delays and complications

I had hoped to check the three developers that I currently have on my system (Zoner, Polarr, PD8) - but life has intervened and delayed me. While it's still a fun idea, I'm running out of time on my Zoner time trial. They use a slow but steady subscription of $49/year right now, so it will keep moving up incrementally like Adobe products. This makes me think of iTunes and its occasionally nice interface that gets ripped to shreds at random intervals - my wife and I currently have very little clue as to getting music to Pods or Phones any more. Not my favorite way to play.

Still, I have a week or two. I'll try to grab a needs-work image and process with Zoner first, then try out the other two. I've already removed Elements X from my system so it won't be part of the game.

another developing contender?

I bumped into an announcement about the Zoner Photo Studio X and its ability to save in the new and improved (and Apple-preferred!) HEIF image format. Jpeg has been around a while and updated often - but a new way of saving files with all the tech/AI improvements feels like a good idea. The software is available for trial, so why not?

So here's the most recent file processed to my preference in their editor. Odd though, the trial version did not open a 5-year-old raw format; this one is from the equally-drab jpeg that was captured with the raw that I used before.

This was definitely processed differently, with those uppermost leaves being more preserved. I still shifted the green channel up at the light end and also worked to preserve the bridge better. Their HDR effect was not quite as pleasant in the end so I left that turned off.

Let's see how it compares!

Top= PhotoStudio from jpeg  -  Bottom=original above, PD8 below

Definitely warmer and brighter this time. The PD8 image is definitely punchier with its HDR slider that works the way I prefer. Perhaps I should try PD8 again - and add a Polarr workover of this image as well!

more PD8 image tricks

I cranked out another test file with PhotoDirector 8. In this case a very flat image of our local lake was in need of some lively processing.

I took the top image and used my old favorite curve tool - but I tried a few new tricks. I adjusted RGB to taste but then boosted the green channel at the bright end. That left the dark-green trees dark on the left but strengthened the shrubs by the water just right of center.

I then used the HDR-effect sliders to make things jump a bit more. I like that this tool can be used push-button style or as a gentle slide to keep any cartoon effects to a minimum.

I like the reprocessing quite a bit, but those branches along the top went too dark. At some future point I will revisit and make use of the layers tool to bring them back closer to the original image. Perhaps the bridge can also be pulled into better definition that way?

Any software has features and complications that can only be learned with time. PhotoDirector 8 has caught my interest and I plan to keep learning its features.

New software

I recently bought Cyberlink's PhotoDirector software. I intend it to replace PS Elements (v10, more or less) as my primary editor and catalog keeper. Adobe did not get me to subscribe to PS or now Lightroom but it's clear they believe the cloud is the future. For their profits yes, but not holding my images for ransom thank you.

My first big test came this past weekend after I wanted to stitch some GX1 raw images of lake Sacagawea and autumn colors. The merge was as easy as could be, just about like elements. I then played with the merged file and saved out a 49MB image.. perhaps it should get printed?

A small version of the 49MB file. That really yellow tree on the right is.. curious.

The software appears to do all that i would ask. It has curves and a 5-zone slider set to adjust lighting, color adjustments and white balance, even simple HDR &tone mapping adjustments. It can save tiff and png as well as adjustable jpeg.

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I was surprised by pd8's exceptionally yellow leaves on the right side of the image; I like to think I'd have noticed that while on site!  I did adjust many things from the original raw file, but I did not seek to emphasize yellow in particular.

So I tried Polarr's raw processor to see how that tree looked:

Sure enough, that strong yellow foliage is not quite what Polarr sees.. strong color yes, but not as extreme. The orange on the far right is different as well. 

Good information to keep in mind, moving forward!

adrift in a sea of gear

What would really satisfy me, "once and for all"?
It probably doesn't work that way - but if I could manage it, what then?

My perceived needs include weather protection, in-body stabilization and a tilt screen, preferably with some touch controls.  That would narrow me down to Pentax, SonyAlpha, Olympus and very recent Lumix bodies.

Since budget is paramount, that limits me a bit more. It would be best to go with a past-generation Olympus so my current lens set can do the job. I have neither Pentax nor µ43 lenses with weather seals so no gain there; if I had a choice I'd take the 12-60 Lumix again at some point.

Now I already tried the EM5 mark I and it didn't appeal to me much. I wish it did, since it has weather seals - but one cannot force these things. The GX7 was really nice the first time, less so the second time; I still cannot quite explain that! The EM1 Classic stands as the item of choice on a budget. That includes many features that sound quite interesting. Its video setting is primitive yet still more complete than Pentax models, with AF or tap-MF available. The EM1 also has live time/composite and PDAF points on the sensor, good features all.

So what's available to me for $250-ish?

• I can get a Alpha - but it won't have weather seals at that price. And I'd need lenses. Many Minolta lens bargains are still out there, but add at least $100 to grab a few. No point to this, since I have both K-mount and mic43 lenses today..
• I can get an EM1 for $300ish, then later add some sealed lenses. Current lenses cover 16-300mme so it's a fairly full set. An EM10 could also be found, which I preferred to the EM5 - current lenses are fine but no weather seals.
• The Lumix GX7 is still around $250 - but how much do I really like it?
• I can get a K-5, but again: I've no WR lenses on hand. I do have other lenses covering 27-450mme  assuming my white 18-55 could be restored to service. A K-30 or K-50 could show up, or a K200d for that matter if the GX1 takes all video tasks. 
• And hey: why not toss in another copy of the K-01? Its photo and video abilities still impress - and it's smaller than the latest m43 gear despite its cruel reviews lamenting its immense size at the time. No wx seals of course, but $200 bodies show up now and then.

Or of course I can do nothing and save $225 or more!

There are a few things the GX1 cannot do well, but really it does nothing poorly either. I'd love more battery life and better AF talent, but it's better than I am in most cases. I recently learned more about Pinpoint AF and that choice has helped me on several occasions.

For shame. Timeout.

I've just skimmed my past posts* and learned just how big a problem I have with holding on to camera gear. Several absurdly excellent kits were tossed back into the pool for pathetic reasons. I called myself out several times, and then excused my behavior as financially driven. That's only true because I overreached when I already owned really nice gear but wanted more - and that's entirely on me and my collecting/hoarding illness.

* Of course I don't read my own blog, I write all this for mythical others.. or so I've told myself.


Therefore read, and Learn!

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Could anything embarrass me more than this note from April 2015?

For a total of $118 I have two |k-r|bodies in like-new condition with a total of 130 shutter actuations.  

Well perhaps this from July of 2011?

The k-x became a k-r, and several lenses came swiftly. Some were bargains, others simply irresistible - but the result was too many lenses, especially considering that family health issues kept us from traveling to photogenic places. I took some great shots of the yard and my bike commutes to work.. but any camera could do such things justice.

