Wednesday, 31st August, 2022

Not sure what I’ve been doing.

Looks like we’re getting the kitchen done in a few months, and no doubt they’ll be scope creep and extra costs. So buying extravagant 🔴 cameras should probably be on hold. Possibly for a long time 😅

My Baofeng radio arrived. Turned it on, pressed some buttons and turned it off. I need to schedule my amateur radio licence test. I’ve done a training class and it’s fairly straight forward. Just have to remember some specifics. If I pass I have a feeling my usage of the radio won’t change.

Monday, 29th August, 2022

Waiting at airports is so inefficient. I can use the time to read or something, but wouldn’t it be nice to just show up 15 minutes before it leaves and walk straight on.

The Leica store was lovely. I only had 20 minutes before I had to get my train so it was such a short lived experience. All the staff seemed to be a real mix of photography enthusiasts. Some in suits, some in a “dirty white T-shirt”. Be a fun place to work and see such an interesting section of society. One that involves coming in and dropping £10-20k on camera gear.

They only had a M10-R available to look at, everything else was off in Wetzlar getting cleaned up. I complained that all their used gear was expensive, but if they’ve all been serviced by Leica then maybe it’s not so bad.

Anyway, the M10-R was great to hold and use. It felt identical to using my M2. I used the M10 with my 90mm both rangefinder focusing and live view with focus peaking. The viewfinder was nice and bright. Perhaps not surprising that I’d enjoy using one.

Obviously at the time I was ready to buy one and I’m still sort of ready but back to the “is it really worth it” decision. The one good thing is that I know I want a M10 or variant, not a previous version. Maybe I subconsciously knew that already but now it’s confirmed. I always wanted a black one but having seen the silver in person, I’m not fixed on black. I have noticed that silver is sometimes cheaper than black - although not always and depends on used stock online. I had wondered about a silver M10-P to match the M2. No one would know if I was shooting film or not!

The energy price rise is not pleasant and whilst we’ll be okay, it does make me question the timing of buying an expensive camera.

Sold the X-T2 - for more than I paid! The guy in the Leica store said he thought M10 prices would be low (current levels) whilst people upgrade to M11 but then at some point creep up a little as those that have upgraded have done so and then new people look for the cheaper M10 model. So another reason to buy now!? 😅

I’m now the old relative who goes “haven’t you grown, last time I saw you you were only this high 🫳”. That’s once I’ve realised who they actually are!

Phil’s new blog reminded me of what my blog used to be like, but has now turned into an online journal of daily chatter.

Sunday, 28th August, 2022

My friend’s brother came to visit yesterday. We were trying to remember the last time we saw each other. We’ve spoken online since then but actually in person? It was before he was married, and they have four kids now, so a good 10 years, if not 20. Neither of us could remember.

Playing Magic the Gathering with them all last night. That was fun. There’s a new (well since I last played…also about 20 years ago) format called Commander which is a 100 card deck but you can only have 1 of each card. You also have a commander creature which can be played. It’s a fun format. You basically stick together a whole load of ridiculously powerful cards and just see what happens. It makes replaying it fun and your deck isn’t just a one trick wonder, trying to do the same thing each game. Every time someone casts something (we were playing 4 players), everyone reads it and goes “omg that’s insane”, think they’re going to die next turn, but then they cast something equally insane and so it continues. Also the 4-player nature of it means you’re not quite sure who to attack or not, and risk leaving yourself open.

My friend had a dinosaur deck, which means getting enormous creatures and making them even more enormous and overwhelming you. His wife’s was a green creature (also equally large creatures) rapid spawning deck to overwhelm you, their daughter’s was a controlling, interfering deck that would make everyone else fight each other, and make it annoying to attack her, and mine was a annoying, make you discard lots of cards and take damage because of it.

I ended up winning by a very tight margin at the end, was just their daughter and I left. I had a sneaky card that you didn’t notice how much damage you were taking from it, until someone did a board cleaner and wiped out so many creatures. It was fun, and not just because I won 😅

It reminded me how much I like complex games like Magic the Gathering. The specific wording of cards is important, properly managing each step and turn, and then remembering to do everything and use all the abilities - that last one is particularly fun when someone forgets to do one of theirs!

We also played a fun kids game called Machi Koro, which I’ve written down as I’ll never remember. Could be a good one for a Christmas present for ours.

Today I’m off to London, with the intention of visiting the Leica of Mayfair store, for “educational purposes”. The good thing about visiting there is that I’m never going to buy anything from there as they’re much more expensive than other camera stores (except brand new M11 - but that’s not even an option so I’m okay there!). Their used stuff is £500-£1000+ more than everywhere else so it would be silly. However, they have a lot, so depending on what I can do, I could have a play 😁.

Then off to the family party. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I’d much rather stay here and play board games all evening. 🤓

Hopefully there are no more train strikes too.

Saturday, 27th August, 2022

When you have small kids and have been waking up at 6/6:30 for 10 years it’s then hard to have a lie in. Staying at some friends and I’ve been up and pottering about for an hour 😅

Friday, 26th August, 2022

I cancelled my Adobe cloud subscription. I have two days left of the free trial but decided I don’t need it. What I need is the habit of using something to manage my photos, rate them and then upload to my site. I don’t need LrCC, or the cloud storage. It’s nice but unnecessary. The adobe portfolio is nice too but I like my static site as it has all the old albums in it going back 6 years or so.

