GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Desires Big and Small

On the GX80 ergos, is it the grip or control/layout? I added a fotodiox grip/plate and it feels pretty good. I think I'm going to add a thumb grip if I can figure out which one. I use back button focus so it may block it. 50/50 on that.
It's such a small body that with larger lenses it becomes a hassle. Maybe an extra grip would help. The buttons back are nice but flushed with the body. It currently prevents me from going BBF. Planting a small ball of sugru on the AF-ON would work wonders I believe.
 
I thought they just added sealing and changed the exterior?
No, according to the few online review I found, the optics have been optimised, overall sharpness is better, especially in the corners.

But I found out that prices around here are sky-high. I have a lens I really like in that range and speed (the Sigma 30mm f/1.4); I'll forgo the 25mm f/1.4 II for the time being.

I've said it before, I'm sure, but anyway: The ultimate companion lens for the E-M5 III is the 12-45mm f/4 PRO. Great lens in every respect (maybe except for manual focus, but I don't feel the need for that on Olympus bodies at all frequently; besides, it's still good). The combo outdoes the Canon G1X III I was using as a compact all-weather solution up until now by a comfortable margin. Yes, I can slip the Canon into a pocket, so it's still useful. But now I'd pick the E-M5 III for actually bad-weather shooting (or the Z6 - but that's 60% heavier and doesn't offer the same reach; IQ on the 12-45mm is pretty competitive compared with the Z 24-70mm f/4, but of course, it's not quite as versatile when it comes to subject isolation).

Anyhow, I find it curious that there still aren't more reviews of the 25mm f/1.4 II - probably a testament to the qualities of the original ...

It's such a small body that with larger lenses it becomes a hassle. Maybe an extra grip would help. The buttons back are nice but flushed with the body. It currently prevents me from going BBF. Planting a small ball of sugru on the AF-ON would work wonders I believe.

I have the extra grip Panasonic provides and am in two mind about it. It helps with really big lenses (the 100-300mm II, for instance), but it changes the way you have to hold the camera. It works, but I find it a bit unnerving that it doesn't *feel* a lot more secure ... Maybe a third party, full length grip would work better. I don't know.

M.
 
It's such a small body that with larger lenses it becomes a hassle. Maybe an extra grip would help. The buttons back are nice but flushed with the body. It currently prevents me from going BBF. Planting a small ball of sugru on the AF-ON would work wonders I believe.

I fashioned a small oval of gaffers tape for the button - is easy to find now. Lasted a while so far too.
I've used thumb grips in conjunction with finger grips on the Fuji X-Es and it really feels nice.
I'll likely try and find one that fits.
 
The PL25 has been one of my favorites in the past. It makes a look that I really like. I had planned on getting one but found a Sigma 30 1.4 for $120 on CL. It's bigger and longer(which I actually like) and renders a nice looking image as well.

On the GX80 ergos, is it the grip or control/layout? I added a fotodiox grip/plate and it feels pretty good. I think I'm going to add a thumb grip if I can figure out which one. I use back button focus so it may block it. 50/50 on that.
Most any thumb grip will work on the GX85/80 unless it specifically drops downward toward the end. I had one of the less practical ones, as it wasn't very long, but it was still better than nothing.

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Most any thumb grip will work on the GX85/80 unless it specifically drops downward toward the end. I had one of the less practical ones, as it wasn't very long, but it was still better than nothing.....

I've found I like 1/2 cases on rangefinder style bodies since I use a wrist strap and tend to use a finger tip type grip.

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Getting desires to buy a "nice" camera backbag. Compact so that it could be used in urban environments but perhaps some hiking features also incorporated. Maybe something with the side access so that it's part sling bag, part backbag. How cool is that. Very cool.

My Leica doesn't need a backbag and I don't go hiking so often I could justify another bag, but since I'm ever-fantasizing about the Df, the extra weight proposes questions.

The two 990 € Dfs fortunately sold and in theory I don't have GAS for it right now... yet I have this feeling maybe I should buy it brand new :eek:

'The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. — Oscar Wilde
 
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Getting desires to buy a "nice" camera backbag. Compact so that it could be used in urban environments but perhaps some hiking features also incorporated. Maybe something with the side access so that it's part sling bag, part backbag. How cool is that. Very cool.

My Leica doesn't need a backbag and I don't go hiking so often I could justify another bag, but since I'm ever-fantasizing about the Df, the extra weight proposes questions.

The two 990 € Dfs fortunately sold and in theory I don't have GAS for it right now... yet I have this feeling maybe I should buy it brand new :eek:

'The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. — Oscar Wilde
For urban walks I almost always use the Think Tank Turnstyle 10 V2.0. It's a sling bag and it's an excellent compromise between carrying comfort and ease of access. It can hold the Sony A7Rm4 with a Zeiss Batis 2/40 CF (quite a big lens, lens hood mounted reverse), a Zeiss Loxia 2.4/85 with the long lens hood mounted ready to shoot (not inverted) and a Zeiss Loxia 2.8/21. This is the kit I had with me this afternoon when visiting a war museum with my wife. There's still place for a small lens above or below the 21mm, something like the Loxia 2/35 easily fits. Might be ideal for a Leica with a bunch of small Leica lenses, 4 or 5 lenses should be feasible.

