Friday, May 27, 2022

Forgotten, But Not Gone ;-) And another sell off? **UPDATED**

Well, howdy there Internet People ... sorry, almost stole Beau's opening. 

So this blog has had a very spotty history since about 2013, which coincidentally lined up with a pretty significant life event. I am not sure that I could generate the enthusiasm to start up intense blogging again, especially in a world where this is mostly done on YouTube, but I feel that I should get back to some photography and I'm not sure I have the time or energy to vlog. I suppose we'll see which mix of technologies I choose as the outlet for my hobby ...

One thing that I do have in the hopper in the second great sell off of camera equipment. It is finally time to be permanently shut of Nikon equipment. This is not because I suddenly don't love them, but rather I cannot be bothered carrying heavy equipment around any more. I have some wonderful pieces that I will surely miss (e.g. D600, D7200, numerous excellent lenses), but alas, things change over time and the pandemic has wrought change like nothing else in my lifetime.

As I did ten years ago in 2012, I am consolidating again down onto mirrorless cameras. At that time, I was starting fresh into mirrorless, but this time I already have a stable of mirrorless cameras -- G7 (my daily driver webcam), G85, GX85, GX9 -- that I can use to get my phtographic jollies, so to speak.

But I actually want to update the G85, and possibly even the GX9 (which I only acquired months ago in a screaming deal with several lenses). Basically, I am choosing now between two excellent options ... or even three. They are, in no particular order:

  • Sell the G85 and GX85 and get the G9. This gives me the GX9 and G9, a superb tandem that would last a lifetime in my opinion.
  • Sell the GX9 in addition to the above and get the G9 and the EM5 Mark III. This would be in some ways an even better tandem in that Olympus's cool new features would mostly be available to me. But hand held hi res is not there and neither is the built in pseudo ND filters. So that's not quite ideal.
  • Keep the GX9 and get the EM1 Matk III. This is a shift to Olympus as my main driver with Panny as my secondary. This brings a host of superb features and very good performance. But the G9 performs pretty much just as well and is still my preferred option as the Oly has flaws like a reasonably crappy EVF and such like. Still, this option does not suck. But it is almost as pricey as getting the G9 and the EM5iii.
  • And so the ultimate ... keep the GX9 and get the OM-1. That's the best camera I've ever seen in mirrorless and is tempting beyond belief. The most expensive option of course, but not a lot more expensive than the EM5/G9 option, and arguably a lot more performance. Plus, I love the GX9 feel in the hand and would like to keep that around. And the G9 is very long in the tooth.
Alas ... options, options. I want modern tech for sure as I have little patience any more for slow AF systems. And I have a lot of older equipment that I can essentially trade off against a much simpler and smaller system going forward. 

So if anyone reads this (and that is not a given lol), let me know in the comments what you would do and why. I have a bit of time since there is much to be done to get the equipment prepped and sold.

Update Dec 2022

So I ended up getting a great deal on a used G9 with vlog and a Lumix 25 1.7 for 950cad. It looks and feels like new so I checked its shutter count and lo and behold it had less than 1400 shutter actuations when I got it. Wow. It came from the east coast and shipping was super reasonable, so I count myself very happy with the purchase. Now to get on with the sell off of the Nikon kits and some other miscellaneous stuff.