Today, I visited Wex Photo's Newcastle-upon-Tyne store, mainly to pick up my new HD Pentax-FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited (
), but also to attend their 25th Anniversary event, at which the major camera brands (sadly, not Ricoh) were in attendance with all their current equipment offerings. I'm content with my Pentax equipment, but as I haven't tried any others for a while, I thought it would be interesting to talk with the reps and play with some gear.
My main observation from all this was,
all of the brands are turning out some really nice equipment these days. Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, FujiFilm, and OM Digital Systems (Olympus) had their full range of cameras and lenses on display (and to try). Even the budget models feel decent enough, but the higher-end offerings from all of the brands are
great...
all of them, without exception. I would be happy to shoot with any of the brands based on what I saw and tried today.
There were two stand-out cameras - along with their available lenses - that left me with a warm, cosy feeling that - in the unlikely event I should ever want or need to switch - there's a direction I could see myself going in... and both surprised me, as they're quite different.
The first was OM System's new OM-1, which I tried with the MkII version of their 12-40 f/2.8 "pro" lens. I liked
everything about this camera and lens. Build quality is really solid, the finish is excellent, it's really compact yet easy to control with my quite large hands, the combined weight of camera and lens is a dream yet still feels well balanced in the hands, weather-resistance is unparalelled (officially, at least), EVF quality is just amazing, image stabilisation is eye-wateringly good, AF speed is
silly fast, manual focusing on the lens feels lovely. Just... wow. What a combo.
The second - and I credit this oddball choice to my growing love of shooting with tunnel-viewfinder film cameras - was FujiFilm's X-Pro3. I've never used a camera quite like this before. It feels really nice in use, the controls are very retro (in a good way), the hidden-as-standard rear screen with secondary pseudo-film-box-end-tab display is - to me - wonderful, the hybrid electronic, optical, or optical-with-electronic-overlays viewfinder so very clever, and the selection of smaller, reasonably-fast prime APS-C lenses is lovely. The compromises? Well, the OVF is a far cry from using a good penta-prism viewfinder, and it's optimised for one focal length, with crop rectangles shown for others - which means that, depending on focal length, you can be working with quite a small area. Then again, the EVF didn't seem nearly as nice as OM System's OM-1. I like that the main LCD is hidden in normal use, but since it only flips down, you can't have that main LCD flat against the body. Even with these compromises, I loved the X-Pro3.
If I wasn't already heavily invested in - and, frankly, completely happy with - Pentax (I am, in both respects), I could see myself choosing either of the above... which, I'll say again, is surprising, because they're quite different and have significantly different advantages and compromises - but I'd be delighted to shoot with either, regardless of my current preferences.
I'm staying with Pentax for now, though... at least until my current cameras wear out, but most probably long after that
Since my main reason for visiting Wex was to pick up my lovely new HD FA31, it's a fairly safe bet that I'll keep shooting Pentax - but maybe by then one of my lottery tickets will have come good, and I can branch out
Last edited by BigMackCam; 06-24-2022 at 01:44 AM.