• So here's how you solve the rangefinder dilemma: invest in Fuji XF lenses and get an X-T1 and an X-Pro1 (or -2, which should be out in 2015). Then it's simple; just pick whichever viewfinder you happen to feel like using that day.
I know, this isn't cost-effective, but hey, we were just talking about the Leica M.
• I haven't bonded with it, but in my judgment the Olympus E-M1 is the best all-around, general purpose, do-everything camera on the planet right now. It compromises on many levels, but it also just hits so many sweet spots it's insane. Ergonomics, size and weight, that awesome IBIS, the endless lenses you can use with it. The only thing I don't like about it is the position of the on/off switch, and c'mon, if you have to complain about that....
• There are a lot of interesting tidbits of information in the Sony Devices Segment report just out—for instance, that sales of sensors for compact digicams have declined by a whopping 30% but that Sony now has virtually 100% of the market for them; or that imaging sensors account for 43% of the Segment's sales, meaning 320 billion yen (approx. US$2.7 billion); or that they foresee the interchangeable lens camera sensor market dropping by almost half (18 million units to 10 million units) by 2017. Or that Sony thinks the A6000 has the world's fastest autofocus.
But the most interesting thing in the report to me is conceptual:
...Sony thinks that sensors will "strengthen imaging" if they exceed the capacity of the human eye. Which sensors already do in some ways, but still, it's an interesting goal—and an interesting question as to whether that's something that art-oriented photographers want or need. It's something I brought up years ago in my discussion of the Sony A900 and Nikon D3, remember? I thought the A900 saw detail a lot better than I did and the D3 saw in the dark a lot better than I did.
• After a long allegiance to 4/3 and more than a dalliance with full-frame, I'm back to thinking that APS-C is the optimum sensor size. You know, sort of what Michael Reichmann was arguing in, I don't know, 2004? I mean, I really like the A7II, but the sensor's too big for my kind of photography...APS-C really does hit the best balance. (My last two cameras have been APS-C, the Sony NEX-6 that just got retired and the X-T1 I've been using recently.) And don't think this is sour grapes—I've owned two full-frame cameras and still have one of them.
• Speaking of old-fashioned APS-C, the Canon 7D Mark II looks like a nice conventional DSLR, doesn't it? Anybody have one yet? Or used one?
• This is Sunday, and I often do off-topic opinion pieces on Sunday, but today you can thank me for not going off on Christmas's War on Thanksgiving. That topic gets me sufficiently exercised that a column about it would be too harsh and not much fun. Michael Scrooge. (Don't mind me, I always get like this at the beginning of Christmas music season. Thank God for online shopping; I have to stay out of stores for a solid month at this time of year. Except I can't avoid the grocery store, where no doubt "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" will be chipping away painfully at my brain.)
• How you identify a terminal gear fanatic: nothing's good enough for them. These days, lots of stuff is good enough for me. There are so many great cameras out right now I can't even keep them all straight. It's an embarrassment of riches.
Mike
(Thanks to Kevin Purcell)
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