So picked the XT1 and the 27 pancake lens for my setup, and managed to shoot / post something like 20 honest pictures total. I shot pictures every single day this month (as is normal for me), often 20-30 per day, and sometimes hundreds in a day (for the wife's website, either here in town for a bike ride, or in NYC for 3 days). A quick count of my January folder and its subfolders tells me I took 804 pictures last month that I felt were worth saving for one reason or another, and that doesn't even include the "Misc" folder, which is where all the SIJ photos (among other randoms) are. Here's what kept me from taking and posting 31 SIJ photos with the 27:
1. The cold did not make it any easier... some mornings I'd see something that might be worth shooting, but it would be 12 degrees out, and my hands were already cold INSIDE the gigantic mittens, so I just didn't stop and do it. Sometimes I did - more often than not I did - but sometimes I didn't.
2. Competition for my camera time from the wife's website. If we're spending a full day leading a bike ride, or touring NYC by bike, I'm going to use the BEST lens I have for each job, not the one I needed for SIJ. I didn't even bring the pancake to NYC, just the 18-55 and the 35 f1.4.
3. I got a pretty damned nasty cold from NYC (thanks, Penn Station!), which has had me bed-ridden several days in the past week. I've missed two days of work over it, which is rare for me. And it's meant I just don't get up, go anywhere, and shoot for SIJ.
I've learned a little about the new software update for the XT1, specifically how I like to use Classic Chrome, AF+MF, and the electronic shutter (when it's time to be QUIET, usually). SIJ was part of that.
I've learned very little about the 27 that I didn't already know...
- It's an "85%" lens for me. It's very good. It's usually plenty. Sometimes it isn't sharp and contrasty enough, though. And it's not as easy to get bokeh with it, which is sometimes very helpful. And knowing that I have the 35 and the 56 means I'm often thinking that I wish I were using one of them instead.
- The 35 f1.4 is a "98%" lens. It tells you a complex story where other lenses simply show you what happened. Its length is a little more limiting, but not MUCH more limiting. Its boxy, tight hood is fantastically helpful when you're walking around in the snow... the pancake loses out here.
- The polarizing filter for the pancake is WONDERFUL in bright blue sky days out in the snow, I'll give it that.