This particular scene was shot with the FE16-35mm f2.8GM handheld , it was quite dark if possible I would have used a tripod here.
This cafe went bankrupt after an unusual July typhoon hit this area of Fukuoka, and now it is replaced with a Sushi bar.
I really miss their big hotdog here.
A huge industry shakeout is coming soon 5:
After the COVID-19 break, I met many people who lost all their interest in photographic or video gear , or simply decided to simplify their camera system and spend more money on some serious health related things such as home Gym, more expensive supplement , expensive organic foods,etc.
I am one of those people who really lost interest in the latest and greatest camera lens system.
In short the latest cameras are all practically same as the A7R2 or R3 and nothing really improved unless you really need the Eye Detect AF kinda gimmick for your work.
Personally , for me at least, I think I much prefer to spend more money on shoes , serious gym machines and barbells (weights) such as serious Leg Curl machine , better squat rack,etc. I also bought a good Leg Press machine from a local gym that went under due to the COVID-19 economic crisis.
I also bought a few pair of new workout shoes , running shoes, walking shoes and many boots(actually more than 300 pairs after the pandemic).
I also renewed my phone, notebook PC and such , but sold most of my cameras.......now I only have just a couple of simple A7R2 cameras and one A7R3 , nothing else. I have sold one A7R3, two R4 , one A9MK2 and A6400 for more shoes and room for the shoes I have collected. I also sold a few lenses.....that I never use in the last 6 months or so.
Because of lots of free time I have got (due to the pandemic related lockdowns) I started studying which focal lengths I had never used in the last 5 or 6 months and how much money I spent on these unused lenses.....andI realized that regardless of quality I never use any of my 135mm primes and 70-200mm zooms, so I sold them.
I think what this long COVID-19 break did to me was give me a serious week or two to honestly re-think or reevaluate about my camera kit system -would I still need to keep the lenses that I almost never used in the last 5 months or just sell them?
Do I really need as many cameras as I had before the Pandemic?
Are cameras as important as my personal Gym? Etc.........or Pizza baking place, which I built after the pandemic at my garden.
And I realized that I did not need as many lenses as I had in my camera room before the Pandemic. Over the last two decades I'd always owned 7 or 8 cameras plus 14 to 16 lenses but I realized that I'd just used only a few of these lenses.
Normally I just use just 5 or less lenses:
1 a 35-40mm prime
2 a 25-28mm prime
3 a 85mm prime
4 a 16-35mm kinda zoom
5 24-105mm kinda zoom or 20mm f1.8 lens
I think that's all I've actually needed, nothing more.
Owning or keeping too many unused expensive lenses in my bag now seems very impractical for the current situation here.
Maybe all what I really need is just A7R2 or A7R4(to me these are very identical cameras , nothing really different) and a several lenses. The FE20mm f1.8G , the 28mm f1.4 Art, the FE35mm f1.4 GM or the Batis 40mm f2CF and the FE85mm f1.8E or the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Dn.
Maybe that's all, plus either the FE16-35mm f2.8GM or the FE24-105mm f4GOSS , which I really need for my weather documentary series, but for normal daily photography where I can change lenses often, I do not really need these zooms often. I do not like most zooms, I just prefer a simple prime like the FE20mm f1.8G over the complex zoom like the FE16-35mm f2.8GM or FE12-24mm f2.8GM(these are extremely fragile).
For me a couple of primes on a couple of A7R2 bodies are more than enough most of times. I mean if you have two bodies all the time you do not often need to swap lenses.
A good 28 or 35mm prime on one body , a great 85mm on the other, or a sharp compact 20mm G on one body and a great 35mm GM or a 40mm Batis on the other body.....that is a great kit , at least in my book.
That simple kit seems to do every thing what I have been actually asked to do by a couple of local universities I've worked for, and my private outings. I think in this case the simpler the better..........and the more efficient.
I used to think the best possible rendering, look and highest possible resolution at any given FL at any given time extremely important.....and so I always preferred my Loxia primes most of time...I just preferred the look these produced.
In an ideal world , I actually still prefer these tiny but super sharp manual focus primes over my current Sony AF primes ,but I realize that the best set of MF primes that provide all of these qualities I used to think really important to me do not make me enjoy the moment or time I am sharing with some one I think important to me.........as shooting with a set of many manual focus primes force me to change lenses every couple of blocks...........and that makes me more obsessed with gear that I carry on my left shoulder even for casual walks with my friends.
So I decided to sell many lenses to make my camera kit much simpler and for me much more practical. I think without the pandemic I could never decide it , or could not actually do it.
First I sold all my Loxia, Voigtlander and some adapted Milvus......those are really not needed any more for my part time weather documentary photography work.....as my main work is not photography related any way.
I've always liked the Loxias for my personal shooting , but I have no time doing that now. Also changing lenses all the time outside now is extremely risky and increase my chance to meet or contact with other people who might have COVID-19.
Another reason why I think keeping Loxia line lenses is stupid is that they are now devalued a lot , their resell value seems really bad. Now I can only get about 700 dollars for my Loxia 21mm f2.8 Distagon, which I sold just after the first lockdown we had in the second week of May, 2020....
After all , slightly sharper lenses or newer cameras won't let me produce better images. In fact, it may be opposite, it may work against me producing my best images, as I get too obsessive about my gear( especially lenses), not how I shoot.
If you take a serious look at images posted at FM forums , which seem to be the most gear obsessed forums in the world, their images are honestly nothing great..........sure some of these are technically good, but not really great.....
DPR forum seems to be a lot better, they are much more honest and much more tech focused than FM guys.
