The camera I keep coming back to for work.

 I have owned and used a Leica SL2 for work since the fall of 2019. About five+ years now. Newer cameras have come out that have "better" specifications such as more pixels and better high ISO/low noise performance. Newer Leica SL models have come to market that weigh less and are (slightly) more compact. The biggest "improvement" seems to be the idea that phase detect autofocus is infinitely better than the contrast detect autofocus in the older camera. So why is it that I am loathe to change from the SL2 to something..."better"? Newer?

Over the years camera buyers have talked about hitting "the sweet spot." Which basically means a combination of parameters beyond which there are ever diminishing returns for future improvements. I conjecture that for me the SL2 and the SL2-S have hit the sweet spots I value. But the SL2 is the model that magically finds its way into every camera bag I pack for work. 

The camera is big and comparatively heavy but then again this profession doesn't promise a "no sweat" career. Carrying around whatever camera does the best job for you is part of the working equation. If you don't do this for a living you can toss whatever pixie weight camera you like in the pocket of your Dockers... 

There are several things I like a lot about the SL2. The first is the "goldilocks" resolution. It's 47 megapixels. Enough for any size project I've done since the camera launched. But a secondary benefit of the 47 megapixels comes when I'm shooting something that requires a longer lens. I mostly use the camera with the Leica 24-90mm f2.8-4.0 zoom but sometimes I need a bit more reach. An example would be photographing a keynote speaker at the podium at an event, from the audience. 90mm is the long end of the zoom when the camera is used in its full frame configuration but I can hop into the menu and select the APS-C format instead which then gives me a 22 megapixel file at 135 mm. I also have a Leica 135mm lens which, in the APS-C mode, gives me a 202.50 mm focal length. More than tight enough for event work of all kinds. So with two lenses I can pretty much cover everything --- as long as I remember to use the crop mode where necessary. 

It's the same idea in other applications as well. I might show up to a fun event and have just the camera and a 50mm lens. But I find that I want a tighter composition; more like a portrait perspective. Again, switching from full frame to APS-C gets me a 75mm lens instead. It's very convenient and, for most of the stuff we do with cameras, 22 megapixels is just fine. Absolutely fine. 

While some find the SL2 big and dense/weighty the flip side is that the camera is nearly indestructible. And highly weather resistant. The camera, when used with weather resistant, L mount lenses provides incredible confidence when you need to use the combo in harsh environments like pouring rain. Or the occasional west Texas dust storm (just don't change lenses until you've gotten home and cleaned everything off). 

The EVF finder on the SL2 is still highly competitive with all the top cameras from other brands. While some boast higher resolutions in their finders there are always caveats. Like, the finder resolution on one brand drops dramatically as the camera is shooting. Not so with the SL2. And unlike nearly every other top of the line competitor all the lens elements in the Leica EVF are made of high precision, optical glass instead of press-molded plastics or resins. All in all, coupled with a very east to set diopter adjustment, the view through the EVF is superb. 

Reliability? I've had my original SL2 for over five years and have never had an issue. No downtime. No round trips to the factory. Nothing glitchy. And I have shot well over 100,000 frames on this particular sample. 

When I first got the camera I was using an inexpensive Panasonic camera as a back-up. Last year I picked up an SL2-S; the 24 megapixel BSI sensor counterpart to the original SL2. It's a great camera and when I need to shoot in near dark conditions it's a wonderful tool. But for some reason I mostly still reach for the SL2. It's a security blanket for a photographer who lives in fear of ever not being able to deliver to a client because of a camera issue. So much so that when prices dropped on used SL2 bodies during the introduction of the SL3 camera I didn't hesitate to source a mint, used SL2 to add to the kit. Now I have an identical back-up to my favorite work camera. System complete.

The only minor quibble I had and still have with all the Leica SL variant camera models is the short battery life. The cameras do a lot of processing and high res finder optics also take their toll. The original SCL4 batteries were introduced back in 2015 with the original SL body. Batteries have gotten better. Now we can add between 20-25% more power to the mix with the new SCL6 batteries --- which are fully backwards compatible to all SL variants (As well as for the Q2 and Q3 variants). I have about ten of the SCL4 batteries and four of the SCL6 batteries and I find the new batteries to be a nice step up. Along with power conservation updates in firmware extended run time is no longer an issue. At least not compared to the way the camera consumed power at its introduction. 

