Personal gear review

Personally "work" and "one body" don't go together. I learned my lesson at a wedding I was second shooting. The primaries flash started acting up and he had figured "small wedding, I'll go light". Sadly he was Canon and I was Nikon, so I couldn't let him borrow one of mine.
Oh yeah, I've never walked into a wedding without having duplicates of everything. You get one chance at it. Not having backups is asking for a disaster. But something like a portrait shoot, you can re shedule if there is an equipment failure.

The situation you were in is the reason a lot of wedding photographers will only take on second shooters who shoot the same brand.
 
What you write is true. But I'll bet the shooting experience is different between the X-E3 and X100V. I'd be tempted to keep both. The X-E3 would still give you the option of other focal lengths if you ever need them.
No, not as an only camera. But as a second or third; or as an EDC option. The "V" answers my 2 biggest issues with the X100 and part of the reason I always preferred X70; tilt screen and better wide open / close up.

Oh yeah, I've never walked into a wedding without having duplicates of everything. You get one chance at it. Not having backups is asking for a disaster. But something like a portrait shoot, you can re shedule if there is an equipment failure.

The situation you were in is the reason a lot of wedding photographers will only take on second shooters who shoot the same brand.
Very true, but it's not often the second should have to consider providing backups to the primary.
 
@davidzvi I agree. The primary should never need to borrow gear from the secondary. I do see the thinking behind it. Even backups can fail in worst case scenarios. I was fortunate to have been mentored by people who brought four full sets of gear to shoot a wedding. And had backup ground into my head. I cringe every time I see craigslist wedding photographer taking paid gigs with one entry level body and a kit lens.
 
Over the last month I’ve aggressively cleaning house and rationalizing my kit.

Gone are five Nikon F mount lenses (35/1.8 DX, 11-16/2,8, 50/1.4AF, 70-300G, 80-200/2.8 AF) which I used on the D7000 that’s been gone for years. The two AF lenses date back to my film days in the last century.

Gone are the Nikon V1, flash and three lenses that I haven’t used since I bought my E-M5 shortly after it was released.

Gone is the RX100.3 which I probably only shot 200 images on, and which was literally a display piece in my office.

Gone are the GX7 and GX9. Both good cameras, but I only used them as a lightweight carry or backup to my E-M1/E-M1.2.

Gone are the Olympus 14-42 and 40-150 kit lenses that I rarely used. Same with the Panasonic 25/1.4, which I bought at the same time as my original E-M5 but never used very much.

The new target kit will have only two bodies: E-M1.2 and my brand new E-M5.3. The M1.2 will support more engaged shooting especially with longer zooms. The M5.3 will be the small and light walk around and backup/second camera. The duo worked well shooting a performance by Yarn on Friday.

The lens kit seems pretty complete:
- Four Olympus (non-PRO) primes: 12, 17, 45, 75.
- Six zooms: Panasonic 12-35/2.8, 35-100/2.8 and 100-400; Olympus 9-18, 12-100 and 40-150/2.8 with 1.4X TC.

Not yet sold is the E-M1. That will go on sale at the end of the week.

While the proceeds from all of these sales were less than the value my mind put on the cameras, they all seemed to be at the market. And it feels great to have the closet cleaned of all the clutter.
 
Recently I sold off my Sony APS-C kit (NEX-6, E 4/10-18, Sigma 2.8/30 and 2.8/60), leaving me with two Sony FF bodies (A7Rm2 and A7) and a bunch of native lenses. I kept the APS-C kit zoom 3.5-5.6/18-55 because I use it on occasion for street photography on the A7Rm2. I'm now selling off the major part of my Minolta lens collection, limiting the collection to 28mm lenses, the rest will go apart from a few lenses that might see some use, like a 2.8/135 and 200mm and 300mm lenses. I'll also keep a bunch of macro and enlarger lenses for table-top studio use.

The native lens selection now consists of 5 AF lenses and 5 MF lenses.
MF: Zeiss Loxia 2.8/21, 2/35, 2/50, 2.4/85 and Voigtländer 1.2/40
AF: all Sony FE, 2.8/35, 1.8/50, 4/16-35, 4/24-70 and 4/70-200
1 legacy lens is an essential part of my kit, the Carl Zeiss Distagon 2.8/28 with Contax/Yashica mount. Come on Zeiss, where's that Loxia 28mm? :(
While I hardly ever use the AF lenses, they won't be sold because there are times when I want autofocus. In fact there are no candidates to be put up for sale, although the Voigtländer 1.2/40 sees less use than I anticipated.
 
