Green Bee/Yellow Flower

E-M1, Nikkor 50mm f2 K non-AI

Sunflowers and Bees are neverending fun to shoot. But they need a solid close focusing lens to do so. For now I've been using an old Nikkor 50/2 from the mid-70's as one of my close-up options and the G3's kit 14-42 OIS as my other one. The 50's a nice little lens and I do enjoy shooting with it, while the 14-42 is boringly competent. Neither come close to ideal for this sort of work for me.

So I've gone and picked up one of the minor gems of the m43 system, Sigma's cheap and cheerful 60mm f2.8. This is a small lens, smaller than the 50/2 even before the adapter's mounted, dirt cheap and stunningly sharp. If you can live with its limitations, primarily limited close focus (0.5m, 1:7 magnification) and f2.8 max aperture, it's a real gem. This also gives me a rather competent 2 lens kit, with the 17/1.8 and this 60. All I really need would be a 10-12mm at the wide end. If only Sigma or Samyang made a compact 10/2.8 for mirrorless. Sadly Sigma doesn't make anything along those lines and Samyang's 10/2.8 is an SLR lens and rather huge. The best answer right now seems to be the Oly 9-18 zoom. Only time will tell if anything interesting will come along in this space, and if nothing does I can always get one of the two 12/2's available.

And What About Film?

Nikon FM, 50mm f2 K, Ilford HP5+

Now that I've hopefully settled on a Digital system it's time to consider what I'm going to do about my film shooting. Which brings the following resolutions & considerations.

1. I'm not giving up film. I enjoy shooting it too much
2. I'm sticking with 35mm for now. As much as I enjoy Medium Format, I'm not willing to haul the gear right now.
3. I'm not going to flail around systems. I'll stick to my comfortable choices, IE Contax and/or Nikon
4. I really do need a solid scanning solution.

The first is a simple acceptance of my choices, I've always ended up grabbing a cheap film camera and enjoying it. Not going to give that up anytime soon. Frankly I still prefer shooting with a 35mm manual, mechanical camera over everything else.

The second is simple reality. I like MF. Actually I love MF. But I'm not willing to invest in it today. Maybe if I ever get back to shooting 100+ rolls a year I'll take another look, but not for now.

The third is more of a hope. I've owned pretty much every common system except Leica R, Minolta SR and Canon FD. I keep coming back to Contax and Nikon. Frankly I've got a mild preference for Contax, but have found Nikon more reliable and economic. I'm shooting Nikon now, but if I'm only going to have a handful of film kit I will probably switch to Contax at some point.

The fourth is the real holdup to shooting more film. Flatbeds don't deliver enough quality and simply replacing my Minolta SDIV will just result in more issues. I'll either need to buy a new scanner or save up and acquire a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED, the latter being the dream. But I'm not looking at either option until I break 52 rolls in a year. No point in spending money for something I'm not committed to.

Micro 4/3rds Return - Two Months On

E-M1, m.Zuiko 17/1.8

It's now been a little more than 2 months since my return to shooting Micro 4/3rds kit. The return has been a success, the E-M1 has a little over 500 shots in a month of ownership, while the G3 has seen around 300 in two months (2/3rds of that prior to me picking up the E-M1), contrast that to 425-ish shots for the X-A1 in 5 months.

The G3's a fun little camera. A little basic for my tastes, it was the consumer-end of Panasonic's experimentation with the G series UI, but enough for general use. The EVF is decidedly old-fashioned, being the same unit as the G1, and overall IQ is good until you push the DR or ISO anywhere. Fun little camera though and competent as the backup body it was purchased as. No doubt it will eventually be replaced by an Olympus body so I can share batteries and other accessories.

The E-M1 is just awesome. The control layout is excellent, the only issue is a possible excess of physical controls. Responsiveness is in DSLR territory, AF is snappy, the viewfinder is great and the handling is dead-on. Only gripes I have so far is that the Focus Peaking implementation is still mediocre and I'd really like to be able to disable direct access to some functions (HDR bursts for example) so I didn't accidentally trigger them. The control dials are a little sensitive as well and very easy to accidentally change. This is a camera that rewards paying attention to exactly what it's doing. Not a bad thing, but it leaves the body a little less transparent in use than I'd prefer. That said, it's miles ahead of the E-M5, where I had to think about everything because of poorly positioned controls, now it's just 'be careful with the direct access settings', shooting controls are almost completely transparent and it's just a matter of time before that becomes completely transparent.

And Back I Go to Micro 4/3rds

Panasonic DMC-G3, m.Zuiko 17/1.8

So another system switch has occured for me. Why? Value Proposition again.

I've been running up against the limitations of a viewfinderless camera again. I like the idea and the handling, but just can't wrap myself around using one steadily. I've now owned 5 cameras of this type over the years, the NEX-5N, NEX-5R, E-PM1 and 2 X-A1's. I like them in the bag, they're small, compact, convenient and have generally good IQ. I like the results. I just don't find them especially nice to shoot with, and utterly impractical to shoot longer lenses with (a normal is pretty much the limit).