In all I am pleased not only with the SL2 but with the ecosystem of the L mount products in general. There are lenses from Sigma that are fantastic. Like the new 85mm f1.4 Art. Or the contemporary series 35mm f2.0. And the 45mm f2.8 continues to impress me when I least expect it.

Currently very good condition SL2 bodies are selling used for around $2200 to $2400. A couple of bodies and a handful of lenses could make the basis of a superb studio and location advertising system for a price of around $6,000 to $7,000. A little more if you want all fast glass. 

Here's the one last and, for me,  very compelling reason to own the SL2 and SL2-S cameras: The sensors are designed to work well with rangefinder/M mount lenses. There are even profiles for nearly all the post-1970's Leica M lenses built into the camera menu. Even if you are not using a Leica lens you can still program in the focal length of the M mount lens you are using in order to get the best performance out of the camera's very good image stabilization. What you'll get when using a typical, wide angle M lens on a Leica body, as opposed to a competitor's body, are sharper details in the corners and on the edges of the frame. Less or no color artifacting across the frame. And better color. Much better color. 

The SL2 just works for me. I know the menu forward and backwards now. I've built an ecosystem of lenses, flashes, batteries and peripherals for the system and I can't imagine that other current products would make a difference in my final products. Especially now that nearly everything we shoot is destined for the web. 

Prices on new Leica stuff can be tough to swallow. $9,000+ for a new Leica M11. Nearly $7,000 for a Leica Q3 43. $7,000 for a new SL3. And, incidentally, the SL2 is still a current product and it too has a seven thousand dollar price tag if purchased new. But if you really want to shoot with a Leica on a budget the used market is currently filled with lightly used SL2 and SL2-S bodies along with the older but still mostly great, original SL body. And you don't need to sell a kidney to get lenses...if you are willing to dip into some of the really great glass offered by Sigma and Panasonic (the 85mm f1.8 is currently on sale for $397, new, at B&H). 

A great strategy is to splash out for the Leica lens in your favorite focal length. The FL that you use almost all the time. And then fill in the blanks with fun and great lenses from the L mount consortium partners. Over time you'll find the other spots in which you'll want to splurge and buy "up" on lenses. 

They say you "date the cameras but marry the lenses". I find that to be deceiving. A mostly  monogamous relationship with a favorite and comfortable camera can be just the thing. At least that's my perspective five years in....

Aerial Dancing at Seaholm Power Plant. Austin, Texas.

#BlueLapisLight

An aerial dance troupe.

Practicing for a series of shows in September.

It was breezy and less humid this morning in Austin. I grabbed a camera and headed out for a walk while the heat index clocked in around 90°. Funny how context and comfort go together. 

I was feeling camera-egalitarian so I paired the Leica SL2 with a battered by serviceable Canon FDn 50mm f1.8. The last FD iteration of their manual focusing "nifty-fifty." It's the one without the metal bayonet lock and it has a 52mm filter size instead of the previous models' 55mm filter size. But it's a charming, small and light lens that I think does a wonderful job as part of a rudimentary walk-around kit. And actually, the optical performance is not at all poor. By f4.0 and f5.6 it's actually quite nice. 

The focusing ring is smooth and light on the touch. It moves without too much effort and that makes it a wonderful choice for manual focusing. It's a very simple optical formula with 6 elements in four groups and a set of five curved aperture blades. I use it on the Leica SL(x) cameras with a Fotodiox Canon FD to L mount "dumb" adapter. There is no electronic connection whatsoever between the lens and the camera so everything, EVERYTHING is manually set. 

I walked along with my camera slung across my chest on what Peak Designs calls a camera "leash" and it was comfortable enough. I turned the corner into the Seaholm Power Plant (now decommissioned and an active retail and office environment with a nice central courtyard) and walked right into a really fun aerial spectacle. Graceful dancers suspended dozens; maybe up to 100 feet, up in the air pushing off the sides of the old power plant cooling towers into classic dance and action movie poses. 

They were practicing for an upcoming series of performances that will take place on the same towering cylinders in the middle of September. Being a bit acrophobic I was astounded at the ease and fearlessness of the dancers. I found it all quite amazing.