Or even Nov 2010?

So why don't I just buy more Pentax stuff with that gift card? Fact is, I'm all out of 'needs' there.   I have modern lenses (16-45, 50-200 and 55-300) plus a half-dozen manual primes and intermediate zooms.  I have a nice tripod and a flash sufficient for my needs, and several SD cards.  Not only is that enough, it's too much - especially as I've been homebound and not able to use much of this.  
A smaller camera with decent IQ would provide just as much camera satisfaction and be a smaller cash drain.

The occasional great image I've taken in the intervening thirty months since I owned the K-r would certainly look no worse with that camera. Or a K200d and Sigma 18-200 (March 2011). Or the K100d, 16-45 and 55-200 Sigma (June 2010).

What cameras have I owned in the past five years? Let me gasp as I count them - and several were owned more than once..

• Pentax 200d/k-r/7/5/5ii/5iis/3ii/s1 
• mu43 pm2/pl5/pl6/em10/em5/g7/gm1/gx7/gx1 
• fuji f550, nikon-1, oly e500 and Samsung NX300 
• lenses: easily a few dozen in K mount, perhaps twenty µ43/4Thirds
• imaging-related tags in this blog: ~190

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What have I gained from all this? Precious little.

What I lost: time energy.. and now, self respect.

And with this fresh in my mind,

I shall walk away from 'gear talk' on this blog for a spell.

alpha flashback

Curiosity sent me over to the Dyxum.com website, my old SonyAlpha hangout. After a bad guess or two I even came up with my ID and password, which had not been used in perhaps seven years? Always a surprise when something reappears like that, since I cannot remember yesterday's breakfast most days..

I updated my contact data and even posted a question about gear.

Nothing about imaging is certain for me right now, other than dissatisfaction with what I have + no funds to make any moves whatsoever. The GX7 was a financial casualty and the GX1 provides decent images on occasion but not what I had hoped. Actually the second go-round with the GX7 wasn't really great either. Given my small collection of Pentax gear that makes the most sense.. but why not consider an elder Alpha as well?

I am not a superstitious person. Even so..
In 2009 I took the a200 Alpha to the Sierra with my wife on our Yosemite backpack trip. In June 2010 I switched over to Pentax and felt good about it. Just over a month later my wife fell ill, and remains so to this day. In fact her illness struck a week after the A200 was sold! 
Of course Pentax has absolutely nothing to do with this.. absolutely. My wife will not get better because I return to alpha gear. Nope.

I look back with many regrets about gear, but no time travel is allowed; I must live with such things.
In fact it's time to review my blog history and learn something about myself!

tech burnout

How many ways can one acquire technical fatigue?

Here's a few:

• dumping more gear and holding on to older, less-advanced models -again
• gear chat that leads nowhere and repeats long-settled issues
• glowing reports of gear I cannot afford taking photos of places I cannot afford to visit
• ad-friendly web advancements like turning off mute when autoplaying junk video, and loading ads before actual site content
• insert your gripe here

As a result of these issues and more it's time to declare a moratorium. Comments to gear threads must stop, even if I have a reasonable comment. Too often my unreasonable comments take precedent, whether silly or snarky; a waste of bandwidth and both the writer's and reader's time.

Wish me luck, I shall definitely need it.

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The Sigma 19mm has arrived. It's a fine lens for my use, determined after a day of tests which included a quick tour of Laurelhurst park in Portland. 

The GX7, Lumix 14 and Sigma 30 departed for evaluation and purchase. My best hope is that they overpay for the first two and send back the 30mm, so I can have a matched set of EX DN lenses!

ins & outs

As funds tighten again the GX7 and two primes departed, leaving the team photo a bit less full.

With the GX1 missing out on stabilization the primes become less useful despite their improved light-capture and overall IQ - so OIS lenses are more useful. A Sigma 19/2.8 is on its way though for 1-lens shooting days.

small change

I've been looking over the fisheye options for the GX system. My recent preference was the 7Artisans f/2.8 model, but someone sold their nameless C-class option at a further discount. Given recent news on the dental-expense front, I figured it was now (barely), or never to buy the lowest-cost option.
So here it is!

It arrived today just as I was heading to town. Smoke was drifting near the sun as the east wind blew smoke out of the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia Gorge - a fine time for this lens to arrive and capture it. Hopefully the weekend rains will give that fire a serious dousing as the terrain is very difficult for fire-fighting.

reconnecting with GX7

The GX7 has found its way back into my kit.

taken with GX1 and Sigma 30/2.8

Having done the GX7-GX1-GX7 return loop, I now understand better what an improvement the Seven really is. The rather primitive GX1 touchscreen took a major step forward in usability, using stabilized primes is wonderful, and internal features like time-lapse and EV-4 focus are not always needed but really great to have.

I've been rereading the books and e-books about using the GX7 and re-watching videos about the feature set. It sure was a well-liked camera when it came out! Although the silver/chrome combo with the 14-42 is a poor match in good light, I do like the camera's satin chrome finish over the all-black that I had before.

aftermath of the Shadow's passing

cropped and re-leveled but not really processed.. yet!

Since the eclipse on 21.August, several changes have occurred in many types of gear.

• Our largest telescope has sold, 
• an eyepiece and the Canon A720is sold at the star-party swap meet - and 
• the K-5 that took the photo above (and many others) has moved to Carolina.

In some ways this was ideal! I got to use the 'scope before it sold and the K-5 was the superior imaging system to have on-site. The GX1 isn't bad by any means, but the K-5 has the better sensor for dynamic range and pixel size - so no complaints here.

and I have the silver 14-42mm lens!
from imaging-resource.com review

These changes allowed me to pick up another bargain GX7. The GX85 and GX8 are tempting in different ways, and I even considered the current deal on the YI-M1 + 12-40mm lens - but for now the familiar and lower-priced GX7 will serve very nicely while other debts are paid down. I enjoyed the GX7 in black but prefer the look of the silver model.

What next for my µ43 kit?
I'd like the set of 7.5/14/20/30 for primes, meaning that a 7.5mm fisheye and 20mm f/1.7 Lumix might be sought in the near future. I've learned of the 7Artisans f/2.8 fisheye which is competitive with the Samyang in many ways for a somewhat lower price, so when the time comes we'll see what prices look like. Also there's no denying the appeal of the 60mm Sigma and even the 100-300 Lumix.. but the 45-150 is both talented and tiny so it will be sufficient for now. I still have a K-mount copy of the Quantaray 100-300, which is less convenient than the Lumix version but somewhat stabilized on the GX7 so that's fine too.
Also: focus peaking is back, how nice!

