To add to my initial post, in the interim I’ve bought both a 35mm f1.4 and a 20mm f2.0 which are relegated to the X-Pro1 as they are perfectly matched. I came across a X-T1 under warranty last year on e-bay on the cheap so I grabbed it, and the 18-55 f2.8-4.0 sees duties on it. These are well matched as well.
When Fuji had the 55-200mm zooms on sale for $500 in the spring I succumbed to GAS and grabbed one of those
I’ve not had a lens with that much reach since I sold the Nikon kit, so developing an eye for it will take a bit of time I suspect. Frequently, I take my dog on walks around a local lake and I’ve been forcing myself to carry it on those walks. It’s a very scenic area with a plethora of available imagery, but honestly I’m still far from comfortable with the focal range so it’s been a bit of a challenge thus far.
At this juncture the biggest issue, at least in my “little” mind, is deciding which camera/lens to bring for a particular purpose. The X-T1 is becoming my travel camera as the zoom is an extremely useful tool to have for accommodating differences in views in unfamiliar locales. It’s also relatively compact and that makes carrying it through airports and such much easier.
The X-Pro is becoming my local tourist camera (I live in the Washington DC Metro Area). I’ll bring both lenses as the close confines of “The District” and areas like Alexandria need flexibility, but don’t demand a zoom.
The x100s is becoming my pocket camera for casual occasions due to it’s small size. It’s funny though, every time I take it out I’m gobsmacked how quiet and smooth the shutter activation is.
Also notable in recent events is a migration of my post processing from LightRoom to Capture One. I’ve never really gotten comfortable with LightRoom and had decided to stay with v6.17 as it supported all my cameras and I’m not a huge fan of software subscriptions. When Capture One announced the “Fuji Express” edition of Capture One last year I grabbed a copy and installed it.
Even with the limited capabilities of the Express version of C1, the relative ease of getting to my “minds eye” of a particular image was literally a 2 step process. I was hooked, as they say, upon first glance. (Love at first sight?)
When Phase One had the promo for the full Fuji version of C1 for $109 in the spring, I grabbed a copy. Again the added functionality (layers, color tools, etc) so impressed me that I went ahead and upgraded to the full version so I could PP all my files from other cameras as well. So I got the full version of C1 for $209, which not cheap, but is less expensive than the regular price.
Adapting my workflow to C1 has been marginally less successful than adapting my post processing. I liked the catalog management capabilities of LR and naively jumped straight into catalogs with C1. I’ve got in the neighborhood of 60k images in my warehouse and to be kind this is well beyond the capabilities of the C1 catalog system.
So, I’ve been doing all my Digital Asset Management (DAM) with LR. I ingest, rename, apply metadata, etc with it. Then I use C1 in session mode, but don’t import any files or create new sessions. I merely browse to the new imagery and apply post processing. It seems to work okay, but I need to do some trials to see how everything works out.
I’ve also been dabbling with xnView MP during this time. Honestly it provides all the capabilities of LR without the penalties. It’s more a browser system than a DAM tool, but honestly it does all the asset management I need. Renaming, metadata, exif management etc. If I can find a way to georeference from Google Maps data (I use Jeff Friedl’s Geocoding LR for that), then I very well may migrate over solely to xnView MP. Just need to arm twist myself into not using LR just because I paid for it….
The remaining hurdle with C1 is printing. Printing from LR, in conjunction with the Canon printer thingy, was easy and effortless. I’ll need to work through this.