@bassman quite the reduction.

I'm down to:
Olympus E-M1 mkII & Pen F

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 PRO
Olympus 17mm F1.8
Olympus 9mm f/8 BCF
PanLeica 25mm f/1.4
PanLeica 8-18mm F2.8-4.0
Pan 12-32mm F3.5-5.6
SIGMA 56mm F1.4

But I'm eagerly awaiting a few things coming down the pipeline from Olympus.
 
Well, I'm down to this right now. No camera bodies or interchangeable lenses . . . just a row of mostly empty shelves behind me with a few old film cameras I kept for display.

X30.jpg
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Well, I'm down to this right now. No camera bodies or interchangeable lenses . . . just a row of mostly empty shelves behind me with a few old film cameras I kept for display.
I love the manual zoom on the Fuji X#0 series. I wished someone would make a 1" sensor compact with it or that Panasonic had used something like it in the LX100 series.
 
Not if she took a look in my house! :D My camera gear may be minimalist, but I'm a tool and book enthusiast.
I am with you on the books! We have an extra room in our house that we made into a library: currently 5 bookcases with somewhere around 550 books at last count. I am using a book library app to catalogue them all, but I have a ways to go. Books I allow myself to go nuts with (within financial reason of course).
 
I love the manual zoom on the Fuji X#0 series. I wished someone would make a 1" sensor compact with it or that Panasonic had used something like it in the LX100 series.
If the LX100 had a manual zoom, and a better EVF, I would never have sold two of them (the second was bought in the hopes that these shortcomings had magically stopped being noticeable).
 
I love the manual zoom on the Fuji X#0 series. I wished someone would make a 1" sensor compact with it or that Panasonic had used something like it in the LX100 series.

Many of us have been asking for just that for literally years. So far, no one has been listening. I’m surprised Fuji hasn’t done a fixed-lens compact with a one-inch sensor.
 
If the LX100 had a manual zoom, and a better EVF, I would never have sold two of them (the second was bought in the hopes that these shortcomings had magically stopped being noticeable).
I've owned two as well, bought and sold the second one for the same reason you did. I was fine with the EVF, a tilt screen would be more important to me.
Many of us have been asking for just that for literally years. So far, no one has been listening. I’m surprised Fuji hasn’t done a fixed-lens compact with a one-inch sensor.
I'm one of them, I was REALLY hoping the Nikon DL 18-50 would be a manual zoom. I would have traded the EVF for 18mm EQ.
 
@tonyturley I took my X30 out on the weekend and heard myself say to my partner that I actually covet that little camera - which is weird and probably poor English, considering I own it (my second copy, after missing the first when I sold it), but that's how I feel about using it: covetous. I wish I got as much joy using my m43 gear.
 
@melanieylang I got along fabulously with my previous experiences with the X30, but like so many people, coveted that last drop of "image quality", whatever that means. In fact, the X30 is capable of quite nice images. I think the chase for ultimate image quality is really just another name for GAS.
I have an X20 which, unfortunately, get little use for the same reason.
 
@melanieylang I got along fabulously with my previous experiences with the X30, but like so many people, coveted that last drop of "image quality", whatever that means. In fact, the X30 is capable of quite nice images. I think the chase for ultimate image quality is really just another name for GAS.

I'm another one who has owned the X30. It went - far too soon - during another equipment purge/downsizing. I still have an original X10, however.

My decision to let the X30 go was influenced by my purchase of a Panasonic LX100 which, ironically, I don't use much anymore even if the concept of the LX100 still appeals to me very much.

If Fuji made something like the LX100 with a manual zoom, I'd be all over that like a cheap suit.
 
The LX100 is another camera I rented over the past few years. My memory is fuzzy here, but it seems I decided not to buy one because of the power zoom, lack of tilt screen, and intense purple flare in backlit conditions. I also remember the buzz around the LX100II as the announcement approached, and the intense disappointment expressed by many people that it didn't have a flip screen or WR. I wonder if any of those people are looking at the X100V? If you look at the latest generations of those cameras, the X100 is a bit larger and heavier, but not unreasonably so. I would think the two cameras would appeal to a similar demographic.
 
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