Travels and tribulations finding a new camera

Finishing a successful art show season, I have started a search for a new camera.  I am and remain a Nikon shooter, but have a need for a lighter weight camera for every day use, carrying wherever I go.  Jaunts with the family to Disney World, walks around anywhere,  the D7000 or D300 get quite heavy, of course I almost always carry more than one lens.  Earlier in the year I tried out one of the Olympus M4/3 mirror-less cameras, E-PL1 , and a couple of lens.  It was a decent little camera, but for some reason just didn’t please me.  It took pretty good pictures, but never felt right in my hands.  So I returned it.

                                     Olympus E-PL1 40-150 f4.0-5-6 lens @96mm 1/500 sec f 8.0 iso 200

Reading every thing I could find on the web about smaller format cameras, I at one time or another considered most of them without actually buying anything.  Almost jumped on the Nikon 1 V1 small camera, but the tiny sensor concerned me.  Played with a couple of the Panasonic M4/3 offerings, but didn’t bite.

The Sony Nex 7 received good marks for image quality, and had a few lens choices available (not nearly as many as the M4/3 choices) so I ordered it from Amazon.  Took it out of the box, installed a lens, and repacked it.  I just did not like the form of the camera, felt like a toy in my hands.  I didn’t even give it a try.  Sent it back for a refund.  

I have read many reviews of the new  Fujifilm offerings, the X100 and X-Pro 1.  Retro styled cameras that get excellent marks for picture quality, but mixed reviews for quirkiness and build quality.  They are simply beautiful cameras, if you will accept such a description  for a camera. The X-100 below.

The X-100 showed up on my doorstep on afternoon about two weeks ago.  Just like books have a way of showing up from Amazon.  Never been able to understand it.  Be that as it may, it is a sweet little camera.  Light, hangs nicely around my neck.  It is quirky, takes some getting used to.  The fixed focal length means sneaker zoom.  You really have to think about taking a picture again using this little jewel.  The auto-focus is a little slow, wouldn’t do too well for sports, but then I don’t shoot sports anyway.  I started off shooting in manual focus using the afl/ael button to lock focus in.  Here is a hibiscus shot right out of the camera.

                                            Fujifilm Finepix X-100 23mm 1/200 sec @ f3.2 iso 640

This is a Texas hibiscus, huge in other words.  

This is a great little camera to walk around with.  My son-in-law, Aaron, when he first saw it around my neck, said “Is that an old film camera?”  It looks old, but has all the new digital innards.  And is very comfortable to carry around all day.  Best of all, it takes great pictures.  As long as you pay attention to what you are doing, back to basic photography again.  Here is another shot for your pleasure.

Or perhaps you prefer this.

More travels with the X-100 to come.  Stay tuned.