I also have LrC that I’ve paid for and can use. It does everything LrCC does and probably more, its UI is busier but I just need to learn what I want to use. It does the job and I should just not be so lazy.

Took my film through the airport security. I asked them to hand check it and they were fine, although looked at it strangely. Possibly he’d not seen film in a very long time! I don’t have much left (although 10 rolls of HP5+ in the post now) so just have three with me. I plan to use it all and may even just post it off so I don’t have to fly back with it. My airport is small and quiet but on the way back it’s from a London one and I worry that the busyness of it could be more of a hassle.

My suitcase was light with clothes but my hand luggage was heavy with cameras, iPad, laptop…! The M2 is a weight. I only have the pancakes for the X-E4 (27 and 18). I do have the adapter for the M mount lenses too, and it all fits nicely in a little lowepro bag. I only let myself take what fits in there, so I have to decide!

Does that mean I can’t buy anything to bring back? 😅

It’s going to be a busy weekend and absolutely zero time to debate blogs, cameras, websites, notebooks etc. Glorious! 🤩

Will be seeing family that I’ve not seen in…years…hopefully all good. I do get to see my cousin who’s 15-17? who I sent my Minolta X-700 to as she was supposedly starting a photography course at college. Sounds like she’s been having some difficulties in life, so I hope we can talk about photography and connect a little.

Wednesday, 24th August, 2022

Spent way too long reading, watching and thinking about Leica Monochrom cameras. Specifically the type 246 (which is the middle one of the three released). Why do I want it? Is it because I really want a M10 but that’s too expensive? Is it because I actually like the colours from the Fuji SOOC and so I don’t need another colour digital camera? Is it because I got several rolls of B&W film back and all the photos from them were so much nicer than the colour? (And so much nicer than all the digital ones I took). Probably all of those.

The M mount lenses are so nice and so unique and interesting. People say that some of the Fuji lenses are really nice and have character - like the original series (18 2, 23 1.4, 35 1.4, 56 1.2, 60 2.4) and then the 90 f2. I agree, they’re nice lenses and but character? They’re no different that other digital camera manufacturers lenses of similar length and speed. Maybe I just can’t see it. However, my CV 35mm f1.4, it’s so different. Maybe as I don’t use it very often as it’s on film that I notice more. Anyway it would be nice to use them more. I try to with adapting on the Fuji. Again, maybe I just need to get into the habit of using them more on it. I’m also interested as there’s just so many different lenses for such a variety of looks and styles, it makes it more appealing and changes things up.

Oh I don’t know. There’s no rush to get anything. I did buy 10 HP5 films as they were on sale. Made them £5.80/roll of 36 exp., which isn’t too bad these days. I should just enjoy those.

I’m been enjoying LrCC, but I am wondering if I really need the subscription. Could I not just use LrC that I already own outright, it’s not the very latest version but I don’t think it really matters. I just want to mark the better photos out of all the ones taken, and then export them into my static gallery. I’m again torn betweeen my static site and then adobe portfolio. The portfolio website is so effortless and yet looks really good.

I keep thinking about cameras with respect to making images for other people. What about taking photos for me. So take the monochrom. I enjoy B&W and other people do but I feel like they have B&W fatigue and quickly get bored and want colour. Now maybe this is just me justifying buying stuff, but watching T Hopper’s videos it made me think of this.

I’m wondering what to do with my photos domain. The root domain has been the site for years but as I wonder about making a more portfolio-esq site with favourite images in. Having said all that, most of my family look at Photos Apple stream, so if the site is just my top picks does it matter?

Tuesday, 23rd August, 2022

Life is short, shit can happen, does that mean I should buy a Leica now? I just worry that I want it as an object, not because it’ll be a great camera and let me take great photos. I think I will enjoy using it. Ugh. Will film supply shortages ever end and prices and availability will be “reasonable” again?

I like LrCC, but do I want to keep it forever and keep paying for it? I still don’t have a good alternative. I suppose LrC but I’m enjoying the simplicity of LrCC. It also stops me lying to myself that I’m happy doing all photo stuff on my ipad (in the scenario of Photos.app and iCloud). So there’s that. The problem is I want to replicate my website into LrCC’s ratings. I.e. have the past 7/8 years of albums trimmed to about 20 photos each. Really I don’t need to do that as we have printed albums up until about 2 years ago.

A camera store has a black M10-P and a type 4 50mm cron…been debating all day if I ask them what price would they do if I bought both. Whilst they’re lovely, it’s just such a huge amount to spend on a camera - for me anyway. I suppose no harm in asking but I also don’t want to mess them about if I’m not intent on buying. I do wonder if they’d take me more seriously if I was in-store vs. a random online. Whether a coincident or not, I will be visiting the town where this store is this coming weekend. I hadn’t planned to go in - it’s not really on my way or close to where I am but I could go. However, I’m still not sure.

Monday, 22nd August, 2022

I sold my Fuji 35 mm f/2. I cannot for the life of me find out how much I bought it for. Checked emails, paypal history, credit card transactions but nothing. At least nothing obvious. I thought I bought it almost effectively the same time as the X-T2 as it was going to be my main lens…and the camera came with none. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, I was just curious as to how the prices had changed. I sold mine for within current going rates so that’s all I can expect. However, I previously sold my 16-80mm for more than I paid for it. I did find that I bought that lens at the same time as the camera body, but I’m sure that was just by chance as there was a sale going on.

