what was class-leading AF in early 2012 was noticeably slow in 2018, and of course I made the decision to replace the NEX-7 and D800 with a single A7II. That mostly worked, and probably would have worked better if I'd had a single AF lens for the system.

The NEX-7 did have some distinct issues that Sony could have resolved. The biggest was the lack of configurability of the Manual Focus assist. This was an ongoing issue for me, as you could not set the zoom function to button only, it was either button with manual lenses and auto with AF lenses, or off.

Overall, I produced excellent work with this system, but can't really see myself looking at APS-C E mount unless Sony actually puts some effort into it and introduces an SLR-style body and a selection of APS-C oriented primes. Oh, and I'd have to want to give up the X-T1, which seems unlikely right now.