Recent content by Ming P

It speaks well to the original G9 that the biggest competitor to the G9 II is a used G9, available nowadays for ~$700 at reputable resellers, and perhaps it will go even lower once the G9 II enters general circulation.

My daily driver is a Panasonic G9. I tried the Olympus OM-1 in a store. The dials indeed felt very stiff. Anecdotal, sample size of 1, and all that. I would guess that it's related to the increased weather sealing requirements.

The Sigma 56/1.4 is both an excellent performer and an excellent value. I use it on Micro Four-Thirds. The only caveat is that it, like most such wide-aperture lenses, has significant longitudinal chromatic aberration (out-of-focus color fringing in high-contrast scenes), which goes away when...

More A7C test drive.

The 40/2.5 went back to the rental company today. It was all-around nice, but being a recent 1st-party release, the price is still high. I have a trip coming up. I'd rather take my M4/3 kit, because I know the controls better. I'll look into what to buy for Sony E at a later time. For now, I...

Taking the Sony A7C for a test drive.

Thanks again, everyone. Here's an update for you. I received the A7C earlier in the week, and briefly rented a Sony 40/2.5 for the holiday weekend. It's been great so far. This combination balances excellently. The viewfinder is admittedly small, dim, and clunky, but still usable. The flippy...

Mostly, I only need f/5.6, after accounting for equivalence. For a narrow subset of cases, I need the speed somewhere, though. Maybe I get the slow superzoom and fast primes. That's totally a valid option. For an ultrawide option, an ultrawide prime could fit well. Those don't seem common, for...

Thank you everyone for the input so far. For whatever it's worth, I don't mind highly unbalanced lenses on rangefinder style bodies. For example, I rented the Olympus 12-100/4 before. At 561 grams, it was noticeably heavy but still workable. I'm not sure where the upper limit is for me. I...

I got a good deal on a used Sony A7C, and it is arriving at the end of the week. I haven't bought any lenses yet. I'm thinking to sell off some of my less frequently used Micro Four-Thirds gear to fund one, maybe two, lenses for Sony FE. Micro Four-Thirds is still going to remain my primary...

One additional option you could consider is the Fujifilm 18-55mm f/2.8-4, one of the older premium kit lens options, which is somewhere in the middle in terms of price. Due to such a large number of them entering circulation with kits, there's a surplus of them on the used market, and they go...

Cross-posting this from the Textures, Lines, and Angles thread. I've never been particularly excited about this lens. I keep telling myself that I need to take it out more, and every time I do, I feel pretty neutral about it.

Giant chopsticks! Just kidding! This is actually an abstract sculpture called Two Red Lines, by George Rickey. Apparently, it's been around for decades, and keeps getting exhibited in different places. In this particular case, this was beside the High Line in New York City, in a place that gets...

I like how this photo came out. This was last winter, in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. In actuality, this is a service and storage building used by park employees. I liked the composition, though, and the muted earth tone foreground against the bright sky background makes it look like...

I'm pretty invested in M43, and the 45/1.2 is my favorite lens lately, but the recent body releases do not inspire confidence in me. The GH6 is very video focused, and I'm not the target audience. The OM-1 competes in the same price bracket as the Sony A7 IV and friends. And now the OM-5 feels...