The lens and camera worked well but I wish I'd brought along a few longer lenses. But isn't that always the case? You chance upon something and you just have to make the best of what you brought. Thankfully the high resolution of the camera sensor meant that crossing by 50% wasn't an issue. 

There was more to the walk but I was just thrilled by what I found in the first five minutes. I'll definitely go back for the show....

Cheap lenses on pricy cameras. It's a thing.

A first attempt to make commercial portraits again in the studio. How did I like using the Leica SL2 as a studio camera?

This photo is not related to the article below. It's just for fun.

 This is just a short post to talk about how well the SL2 works as a portrait camera. I photographed two business people in the studio today. I set up on Godox SL150ii in a 48 inch octagonal soft box and used it as close in toward my subject as I could manage. The second light was also a Godox SL150ii (LED light) aimed at the background and delivered through a small soft box. I used a 50 inch bounce reflector opposite the main light. 

I set up the camera on a tripod and set it do shoot in the 1:1 or square format. I also set the camera to shoot DNG+Medium Jpeg. With the camera set to preview and also deliver squares I could use it in the horizontal configuration which is most comfortable. The camera shows the square with the edges masked off. 

Here's what I liked about shooting that way: The sensor resolution is high enough that I can easily crop either horizontal or vertical. With many cameras when you shoot in a different format and choose to shoot in raw you end up seeing the whole frame in most post production software but with a white set of lines (a box?) showing you what the crop to format looks like. But with the Leica SL2 when I imported the files into Lightroom they resolve exactly as the squares I shot in camera. No extra work required. 

When I selected frames to upload to Smugmug from this morning's shoot I was able to convert all the selected raw files to Jpegs and all of them matched the square crop I saw from the raw files. No extra steps had to be taken. 

People have critiqued the AF of the SL2 for lack of speed or hesitant lock-on but I had zero AF performance issues. I selected face detect AF and the camera and lens did a great job at locking in on the faces. The eyes in every shot were perfectly focused and wildly sharp. Well...not too sharp but as sharp as they were supposed to be. (sorry for the nudge toward hyperbole...).

Since I used a custom white balance the flesh tones in the resulting files were absolutely perfect. The dynamic range also assisted in providing good highlight and shadow detail on the people. That makes for easy file correction down the road. 

I used two lenses today. The primary lens was the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art lens (version 2). It's wonderful. Just the right thing for portraits cropped to square in this set up. The second lens was one I used to get a little wider frame so I'd have room to cut out the person in the frame if the client decides they want to composite an exterior landscape as a background (like the ones I shot yesterday...); it's the Sigma i series 65mm f2.0. It keeps up with the 85mm ART very well. Both are crispy and laden with details. I stuck to just a third stop further open than f5.6 as my working aperture and it was a good combination for getting enough depth of field but also giving me a good blur on the background. 

I shot from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the files were globally color corrected and online in a gallery by 1pm. 

No hiccups from the camera or lenses. And I'd forgotten just how nice big bright LEDs look in voluminous soft box modifiers. It was nice. 

We're about 90 posts away from having produced 5,000. That's the goal I set for myself when I started this blogging adventure oh so long ago. I'm betting that we will end up getting there in less than 3 months. I'm not sure what will happen then.  I might choose a place in the center of the country and invite all the vaccinated VSL readers to join me for some sort of event. Or I may just ignore the goal and keep on slamming out posts. 

Maybe I'll quit writing and try V-logging instead. It's all unknown. Just advising you that life might or might not change for me when I reach 5,000. Advice? Or not.

Lens of the day. The 65mm Sigma i series lens. On the Leica SL2.

It's a nice combo; the Leica SL2 camera and the Sigma Contemporary 65mm f2.8 lens. They work well together. The resulting files are crisp and detailed. The focal length is almost perfectly optimized for my personal preferences. 

The lens is part of Sigma's new Contemporary "I" line of lenses which also includes a 24mm f3.5, the 35mm f2.0, and the 45mm f2.8. I'm certain Sony's recent announcement of new, smaller, slower lenses is a concept directly and shamelessly derived from their keen observation of the Sigma 45mm lens's popularity on the market over the past year but, whatever it takes... It's just nice to see a bit of rational thought come back into the lens market. 