My phone is not plugged into the charger where I always leave it overnight. So now I have no idea where it is. I even think to myself that I remember plugging it in. Which can’t be true as it’s not there, yet I still keep thinking “but I’m sure I plugged it in”. Amazing how I can still be convinced even when the evidence is so plainly the opposite.

All of 2022’s photos are uploaded. I deleted some junk from the computer before uploading. Not sure why I’d kept them, literally things like accidental shutter release and nothing in focus etc., real obvious stuff. Think I should try the rating process and see what works well for that, and setup a new photo site.

I’m quite keen to make a photography blog site too. Although it might quickly die as I get bored of it. Even for myself be nice to document how I like and have found various film stocks.

I have some ektachrome 100 in my basket. It currently has a slight sale and I’ve never shot colour slide, and feel like I should at least once. It and its development are just so expensive though - even with the sale! Plus I’d be so precious about the shots that I’d probably keep it forever thinking I’ll save it for best. The family party the other week would’ve been a good place as we were outside the whole time and it was brilliant sunlight.

Sunday, 21st August, 2022

I can’t export lower quality JPEGs from the photos app on the iPad. I can use another program, like Darktable to do it. Although not sure saving to samba share via Files works as it comes up with some error. I looked into it before but the answer was either not obvious or required some faff. I know you can impersonate an Apple file share with samba which might work better.

Darktable app seems good, although you have to pay to use all the functions. It has a lifetime sub of £64 vs annual £20 charge. I like one off charges but am I really going to use it? It also doesn’t have an auto (at least one that’s not obvious to me). Which made me wonder if I need an auto. I like how it uses iCloud library and doesn’t require you to import photos into the app.

There’s probably many photo apps so I should look at them all first.

Jack suggested looking at Lightroom subscription. The one that appeals to me is the £10/month for Lightroom CC with. 1TB storage. That would fit all my photos, give me the ability to manage my library on mobile and desktop, plus have a very good photo editor. Now I don’t really do much editing but the syncing between devices including desktop is very appealing. Apple Photos.app only has favourites, whereas Lightroom has ratings. I generally only want two for maybe website plus printing but it’s handy to have. It’s a step away from iCloud photos so you have to import from photos app on iPad, however, I’m most likely to import on the desktop anyway. Having the desktop in sync is nice as then I can do the export from the desktop app and not have to worry about iOS persnicketiness. I could also export the good photos to my server for storage and then not worry about anything else. Really I should be deleting more anyway, if it’s not a good or great, why am I keeping it?

The 1TB is nice too. iCloud is £6.99/month for 2TB but of course no applications. I also don’t have a Mac desktop so it’s usefulness is limited. Other than photos I don’t really need to backup stuff that isn’t a few 100 MB (scans of documents etc). I do have some home videos but not many.

I think it’s worth giving it a go with the free trial. They do make you sign a 12 month contract regardless of if you pay once or monthly.

Here we are now in the evening and I’ve started the 7 day trial. It seems very promising. The one big hassle is importing my photos whilst maintaining a folder/album structure. Essentially I want to mirror my folder structure but with Albums in Lr. I might be able to do it if I first import into LrC then migrate it, but currently I have to make each album individually then import the photos. It’s pretty slow going…Once everything historical is in then it’s not a big deal going forward.

I like the organisation/library view and controls. It’s very minimal but with just what I want. I’ve only been importing so not tried any editing. I did a few of the tutorials built in that walk you though editing a photo and so far it seems like it has a decent amount of editing functionality. Some of the sharing features are quite nice, just a quick share of an album to people if they wanted to get a copy of the images. However, one thing I’m interested in is the blurb and the Adobe Portfolio integration. I used blurb to make a photo book for my mum using my Grandad’s slide photos and it was a nice tool to use and a reasonable price. With the integration I can send the highlights to a project to then load into a book, so I could add stuff all during the year as I go, and then the final build isn’t such a huge ordeal. I’m sure LrC had it and other programs but I never used them.

Adobe Portfolio is also interesting, and I’m considering using it to replace my family photos site. Mostly for the convenience of it all. I don’t even have to make albums in Lightroom, as all the images are in Adobe cloud I can just make a new one whenever and add the images I want. There’s a few built-in themes and they’re perfectly suitable. It’s like editing with Wordpress. I assume it either uses my adobe cloud storage, or if I’m using photos from my Lightroom library it doesn’t use up any additional space. Basically means I have up to a 1TB web library 😅. You can also use custom domains for free. Pretty much everything I want!

I might make a photography blog site with it too…

Or I’m just all excited and getting carried away with it. But now my workflow would be:

• Copy photos to folder structure
• Delete obvious duds
• Import into Lightroom
• Rate them
• Edit if necessary
• Upload to website
• Add to this year’s photo album book
• Enjoy all that extra free time to waste on something else 😂

📸

I just opened the iOS app on my iPad. I need to check, but I think it has different/more features than the desktop one? Lots of AI stuff, which seem pretty neat for suggested profiles and masks etc. Maybe I will spend time editing on my iPad. Sort of conflicts with my desire to try and just use SOOC jpegs for mostly everything. So my brain is then “oh so you could get a MFT camera cos you’re not relying on Fujifilm anymore”, then I remind it that I LITERALLY JUST BOUGHT A NEW FUJIFILM CAMERA! Brain whispers “maybe the MFT could be used for sports photography”. 🤫🧠🤯 I’m just excited about it. I don’t really want to edit all the photos every time. Maybe 5⭐️ ones I might try something else out to improve it.

