GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Desires Big and Small

Just this week I’ve seen used Z6’s around the $500 mark. I can envisage getting one, sending it straight to Kolari to get that sensor thinned then get it to use on the legacy lenses. But come on, that price is in the “if it seems too good to be true” league isn’t it. Think I’m gonna pass.
 
My second used D700 with a Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens. They sent me the wrong charger, but I called and they sent me a new charger. My experience with KEH is that their customer service is very responsive, which is really important when you sell used stuff.

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I might not agree on pricing at times, but my experiences with KEH over the years have been good.

So, how are you liking the D700 so far?
The CF card is at work but this body seems nicer. I’ll try it tomorrow so I can get the shutter count. It is interesting going through the Nikon menus. Not as complex as a current ILC but with some (to me) esoteric settings. I keep trying to use the screen to shoot. :D

Edit: For those interested, the shutter count is 49000, so there's plenty left.
 
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I just noticed that there are sizeable medium format digital backs for not much money. A 2004 Phase One P25 back that is "1.15x crop from full 645" runs for a little over 1000 € apparently. If someone is in for the looks and not the pixel quality then it shouldn't matter as much if the noise and DR levels don't match the modern FF cameras?

One back is for Mamiya and I see another for Hasselblad H.

Interesting. I am not too big on MF right now but it's good to know that the Fuji GFX is not the only affordable way to go.
 
When I think about what's currently keeping me from M4/3, mainly the somewhat limited MP for cropping, the artificially-plateaued DR and noise characteristics (it'll get better, but it's hard to wait!) and the way DoF control necessitates lenses that quickly become rather large (like the excellent Sigma f1.4 prime trio), and then I contrast the things I really, really like about M4/3 (by which I've meant Panasonic for a number of years, just the preference I settled into), such as: great JPEGs, including my favorite B&W aside from the mighty Ricoh GR, speedy accurate single AF, good menus with muscle memory, quality durable hardware, and a great selection of characterful lenses...

... I realize that everything would be solved for me with an L-mount Panasonic body. I'm sure they have some small niggles of their own, and online reviews will point those out for me if I wish to go read them, but the thing is, I know there's a track record/pedigree that I'm so used to with Lumix that I'd be pretty happy with what I got. Only price discourages me, because they're currently still a little outside of what I consider justifiable (unless I liquidated down to one system). And if I splurged for a FF Lumix body, I'd have to save up some more for lenses and there'd be a whole new GAS treadmill to work out. I know myself well enough there... Maybe the S5 will drop enough to justify it.
 
... I realize that everything would be solved for me with an L-mount Panasonic body. I'm sure they have some small niggles of their own, and online reviews will point those out for me if I wish to go read them, but the thing is, I know there's a track record/pedigree that I'm so used to with Lumix that I'd be pretty happy with what I got. Only price discourages me, because they're currently still a little outside of what I consider justifiable (unless I liquidated down to one system). And if I splurged for a FF Lumix body, I'd have to save up some more for lenses and there'd be a whole new GAS treadmill to work out. I know myself well enough there... Maybe the S5 will drop enough to justify it.

Drop the S5 internals into a GX8 body and they’d make a lot of people happy. Imagining that with the Sigma I series primes... bliss.
 
The big thing is for Panasonic to feel comfortable enough in L-mount to make a stills-focused body. We know they do that every so often with M4/3, and it's given us favorites like the GX8 and G9 (not to mention the whole GX series, in fact), while their L-mount offerings up to now seem solidly hybrid-focused (could be wrong, my attention toward these cameras has hitherto been spotty). If we got a comfortable, smaller body, don't care if it's RF-style or not... but maybe that's what they consider the S5 to already be.
 
The big thing is for Panasonic to feel comfortable enough in L-mount to make a stills-focused body. We know they do that every so often with M4/3, and it's given us favorites like the GX8 and G9 (not to mention the whole GX series, in fact), while their L-mount offerings up to now seem solidly hybrid-focused (could be wrong, my attention toward these cameras has hitherto been spotty). If we got a comfortable, smaller body, don't care if it's RF-style or not... but maybe that's what they consider the S5 to already be.