Busted :¬(

I am forced to admit that Pentax gear brings out the hoarder in me.
I cannot explain it.

With my Sony gear I did my share of swapping lenses, to a lesser degree - but that's not really a surprise since I've used Pentax gear far longer. The latest K-5 purchase spun up an amazing kit in a hurry, at great prices - yet once again it was more kit than I could really afford. The acquisitive feelings are still with me in the micro43 world, but I have managed to be a bit more resistant.
Is that from years of practice, the system itself, or something else entirely?
Hard to say.

I really want to just love one system that does everything - but without more funding that's just not possible. And Pentax is such a good fit for me, thanks both to their design philosophy and my spending enough time in the system to make it work well for me.

I suspect that a some amount of gear should go pretty soon. Again.
Will I choose wisely this time? Hope so!

Reconstructions

After some consideration, and the arrival of the 18-50, I decoded to unmake the 18-55wr and remake the 50-200wr. This frees up the 55-300 to become cash like it was supposed to be and that we can make use of in non-photo categories.

Sometimes reassembly of a Pentax lens takes five minutes..this time it was a bit over an hour. Resetting the six gold data-transmission pins takes time, then in this case the wr gasket must be right, then setting the mount gently so the data pins poke through without bending or springing out - everything just right or start over!

I started over about a dozen times. The pins fell out, then they were right but the AF drive pin had fallen out. More pin issues ensued but it was finally assembled - however, the lens was not sending data. Sure enough a pin had slipped out, so a few more attempts (and re-seating the wr gasket twice) finally produced a functional 50-200mm lens. AF works, metering works, focal length is reported to stabilizer and to image file. All is well.* Again!

add 100-300 Sigma 'slowpoke' when range is needed

With this decision made, the kit clears up a bit. 
I have cast the kit upon KEH' buying department, I'd like to keep the 17-28, 18-50 & 50-200wr and send off the rest. That plus the K-5 is a 1.5kg kit of small lenses and decent range. Good enough for my purposes - and the 100-300 can stay too for longer (eclipse?) shots.

If KEH would offer more for the 17-28 I would tolerate the extra 200 grams and keep the Tamron 10-24mm in its place. And if they offer a decent number for all things Pentax.. so be it.

*Except for the 18-55 of course, which is now mount-less. Again!!

Update - a new/used Lumix 14-42ii is on its way, so my 'need' for the Sigma 19 (or any 17-20mm prime) has been lowered.. theoretically! This one will be black, so we can more easily tell our cameras apart - as if my spouse's pink neck strap was insufficient.

Today's Thinking

My ideal kit is now here. I may not recognize it yet but it's still true.. probably. Sure it would be much different with a $2k budget, but that is not coming about soon.

Part of my kit problem is that some of this should not be here. The 55-300 was supposed to be a check, the 17-28 fisheye would not be here if the 10-24 deal did not fall apart for 10 days, and in fact the K-5 was supposed to be a GM1! Go figure. On the other hand, the E500 and 4Thirds gear became much more useable as the 17-28 and some of these lenses can still become cash.. inevitably.

So here is today's Favorite Kit. *
F17-28, because small is beautiful
S18-50 for silence and a pinch more speed
DA50-200wr, see 17-28 + wr protection
S100-300 fast focus and decent IQ
S28-200 to pair up with 17-28 now and then

* Tomorrow is another day; I shall worry about that kit tomorrow. (Katie Scarlett O'Hara)

Honestly, I really like the other lenses. Nobody really dislikes results from the 55-300 in any of its many forms..but oh that pokey focus. And going to 10mm is amazing..now and then. The 18-55wr is small and talented and wr, and anyway I can't sell it with a non-wr lens mount. Guess it stays too, in the closet.

1 Thing still missing?

Looking over the pile of recent acquisitions it seemed that nothing major was lacking. I have coverage from 15-450mme plus the 600mme Hanimar long telephoto, weather seals from 27-450mme, a fisheye zoom and a couple of fast manual primes. All is well..

Almost.
The one thing I lack here is a quiet lens for the quiet body. The K-5 has a nicely muted shutter sound but a typically noisy AF screw drive. The best options to beat this are Sigma's HSM lenses with Pentax SDM good but tarnished by a few bad copies (make that several dozen bad copies..).

 I found a Sigma 18-50 f/2.8-4.5 HSM OS Macro &c lens for under $100. I've owned this before and it does a good job. No weather seals but zoom and focus are internal so water is less apt to get inside. Focus is nicely nearly silent, and it even has in-lens stabilization which is very rare in Pentax mount. It has switches for both OS and AF (which allows for catch-in focus on the K-5). I will get an extra stop of light along with silence.. and an extra 100g of bulk.
Given the advantages of silence I'm letting this one back into my lineup. Maybe someone else will take a white 18-55wr off my hands?

The gang's all here

A few final items have now dropped into the Pentax pile. 
Now to decide what stays!

As noted earlier, the whole Pentax thing came about because the µ43 bargains dried up and K-mount items became cheap and plentiful. Definitely not my plan, but circumstances are not under my control! I re-joined µ43 because it was where good cameras could be had for $200 ..and so was my K-5. When the auction on a K-mount 10-24mm was canceled I swapped unused 4Thirds gear for a Pentax-F 17-28mm fisheye. When the 10-24 seller repented I took that too! When B&H had trouble sending me a check for some trade-in gear I converted it to store credit, then into a Pentax HD 55-300. When KEH had a $16 "UGly"-rated Sigma 28-200mm I grabbed it. When i could not find a lens mount for my 18-55wr I bought a bargain 50-200wr and robbed it.

It all happened so fast!

So what did I learn? No surprises:

• The HD 55-300wr is a typically excellent copy and offers me a weather-friendly kit with the 18-55wr.
• KEH still undervalues slow-selling lenses. The 28-200 looks new and works great (as good as the 55-300 in tests, and focuses much faster & closer), so a fair-weather pairing of this with either 10-24 or 17-28 is fun and light.
• The 10-24 is relatively large but is like nothing I've owned before. The 17-28 is great in different ways.
• In the closet I also have Sigmas 28-80 (1:2), 100-300 f/4.5-6.7 and Rikenon 70-150/4, and two primes (A50/1.7, M100/2.8). And oh yes, the manual-focus-only DA18-250! Kits beyond calculation..

posted from Bloggeroid

Battle of the Bizarre

Nothing is normal when shooting below 24mm - but that's why ultra-wide lenses exist! Their exaggeration of perspective makes for dramatic or curious images like no other lens provides. Add in a fisheye distortion curve and you're well off the map for images that non-techie shooters would consider 'traditional'.