Saturday, 20th August, 2022

Oh lovely a burst water main. At least it’s not burst in our house. Only had water in the kettle for a single cup of tea. Not sure what I’ll do next!

Ordered a ham radio. A Baofeng BF-F8 Plus. Seems to be a recommended first one and pretty cheap - £30. The next step is upgrading the antenna, but that’s also only about £15. Still doing the foundation course and then have to book an exam before I can transmit. Probably still do nothing with it. 😅

Been trying to see if managing photos on my iPad is going to be possible and enjoyable. The first yes, the second, maybe.

What I’m thinking my workflow is, is the following:

• Import photos on to desktop computer
• Put them into the folder structure: YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD Title
• Delete the obvious junk
• Copy them to the server (maybe)
• Upload to a new Album on icloud website

At this point I could ❤️ the best ones, or just leave them. My thought with this is that I often don’t have time to look through them when I remember to copy them from the camera, or don’t want to right then. So if I get them onto iCloud then I can look at them on the iPad at some later stage. From there I can delete, rate, and edit in Photos. I could even edit in something like Darktable on the iPad, or several other apps. I’ve been tending not to edit beyond cropping, as I’m fine with how they look out of the camera and to save time. Only unless it’s very under/over exposed might I bother. Oh yes, this is all just jpegs. Unless it’s something super critical - like a perfect moment or I don’t know what - I’m fine editing the jpeg. I’d like to think I can get it mostly right that editing a jpeg is enough 😅

I’m not sure about the saving to the server. Should those be the files or should I export from any edits I’ve done to the server? Or am I just going to keep everything in iCloud? When my wide makes photo books, she usually uses the photos from the server, so I should probably export them. Or maybe only the best ones? Have to think about that.

There’s then my website. Ideally I want to be able to export all the good ones to the website. So either that means a different website which can be exported to via it’s dedicated app (looking at you smugmug, Piwigo, etc.) or, in the case of my static site, I just export to my server and have some scripts do that business for me. That’s probably not too bad, although I used to export lower quality files to save on web hosting. I think if I do that on the iPad, it gives them huge UUID names. But maybe there’s some other app I could use to do that.

I really like the idea of managing photos on my iPad, mostly as then I can do it away from the desktop, it becomes an activity I do on the iPad and gets me in the mood for it. Plus I can even do some stuff from my phone if I really want to. I then get iCloud faces, and memories and all that, which helps me see old photos again.

Friday, 19th August, 2022

Went to the optician’s today. Not been since 2019 or maybe even 2018. I need new glasses, mine are all scratched up horribly. I usually buy my glasses online as they’re much cheaper but today I decided to buy them in store. I tell myself it’s to support local businesses…even if they are 2+ times the price of online…but I wear them everyday and it’s nice to see and feel them before I buy them. I don’t tend to deviate from my glasses design but this time I’m slightly changing. Only slightly mind. They’re also plastic body and titanium legs, so they’re super light, and the nose is just the plastic of the lens body, so sit very nicely on my nose. I really don’t like the typical glasses nose support things, they’re comfortable enough, but they just get so minging! 👓

They use Nikon to make their lenses. I didn’t expect to be buying Nikon lenses this month though 😅 Does that mean I need a F100 again?

Not a peep from anyone on the Fuji body and lens though.

Also find myself still looking at M10/10-Ps 🤫

And I should really stop reading about the M11.

I should also stop watching YouTube, as all it serves up are endless gear videos where I learn about new things that I suddenly need. I’m just bored and lazy so I turn on YT. I watched a video about the MFT Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens. It’s so tiny and a 150mm eq. for great teleportraits. I don’t need a MFT camera and that lens. Yes, it’s cool, and MFT is pretty nice and generally enough pixels for everyone but I don’t need another system. I Literally just bought a new camera. What am I doing?! I’m falling a bit behind on my ham radio training, so I should do that - it’s mostly videos anyway. But I can’t mindlessly watch it.

I miss Photos.app simplicity. It pretty much had everything I need from a photo library and editing tool. It was also simple to use. However, I don’t have a mac, and I’m not buying one to just use it. Although I did like having the dedicated mac which was for photos, as when I sat down on it I did photos. Not like my main computer where I sit down and do all sorts of random crap. However, I don’t want more computers. I mean, I do, but I don’t. I have been wondering if I could use the iPad Photos.app to manage everything, plus get the faces, icloud photos sync and simplicity.

Thursday, 18th August, 2022

RavynOS looks interesting. A bit like an open source macOS, as it’s built on FreeBSD instead of Linux, and using a theme that copies macOS. It’ll not be as seamless but a decent job. I used to run FreeBSD on my server for a long time and loved it. I moved back to Linux as I wanted some specific application that was too hard to get working on FreeBSD…I can’t even remember what it was. I’d be tempted to run FreeBSD again one day if I rebuilt my home server. Anyway, I’m glad someone is doing this. FreeBSD does make for a nice OS as it’s all built together and just works. Now I want to buy some old laptop to install it or even OpenBSD on…oh what a rabbit hole (that a periodically visit).

More macOS stuff…a cool CSS theme based on old mac OS: system.css.

Tuesday, 16th August, 2022

Somehow I’d not set the date and time correctly on the X-E4. I paired it with my phone and it asked to set the time from it, but I didn’t really look and assumed it was correct. Was some random time in Feb 2021. Had to do bulk EXIF editing to get the right date. The times are wrong but that’s not so bad, but the date would mess things up otherwise.