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For outings where I want to take extra stuff like an umbrella, rain coat, lunch (good old Dutch habit), sensor blower etc., I take the Mindshift Rotation Panorama. This bag holds about the same amount of photo gear in the belt compartment. Great thing is that you don't need to put down the bag to get to your photo gear and carrying comfort is quite good. See an earlier post of mine. There's a good review at phillipreeve.net.
 
For outings where I want to take extra stuff like an umbrella, rain coat, lunch (good old Dutch habit), sensor blower etc., I take the Mindshift Rotation Panorama. This bag holds about the same amount of photo gear in the belt compartment. Great thing is that you don't need to put down the bag to get to your photo gear and carrying comfort is quite good. See an earlier post of mine. There's a good review at phillipreeve.net.
Really cool :D

I believe I'd enjoy a slingbag as it would both (1) not sweat up my back in the warm, and (2) offer a way to carry a bit heavier while not destructing my back.

But as a tradeoff, most slingbags are not going to fit very large amount of stuff. With the tradeoffs back and forth I think Billingham will fight these things well. Back breaking as it may be...

So if I'm getting anything, maybe it's a real backpack.

These bags fit suitably more. Two 0.5 liter bottles instead of one in the Billingham, likewise in the winter times fit a larg(er) thermos of coffee in it. As for body/lens choices some cool options out there are so heavy I wouldn't even think of getting them to carry in a shoulder bag like Hadley. So good weight distribution and all that.


How about these "Airport" models, sturdy cases with wheels? Get a sufficiently sturdy one and it could actually provide big benefits for a street shooter. First, it would act as a portable chair to park your bottom. Maybe you found a good spot to fish for shots and now you can fish while sitting! 🤡 Secondly assuming it's really sturdy, one could stand on it to gain 0.5 m of extra perspective.
 
How about these "Airport" models, sturdy cases with wheels? Get a sufficiently sturdy one and it could actually provide big benefits for a street shooter. First, it would act as a portable chair to park your bottom. Maybe you found a good spot to fish for shots and now you can fish while sitting! 🤡 Secondly assuming it's really sturdy, one could stand on it to gain 0.5 m of extra perspective.
I seriously thought about such a case and I even bought a used LowePro one that can be carried as a backpack as well as a rolling case; it was only € 60 so what the heck, might come in handy some day. Main problem for street use: you have to fix it to your body by a chain or so to prevent someone running off with it; I'm 66 and not the best runner so I won't catch up with a young and agile thief. The sling bag mentioned before is my go-to bag for street outings and I have to think hard to find some negatives; well, maybe one: the side bag doesn't offer a lot of space, thick items won't fit. I now have a credit-card sized powerbank for my phone, a spare camera battery and two ND filters (67mm and 52mm) and it can't hold much more.
 
How about that. :D

Yesterday evening I watched several Youtube reviews and came to conclusion that Thinktank Urban Access is what I'd prefer to get or try. Apparently a comfy backpack that acts as a sling bag.

Today I checked what are my local distributors in Finland. (For some reason Thinktank won't list them.) One has the exact model with 42% off right now.

The bag lust started when I saw one model going preowned for 130 € and now I can get a better model for 132 €, brand new.
 
Test driving my new backpack today, all ready to carry bigger loads of gear, I just had this hankering for dipping deeper into M4/3 pool... :eek:

I am supposed to be lusting after Nikon and on my walk I was like, "G9 might be fun?!"

I like some of the aspects of my 75-300 Olympus. Extracting from this, I might be more at home with PanaLeica 50-200 :D 👀
 
This is mostly the contrary of the usual content, but I had something funny happening to me yesterday.

I watched the announcement of the Leica M10R - theoretically, the camera that should make my mouth water. What it did, though, was to almost make me buy - a Fujifilm GFX 50R with 50mm f/3.5 lens for half the price of the M10R body-only - because, you know, comfortably more camera for half the money ... :rolleyes:

Almost out of the GAS rabbit hole, though ... cruised past a few Canon M6 II reviews this morning, but now the effect is clearly starting to wear off. I'm comfortable with 24MP or thereabouts, and I definitely don't need another camera I won't shoot with any differently than I do now.

Things'll heat up again once Nikon starts to reveal their plans for the future development of the Z mount ...

M.
 
Yeah Leica M10R doesn't tickle me either. Perfectly happy with 24 megapixels. Of my MP240 I only wish it had better LV capabilities. M10(P) doesn't improve it enough AFAIK and M10R neither.
 
Yeah Leica M10R doesn't tickle me either. Perfectly happy with 24 megapixels.
...Of course megapixels being just one thing.

