Seeing Mark's post about getting his photographic act together has spurred me on to some planning of my own.
These past 10 years or so, I've been so busy with work that I simply haven't had much time to enjoy still photography like I used to. Anyone running their own business will understand this - time is overwhelmingly devoured by work. However as I approach a self-imposed date for retirement of 2018, I want to get my photographic arse in gear and try and re-establish my enthusiasm. I recently eBayed my X-E1 and some other stuff and managed to accumulate enough funding for some new gear. For various reasons I'm taking the plunge and have ordered an Olympus Pen F - my first foray into the Four Thirds market. Some would say it is photographically a dead end, but to be honest the picture quality is good enough for me, and the appeal of more compact lenses and cameras is strong. My ideal would be a couple of small bodies with a prime on each: a wide angle and either a medium wide or a medium telephoto depending. Not considering any zooms. I quite liked the Fuji X-E1 and no doubt the X-E2 is better, and I was seriously considering the X100T but the ability to change lenses is high on the list for me - and manual lenses at that. Voigtlander make some superb glass. I already have the 15/4.5 and while not fast, it's small size will work well on MFT and give me an effective 30mm street lens. At some point I will get the Oly 12/2 for wide and then I want a fast portrait lens. The Voigtlander 42.5mm/.95 would be ideal but very pricey, hence I wondered about the Pentax FA43/1.9 as that would work well. Will see what funds allow in time. Meanwhile I have a nice example of a K24/2.8 to play with on the Pen also. I've never been a huge fan of the '50mm experience' but I plan to try and use it a lot to see if I can enjoy it. I have to say that the Pen F is sex on the end of a lens, and no doubt the looks played a part in my decision, but apparently the original X100 had thousands of pre-orders based on nothing but the looks. The 5-axis in cam stabilisation would be nice. Not bothered about things like weather-sealing as I don't enjoy photographing in the rain. If I do, cameras keep dry with me anyway. I'm not a fan of delving into menus to change settings, so the more knobs I have to play with, the better. Love the articulating rear LCD and ability to close it face-inwards to protect the screen - something I cherished about the Epson R-D1 rangefinder camera. It discourages chimping - something I want to get away from. So there you have it. New direction here and we'll see what it brings. Cheers all :-) -- Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ Broadcast, Corporate, || (O) | Web Video Production ---------- <www.seeingeye.tv> _____________________________ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
