Reader, you probably have some old equipment about you. Indeed, in whatever you own, something has to be the oldest bit. Should you retain it?
Sometimes you wonder. Can a camera, or a lens, or a tripod, or a flash be worth keeping and using when there are newer models and different brands and advanced specifications? What if you are missing out? What if you are not?
Well, I wondered that about the Fujifilm X-Pro1 body I own. I'd bought it new from Camera Electronic just before the
X- Pro2 came out but never thought myself deprived by having the first model - I'd coveted it since the first brand showing down at Fremantle in 2012, and gradually got the first generation of lenses together to feed it. That's a 35mm f:1.4, an 18mm f:2, and a 14mm f:2.8...as well as a few more. Well, you pass the lens shelves and look inside and the next thing you know you're going home with a black cardboard box in a plastic CE bag.
Other cameras came along and got assigned to other tasks...and the X-Pro1 didn't get a run as often. But then a trip down to the Murray Street shop came up and I needed a light load, so it was the X-Pro1 - the 14, an 18-55, and a Fujifilm flash. And the new-found courage to put the ISO on Auto, peg the shutter and aperture, and just shoot away.
The interior shots were a piece of cake with the 14 as long as I stood square and level. The product table is always easy with the flash and a bounce card, and the through-glass shots were all one could hope for. Compliments to the staff for keeping the glass clean. I've taught myself at Stirling Street to view at one angle and light at another and most fingerprints just do not appear.
Even the experimental artsy stuff with the strings of LED lights worked well - though I found out that if you record multicoloured LEDs cycling through the primary colours in a long exposure the result is, not surprisingly, white light. Shoulda thought that through...
The conclusion is that, for me and for this sort of task, the first model camera is doing exactly what it says on the tin. The newest model
X-Pro 3 with the newly-released Fujinon XF 33mm F1.4 would be a wonderful toy and very likely much better at any sort of video work...but there is no reason to view Old Faithful with disdain.
Note: This is no indication that I will save my money. There is still that lens cabinet...
