It’s December 31st and I’m sitting in my living room evaluating how to end the year with a reflective post and some insight as to what I want 2018 to look like. I’ve resolved not to make any resolutions and to just to better than I did in 2017 with respect to health, wealth, and wisdom. From a photography point of view, I have four cameras that I’m readying for sale on eBay to include my Olympus OMD EM5 II, Olympus Air A01, Polaroid SLR 690 and my MiNT Polaroid SLR 670s. All are great cameras but they’re not seeing a whole lot of use while my Olympus Pen F and Fuji XPro2 are getting most of my attention.
I’m struggling with what to do with some of my Olympus glass. I was pretty invested in the Olympus system and I’ve gone from four cameras to what will become one after I’ve sold a couple. I love my Pen F and the small primes–especially the 17/1.8, 25/1.8, and 45/1.8. I have a second 17/1.8 that I’ve kept attached to the Olympus Air which has always been a bit of a novelty camera that Olympus really hasn’t given a whole lot of attention by way of updates–it could be a useful tool but it’s slow and lacks stabilization. I have a 12-40/2.8 Pro lens that was great with the EM5 II and I’ll probably hang on to it for a while but it’s not getting much time on the Pen F. If a Pen F II is released that is weather resistant, that might change things a bit and I’m sure it could be my go to lens for an event or documentary shoot but maybe not because f/1.8 primes are just superb and fit so well on the Pen F.
I’m also struggling with the Olympus Pen F over the Fuji XPro2 as my go to camera. The Pen F is smaller and slightly quicker to autofocus but the recent firmware upgrade for the XPro2 has made the Fuji a real contender when it comes to AF speed. Where the Pen F really shines is in IBIS–when Fuji adds that to its cameras, things will really get interesting. I’m conflicted as I like what the XPro2 and other Fuji cameras represent in terms of investing in a system where size and performance in both perception and reality rival the ‘professional’ systems offered by Canon and Nikon. Olympus is no slouch and is more of an inconspicuous, surgical performance tool without the bulk given the smaller micro four thirds sensor versus APS-C sensor cameras. There are times when I like using the larger XPro2 and times when I prefer the smaller Pen F.
No resolutions in 2018 but less will be more as I focus on more shooting with less gear. I’ll get the year started by reducing my current inventory by these four cameras.