The Sigma "I" lenses are constructed of metal, are incredibly well finished, are weather resistant, have external aperture rings, and are one of the few lens options for L-mount users who might not want to start a new hobby in weightlifting in order to photograph more than a few feet away from their cars.

When the newest of the Sigma I lenses hit the market I took one look at the 65mm and ordered it from my local camera shop. I like normal lenses but I like longer normal lenses even more. This lens and the 70mm Sigma Art macro lens I bought this year are both right in the sweet spot for me as good compromises between portability and having a bit of distance between myself and my photographic subjects. Since portrait styles are changing, generationally, I'm also finding that I'm willing to put up with a bit more distortion in order to use a focal length that's shorter than what I used to be comfortable with. I cheat by using the 65mm f2.0 mostly on 47+ megapixel cameras when I shoot portraits because then I have the safety of shooting with some air around the subject and being able to crop the images quite a bit, if necessary, to gain back a modest degree of beneficial foreshortening. Viva compression!

The 65mm is an excellent performer. Check out the review on Lenstip.com and you'll find, that when it comes to resolution and sharpness it is currently one of the highest rated lenses on the entire site; regardless of price point. Even wide open, within the center 2/3rds of the entire frame, it's sharp and resolves well. 

The lens is designed with 12 elements in 9 groups and also utilizes 1 SLD element and 2 aspherical elements. It's amply engineered for a lens with a modest focal length and a less ambitious maximum aperture. It's one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used and its rendering of contrast and color are equally impressive. It's available in E mount as well as L mount and it's exactly the kind of lens that both Leica and Sony should be offering to the market.

When the L mount version is used with the Leica SL2 the camera makes use of software corrections for geometric corrections as well as vignetting control. One of the things I really like about the camera and lens combination is that Leica makes it easy to use their very well implemented focus peaking feature and it's a perfect complement to the Sigma's big, comfortable focusing ring. The combination makes manual focusing fun. And I like fun. 

I bought the lens and paid the full asking price of $699. No one flew me to Maui or Portofino to convince me to either try the lens, buy the lens, or sing it's myriad praises. My acquisition and use is based solely on the idea I have that this focal length, and the impressive performance of the optical system, are conducive to getting better images in my own style. It didn't hurt that I'm an avowed "lens nerd" and this lens also comes with a magnetic lens cap. The lens cap didn't push me over the edge to purchase it but it sure didn't hurt. 

Sigma continues to do some very interesting stuff. Maybe they think their mission is to show the bigger and more awkward camera and lens makers what the future looks like in order to guide them into a better tomorrow for the sake of the entire Japanese camera industry. Then again, maybe they are just a more creative company which is less afraid to dabble in a little bit of risk. 

The 65mm combined with the 35mm f2.0 would make a perfect match for travel and street photography. With the 35mm one could crop a bit and get a useable 50mm equivalent from that lens. With the 65mm and a high resolution camera one could crop to an 85mm equivalent without much image quality loss. Add in the 24mm f3.5 and you're ready for everything but sports and wildlife. But you wouldn't be buying middle focal range lenses for either of those pursuits, right?

All images below shot with the 65mm Sigma and the Leica SL2. I'm also pretty sure I shot them all at ISO 50 which is a native, not "extended" ISO option on this camera. Works for me.

cropped down to 25% of the original frame. 

I was on a kick when I shot this group of photographs of limiting myself to using the SL2's ISO of 50 for everything. I figured the in body I.S. would make everything okay. When I look at the full size files coming from the camera I am amazed at the purity of the colors and the amazing detail. Can't wait to try this out in the studio for portraits. ....nice reds and nice blues together in the same frame.

building with dorsal fin.

My recent obsession with yellow. And red. 

Again, 25% of the original frame...
 

Personal note: I'm so delighted with my friends and colleagues. Just about everyone I know (in the vaccine-able age groups) has gotten either their first dose or both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. I just got an invitation to meet for coffee with my favorite creative director. We'll get together next week and see what kinds of new projects we can collaborate on. Then I got a call, not ten minutes later, from a photographer friend who is having an outdoor BBQ on Sunday. He had a caveat. He could only invite me and could not extend an invitation to my spouse because she is still a couple weeks behind us on getting her second dose of vaccine. The BBQ party is strictly limited only to people who have been fully vaccinated and then put in their two weeks of immunity nurturing. I accepted in a heartbeat since my friend's version of BBQ ribs is life altering. Forget being inclusive --- the lure of ribs is powerful. 