For me, I definitely prefer the RF-style design aesthetically and due to the flat top (easier in and out of bags, with one less thing to catch).

Comparing the S5 to the GX8, it definitely looks like they could make it work fairly easily.

Below comparison shows both those bodies and how close in dimension they are, minus the EVF hump in the S5. I added in my Sony A7C, which is a fair bit smaller - I actually wish it was a bit taller to allow for a better EVF and more grip real estate. Finally, I put in the loaner Leica Q I have, which it think is the perfect size for all things - handling, EVF, rear LCD - not giving up in any area. The GX8 is basically the same size.


Do it Panasonic! But, like you said, they may feel that the S5 is that camera.
 
I definitely like the uncomplicated back of the Q the best. But I like the back of the S5 the second best. I've learned I really have feelings about the BACK of a camera because it's the side I spend all my time looking at and interacting with (when it's not on a shelf, ha!). I agree that the A7C is a bit small, it's a GX85 body which is just too cramped for all the stuff they're trying to shoehorn in. If only the A7C had been the camera to get the minimalism treatment that the XE4 did...

If a decent used S5 price drops to $1K or lower, look out!

and I'd really like to use my Voïgtlander 35/2.5 on a FF body with L Monochrome D...
 
Interesting. I am not too big on MF right now but it's good to know that the Fuji GFX is not the only affordable way to go.

Good God! Do I really feel some gravitation towards a system like that? What's wrong with me. :(

For one, it's cheaper than Leica so that's an excuse...

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I've been watching a lot of landscape photographers on Youtube lately. What if I had been watching them in 2015 and my priorities would have been towards landscapes at that time, things would be a whole lot different today, my gear-wise.

Add #2
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I must clarify. :D Yes, I just put landscape photography and high-resolution medium format cameras in the same paragraph but at least currently I do not think that landscapes somehow require more pixels or the sharpest lenses. I am happy to take a landscape photo with the 16-megapixel Nikon and a 105mm f/2.5 lens wide open, no problems. Yet another reason why currently MF makes little sense for me.
 
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I know that for someone like me with no ambitions to make a living off photography, it's nothing but frivolous, but I've been looking at the Fujifilm GFX100S again ...

I know what I *should* get: the Nikon Z 7 II, and one or two of the high-end lenses (the Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S for sure, the Z 50mm f/1.2 S - maybe; that lens is just so big ...) while I wait for Nikon to finally release the small primes and possibly other lenses I might like. But somehow, in real life, the advantages over my Z 6 and Z 24-70mm f/4 S wouldn't be as big as all that, and I love what the f/1.8 primes I already own bring to the table (20mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm). So, while it would of course be an upgrade on a lot of levels, it'd probably add only marginally to the options and the experience I already have access to. So, sensible (to a degree), yes, but certainly not exciting ...

I also think that I would enjoy *shooting* with the GFX100S as much as seeing the results, especially with the 80mm f/1.7 mounted - a setup that actually beats the Z 7 II with 50mm f/1.2 for size and weight and will almost certainly deliver even better image quality; as for other choices, the 45-100mm f/4 is supposed to be great and is only marginally bigger than the admittedly more versatile Z 24-70mm f/2.8; add the compact 50mm and the stunning 23mm, and I'd be set for landscapes and cityscapes, and also people and documentary (i.e. everything I like to shoot - note that I said "people", not "portraits"). There's a lot of "buts" I'm not talking about right now ... to begin with, price is about twice what I'd have to pay for the Z 7 II with *both* lenses mentioned above. However, I'd end up with virtually everything I'd like to have for a high-resolution body - and a setup that's actually portable (overall weight with all bits and bobs included: less than four kilograms, which is manageable for me), as well as easy to break down into interesting subsets. While I think I'd use all of the lenses a fair amount, I think the 50mm and 80mm would suit me particularly well - each has its distinct advantages and they complement each other. Ironically, with the 50mm mounted, the GFX100S is somewhat easier to pack (i.e. less deep) than the Z 7 II with the Z 35mm f/1.8 S; the weight difference would be insignificant, too.