Aside the megapixels that may be useless for most shooters, the new sensor in M10-R improves in three aspects:

  • Base ISO is now 100, so it's one much-needed extra stop for daylight shooting
  • High-ISO performance seems to be about a stop better than M10(P), when comparing same-sized prints: so it's an extra stop for night time shooting
  • MOST importantly, Jono Slack says in his review that the new sensor/processor combo offers much improved highlight protection. This is a first for Leica I guess.

    M10-R Leica have completely solved the problem with over-exposed highlights. With the M10 even a quarter of a stop of overexposure would irredeemably blow highlights. In the same scene with the M10-R I’ve managed to gain good detail from an image over-exposed by 2 stops.

    Full review: Leica M10-R
The highlight recovery has always been a pain point for me, as I'd prefer to expose a pretty balanced exposure. M240 can handle 2-3 stops of shadow recovery so ETTR is manageable, but there's going to be extra noise if I'm not shooting at its base ISO of 200.

This whets my appetite somewhat! Suppose M10R supplants M10P as my current dream camera. For the time being, I'll pursue neither because the real problem with my rangefinder shooting is not the image quality but the EVF/LV experience.
 
I watched the announcement of the Leica M10R - theoretically, the camera that should make my mouth water. What it did, though, was to almost make me buy - a Fujifilm GFX 50R with 50mm f/3.5 lens for half the price of the M10R body-only - because, you know, comfortably more camera for half the money ...
Absolutely.
 
This is mostly the contrary of the usual content, but I had something funny happening to me yesterday.

I watched the announcement of the Leica M10R - theoretically, the camera that should make my mouth water. What it did, though, was to almost make me buy - a Fujifilm GFX 50R with 50mm f/3.5 lens for half the price of the M10R body-only - because, you know, comfortably more camera for half the money ... :rolleyes:

Almost out of the GAS rabbit hole, though ... cruised past a few Canon M6 II reviews this morning, but now the effect is clearly starting to wear off. I'm comfortable with 24MP or thereabouts, and I definitely don't need another camera I won't shoot with any differently than I do now.

Things'll heat up again once Nikon starts to reveal their plans for the future development of the Z mount ...

M.
There is a Z5 coming.
 
There is a Z5 coming.
I know, but I wasn't talking about the Z5. There's also a Z7s rumored that may take an already strong proposition the decisive step further. I'm not at all convinced I'd buy such a camera, but I've settled on the Z mount for all serious shooting (which I have to remind myself often - the market is full to the brim with interesting stuff). A Z7 that actually outdid the Z6 in terms of operation speed and offered some slight, but helpful improvements over the original might just push me over that edge ... Don't get me wrong, I'm very impressed by the Z6, and it's a pleasure to shoot with (for the most part - I'd like some more customisability), and I'm longing for certain lenses a lot more than I want another Z camera; but I already *almost* bought the Z7 - a next iteration may be my kind of high megapixel camera, I want effortless speed and reliability in that class before I leave 24MP ... The only other camera on the market that's ticking all important boxes at the moment is the Leica SL2 - but that'd mean totally committing to the L mount, and they don't have any smaller cameras I can see myself owning (no, the fp doesn't qualify - it lacks almost everything I want in a FF body). I guess I'll turn into a serious Nikonian again once the Z system is fully established ... Oh, and *then* I might actually sell the Z6 for a Z5 or the like; I like my second bodies to be as small and simple as possible. But maybe they'll give us a Z series camera with the D6's sensor ... that'd be awesome as well.

Here's the weird thing: I'm - at the moment - running two "main" bodies for my "serious" system, the D750 (still a wonderful DSLR) and the Z6. The Z6 is *almost* a better D750, but the D750 reliably delivers wonderful images from *all* my F mount lenses (including the old screwdriver ones), something the Z6 isn't as good at - though it's slightly better for using purely mechanical/manual stuff. Furthermore, the D750 works better with bigger lenses (I also have the additional battery grip for it). The next Z generation should allow for a functional grip (not just a grip extension) ...

Funny thing to think, but here goes: Something Nikon should actually consider is a FTZ-like adapter with screwdriver motor built in ... slightly chunkier than the current one, but with crucial advantages ...

M.
 
Sony has the screwdriver adapter for the older Sony/Minolta lenses but it was based on limited apsc af and was only OK. They want you to buy the new glass...

I tried a SL2 for a week. It works with M mount, but af was very bad with the adapted Canon EF lenses due to Panasonic dfd af... IBIS performance is close to m43, better than Sony... New Canon cameras looks like market leaders with IBIS/caf (even with older EF lenses), but then the m lenses may not be the best based on Canon R that shows color degradation/softness at the edges with m lenses... At least I don't have any Nikon lenses to figure that side:)

Funny thing to think, but here goes: Something Nikon should actually consider is a FTZ-like adapter with screwdriver motor built in ... slightly chunkier than the current one, but with crucial advantages ...

M.
 
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