A charming note.
Friend of the blog and former LIFE photographer Peter Solmssen dropped me a charming note apropos my longing for the Fuji FX100 digital Leica, promised any day now.
Peter writes:
“If I were Thomas Pindelski’s Fairy Godfather, I would be sad to see him pining for a non-existent Fuji camera. I would get for him a Sony NEX-5, with the same APS-C sensor as his larger, heavier Panasonic G1.
I would wave my wand to get for him the Zeiss 24mm (=36mm) f1.7 lens announced for later this year, and a Voigtlander 35mm optical finder. (My wand could produce the overpriced Sony optical finder, but it is set at 16=24mm, and fine engineer that Thomas is, he could easily adapt the Voigtlander). I would also get for him the $10 Delkin removable pop-up screen protector with $2 magnifier that Peter Solmssen uses with this and his other cameras.
As a young man Thomas was also fond of the Rolleiflex, so I think he would find the tilting screen very useful for his street photography. He might also enjoy adapting all his old lenses — I see that there are inexpensive adapters for just about everything (probably because Sony has been slow to bring out the native glass — they have inadvertently created a cottage industry).
It is really too bad that I am not in the Fairy Godfather business.”
Peter attached a picture of his NEX-5 with the superb Voigtländer finder I use on my Panasonic LX-1:
The NEX-5, with the Voigtländer 28mm finder
Peter makes some excellent points. The Sony NEX- offers an APS-C sensor (actually larger than the MFT one in the G1 and the same size as the one promised in the FX100) and a large range of adapters for other makers’ lenses. Indeed, even manual lenses should work fine in aperture priority exposure automation mode, though you will be seeing the world at the taking rather than at full aperture.
DPReview covered the NEX-5 here and generally liked the unusual design. However, this old fuddy duddy responded as follows:
“Peter – My hang up is that I simply cannot forget those 35 glorious years with my Leica M2 and M3 and am too stuck in my ways. (This from a snapper whose mantra is ‘Change or Die’!). I probably rue the days when I could actually make good pictures …. I simply like the traditional 35mm RF hardware form factor.
BTW, I saw a video on YouTube where someone had filmed the image through the Fuji X100′s (optical) finder at a trade show and, oh! my. Absent the missing center rangefinder patch from the M it took me right back to my very happiest gear days.
I am still enjoying the G1 hugely and while a slightly larger sensor would be nice for when I blow it on the composition front and have to enlarge the good bits, it really suits my street snapping awfully well. I hardly use the kit zoom, leaving it at 18=35mm FFE all the time. After all those years with the 35mm Summaron and Summicron, that seems to be how I see things.”
Pall Mall, London, 1974. Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX. Back when I took good street photographs.
You can read about my tearful parting with the Leica I used for that snap here.
The NEX-5 is worth checking out, but I will continue pining for the Fuji FX100! Maybe some Fairy Godfather will come through …. though I suspect he will do so in the guise of my credit card.
I post street snaps most days to my photoblog, which is named Snap!
For a daily snap be sure to visit my photoblog Snap!
Weird that he says not to wait on the x100 but then in the sentence after suggests a lens that isn’t out yet. Is there a Nex equivalent out now yet or not? If you’re waiting on the lens, might as well wait on the X100, as the Zeiss lens is easily going to be the price of the X100.