I made a few colour profiles on the camera and I quite like one of them…the only problem is I’m not quite sure which one it was and what all the settings where! Maybe I can see them in the camera when I inspect an image? I think the desktop fuji app allows you to save and load custom profiles from the computer? I also did some tests with Clarity on and off (with it on it takes the camera significantly more time to process the image). I sort of like it but undecided. It’s probably better to leave it off and apply in post if I really want it…Anyway I should figure it out and line them up. I’m not sure if I liked the pictures and colours because it was a lovely sunny day and pretty much anything looks nice with lots and lots of light.

I listed the 35mm and the X-T2. Annoyingly some scammer “bought” the X-T2 and tried to get me to send my paypal email or something but ebay had already blocked their account before I could even do anything…which is good…except my camera “sold” and whilst I can cancel the sale and not pay any fees, if I relist it then I don’t get the seller’s fees discount that I was getting from listing it yesterday. 😡 I’ll put it on a forum and see if I get any interest. I find it okay to buy something you want (if there is anything) but generally slow to sell anything. Plus everyone low balls all the time. eBay, whilst annoying, generally gets stuff shifted quicker and for a better price. Although I still don’t like it.

I’m way behind on my photos website. Probably have about 15 albums to go through and upload. I even think that my last set of films to be developed still haven’t had their exif data set. It’s just overwhelming…well a few too many steps. I was going to sort out something after Apple Photos but never did anything. I can’t tell if Apple Photos helped me, or I was just being good and sorted stuff when it came in. I want to share the photos but it’s a chore. I’d wondered about making a “high volume” apple photo stream, just adding a few people and then loading ~20 photos from each album. It’s not that many, maybe everyone else wouldn’t care, particularly if it was a single share…maybe I should’ve got a replacement mac mini to manage the photos! I should should Lightroom as I have it, and manage the photos in the library that way, even if I don’t do any editing, or minimal editing. I don’t know. I just can’t be bothered. I don’t want to use flickr or whatever as I want it to be my domain. I like the static site, it just takes a bit of effort. I’ve also been through this cycle before where I paid for hosted piwigo and uploading things there - the uploading was easy but the gallery and style weren’t great. Maybe I’ll spend the whole evening looking at the same things I’ve looked at in the past and not know what to do. I also miss a little the all photos in iCloud and all devices. Just felt £7/month wasn’t great value given I don’t have a mac and iCloud drive was a bit awkward.

This falls into the “if I had more time, I’d enjoying doing it, but now it feels like a chore and I resent it”. Unfortunately darkroom development currently falls into that bucket, even when I wince at the price to develop at a lab.

Bought an IUFOO hood from ebay for my 90mm Tele-Elmarit as it can flare badly in bright light. It’s an older model so hopefully still works for me.

Home Gallery seems quite interesting.

Monday, 15th August, 2022

Listed a load of Switch games that I never play anymore (some I never played once! 😅). I’m surprised at how quick many of them have sold, maybe it means I’ve under-priced them! Anyway, it’s good to get rid of them for a little bit of cash. I’m probably going to buy a couple of new games that are coming out (to then not play those!).

Speaking of selling things, I’m wondering about selling the X-T2 now. I’ve not looked at the photos from the X-E4 on the computer yet but certainly using it, I have no issues whatsoever. I could keep it as a backup or second body but the reality is I don’t need a backup. There’s an ebay sellers fee promo that lasts until tonight, so I should get it listed. I don’t like eBay but it is the biggest market place online, so you usually get the best price. I’m also wondering if I want to sell the 23mm f/1.4 and the 35mm f/2. Certainly the 35mm. The 27 is close enough that I’ll not use the 35, and the 35mm tended to be my outdoors lens, so the slight loss in speed from 2.0 to 2.8 isn’t going to make a difference.

I want to simplify what I have so selling the lenses will force me to do so and spend less time deciding…the 23mm is still spinning around in my head. Maybe I’ll leave that one for now and try using it with the camera and see.

Sunday, 14th August, 2022

I’ve not used the 18mm as much as I have now with the X-E4. The 27mm is a nice lens too. Don’t need the 35mm f/2, but still not sure if I want the old 1.4 other than just to have a 1.4. The camera with the square hooded 18 looks like a little Q2!

Saturday, 13th August, 2022

I was looking at the Fuji lens line up and noticed that a new 56 f/1.2 is due to be released this year. They have been slowly releasing replacements for the original line up. Except the 18mm, where they made a f/1.4. Admittedly the reviews say it’s amazing but it’s not the compact model. I also saw a compact 8mm f/3.5 is due for next year.

Friday, 12th August, 2022

Got the new camera. It’s lovely…but…is it what I was really looking for or is it just something to buy! My first reaction is to send it back right away, but I’ve not even used it. Maybe it was the honest fact that I don’t need it, the XT2 is fine, also getting the 27mm is now just another decision to make when picking a lens. It’s made me think “why didn’t I just get the X100V instead?”. I like the 23mm f/2. Although I never use the OVF, so that seems like a waste. Anyway, technically I have about 2 weeks before I have to decide and can send the camera back - as long as I keep it in mint condition… I’ll set it up tonight and use it at the family party. I had been excited to use the XE4 with M mount glass and the extra colour settings on it. A pseudo film camera.

Oh I’m insufferable. Please don’t read this 😅

Think I just ruined some film photo portraits by opening the back as I’d forgotten I hadn’t rewound the film already.

