- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
Thank you once again for your kind words, Miguel! Much appreciated.This is simply, for me, a jaw-droppingly beautiful photograph.
I know you have mentioned, in articulate fashion, some of the issues you've been having with your GX9 camera, Matt - but... damn! Any camera (and lets not forget the lens, too!) which can allow a photographer to produce images like this... is a worthy one.
As I've said before, yes, IQ is fine. However, fiddliness abounds in use. Case in point (that actually cost me yesterday's RAW files because I was, well, fiddling with the camera ... ):
Yesterday, I used the GX9 and the Z 50. Background information: I usually do a round of backup in the evening - *after* processing the images, which I often do on a different machine. I don't catalogue my images (no Lightroom or similar), I just save them. After backing up the files, I format the SD card.
Yesterday, I had finished that procedure for the Z 50 - which went: turn on, press "Menu", "Format card" (or whatever that would read in English) is already highlighted, click, confirm, done. This made me crack - I picked up the (not yet backed-up!) GX9 and did, well, the "same": turn on, be greated with the infamous focal length question, half-press shutter to say "no", press "Menu", land in "C" choice menu, click left, click down, click down, click down, click down, click right, click up, click "Format card" (see above), confirm - then swear, swear, swear ... Yes, pilot error, caused by weariness. However, you can count the actions: 4 with the Z 50, 12 with the GX9. Yes, you can shorten that procedure slightly by using the touch screen, but I prefer handling the GX9 with both hands because it's quite slippery and has already slipped out of my grip once. Anyhow, this is just an eminent example of what Hugh Brownstone ("Three Blind Men and an Elephant") calls "futzing" - a term hugely offensive in (Swiss) German, but completely accurate in Jiddish.
Add the "wandering" EVF (it won't stay put) with its less-than-competitive optics and panel, and you have a camera that delivers the goods *only* after causing frustrations in the process, at least with manual lenses. I've more or less learned to just get on with it, but the nuisances stay just that. That said, the camera has its advantages - the mechanical shutter is super-quiet, I.B.I.S. is effective, the on-off switch is in a very nice place, and it's really quick to deploy and fast when used with native AF lenses ... It's kind of a conundrum. My only real "problem" is that I have used lots of cameras that *haven't* presented me with that number of minor, but constant annoyances ...
M.