Now that I'm a complete Fuji fanboy, I have accumulated a number of camera bodies and lenses, mainly bought second-hand. Given their stellar quality, it's surprising how quickly the older model Fuji bodies become undervalued in the second-hand market. Not the lenses, though, unfortunately.
I think my favourite purchase has been a very cheap, barely-used silver-and-black X-M1, which I couple exclusively with the "pancake" 27mm f/2.8 lens. Together, they are negligibly light, and the combination looks like a cheapo tourist film camera of yesteryear, which is unobtrusive and goes nicely with the rest of my customary outfit (no more "Say, why is that tramp carrying a hugely expensive camera?"). There is no viewfinder on it, true, but there is a tilting LCD, and the exact same 16 megapixel X-Trans APS-C sensor as used in its flashier siblings. Even better, it uses the exact same batteries as the X-E1.
If I'm out for a walk and don't feel like carrying the X-E1 around, I find I'm favouring the X-M1 over the X-100. I've recently done something rather painful to my lower back (probably from lugging crates of stuff to Oxfam -- "no good deed will go unpunished") so lightness was a factor when I hobbled over Twyford Down yesterday. We spotted some roe deer crossing a field, and one posed obligingly on the horizon. Obviously, the 27mm lens's angle of view is not ideal for distant wildlife (equivalent to a 40mm lens in 35mm lens terms) but its resolution is such that at a 100% crop you can make it out quite nicely. And I love the front-to-back depth of field at f/5.6.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your bad back, but you reminded me that on BBC R4's Quote Unquote of 7 Sept, Graham Linehan (Father Ted, The IT Crowd) -- when asked for favourite quotes about comedy -- cites a bootleg cassette of a speech by Peter Mehlman, one of the Seinfeld writers, which gives "No good deed should go unpunished" as one of the principles informing the scripts. Also: "While flawed, but nice neurotics make decent sitcom characters, self-absorbed, vindictive psychotics make great sitcom characters".
Never have seen any Seinfeld, must look it out, as it's clearly a touchstone of comedy writing.
ReplyDeleteMe neither, but according to Wikipedia it has won a string of awards including TV Guide's "greatest TV show of all time" (twice) and inspired an anthology of scholarly essays on philosophy in Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing as well as becoming the first television series since Monty Python's Flying Circus to be widely described as "postmodern" (whatever that means), so I guess it could well be worth checking out.
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