I think the question is, do I want the XE4 to replace my XT2. Because if so then that’s fine. I want a digital ICL camera. I might need to buy a grip if so for when I want to use tele-lenses.

It was lovely and sunny this morning, so I loaded some ISO 50 for this afternoon. Now it’s clouded over and I’m messing about between f2.8-4 and 1/60-1/125 try to get something decent and it’s annoying.

After my initial panic over the camera, I’m starting to calm down a bit. Been setting it up and handling it more with different lenses. Even the 23mm f/1.4 isn’t that bad. Although the weight of it does make me think a grip, either thumb or from or both, would make it much nicer in the hand. I’m always conflicted about grips. It seems silly to buy a camera that you then have to buy a grip for. The camera should have it by default. However, maybe it’s a small compromise given everything else.

And now I end the day loving the camera! The custom settings extend to pretty much every setting on the camera! So now I can also save ISO ranges, focusing, all sorts with all the colour settings. I don’t remember that on the X100V, and it means I don’t need all the dials.

I’m going to order a thumb grip as that seems to be the one that people like having the most vs. the body grip. I mounted all my lenses on it to see how it was. The surprising one was the 50-230mm lens - it’s a light lens which is nice. It’s a little slow (f/4.5-6.7), but the 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 weighs a lot more. As the X-E4 is so light, it balances really well and I can hold the camera by the lens in my left hand and it’s easy to use. All the f/2+ primes sit nicely on it. The 23mm f/1.4 is fine but, as I said before, a bit heavy. Wondering what I do with this. The 27mm is nice, and very close in focal length but slower. The 23mm f/2 seems a silly purchase, and probably one I’d actually never use. The old 35mm f/1.4 stands out as being the fast lens option for the X-E4. It’s about the same length as the f/2 lenses, but only weighs 187g. The 35mm f/2 is 170g and then 23mm f/1.4 is 300g. It’s narrower than I’ve been using, but for dark evenings in winter maybe it’s a nice choice. Tempted to buy it regardless. It’s always been on my wishlist, but with the 35mm f/2 I couldn’t justify it…I means, I still can’t really but I could swap 35mm f/2 → f1.4 and then the 23mm from f/1.4 → f/2…if I didn’t want to duplicate focal lengths.

Also need to find a suitable strap. The fuji one is fine but too many buckles near the camera which are annoying. The X-E4 has wide strap holes, so that rules out a lot of straps - at least I think so as then the connector slides up and down and scratches the body too much. I suppose the Peak Design or equivalent ones are maybe more suitable given the thread like connection. I just don’t like the bulk of the connectors. Anyway, will see. I’ll take some real photos with it tomorrow and see how I get on.

Thursday, 11th August, 2022

The other day I was mad with some things at work. I decided to write them down (in a plain text file called work with just a date heading) and it did really make me feel better. I now can’t even remember some of the things I was mad about. Nothing has changed but it doesn’t bother me anymore so I’m content again. It’s quite remarkable.

I’m hoping the camera arrives today but I’ve not received the tracking info yet so that’s not promising.

I did get the tracking and it was dispatched yesterday but Royal Mail didn’t deliver…now it’s coming tomorrow.

I’m not as fast as I used to be on the erg. But then I remembered that I’m thinking of 20 years ago! 😅 Anyway, it still feels nice to do something whilst watching TV. Been doing about 30 minutes and then I sit in the garden and finishing watching the episode of Squid Games. Not sure if I really want to watch it, was just the first thing that popped up when I opened Netflix. Then I have a weird situation where I think “oh not very time for the computer” but also remember how often I say that I need to get away from the computer. I make a cup of tea and sit down at it anyway. Not know what to do and do nothing - aimlessly search for something. YouTube, Reddit, camera forums, Discord channels. The computer is a bad habit for me.

I guess I could play on the piano or read a book or something instead.

Actually, it’s not entirely wasteful, I’ve been doing a ham radio training course. So far fairly easy stuff. Mostly it’s remembering facts. Which I think is a stupid thing to test. Remember rechargeable batteries are called secondary batteries. Remember 3-30MHz is HF. Call signs are xyz. Why? I can just look it up in a book or online. They do give you a 4-page information book you use in the exam with allowable frequencies and a frequency to wavelength conversion graph. So that’s nice.

I was telling my friend about it the other night. Think I got them hooked on to ham radio now. Even though we both agreed we’d probably not do anything and perhaps it was just an excuse to buy more things 🤣

Wednesday, 10th August, 2022

My new concept2 rowing machine (erg) arrived yesterday. I’ve wanted to get one for such a long time but always put it off as I thought it was too expensive. It is quite expensive - about £800 (and soon to be going up in price). It’s a good exercise for multiple reasons, plus I used to row at university so it reminds me of then. But I also like how the machine has a controller which does everything you need, connects to heart rate monitor, and has a phone/tablet app that is free. Also has a built in device holder too. What I’m trying to say is that “THERE’s NO SUBSCRIPTION!” 😁 Did my first row on it last night with the workout of the day and decided to watch Squid Games. I need to get some headphones for the iPad though. I have wireless ones I use with my phone but they’re cheap ones and don’t do multiple device pairing well, and I use them each day on my way to work so I don’t want to have to keep switching back and forth pairing. Probably just another cheap pair will do. The fan is a bit too noisy and my iPad’s speakers point away from me. I could mount the phone but it’s a small screen. Anyway, I like the setup and my biggest challenge is to build the habit to use it. (As my wife plainly stated to me yesterday with “and you better bloody use it!”).