At the moment, it's at kind of a stalemate and I'm really dithering - with Nikon being able to end all this by quickly releasing the planned small primes and maybe a zoom that I'd be more intrigued by (I think the upcoming 24-105mm will most probably be such a lens). But the appeal of the Fujifilm setup is pretty big ...

All that said, I'll probably not do either (just yet) ... But looking into it was interesting and revealing. And risky, too :p

M.
 
All that said, I'll probably not do either (just yet) ...
So, tomorrow then?


~


Trying to act as a cooler here...

It's a cool observation about the larger Z lenses being very large. Ideally Nikon would produce both compact and optically less compromised offerings on similar specs but that's a far cry in today's markets.

The results of GFX100s might be quite something but I can bet the camera is not as fluent in operation as the small-format offerings. What I have understood from the reviews, the autofocus will be on the level of X100 series because of the general G lens design philosophy.

But speaking of reviews and reading between the lines. Early reviews of Fuji GFX cameras always pitted them against state-of-the-art FF cameras because that's what it was compared against. But nowadays there are several GFX cameras so the comparisons are mostly made against previous GFX models. What used to be sluggish and slow a few years ago may now be fast and responsive, but compared to a fast FF camera such as Z6, perhaps nothing has actually changed much.

The 50 Hz EVF panel hasn't received attention after the camera was released. Maybe people don't notice a thing but in any case it's not the same as 60 Hz EVF or faster.

Your storage requirements will be massive with those 100 MP files, each around 100 megabytes. More will be demanded of your computer.

I won't touch the lenses at all because it's such a matter of taste, nor do I have any first hand experience on Z or GF lenses. :)
 
So, tomorrow then?


~


Trying to act as a cooler here...

It's a cool observation about the larger Z lenses being very large. Ideally Nikon would produce both compact and optically less compromised offerings on similar specs but that's a far cry in today's markets.

The results of GFX100s might be quite something but I can bet the camera is not as fluent in operation as the small-format offerings. What I have understood from the reviews, the autofocus will be on the level of X100 series because of the general G lens design philosophy.

But speaking of reviews and reading between the lines. Early reviews of Fuji GFX cameras always pitted them against state-of-the-art FF cameras because that's what it was compared against. But nowadays there are several GFX cameras so the comparisons are mostly made against previous GFX models. What used to be sluggish and slow a few years ago may now be fast and responsive, but compared to a fast FF camera such as Z6, perhaps nothing has actually changed much.

The 50 Hz EVF panel hasn't received attention after the camera was released. Maybe people don't notice a thing but in any case it's not the same as 60 Hz EVF or faster.

Your storage requirements will be massive with those 100 MP files, each around 100 megabytes. More will be demanded of your computer.

I won't touch the lenses at all because it's such a matter of taste, nor do I have any first hand experience on Z or GF lenses. :)
All sensible - let me just say that the having reflected on it all, I was actually less likely to just go out and spend a sh*tload of money. I'm actually pretty cool about it all - just a little frustrated that Nikon hasn't come out with the lenses I really want to add to my Z kit - yet. The Z 7 II isn't top of my list anyway, and neither is either of the two lenses ... but it was a healthy comparison nonetheless.

However, there are a couple of people who had a pretty level-headed take on the GFX100S, and even those came away with very positive impressions. And I think Fujifilm are doing the right thing as far as the 44x33 sensor format is concerned. The GFX100S isn't an early adopter's camera, it's an amazingly mature product.

I'm in the lucky situation to be able to try before I buy. But I'm not even in a hurry to get the GFX100S in hand - I'll possibly revisit that train of thought in July ...

M.
 
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Good that I was able to sell the one zoom lens that is perfect and therefore boring, for 400 €.

Bad that Kamerastore is waving an offer code right in front of my eyes: spend 400 € and get a 100 € off.

Coincidence? Perhaps it's just unfortunate timing.

But is it a coincidence that 400 € happens to be exactly 0.0816326530612x what the 645 Phase One P65 digital back with the Mamiya kit would cost? I THINK NOT! This is a clear sign!
 
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