In my film days I recall my first view through a 24mm lens on my Pentax ME Super. It was a distinctly different look even from the 28mm in the early 1980s and I really enjoyed it. In recent times I've tried 8mm and 17mm fisheyes and the DA10-17 fisheye zoom. And as noted in recent posts, I'm suddenly in a spot with two very different and very wide lenses.

So how can one compare a full-frame-friendly 17-28mm fisheye to a rectilinear 10-24mm lens? Plenty of ways - but whether they are 'fair' comparisons is debatable. I must start somewhere so here goes!

Overall size = 17-28. Small and light at 260g, though the 460g Tamron is not as bad as many.
Lens Speed = no difference, both f/3.5-4.5.
AF speed = 17-28 by a comfortable margin. The Tamron's minfocus is partly a factor.
Filter choices = 10-24. While 77mm filters are spendy the 17-28 cannot use filters at all.
Min. focus =10-24, it's ~half the 17-28 minimum (0.8' vs 1.4'), .2x 'macro' vs 0.08x.
Sharpness = ? Ratings give the 17-28 much better scores but my copies look equally very good.
Color = both look excellent in flash images of a box of many colors.
Distortion = ? The 10-24 shows some barrel distortion, not a major thing though.

Lesser information worth knowing -
micro43 range = 10-24. The 17-28 (34-56mme) has very little fisheye effect on the smaller sensor.
micro43 convenience = 17-28, which has an aperture ring. The Tamron needs a special adapter.
36x24 versatility = 17-28 is entirely film-friendly - though the 10-24 is useable above 14mm or so.
Resale value? Not sure, perhaps a slight lean to the 17-28 now that the K-1 can use it fully.

It appears that this is the Tamron's game to lose. It's tough though, as the F17-28 is a talented lens and very fun to use. Its overall aspect is wider than the SMC 17/4 prime but its close-focus skills are a bit less. I will continue the tests, but that's where it stands right now. Neither one is really a factor on other cameras; I have a film body but a K-1 is not in my near future, and I didn't plan to use these with my GX1. I do have one of the stop-down K adapters around here somewhere though..

camera-kit chaos

How do things like this happen?

I decided to chuck it all and go whole-hog µ43 in mid-December, when a budget crunch from delayed home-refinance issues stole my Pentax camera and several lenses. At that time, the bargains were all in the small format, and that's not a bad thing.

So I picked up a small Oly Pen ePL6 and a lens or two (including the rather large but talented and foul-weather-friendly 12-60), and posted about whether it would still be around a year from now. Silly me, that's never been how it works - nice though it sounds on most days!

I shifted from the Pen to a GM1 and felt fully satisfied, for most of two months. I then grabbed a GX7 and it was very nice. I picked up another bargain lens or two and we became a happy 2-µ43-camera family.

Then someone offered to buy a GX7 and 20mm at the right/wrong moment and I let it go. I wanted a second GM1 in any case so that wasn't a bad thing.

Well in fact it was, because at that time no GM1 bodies could be found for under $500!
Given my retreat to smaller bodies and having no splash-sealed body, I offered my 12-60 for sale. Instead of cash I was offered a GX1, which works quite nicely (and suddenly made the GM1 less appealing to my wife). At her direction I traded the GM1 off for another GX1 and additional lenses, so our team kit is made of GX1s and not GM1s.

And at that time the bargains all became Pentax! 
Due to my lost hope of getting a weather-sealed µ43 body I wandered past the PentaxForums Marketplace. For well under the price I received for the GX7 I picked up a K-5 and 50-200wr lens, and suddenly my closet of K-mount lenses were useful again! So my Pentax-free era lasted about five months.

I traded all my Four-Thirds gear (E500 and lenses) to a local shop in trade for a 17-28mm fisheye. I picked up a 10-24mm Tamron for a bargain price as well - but that deal fell through so the 17-28 came into play. Now I learn that the 10-24 is in fact coming soon!. I also bought a couple of dirt-cheap lenses in order to resurrect some better lenses that were doing nothing in my closet other than occasional cameos on the µ43 bodies.

Today I closed out the bizarre six-week trading time with a B&H Photo deal.
I had traded in a couple of µ43 items for cash in early May, just before the GX7 left me. That check never arrived, so I called them today determined to be satisfied. First I looked through the µ43 used section, hoping to deal for gear instead of cash. Finding no bargains there that fit my kit, I checked the Pentax section - and there sat a copy of the HD 55-300WR. Cool: it is a great lens in and of itself, but it also means my bargain 50-200WR could be raided for parts to resurrect a broken 18-55WR. In a trade I did not expect to make I suddenly had two WR lenses covering 27-450mme! It also meant I did not need the dirt-cheap items as parts (which would have been effective but not WR!) so those could be sold or donated.

So how did all the deals at this time work out for me?

• GX7 and 20mm Lumix -> K-5 and 55-200WR (50-200 parts ->18-55WR) - net cash $200 back to me
• 12-60mm Lumix -> GX1 and viewfinder, plus batteries - net cash $0
• GM1 and 12-32mm -> another GX1, lenses and flash gear - net cash $75 to me
• ePL7 and Oly 17mm pancake -> HD 55-300 (allowing 50-200 to be parted out) - net cash $0.05

Just plain silly..

GX1 Gemini

The matching GX1 bodies are now at the same address.

Initial settings are almost in place to make them clones, but a few items are not in alignment yet. I sent the manuals to a print-shop so I can learn a few new things (more precisely un-learn a few newer things that  the GM1 and GX7 taught me!) so at some point I'll know why some settings are greyed out on the newer body. I think we now have five batteries for the two cameras, so running out of power is not a safe option to claim.

As shown here the spousal cam has the silver 14-42ii on it and my GX1 has the svelte 45-150 attached. I need to order the hot-shoe/dataport cover soon for comfort's sake - or plan B: attach the VF to the spousal cam and take her cover! Clever boy.

It's interesting what changes from year to year among cameras. The GX1 has the stiffest control rings I've ever owned - the power switch and mode dial are almost scary-stiff compared to what I am used to. It's strange that the GX7 did not feel as tight; one would think this was something that most people would appreciate. As I noted before, some responsiveness is lacking in the older bodies, to no one's surprise. It's not a major concern, and the K-5 is as spry as ever in that regard so I have choices. That's seldom bad, unless it leads to paralysis (or another budget crisis!).

Clearance sale!

A few weeks back I found a local copy of the 17-28mm Pentax fisheye. At the time I had no Pentax body..but as so often happens with me, times change the kit.