Debating between early morning or evening. I’d prefer morning but it’s fitting it all in before going to work, and not that there isn’t time, it’s just I can’t make a 20 minute workout take an hour. The evening is fine but then I end up not doing much else, or when I do sit down at the computer it’s already 10pm and I stay up way too late looking at cameras.

But perhaps now I won’t be looking at cameras as I finally ordered one! The X-E4 with 27mm. It’s taken me a while and I’m still not 100% sure it’s the right thing to do - either the model or just a new camera in general. I go back and forth on it a lot. This was just the same with all the previous cameras (and in fact anything over about £200) that I’ve bought. Usually, when it arrives I start feeling better. I did send back the X-S10 camera when I bought that, but I think the X-E4 is more what I want. Fewer buttons, rangefinder style, smaller, and prime focused camera.

The Leica M10 is still on the desire list but it’s too expensive and I’m not sure it fits for me at the moment. But we’ll see. I’m still planning to go into the Leica store in London when I’m passing.

I’m hoping the camera arrives tomorrow for the weekend’s family party. No doubt my hesitation is going to mean it misses it.

So many people recommend the Fuji 18-55mm with the X-E series. It’s quite compact. Perhaps I’ll keep an eye out for a cheap one, as a kit lens that’s been around forever, I’m sure there’ll be lots. Although I don’t really like zooms, particularly these focal lengths as I’d rather just stick to one length in this range. However, I can see it being versatile if you just want one lens.

I’m keen to keep going with the M to Fuji adapted lenses. I think the small M lenses will fit well with the design of the XE4.

I really like this strap, but it seems nowhere sells it.

Tuesday, 9th August, 2022

Surprisingly warm today, and working from home in my little office makes it even more noticeable! Luckily everyone has gone out for the whole afternoon, so I can keep my door and window open and get a nice breeze through.

Weirdly used prices of X-E4 are more expensive than new 🤔 A few places are out of stock, so maybe just opportunistic pricing…

Monday, 8th August, 2022

I try and do too many things, and then waste time on pointless stuff. I also waste my life at work, but until I find a pile of money, I’m not sure I have a choice right now. I used to be so keen at work, but recently I’ve been questioning the point of my job. What impact am I having? It’s so abstract. I shouldn’t complain.

Nearly bought a X-E4, with the 27mm pancake - and the 16mm f/2.8 and 35mm f/1.4 as those were “ideal lenses” for the camera. The X-E4 is pretty much what I’m looking for, without excess stuff I don’t care about. So why didn’t I buy it? Well, I don’t really need it. I get a bit carried away with this sort of thing and I convince myself I absolutely need things, I then buy them and later realise I don’t need them. I’ll then go full minimisalist and wish I owned nothing, or just a single item.

The X-E4 is certainly a lot cheaper than the Leica, and that’s before even looking at used ones (which I keep meaning to do, just to see how much they go for).

Maybe I should try and rekindle my desire for home development. Last time it just felt like a chore.

Used my simplenotes app personal journal today. It’s quite nice just to dip into when I need.

Sunday, 7th August, 2022

Wow! What a busy day, been out the whole day and now I feel tired! And today is when I’m starting this foundational ham radio online course. I’m not sure why I’m doing this. Think I just like the idea of saying “oh yeah, I have a radio license.” Plus I’ll need something else to spend money on once I’ve bought all the cameras.

Saw the Lumix S5 is on offer now. £200 off and a free 50mm f/1.8. Makes the body £1300, or £200 more and you get the kit 20-60mm - which lots of people seem to like online. I really don’t need it. Interestingly though, it’s basically the same size as my X-T2. It’s deeper, but that’s mostly the grip. Weighs more, but probably not that noticeable. I see this and think 🤔💭 “I wonder if I should swap the fuji for the S5…” I then see it with lenses on and remember I came to the same conclusion last time I looked at it. With a bigger sensor, it’s impossible not to have bigger lenses. Unless you slow them down. The Sigma 45mm f/2.8 isn’t too big - and would be a great all round lens, especially outdoors. However, if I wanted a 1.4, 1.8 for indoors, then it’s a big honker. I’ve also been a fuji user for a long time, and it might be hard to get past not having the dedicated dials for everything. Prior to Fuji I used Nikon’s front nad rear wheels and buttons to change everything, so I can manage, but still.

I’ve been thinking about my home server for a while. It’s perfectly adequate, but I’m wondering if it’s overkill, or over power consuming “kill”. I’ve thought about swapping to a low powered pure NAS, plus a dedicated compute computer like a NUC. The NAS only serves files and the NUC does everything else. But with the raspberry pi 4 compute module and all the expansion now available I’ve wondered if everything could be combined. I saw this today, which reminded me of this fact. The only thing is, ARM can sometimes be a pain, least in my experience, with some software. Although I suspect most things have been compiled to it by now and the pi4 is 64bit ARM. The only thing is, it’s not exactly cheap. I could probably buy a used NUC instead. The main question, is how much storage do I really need. Right now I have 4x 4TB drives in ZFS RAIDZ1, so about 11.6 TB usable. Somehow I only have 2.9 TB free. I’ve not checked in a long time, so now I’m curious what’s filling it up. My friend does backup his server to mine (and vice verse) so maybe there’s loads of Tesla sentry footage that he likes to keep that’s made its way to my computer.

