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! 

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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.

Class of 2017

A bit more clarity on the arriving gear for 2017 - hopefully it will still be around next Christmas!

• The Lumix 12-60mm arrived in time to hide beneath the Christmas tree. The ePL6 arrived on the 27th despite its "3-day" shipping tag. The lens is quite short, slightly stout and overall looks very nice; initial plans were for it to join the Pentax 100/2.8 and Rikenon 70-150/4 as the trio to get things done.  However..

from www.wrotniak.net

• I found a 4Thirds copy of the Σ 55-200mm zoom online last night. I had owned this DC lens with my K100d in 2010 and I liked it quite a bit, plus using it on a 4Thirds sensor will improve any vignetting or corner-softness issues. Since it goes to 200mm, or 400mme, it has some advantages over the xx-150 zooms available in the micro format. A nice option to have even if I choose to stop at 150mm. The penalty will be its being adapted to the micro mount, which will likely result in deathly slow AF. It has a true mechanical focus with distance scale though, which means manual focus will not be an absolute pain - and the Rikenon would be doing the same thing anyway (and weighs 100g more) - so why not this? Panasonic makes a 45-200 but it too is over 100g heavier (though the 4Thirds adapter covers much of that difference). All the Sigma reviews I found are positive even at 2-3x the price I'm paying, which is less than those µ43 lenses that stop at 150mm - so again, why not? 

•  The occasional deal on used GX8 and GX85 bodies are out and about, so that's nice to see. No hurry on this - or so I keep telling myself. The GX8 could even close out if they update it with the latest shutter mechanism next spring. And if the focus speed is awful with ePL6 and the 55-200 then an EM1 body begins to make more sense at a similar price!

So the micro kit to take me into 2017 = Oly ePL6 + Lumix 12-60 + Sigma 55-200  plus Pentax 50/1.7 and 100/2.8, 10mm extension tube for closeups, and adapters for PK, 4Thirds, T-mount and 1¼ telescope eyepiece! 

Sigma 55-200 on 4Thirds adapter, M100/2.8, A50/1.7 on K adapter, and Lumix 12-60 on ePL6

 Coming at some point - probably 20mm Lumix, 60mm Sigma and a (hopefully) sealed (Lumix) body - though an EM5 or EM1 would serve quite well.

I feel like I'm off to a pretty good start.