All over our social media feeds friends are starting to check in to see where we are in the process and when we can all get together for coffees, lunches, dinners and happy hours. We're still shy about restaurants and indoor dining but it's prime time for outdoor dining in Austin. Finally, finally, finally seeing some social light at the end of a long and ominous tunnel...

Best overall value for MY money? This past year it would have to be the Fuji X100V. A camera so nice I bought it twice.

 This is one of the first camera lines whose charms I resisted right up until the fifth generation of evolutionary refinements. I've played with all the previous generations and always found something about each one that kept me from buying it. With the X100V I think Fuji have finally made a nearly perfect digital version of Canon's much beloved Canonet GIII QL17 mk film, fixed lens, rangefinder camera. And I write that as high praise since the Canon GIII was my favorite of all film cameras when it came to being the perfect camera to just walk around with and document life as it endlessly unfolded in front of me. 

I just pulled the GIII out of a drawer to look at it while I write this and the one thing that immediately struck me was how much more it weighs than the Fuji X100V. The Canon has a density and a heft that belies its size! Perhaps the insanely great build quality of that camera is a prime reason that now, some 40+ years after buying the camera new, it still works as well as it did when I pulled it out of its box and loaded in the first roll of home-rolled Tri-X film. It's never seen the inside of a repair shop and has endured not only the ungentle college years but also endless roadtrips tucked into a primitive and unpadded backpack. What a wonderful highpoint in mechanical camera manufacturing. 

While my current flame, the X100V, is a bit lighter it's still so much more solid in feel than Fuji's first generation of the X100 series. It's solid enough now to feel like it will stand up to rough situations and inevitable wear and tear without having to be babied. On the flip side of the comparison with the older film camera the X100V is crammed full of digital goodness and its imaging abilities far outstrip anything I could have dreamed of back when the Canon GIII was my daily carry. 

Lately, I've been vacillating between using the Leica SL2 and the Fuji X100V as my camera of choice when heading out the door with no official photographic mission in mind. With the Leica I have the unspoken promise of getting the highest quality files for the format size. With the Fuji I have the guarantee of using a smaller, lighter, camera that's still capable of filling the quality bucket to the brim. In some regards it's a contest between an overflowing bucket of potential versus a "fill to the brim" approach combined with the handling advantages or constraints of each. And lately, once we fill that bucket we end up trying to pour the contents into a shot glass to put it on the internet...

I have to be totally honest and say that, so far, I'm having more luck pulling files that I love (color, sharpness, saturation, snap, crackle, pop) out of my little $1400 Fujis than I have had with the $6,000+ Leica. All the usual caveats apply. I think the Fuji was designed from the ground up, and then evolved, to become one of the most ferociously good street cameras on the market at any price. As long as you are happy with a 35mm equivalent focal length being your widest option. 

I think the Leica was designed to be a heavy duty platform with which to show off the excellence of their lens line. It's a camera that seems most at home in the studio, on a tripod or applied toward a specific assignment. The kind of assignment that provides opportunity for total control of most photography  parameters. Realistically, it's not the best street shooting camera and the weight of the camera, the weight of the usual lenses and the overall size profiles of the "best" combinations thereof fight the need for the camera to be transparent and agile for just walking around with a camera.

Sure, you can strip the SL2 down to its essentials. You can put the small and light Sigma 45mm f2.8 on the front to reduce the profile. You can use a wrist strap. You can minimize the menu options, etc. A good photographer, in sync with the SL2 can make great photos, but in a different way that one might with the X100V. When I use the SL2 for quick, instinctual photos on the fly, I have to make some mindset adjustments. There isn't enough flexibility in settings to make it a convincing/comfortable Jpeg camera. The settings for sharpness and contrast are coarse. Two settings above and two settings below the neutral/center position. None of the nuance provided by the Fuji. This means I must change gears and shoot my files in raw. But in raw there's no way to shoot a reduced resolution, full frame raw file. You're shooting in 47.5 megapixels every step of the way. There's also no ability to select between compressed and uncompressed raw files. So, if I want the color, sharpness, noise, saturation, and sharpening control in a Leica file I'm constrained to go for the whole enchilada of the hand's-off raw file. And I'm pretty sure that the designers in Germany wanted it this way. 

