Time For A Change
I've been moving towards a system change for some time. People change, attitudes change, and styles change. I found that the GFX system was becoming increasingly restrictive for the way that my photographic process was developing, and I was using it less and less.
When I first moved to the GFX50s, I loved using it, it helped me change the direction of my creativity and slowed me down at a time when I needed to slow down. Unfortunately, it began to slow me down more than it should, the size and weight were becoming an issue, and I found that I was missing out on images because I had to carefully choose which two lenses to take with me when I went out. Even though I use a large backpack, the combination of weight and particularly the size meant that I could only fit two lenses and the body in the backpack. My preferred combination was nearly 5kg, which on a long hike, or even a short one, is a lot of weight.
With the size and weight being an issue for short trips I decided to get another camera, something light. For this purpose, I chose an X-S10, but I couldn't get on with the system, so I traded it in for an Olympus E-M1 MkIII with a 12-40mm. I've used an Olympus E-M1 MkII in the past and enjoyed the usage and ergonomics, but I did have a problem with the noise. The noise on the MkIII was considerably better.
Since I had the E-M1 I found that it had been my camera of choice for trips more often than the GFX, so when I got the chance to try the OM-1, I jumped at it. After a few tests and a rather surprising result of the HiRes mode images being very similar to that of the GFX in quality, I have decided to give it a go.
My thoughts were already moving towards a system change, as I have already mentioned, the size and weight were becoming increasingly restrictive for the direction that my photographic process was moving in, but an incident with my GFX50s and an extortionate quote from Fujifilm for the repair provided the push that I needed to make the move.
So I have now sold all of my GFX gear and replaced it with an OM-1. I'm still nervous about some aspects of the change, but I'm going to give it a chance and see what comes. While I'm doing this I have time to try a few other systems to see how they compare. In the meantime, I'm enjoying carrying around 3kg less weight than I used to.