Yesterday I made a Command Decision and took my Olympus E500 kit to them and offered a trade. In theory I could get more from a true sale - at the same time the 17-28 is usually $100 more than what I dealt for, so the deal was accepted & everyone's a winner! The E500 gear was getting essentially zero use since the K-5 arrived, and keeping the lenses around forced me to consider the Olympus EM1 just to keep them in play - and if I want a mid-size WR camera the K-5 is just too much of a bargain to beat for now.

I owned the fisheye zoom before and enjoyed it. The fisheye effect is lessened on smaller sensors (yes this is a lens for 36×24 reception) but the effect is cooser to a 14mm non-fisheye than a 17mm. It's nice and small too, good for hikes and a nice match with the 28-80 Sigma (though neither are foul-weather friendly). Good stuff.

the Tamron 10-24 zombie awakens!

I've just learned from the eBay seller that the 10-24mm Tamron that was withdrawn from sale last week.. is coming soon! It seems the seller pressed the wrong button while processing. I am still happy that the E500 and unused 4Thirds gear has become the 17-28mm fisheye.. but it does mean I have one more ultrawide lens than I need. It's not a bad problem to have, since both lenses can be resold for more than I paid if I must; now to test them out and see which is the keeper!

And just to make sure I have too many lenses - I bought an $18 Pentax 35-80 lens. Its sole purpose is to steal the mount and make the 18-55 'wr' a useful lens again. It won't quite be WR with that mount, but I'm not finding any of the WR mounts available for purchase. Better slightly WR than no lens at all, I'm thinking!

setting up the GX1

After doing the custom settings for GM1 and GX7 bodies, it took a bit longer to find a good combination for the earlier GX1. Many features of the earlier camera are more primitive or just not invented, so settings just took a bit longer to find or make use of. Features like the touch-AF work fine but are not as quick, and the touchscreen is both lower resolution and less precise. For example, the first time I tried video with touch-AF it didn't seem to work - but the touch sensitivity and slower AF had me briefly fooled.

I now have things the way I like. For now. I shall save the custom settings for later, but when the second GX1 arrives I'll set it up to match; that way my wife and I can shoot the same things and compare results.

News flash - the 12-32 has left the building with the GM1! More cash in for future considerations. I shall replace it with.. something, but for now GX1a will have the 14-42ii while GX1b muddles along with the 14 and 30mm primes. Not a bad situation!

more trading of horses

I found someone with a GX1 and interest in our GM1. Neither of us was interested in parting with much cash, but in the end I get the body and a 14mm Lumix pancake. That's a lens with a good reputation and pairs nicely with the 30mm Sigma.

This nearly brings the team-camera concept back in alignment. Not quite though, as we have a 12-32 and 14-42ii for the two GX1 bodies. Close enough for now I think, and quite handy for trips where those wider or longer focal lengths would be missed! I do wish one were silver for the 14-42 though, both bodies are black.

The whole two-system mess was quite an accident, really. 

I planned to get another GM1 once the GX7 left, but nothing could be found for under $500! I then found the K-5 for just under $200, I already had lenses covering 28-300 in K mount, and a 50-200WR came silly cheap for $50.  Yaay! But then I decided the 12-60 sealed lens made little sense with a GM1 so sought out a trade - and a GX1 was offered a day after the K-5 deal. 

And why not give it a try?  The GX1 uses an older 16Mpix sensor compared to the GM1/GX7, but still a talented one. And the clip-on viewfinder came along in the trade, which was a nice touch since it can be removed for a simple camera. This made me wonder how much my wife really liked 'her' GM1 since a viewfinder has been a big deal to her. When the GX1 arrived I handed her both cameras and she immediately remarked that the GX1 was the best fit of any camera I had given her; that's important since we'd tried Pentax Q, Samsung NX300 and smaller K-body SLRs. The viewfinder clinched the deal - and here we are now.

• Pentax: K-5, 28-80 1:2, 55-200WR, 70-150, 100-300, 50/1.7 and 100/2.8

• µ43: GX1×2, Lumix 12-32, 14-42ii, 14/2.5 and 30/2.8 (also a 46mm adapter to make the 14 into a 10.5 and the 30 into a 23?) plus 45-150mm zoom and any Pentax lenses I choose to adapt!

New ways to play with K

The K-5 has arrived and is doing just fine, as expected. Now about my lenses..

I had tried to deal an 18-250 but it was rejectDolby B&H, and now i see why. When I last used it focus was fine except at the long end where I presumed f/6.3 had too little light. Now I cannot get it to focus anywhere in the range! Very disappointing. The 28-90 and 100-300 work fine but I have neither wide-angle nor weather-sealed options.

The WR issue was fixed tonight with a DAL/WR 50-200mm lens. Nice, but it limits the 100-300's utility a bit! In the past I've found the DAL copies of the 50-200 gave better results than the da versions - which makes no sense at all, though I hope it's still true!

So this leaves me with a major hole below 28mm. I am bidding on an 18-50re but kept the bid low so we shall see. I may want to lose, to try a new option that caught me by surprise.

I had a few familiar choices: 18.55 or 18.135, 10.17 fisheye, 16.45 or a local copy of the F17.28 fisheye. All these options are familiar ones but no used deals are exceptional so all options will cost over $100 right now. And then I saw a "pristine" Tamron 10.24 online for $150. That's a really low price for an ultrawide and opens up more possibilities than the usual suspects.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Update: sure enough the 18-50 went for a dollar over my bid, and the 10-24 option was pulled. Plan B-minus is to find a mount for my white 18-55WR, preferably a WR mount but anything will do on a budget! depending on my need I could have either the 18-55 or 55-200 have the sealed mount.. but better both than the wrong one at the wrong time.

not again yes again.. not

Recall the short time since my K-5 departed and I embraced the µ43 for the third time, more or less. If you'd rather not click I will stipulate that it was mid-December, six short months ago

Also recall that I am not sane, and occasionally stressed financially.

All set?

No surprise to you then to learn that a K-5 is on the way here, and the gx7 is gone. Yes 'tis true.
Someone had a Want to Buy offer when I had a dollar crunch, and gx7 plus 20mm have departed.

I returned to µ43 for several good reasons, and one important factor was low prices. I could pick up an Oly PEN with 16Mpix sensor for under $250. This time the low prices swung to Pentax: I let the two items go, picked up the K-5 and put $250 in the bank! My 'new' K-5 has over 50k clicks on the shutter, but that's either quarter or half of the rated lifespan - and per the first paragragh I'll likely let it go for some good reason before I've put 5k more on it. Sad.. but true.

This leaves me* with a K-5 and several lenses that failed to leave with the previous camera (including a da18-250), plus the GM1 and a few decent Lumix zooms - and some of that Lumix gear is changing again soon.

..something like this?

