noimmunity
scratch my niche
A recent purchase of the Fuji X-Pro1 has taken my involvement with digital to a new level. Prior to this, most of my imag(in)ing was done with film. Even the addition of an M8 into the mix was still based on the primacy of my film-based M-mount kit.
The world of digital M, as we know, is not one of rapid innovation. For a comparatively high price of entry, one gains admittance to a land that is somewhat sheltered--at least until now--from the buffeting winds of constant upgrades and product cycles. Whether or not true, the oft-repeated pious declarations by many a new M9 owner--"this will be my last camera!"--speak to a more fundamental truth about the sheltered world of digital Ms.
Come to think of it now, this "shelter-from-the-storm" has consistently been one of the things that initially attracted me to and has kept me in the M-mount RF fold. The simplicity of the cameras combined with the relatively slow (non-existent?!) pace of innovation has been, in many ways, a boon to my apprenticeship and creativity.
Only time will tell if buying into the Fuji X system means the end of that shelter, and, if so, what it means for my image-making hobby.
The one thing I will say is that digital cameras inevitably bring one into much closer contact with the whole problem of junk. The bodies themselves become "junk" after a few years--if not sooner when the electronics suddenly fair, while high rates of fps, multi-bracketing, and image reproduction encourage a proliferation of "junk" images.
As manufacturers scramble now to eliminate the AA-filter from their sensors, I think it may be time to re-evaluate the M8 and recognize it for the classic it really is.
The world of digital M, as we know, is not one of rapid innovation. For a comparatively high price of entry, one gains admittance to a land that is somewhat sheltered--at least until now--from the buffeting winds of constant upgrades and product cycles. Whether or not true, the oft-repeated pious declarations by many a new M9 owner--"this will be my last camera!"--speak to a more fundamental truth about the sheltered world of digital Ms.
Come to think of it now, this "shelter-from-the-storm" has consistently been one of the things that initially attracted me to and has kept me in the M-mount RF fold. The simplicity of the cameras combined with the relatively slow (non-existent?!) pace of innovation has been, in many ways, a boon to my apprenticeship and creativity.
Only time will tell if buying into the Fuji X system means the end of that shelter, and, if so, what it means for my image-making hobby.
The one thing I will say is that digital cameras inevitably bring one into much closer contact with the whole problem of junk. The bodies themselves become "junk" after a few years--if not sooner when the electronics suddenly fair, while high rates of fps, multi-bracketing, and image reproduction encourage a proliferation of "junk" images.
As manufacturers scramble now to eliminate the AA-filter from their sensors, I think it may be time to re-evaluate the M8 and recognize it for the classic it really is.
