Black Or White - There Or Here - You Choose

We're just about to launch into the Christmas and holiday season and people are thinking about their vacation travel and their holiday snaps. The wise ones are, at any rate - and I am including the readers of this blog in that august group. Indeed - the smartest ones would have been starting to plan about August...

Let us not think about those who will pull a dead compact camera out of laundry cupboard, come down here to ask the technicians to fix if for free and claim that they never, ever had it at the beach - despite the dribble of sand and out of the lens and a starfish stuck on the LCD screen...Their vacation pictures will be fine, as long as they buy postcards.

If you're gearing up to do it right and to make the most of your chances on a domestic or overseas holiday, consider one of the Big Two from Fuji. Big Two? The X-Pro 1 and the X-100s. The black and white cameras in the picture. Please note that white is really silver but it reads better as white - I had my poetic licence renewed.

Okay, what do you get with the X-100s? An APS-C sensor, a lens exactly matched to it - 35mm focal length in the old filmspeak, and you get enough processor power and options in the computer functions to make it perform perfectly. The business of matching that lens to that sensor is really the key to it all. As well, you get a number of options in the way that you see the image - optical or electronic, and a precise framing for close-ups. It has a fill-flash and computer control that leads to confidence in any interior situation - you get a balanced result no matter what the backdrop is doing.

You can switch it to auto and give it it's head or do aperture and shutter speed via good big traditional dials. You can command a MF on the lens ring. Do it old or do it new, but do it.

Want to do it with interchangeable lenses? The X-Pro 1 really is pro. A superb set of Fujinin lenses made for the system all the way from 14mm to 200mm, zooms and macro in there as well. Superbly sharp with MF direct drive for a number of them. More automation and manual than its direct competitors. Excellent Q display to assist with settings. The basis of a thoroughly professional system of optics - a money-earner.

Both of these are in good supply right now and you can get up to speed with what they can do before you fly. Tip: If you're going to be doing closeup urban holidays pick the X-100s. If you're going to Churchill, Manitoba to see the bears, pick the X-pro 1. And the 55-200 lens. And a Mauser. Black bears are one thing but white bears are a whole different deal...

Putting Me To The Question

An old colleague came in to test out zoom lenses yesterday - he's thinking of some travel photography that might involve long-distance wildlife. Wise man - he hired out the lens he was interested in and tested it on his own camera. Then on to his own computer and he gets to see the results for himself. Better than any internet advice ever could be...

Ironic that, isn't it. Here I'm typing advice on the internet and you're reading it on the internet. But it is just advice - and you can make your own decisions far better than I.

But then he asked me a facer - he queried whether the new mirror-less cameras will replace the DSLR's that we all use. The answer is still circulating in my brain, and when I see him next I'll have to tell him yes. And no. And maybe. And maybe not. I'm not sure about whether I will be in two minds about being ambivalent, but I'll try to decide, perhaps...

No dang way that the mirror-less things will be used for bill-board campaign pictures unless someone decides to do it. Likewise they won't replace the DSLR for wedding or fashion work until it happens. At least the DSLR's won't be used as tourist cameras except by tourists.

In short, it is a long question. Each manufacturer will jostle for position with the pro market with the big devices, but the middle market has now got the option to go smaller and get just about as good a result. Quite frankly, if the end result that the photographer is going to make is always going to go onto a computer screen, there is a lot to recommend in the smaller camera systems. You have a lot less weight to deal with and a lot more chance to take the lens combo you need - indeed a number of the smaller systems have such advanced anti0shake systems as to obviate the need for tripods.

But if the image needs to be HUGE...you gotta make a huge file. And that means a large camera and large lenses. And you gotta know what you are doing. Or not, if you are me.

A Camera For Plain Pictures And Plain Dealing

Welcome, Friend. How may I help thee?

You wish to take photographs of thy family, or thy farm animals? Of the Meeting House on Sunday? And you wish to do it decently, soberly, and in plain clothes? Of course.

Here is the camera for thee. The Ricoh GR. It has one lens only and that lens sees the world at the equivalent of a 28mm focal length. Thee can take pictures inside thy house by lantern as well - it has an aperture of 2.8.

So that there is no chance of dishonesty, the camera is fitted with an electronic level - your pictures will be level. They can also be made square if that is thy wish.

You may elect to shoot them in a number of jpeg sizes. Modesty being a virtue, many of the elect will elect to switch it to small and turn off the colour setting. If you wish to make a large picture, remember that the RAW setting and the 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor will permit good results up to A3+.

If you wish to make motion pictures to show the action of your favourite buggy horse, there is a full HD 1920 x 1080 video. You will need a fast SD XC I card to do this.

The appearance of the camera is modest and sober - no flashy chrome or colours to dominate others.

If you wish to examine the world in detail, it will focus as close as 10 centimetres.

We have a number of them for sale and we will deal plainly and fairly with thee - as will the Ricoh Corporation, who warrant the camera for a year.