Many times I find some outstanding images at here Flickr or DPR or other similar sites(even at Instagram) and often times these are made with a lowly 5DMK2 or D800.......or A7R2 or even the original A7 that shocks me.
I even find many outstanding images created with a lowly Canon Rebel or EOS M6. And many of these images are clearly better than some of FM or Luminous Landscape images produced with most expensive latest Phase One , Fuji GX or Leica S with their best primes.
And honestly many many images posted at Fuji forums with their best GFX100S are really shitty. Of course, there are many great images too, but do you really want to carry that kind of weight just to get a tiny bit better resolution than your typical Sony R series camera? I think it just makes our shooting situation more dangerous, as it increases the change of being robbed.
I think many people realizing that as they get time to slow down and rethink about what they use, or how they photograph in general.......and I think we all honestly ask do our images or video require or even deserve the latest best?
Or is it just wasting of our money and energy carrying that extra weight comes with the latest best gear?
So sorry for the gear manufactures , but I've moved on, and now seriously decided to buy only REAL PRACTICAL lenses that actually suit my personal shootings. And I have no plan to upgrade my A7r2 and R3 until they actually stop working.
I have no luxury of changing lenses all the time as I live in a dusty polluted city area most of time of any year. So I get cheap zooms and practical AF primes from cheap lens makers (as PRACTICAL image quality of those are just as good as the IQ of Zeiss or Leica or any premium lens brand like Canon L)such as Sony, Samyang, Sigma and Voigtlander..
I mean for me just a couple of lenses on a couple of bodies work great.
Just two months ago, I finally decided to sell my FE135mm f1.8GM , which I never actually used in any real life shooting scenes, I just tested it at our university lab, then I forgot about having it. I loved lenses when I tested it, and it is a fantastic lens. But I never use it even if I keep it in my room.
I am not a 135mm person, I never knew it until I bought the Batis 135mm f2.8 APO and the Sony GM to compare these.
I just compared these and then never used them for many many years.
I also sold my FE24mm f1.4GM in this past April....I have debated if I keep it or sell it for a long time, but my LR shows me the answer in this March. I never used it for about 7 months , so it was the right time to let it go.
Now I am considering just 3 main lens set up.
1 Sony FE20mm f1.8G
2 Sony FE35mm f1.4GM (or I may keep my Batis 40mm f2 instead as I value its close focus capability)
3 Sigma 85mm f1.4 Dn.
I think these three simple lens set up works great for me, I really do not need any thing longer than 85mm prime in my kit.
And the tiny but super fast Sigma 85mm prime is actually quite sharp even at f1.4 , in fact it may be the sharpest 85mm prime at f4 and on- if we believe what Immatest says about these lenses.
Now a lot of gearheads and lens snobs dismiss portability or practicality of any lens , they just mock those of us who prefer practical small kit over some huge GFX 100 Fuji or any MFDB plus a several primes kind of set up, but if your gear is too heavy or too impractical , you may not get the place you actually need to go , or you may just leave it at your studio or house....or even get arrested or robbed....as it draws too much attention to your gear.
I think portability and real life practicality is always one of the most important lens features/ qualities that many gear snob ignore......and the camera makers are designing all their gear for the extreme gear snobs , so normal people do not get interested in their camera systems.
They really need to change their design goals and target market , other wise , all camera makers will go under.
Just a few years ago, who could guess Nikon would go under as soon as they did. Nikon's parent company may shut down the camera division if they cannot break even by the Q3 of 2021.
They need to go smaller , not bigger , no rational people carry the weight of any decent modern FF system(it is way too much).
They do not need FF , just need a bit better sensor than the current best m43 level of a sensor to be able to match the IQ of the best FF system if they fully utilize the best Google level of computational image manipulation/enhancing tech in their 43 or APS-C body.
Why do they have to go all Optical route ? There are many other ways to improve overall or end IQ of their system.....
After having used the A7R4 for more than 3 years, now I must question any expensive cameras really worth the money?
I mean none of the expensive FF cameras or even MF cameras released after the A7R2 produce practically better IQ or PQ or VQ(video quality on 4k) than that of the original A7R2. The sensor tech is in total stagnation , not moving forward , unless you are talking about industrial quality or scientific sensors used for many scientific or industrial apps.
The A7R4, R3, R2 , the Z7, the Z7 MK2, Fuji GFX50/100/S, Leica SL, SL2 , Panasonic S1R, S1 and S5, even the Phase One cameras are all have the same boring Bayer based CMOS tech and all of these sensor even the Original A7R sensor have approximately identical QE and read noise level.
Nothing really changed, of course, as all the sensors in these cameras are Sony designed Sony chips..
I think that until these company use serious Google level of sophisticated computational IQ enhancing tech in camera, all the future cameras will be just as good as the current A7R2/R3 and R4 in terms of sensor level IQ.
So I'm sorry, but I will not be buying any of the current new cameras for sake of the sensor or image quality reason. I may buy some new models for some new lenses that I cannot use on my current camera bodies , but I think I will never buy any new cameras from the current major camera manufactures as I know they are too conservative to think out of the box.
All their new cameras are super boring and worth nothing to me. I really want to see a true game changing camera , but I am sure we will not see it very soon , maybe before the new real game changing sensor tech becomes available the industry may die as no rational people buy another boring over 3K US FF camera without any real new tech.....(I mean not the gimmicks like eye AF and animal AF or such crappy gimmicky features that only a very few people actually need).
All the current camera use the same sensor tech as in the A7R2 o the R3 from 2015.....the A7R4 , the A7R5 , the A9MK2 , the Z7, the Z7MK2 all use the basically same or at least identical sensors.....
I do not need that , it is 2015 tech, not 2021 tech.
The camera industry really needs to wake up and smell the great Brazilian coffee.....