I've decided that for me smaller µ43 is better, so the gx7 plus 12-60 are not ideal. I offered the 12-60 in trade for a gm1 or a baby kit lens, and an offer came back for a gx1 and 12-32mm pancake zoom. Not sure yet about the body, but kit lenses come no smaller than that 12-32! I've now read up on several "GM1 or GX1?" threads, and many prefer the GX1 ergonomically despite the newer sensor and a few added GM1 tricks. Plus a viewfinder can be added to the GX1. Perhaps that deal is worth a test drive in any case!
Deal agreed to, GX1 and 12-32 for the 12-60. O what fun!

*Kit update, FWiW:

K-5 + 17-28FE,, 28-80 1:2 and 100-300 Σ, 70-150 Rikenon - 25-450mme

GM1, GX1 + 14/2.5, 14-42ii, 45-150, 30mm Σ, -- 28-300mme

Staying in touch

Our cell phones have been almost useless this past year. Our home is quite remote, so it's no great surprise - yet the degraded signal is a problem.

We recently picked up a signal booster, a WeBoost 3G device for residential use. First tests were not great, but finally I rigged up a spot with a decent signal. Today I crawled under the house and rerouted a coaxial cable that once went to a satellite dish. I pulled it to the east side of the house where cell towers are most prevalent and mounted the antenna high on the side of our home. That worked for a bit but not consistently, so I moved it to the edge of our deck. Now our signal is pretty nearly at maximum!

So we went from a home where two indoor spots gave us occasional signals to excellent reception in several rooms and our deck as well. Much better!

Tempting items

I have been beset with opportunities to modify my camera kit. I dumped some gear when buying the 20mm pancake and a check is on its way.

But wait:how about some gear instead of cash?

•  I could have grabbed a 14/2.5 Lumix instead of cash, allowing the trio of 14-20-30 to fill in for the 12-60. Wait a moment, wasn't the 12-60 the main reason I now use µ43 gear at all?? Why am I avoiding it, especially when reviews praise it at the wide settings in particular? Strike one.
• My copy of the Pentax 18-250 was turned down and will be returned. Bummer since I have no body for it. Oh wait they have a used K-5 at a great price! Right, 2 systems again. Worse yet the µ43 kit. has a wx-sealed lens but not body and Pentax would be reversed. So get a cheap WR lens.. thereby refuting the 18-250 as an excuse for the body. Strike two.
• Something else perhaps, a cheaper K body or a Sigma 60 for the gx7? No thank you. Keep reminding myself that the check is paying for the 20mn I already have, not free cash to blow on more stuff.

So the blog was silent despite these temptations!
I just wanted the record to be clear.

in praise of RESET

I had changed nearly every GX7 setting possible, and 'fixing' it was beyond my skill. Thankfully there's a menu setting just for times like this: RESET. It asks two questions, for basic and custom settings - I said Yes to both and the camera is back to its happy original self. 

I can now dive back into my guide-books and menu settings and take my sweet time fiddling with things that really don't need my intervention. For example - I found the Q.Menu could be customized so I did that immediately, without any thought as to what had been set up automatically! This time I'll try what the GX7 offers first, then toy with it as seems best.

I shall need to reset my Custom C1-5 settings - but those were not as I thought I had set them in any case!

I downloaded an e-copy of David Thorpe's 'GX7 menus simplified' book. It definitely helps to have a translation of the Lumix system (any system, really - even for a US product) so with that in mind perhaps I'll walk myself into fewer times where the camera's actions completely mystify me!

small shifts

I like my small primes.
The Oly 17/2.8 and Sigma 30 are both small f/2.8 lenses that do great work. Being f/2.8 keeps them small and I like it that way; the 12-60mm zoom can handle the tasks when versatility beats speed and best-possible image quality.

However.. the appeal of the newer Sigma 30/1.4 was beginning to get to me! Events that really could use faster glass have come and gone, forcing me into the higher reaches of ISO to pull off. The Sigma small-30 has been a great fit for many reasons, so seeing it under such pressure is sad - but it was a good candidate for replacement with a faster lens. The Sigma f/1.4 is still pretty new and in demand, so used deals are not likely at all - and it adds more cubic inches and 100g to the bulk of my kit. Not unreasonable, but still less convenient than the little f/2.8 version.

The pressure has now been relieved - but not in the way I had expected. 

A couple of deals on used Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lenses appeared online, and I ordered one of those instead.
This is perhaps the original 'must-have' lens for the µ43 system, with compactness and great image quality offset only mildly by a 'slow' AF system. I've offered up a few other spare parts in exchange so the final expense for it should be quite small.

One of those 'spares' is the Olympus 17. I'd be very hard pressed to differentiate between times when the 17 or 20 would take precedence, so better to skip that part. Thankfully the odd 46mm filter size on the 20mm matches the Sigma 30 (and their 60/2.8 for that matter) so a new pile of filters will not be needed. And on the GX7 the little primes are stabilized!

I plan to seek out a Lumix 14/2.5 in the future* for wider shots. That one is another early model semi-fast pancake that I've owned before and felt good about. That leads to 14-20-30 and 45-150 for the tiny kit, with the 12-60 for handy wide zoom. Turning the 14mm vertically and stitching 2-3 images would cover to perhaps 9mm for those rare times when that would be of value.
Here's a 'blog post from someone who looks over the Lumix pancakes and has enjoyed them for a while!

* some slight risk that a fisheye will appear instead for the wider shots.. we shall see..

phone follies

Our relationship with CenturyLink was strained big-time when our move was not handled properly. I sent them a note on their website that we were moving, but we still received a bill. Two calls and six months later we were finally disconnected - only to get a collections call several months later, and a ding on our credit just as our home loan closed. Strained indeed.

We've been using two cell phones plus a cell-based home number for a year or so.. but this past winter our signal has been really poor. To my chagrin we chose to return to a land-line for our home number; given no real choice, we had kept our internet with CLink. We shifted our home/cell # to a SIM card, picked a new home number, and it was 'installed' last month. An internet+home phone offer online offered a $100 gift card as inducement, but to my infinite lack of surprise our install was a change not new service = no gift card for us.

For about five days all went well - but then our internet flaked out And our new phone stopped working. A service call placed the blame squarely inside our home, meaning that without their monthly extortion / LineBacker coverage the expense to us would be a Big Deal. We said Hake NO, disconnected our new service and went with VoIP instead. PhonePower accepted the new number and ported it over, and all was well.

For about three days.

Apparently CLink pulled the number after PPower made it work, but before the 'official' install date! How it functioned for several days without being installed, I'll never know - but nothing about this surprises me any more.