Nearly bought the M10-P last night. I’ve found a well used one that’s quite a discount over the going rate, in fact overlaps in price with mint M10s. I told myself that it’s a great bargain and who cares about the looks. It actually seems quite nice how it’s worn away on the camera straps. I do wonder if it’s got a lot of use if that means it’s somehow close to failure…I also thought maybe getting a good condition one might be more sensible in case I want to come to sell it later on. So now I’m back to wondering. I should probably just wait until I go to the store and look at them..just in case I don’t like them for some reason.

I’m not really interested in any other cameras. I have no interest in any of the Nikons, Canons, etc. They’re just boring. The S5 is boring. Even a fancy GFX, or SL are kinda boring to me. The only other cameras that I’ve been considering are the X100V and the X-E4. The X-E4 is more useful given I have lenses already, but the X100V is just such a nice package. I know I like it, so why don’t I just get it? Good question.

The Voigtlander Heliar 40mm f2.8 looks fun! Even in LTM!

Saturday, 6th August, 2022

I keep having the most ridiculous thought. So I’m excited about going to the Leica store in London at the end of the month and I start thinking “maybe I should just get a M11 when I’m there.” 🤯

It would buy a M10 and probably a 35 AND 50 Lux for the same price. It’s just I know I’ll handle a M10, really like it and want to get it. Except the Leica store has terrible used prices, so I won’t.

Today I’ve remembered about Tumblr. I like it. Probably resurrect my 10+ old blog on it. I thought about making it a photography or camera specific one but I’d probably get bored of that. Whereas a general everything one means it can follow with my whims. It might be too much having so many sites catering to my whims but there we go.

Several times I’ve remembered I bought a year of skoove app piano tutorial thing about 6 weeks ago and I’ve yet to even open it! Maybe the summer holidays wasn’t the best time but it was a 50% off sale.

Least it’s better (and cheaper) than Tinderbox…don’t even own a mac anymore 🙄 it’s the classic example of me thinking it would solve all my problems, I’d work myself up into believing it would be a great purchase, and then buying it (at least in a sale), only to then find out it’s not what I really want and then regret it. (I just hope the rower doesn’t also fall into that same category!)

In all seriousness, I don’t think it will. I liked the bike trainer but I hated paying for Zwift, as I didn’t care about most of it. Concept2, on the other hand, have lots of free resources to keep it interesting. Even just the daily workout they send out/include in the free app, which you can then see how you do vs. everyone else who did it that day. But maybe this is all my convincing myself it was the right thing to do.

I didn’t take the M2 with me today when we went down to the river together. I couldn’t be bothered with film and manual focus. Took the Fuji. Probably all very boring shots but a record of the occasion…but with all the cousins there were too many to watch that I didn’t have time for manual photography. Although would’ve been good to take a photo of the grumpy old game keeper who told us off for throwing stones and “upsetting the fish”.

Friday, 5th August, 2022

Got the cousins staying with us - lots of kids in our house this weekend! Good excuse to get some film through the camera. Although there are a few parties and things over next month and I’m not sure I have enough film for them all. Been hoping there were going to be more films sales, but so far I’ve seen absolutely nothing. There’s a “sale” on ektachrome but it’s still a lot, and not sure I really want colour slide. I mean, I want it, but I’ve never used it and processing is even more expensive 😢.

Trying to read Bernice Abbott’s biography. It’s hard work and so feels more like a chore than an interesting read. Maybe I need to get further into it.

My rowing machine has been dispatched and I had to choose a day for it to be delivered. Seems like they only give you one shot so a good excuse to work at home. Although still not sorted out the garage! But now it gives me something “productive” to research - training plans, and apps and log books etc.

I should add some more things to my website that I keep thinking about. Nothing super exciting but a few more info things. I definitely write a lot less in my wiki now that it isn’t the daily journal thing too. I worry about not using my wiki as it’s now my combo main site/blog/wiki. Well I don’t worry as such, but it’s a shame.

I’ve been doing “large circles” on cameras. By that I mean, obsessing over them and reading endless forums etc., to then not thinking about them whatsoever, then circling back round. But the frequency of these stages is quite long, in the region of two weeks. I wonder if I wait will they get longer. However, everytime I come back to micro 4/3s Lumix cameras. Probably getting notifications when used stock comes in mpb.com doesn’t help. There was one camera that was super cheap, but then I looked at it, and the screen was all smashed. Potentially a bargain if you don’t care about that, but what else might be broken. Also, it wasn’t that cheap.

Thursday, 4th August, 2022

My sister tells us she wants to get into data analysis/science as career, and has started learning python. Which I think is great. My wife finds it hilarious as we’re so alike, even though we’re half-siblings, a big age gap, and never lived together.

Reminds me of how I kind of want to go into the space, yet do nothing about it.

I’ve completely forgotten about new cameras and all that. Actually been having fun watching the commonwealth games each evening.

Sort of bored with everything.

What a great name for an app for Windows.

“I cannot control my opponent, but I can control my response.” But sometimes I still chose not to. 😅

Wednesday, 3rd August, 2022

The James Webb space telescope is amazing! 🛰🌌

Tuesday, 2nd August, 2022

My sister is staying with us. She’s just back from three years in China. The stories she tells shows me how little I know and understand of Chinese culture, and how completely and utterly different it is from the western world. I think I literally am unable to comprehend it as it’s so different. I suspect the majority of Chinese are the same way with Western countries. Probably why there are so many issues in the world.