I'd been looking at adding a second body to my kit, one with an EVF. Specifically I was looking at an X-E2 or an X-T10, which both give similar spec for similar cost (the X-T10 is essentially a SLR-style X-E2 with a flip-up LCD). I've also been looking at lens options to round out my system. Then the GX8 got announced, which had me take another look at m43.

The conclusion? m43 IQ from the 16MP sensors is good enough for me. m43 eliminates the potential for RAW conversion issues from X-Trans. m43 glass is every bit as good as Fuji's, and generally around 20-30% cheaper, albeit at an aperture cost as I'm looking at f1.8 lenses instead of f1.4. m43 glass is a LOT smaller. m43 has a solid selection of Macro lenses (3, all solid offerings vs 1 with problematic handling) And m43 offers IBIS. Fuji offers aperture rings on most primes (only a couple Panasonic lenses have this) and a better selection of wide primes.

So the X-A1 is out, replaced by a G3 with kit 14-42 and the m.Zuiko 17/1.8 for now, an E-M1 will follow from the budget originally assigned to the X-T10 and I expect to add a few lenses as needed. And as a bonus, my SO also shoots m43 (she's happy with my old G1) so we can now share glass.

Still Kicking, Still Shooting

Nikon FM, Nikkor 50mm f2 K, Ilford HP5+

It's been a busy month or two for me since my last post. No gear changes (for once), but slow and steady shooting and mostly with the F3. The one downside to switching my commute to driving is it makes just wandering about after work rather more difficult. But I've got an upcoming vacation in 2 weeks that will take me out to southern BC, a photographic wonderland. Looking forward to coming back with some good stuff from the Southern Okanagan.

A Few Notes of No Particular Relevance

Nikon FM, 50/1.2 AI-S, Fujifilm Neopan 100SS

Really shouldn't have sold that lens. Right call at the time, but 6 months later I'd rather have the lens than the body I got for it (which I sold off to put together the down payment for my new car).

Yes Virginia, Rodinal Does Expire. I recently fell victim to what I'd thought was fixer expiry, supported by the fact that the remainder of my fixer concentrate was completely separated into some liquid and a lot of white goo. Turns out my bottle of Rodinal was shuffling off its mortal coil. Note it may have a shelf life measured in decades when sealed, but unsealed it looks more like 5 years. Still pretty damned good. Losses were two rolls of HP5+, completely ruined and 3 rolls of Neopan 100SS, just very thin. Thankfully I'd used stand development for the Neopan, which saved those rolls.

I need a better scanning solution. After years using dedicated 35mm scanners, a flatbed, even with ANR inserts, just does not stack up. Scans are barely acceptable for web use, totally not up to printing. Not going to do anything yet, we'll see how much use the F3 gets in the next couple of months and make the call then. I'm not going to spend the price of a good dedicated scanner unless I'll get some real use out of it. I did well with the Minolta's (both of which lasted 650+ rolls, closer to 1k for the SDIV) but I'd be hesitant to buy another due to age and the alternate option, a used Coolscan IV, V, 4000 or 5000ED ranges from expensive (IV/V) to ridiculous (5000 ED) although I do drool over the full-roll fitting which would massively reduce scanning annoyance.

Back after a Break

Olympus E-M5, DG Summilux 25/1.4

It's been a couple months since I've posted and nearly no shooting has occurred. That's mostly because of the weather, late winter/early spring is dead zone for me from a photographic standpoint, being especially dreary & grey here in Toronto, not exactly a photographic wonderland. The end result is almost no shooting from me. November is usually the same for the same reasons.

Naturally, I've also had another gear shuffle. I've essentially decided that for now APS-C is where I'll be for Digital work. I'd sold the D700 and D200, along with the FE (just never got along with FE's) and some minor incidentals and snagged another X-A1 kit and the XF 18/2 R, probably my favourite lens from the last go at Fuji. I'd kept the D3200, 35/1.8DX and 50/1.8G with the view of using the X-A1 for light carry and getting a D7x00 body for more serious shooting, but a non-camera expense led to selling off the Nikon stuff leaving me with just the X-A1, my two X mount lenses (the 18/2 and the kit 16-50 OIS) and some Nikon manual focus lenses (well, I also have access to a trio of Nikon AF lenses that don't belong to me, including the 16-85VR I've always been fond of). Since this occurred in late February/early March not much changed, I'm still on the fence about a higher-end digital kit and the X-A1 handles basic needs just fine.

I'd also been pondering film again. I just rather like shooting film cameras, even if the post process is a pain. Because of this, I recently decided I was going to pick up another manual film body, likely an FM2, and a couple primes to round out my system and shoot with that for a bit. What ended up happening instead is I tripped over a superb deal on an F3 and a 35/2 AI and went that way instead. I've owned the F3 before and do like them aside from the terrible metering display. I expect the F3, 35 and 100/2.8 Series E will become my go-to shooting kit for a while.

Essentially I've gone with the Fuck It All option I've described previously, only choosing the F3 over the FM2n. This isn't because there was anything wrong with the D700, just because I don't see myself spending the cash necessary to build the lens kit which a modern FX body needs to make it worth owning over a DX/APS-C setup.