So we now have three cell numbers + a new phone number that vanished* + a VoIP home number. 
For three people, that's just silly.. but for now we'll see how it goes. The newly-ported cell number is hooked to different cell towers than the other two (T-mobile not ATT) so it could conceivably capture a better signal than the other two. That might lead to new SIM cards all around - or just as likely I toss the whole bunch and go Luddite after I go bald from tearing out my hair.

*Update - I just called someone with caller ID, and the fully-operational voIP number is the 'vanished' one! AAAaaarrRRGH!

2nd update - c-Link turned us off for non payment the same day pPower was "installing" our new phone. We have contacted Hughes Net and will cut the clink cord next week. Good Riddance.

We also ordered a WeBoost 3g signal-plucker to assist our cell phones. 
One or more of these will bring us back into contact with the connected world; whether it's worth doing will wait to be seen!

18Apr updates. The VoIP phone calls out but would not be reached from Elsewhere by either of the two numbers; it finally worked (once at least) this morning. The WeBoost system is working well in test mode i.e. cables everywhere and lashed to an outside post with a bungee cord. A more permanent fix will follow soon.

spring cleaning

In the very near future I shall commit an act of Organization. Those often scare me, and in this case it's a big one: sorting all my images from a plethora of folders into a set sorted by year/date. Several programs can do this dirty work now, and I have a poly-terabyte backup drive to send this to. Once that looks sane I can do a boat-load of deletions, reformat my Imaging hard drive, and pull the de-chaos-ed data back there. Perhaps I can reset my cameras to monthly folders as well to make this process more fluid in the future.

I don't know it the automation of it makes this more or less spooky. So many of these images are truly junk (e.g. comparing shots taken with two or three lenses which I haven't owned in years) or just bad (taken after dark from a moving vehicle).

I've now gone a decade or more by simply making up a folder name as I go. Picasa made such decisions too easy for me - and now I'm firmly entrapped by my laziness. For example: I have a Pentax folder in the images area, with several subfolders for lenses and cameras I have used. I also have Pentax gear that is not under the Pentax folder. And other shots with Pentax cameras on the 'Pictures' folder of the c: drive! And why do I need to know it's a Pentax image by stuffing it into a specific folder, if the image data already has that label embedded within it? Plenty of thinking needs to go along with the new storage technique.


And yes, I can add labels within these sorting programs later; even Windows can do that. I can even add stars! I've always found that to be a bit odd, as why exactly would I keep 1-star images at all?

Better late than never.. maybe!

learning the GX7

After a few weeks and too little use, the GX7 still feels unusual to me. I'm hoping to change that, and also change a few settings to make it more precisely mine!

Once the basics were fleshed out (date & time, focus preference, image size/quality and such) it was time to toy with the function buttons. I've tried a few choices already but time needs to be spent before deciding which items stay or go. I've set the eye-sensor to High in the hopes that the main screen will go blank less often when my thumb passes near the viewfinder, and that custom button has returned to its original spot rather than shifting WiFi there. My custom Q-Menu is now mostly set as well. With four hard buttons and five more on the touchscreen, plus Q-Menu and 4-way pad presets, it's incredible how many settings can be accessed!

from review at cameralabs.com

I've discovered one new interactive item that I like very much - I can pop into and out of spot metering at the touch of a button! It's a touchscreen feature that you can select to change the exposure point for an image. Point to a bright object and watch the screen darken, then point elsewhere (or turn off) to return to matrix or center-weight metering. Very cool!
On is set to Fn2, reset at Fn3!

And finally - at last! - on to the Custom settings. Three positions on the mode dial can be preset to however you choose. I've owned many cameras with this feature, but have almost never put them in play - so it's time, and well past time, to make sensible use of them!

again from cameralabs

For now at least, here are my settings:

1. Aperture priority, auto ISO to 3200, AF via rear button not shutter, standard image type
2. Shutter priority, auto ISO 800-6400, AF on shutter (birds and other action setting)
3. Aperture setup similar to #1, shoots RAW plus jpeg monochrome

The third position actually has two other options that are accessed via C3+touchscreen; I'll contemplate the possibilities later on those.

So far I'm holding strong on the 2-zoom, 2-prime kit. It fits quite snugly in my Tamrac Jazz 36 bag, though any additions will put me over the top. That might not stop me from buying more, but it does provide some incentive at least!
It has two compartments plus the center section for cam+attached lens; when a prime is attached the 2nd prime goes below it, otherwise the primes stack in one of the side compartments. The side pockets hold lens hoods while the front pocket has extension tube and spare batteries with a USB charger. I need to determine which filters need to come along; if many are needed I'll have to reassess my pocket uses for a safe place. 

Fun fact: GX7 plus the four lenses rounds nicely to 1 kilogram!

resistance is difficult

I feel very good about the current µ43 kit - which is a good and a bad sign.

For some reason it's the last few pieces to my kit that have forced a reassessment and ultimately the utter derangement of said kit. Adding a single item can make others look in need of an update. Yes that sounds bizarre and counter-intuitive, but I've been there, more than once. A new piece makes old ones look old - or too large/slow/irrelevant - and suddenly the kit spontaneously combusts!

I'm sitting pretty with 17 and 30mm primes, cute little things that can fill in when the 12-60 isn't the right choice. Both f/2.8 primes are faster than the 12-60 at any point in its range, so low light makes them worth having. They also work nicely with the 45-150mm telephoto zoom: (almost) 15-30-45mm steps.

But what about the low end? Shouldn't something in the 8-12mm range be a good fit? Well.. maybe. For that matter a 24mm Wesley could give me (almost) 8-16-24-32 steps, and more steps means less gaps..

-no No NO!! This way lies madness. Take the 12-60 and NO gaps happen!
I was overjoyed in my film days to go as wide as 24mm - what has changed to make me so FL-greedy?

Primes are 'better' for image quality in general but zooms exist for a good reason. The 12-60 can focus closely with no attachments and keeps me from changing lenses in the field. And Lumix cameras can do panoramic shots, meaning that the 12-60 can be used in portrait mode for wider, stitched shots.

Yes I'd love a fisheye type, and at some point one may appear. I also really like the Sigma 60mm. I like gear, OK? Just don't get back into the rut of acquisitions that force other sensible choices to fall apart.

impatience rewarded

The twice-lost GX7 has arrived! I feel no gratitude for the USPS tracking site, which could not locate the camera even as the truck drove up to our mailbox. What a waste of good disk space.

the new all-Black team (taken with GM1 and smcA 50/1.7)

I am surprised by the fine match between the 12-60mm Lumix and 30mm gen-1 Sigma. Black with silver text and fine-ribbed rings look very similar. That's nice.

