I have made a few purchases and kit choices lately, so here are the wins and losses.
Wins.
A second G9. I loved the G9 on first sight, but it never felt like the right camera for stills. My all Oly lens kit, the price of the smaller EM1 mk2 with phase detect AF and the huge differences in interface put me off the G9, but as a video camera option last year it was and still is a no brainer. This is where the rot set in, well that and the addition of the excellent 8-18 Leica. My video centric set-up for my one G9 was fine, but when it came to fleshing out my kit, another just seemed logical. Closer in many ways to an EM1x than an EM1.2 for 1/3rd the price, with better video specs and a better than average kit lens opton, mad if I didn’t.
A 50% crop from a G9+12-60 Leica, ISO 6400 file. Minimal processing required (nothing done to this outside of C1 import settings). I have often had issues with the white balance of this space, EM1 mk2’s turning it a little green/yellow and I struggled to make the files look clean and bright. The G9 files need minimal fixing.
A single pass through ON1 No Noise, with no other tweaks made. This is a very tight crop and fully useable as is. M43 at high ISO, with movement, dodgy light, instictive capture speed, electronic shutter, then minimal processing? All good.
Leica 12-60. The 12-60 kit is great and for peanuts, probably a must buy, but leica lens matched with a G9 has been a revelation. I was worried it would be a compromise as the variable aperture 8-18 has occassionally felt like, but I had not matched that lens to a G9 and the diference is massive. ISO 6400 is sharp, colourful and clean and all perfromance handicaps disappear. Just magic.
Domke f804. A lucky find and one I would have regretted not getting. I really don’t need it, but I am so glad I had a chance to grab one when it popped up. A bit of practical history at work and a bag I feel will find more uses as time goes on.
Domke 217 case. The back saver I needed and a grat way of just staying organised.
Selens COB 150 lights. Quiet, powerful and cheap.
Zoom F1. This has made the Zoom kit eminently practical. The H5 and H1 are fine for most uses, but basically suck as on camera shotgun setups. The F1 gives me a decent pro shotgun/mid-side with the SSH-6, but also offers an XY capsule, LAV and others, all in a small and well damped rig. It also supplies a backup track. Backups are good ‘k.
Manfrotto 1.8x2.1 Black/Grey collapsible back drop and bracket. Got the portrait job of a life time and it literally paid for itself.
Soft fails.
Crumpler Muli 8000. Good but unnecessary. Lots of bags, many as good or better, just a drain on finances and solved nothing.
Neewer NL 140 lights. These are fine I guess, but they need a cable, can have tendency to blow a fuse and are very cheap feeling. They did not cost me much, but still, not my best purchase and they would have paid for a much better Selens COB with change.
12-60 kit. A great little lens for travel or as a sacrificial lamb in bad weather, but after grabbing the Leica, I could have passed on this one.
Hard fails.
Nothing yet, so my luck has been running with me.