First images look very nice, as expected.
First handling impressions are great: this body is far easier to hold than the pinch-grip required by the GM1, and plenty of controls at hand. I also like the balance of the 12-60 far better now, as it felt very over-sized on the GM1. Guess that's why the 12-32 and small primes exist!My wife loves tiny though, so we'll both be happy with our GM1/GX7 team!

Now to mess with menus and button assignments, and make it truly mine!

some times I surprise myself

I had a chance to pick up a Sigma 60mm for an excellent price.. and I didn't. A tempting 14-140 Lumix f/4-5.8 also was shunned, a lesser surprise but still: well done.

I'd been sure for quite some time that my new kit would include that 60. So why did I decline? The fact is I already have a nice little 50/1.7 Pentax-A that has not even been tried yet, and being 2/3 stop faster is no little thing. The Lumix bodies have focus peaking for such lenses so their occasional use is hardly painful. Both my zooms include 60mm (with less light grasp) so it's redundant three different ways.

And yet..  a few short hours later I bought the 30mm Sigma EX DN! (the Old One with a grip - shown here)

So why did I make this deal for a lens that must compete with the 4thirds 35mm 1:1 macro? Unlike the 60mm it's less redundant, faster than the 35/3.5 and the 12-60, and also creates a fine little 17/30/45-150 kit for days when the 12-60mm is less appropriate. I don't always need to reach 12mm after all, the 17 and 30mm lenses gather more light, and weather seals on the zoom are less useful on an unsealed body. The 12-60 is still a fine lens though and will get plenty of use!

The 35mm may still win out for image quality.. but with the adapter it becomes a lot larger than the Sigma, so it could win but still lose.

Note that the same arguments can be used for the Pentax 50 vs the Sigma 60mm! To that I suggest that the size difference is smaller between those two, and light penalty greater. 
We shall see if the 60mm eventually forces its way back into contention..

a two-horse race.. and a winner

It appears that for a similar amount of money I could pick one of two µ43 cameras: the Lumix GX7 or Olympus EM5 'classic'. Which to choose?

Neither is a poor choice in any circumstance. Their common  strengths are many: lenses, battery life, two control dials, tilting touch-screens, decent e-viewfinders and many control options. In-body IS debuts in the Lumix line with the GX7, and it's less sophisticated than the EM5 - yet it works really well* in some tests.

However, the differences can drive one nuts! Many websites have comparison pages between these two. Quite convenient to have websites to consult, but each user must decide what is most important to their shooting style:

• weather seals? choose the EM5
• more sophisticated 5-axis stabilization = EM5*
• longer and more versatile time exposures? definitely EM5!
• feature set and imaging pipeline that matches my wife's GM1 = GX7
• stabilized video with any lens= EM5; lens-IS only (but touchscreen AF) with GX7
• WiFi, NFC, tilt EVF = GX7
• focus peaking, also GX7
• best implementation of touchscreen that I've tried = any Lumix, ergo GX7
• Menu system and phraseology that gives me fewer headaches? GX7 for sure

Having tried both Lumix and Olympus in several forms I find that I'm partial to the Panasonic method of setting up a camera and taking pictures. Even with the cool live-bulb feature, I let go of my previous EM5. The ability to touch the screen for AF in videos is quite handy to me and I'd miss that; the WiFi is handy now and then but it isn't enough to sway me to GX7 by itself - same with the tilting EVF, which I don't doubt I would use but I cannot say it's a Big Deal.

Yes the ending has now been written. 
I found two very nice used bodies for the same price - and I chose the GX7.

I really wanted weather seals and would like to explore the Olympus live-bulb capabilities, but for 98% of what I do the GX7 feels like the better choice for me. I felt the same way once about the Pentax K-3ii and its Pixel Shift abilities.. but in the end the other controls for everyday shooting just weren't a great fit, and when a budget crises took it away (just like the EM5) I found I missed it less than I expected. I'd love to live in a world where I did not have to spend money to learn which camera is the Right One, but that isn't the case.

image from comparison page at
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/panasonic-lumix-gx7-vs-olympus-om-d-e-m5-comparison-review-22646

* it should be noted that one website tested both and found to its surprise that the 2-axis stabilization on the GX7 often worked better!

castaways (spousal considerations II)

With the recent appeal of the GM1, my wife and I decided the Samsung NX pair can go.
Easier said than done nowadays, as everyone knows it's an orphaned system - but it is still excellent gear capable of impressive images.  The NX300 has a 20Mpx APSc sensor with PDAF sensors within, so its hybrid CD+PD system focuses quickly. The touchscreen allows for quick selection of where to AF in stills and video. I had tried to sell my copy several times recently with no success.

Today it sold!
I shall miss the uniqueness of the NX system, and how it captured colors just a bit differently from any other system I've tried. Blues and browns were somehow stronger, and images of Duncan may never quite be the same.

So the New Kit XVII has surfaced:

• Lumix / micro43 body (GM1 for now)
• Lumix 12-60 sealed power-IS lens (24-120mme)
• Lumix 45-150 tiny telephoto zoom (90-300mme)
• Olympus 17mm/2.8 pancake prime

clockwise: usb charger, Oly 17, Zuiko 35 macro adapted,
45-150 on GM1 and Lumix 12-60

At some point a few more small lenses will drop in; hopefully the Sigma 60/2.8 and a fisheye type of some sort. The higher-end primes are quite amazing, but my wife isn't the only one here who prefers their gear to be small. Besides, I am not a big user of 50mme so I don't need one of the many 24/25mm lenses. I have fast Pentax primes at 100 and 200mme so indulging in µ43 telephoto primes with few additional features feels unreasonable.

I'd like a weather-sealed body to go with that 12-60 but the GX7 is a good choice for now. Images should match the GM1 but with advanced controls & features like a viewfinder, better grip and tip screen. No rush on a second body though -- going by my track record that means "within a month", sadly. Not sad to own: sad that I'm so predictable! 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Oh yes: the emergency-backup kit remains for now. These lenses can be adapted to micro cameras, but AF is dreadfully slow that way. Still, using in MF isn't all that bad, and it's nice to have a 1:1 macro now and then.. not to mention 400mme for distant critters!
Olympus e500 dSLR (4Thirds)
Zuiko 14-42 zoom gen.2 (28-84mme)
Zuiko 35mm f/3.5 1:1 macro (70mme)
Zuiko 18-180 superzoom (36-360mme)
Sigma 55-200 zoom (110-400mme)

Given the resale value of ten-year-old digital cameras, and that the E500 uses a Kodak CCD sensor, it's hard to find a reason to give it up. CCD sensors have a different 'look' from CMOS; not many can state what that difference is, but many prefer CCD when the ISO setting can be kept at its base setting. Why not have the option? I also plan for it to be my slide-duplication setup, as 8Mpx will be plenty of data without totally jamming up a few hard drives.