In defense of the SL2 workflow, if you are inherently a raw shooter you'll more than likely love the camera because it presents a minimalist workspace that allows for concentration on getting the shot at the front end coupled with having complete control and an almost insane potential for high resolution quality in the post production back end. When you want that personality in a camera you'll find the Leica in the top tier. And, when I'm working on client jobs that's pretty much what I want. I crave a camera that's so over the top in image quality and post production potential that it works to safeguard me from my own mistakes and misjudgments in the field. The SL2, and a really great collection of lenses, is heaven for commercial work. At least the kind of commercial work I like to do. 

But it just isn't as warm, friendly and enthusiastic as the X100V for the kind of work I crave for myself. That's why I have both. 

Yesterday I took the little, silver finished X100V out for a walk with me. I have an older, Canon Powershot neck strap on the camera because it's such a well made strap and it's so "right sized" for this camera. For most of the time walking around and hanging out I wore the camera tourist style with the strap around the back of my neck and the camera square in the middle of my torso. Not the paranoid tourist style where the strap is over the neck and over one shoulder, all bandolier/cross body style; (otherwise known as fearful strap style). 

When worn with the camera just hanging down right below one's chest (in tourist style) it's a simple movement to grab the camera with your right hand, operate controls with your left hand and grab a quick shot. Once the moment is passed you just let go of the camera and move on. No hysterics involved. No strap wrestling necessary. 

If you walk with any grace at all your X100V will not bounce against your chest and call attention to itself. In fact, I think of it as a feedback loop device that helps teach one to walk smoothly. 

The camera, when worn in that mode, looks like a cheesy tourist camera from the 1970's and no one pays attention to it. Worn in this way no one supposes that you are a devious journalist out to humiliate your subjects with unfairly revealing images. Not hiding the camera defuses the idea that you have nefarious goals for your picture taking and mimics the aspect of the happy tourist venturing about our fine town making photographs of his new discoveries. At least that's how it feels to me.

Yesterday I had fun just walking around with the camera. I've been practicing using the optical viewfinder with the bright frame lines. The biggest part of the practice is to turn off the image review and just trust that either I or the camera have judged the exposure and color correctly (enough) and to shoot just as fast as the camera can hit focus (which is pretty fast). It's a style of shooting that I used out of necessity when working with rangefinder film camera since there was no such thing as a post shot review or the representation of the frame with color and exposure overplayed in a preview mode. What I've found over time is that, unlike the way I worked with a camera like, say, the Mamiya 6,  with which I framed and committed to the shot, then walked away, modern cameras that allow previews and reviews (like most of our digital cameras) break the cadence of fluid shooting. They introduce a fear of missing something we could have controlled because we now have the ability to instantly quality control each frame. So we do. 

We stop the process of shooting, or anticipating shooting, in order to look at what we've done just a few seconds before. The act of interrupting the active process and looking at the finished frame also invites the ponderous part of our brain along for  an instant critique of the shot. The brain hems and haws and suggests. Did you try this? Did you try that? Can I see it just a little wider/tighter? Could you step left/right and try it again? Are you sure that's the composition we want? Hey, human, can we try it again with a different focal length? Do we look funny doing all this stuff? Are people going to like this photo enough? Should we try it in black and white?

And the process of iterative re-evaluation puts a pillow over the face of subconscious creativity and attempts to smoother it. I can see with my experience using any number of digital cameras that, while looking at the potential image in an EVF there is an undeniable urge to start fine-tuning the image before I shoot it. To tweak the color or exposure. And there is another layer of indecision that comes from seeing the image in its "finished form" that manipulates the photographer into shutting down the usual interactive shooting process because "the image in the EVF is "exactly" what I want." Because, in my experience, the happy accidents created by continuing to shoot even after you feel you "have one in the bag" is one of the joyful aspects of loosening the tight grip of the need for control. 

I'm liking the Fuji more and more as I use it more and more. With some cameras the charm is front-loaded and a few months later I'm looking for something new. With cameras like the Fuji I'm a bit diffident and stand-offish at first; almost challenging the camera to win me over, and then, months later I really don't understand how I could have lived without it.

Besides the optical viewfinder with the bright lines the other thing about the camera that endears me to it is the ability to use the in-camera crop to see a 50mm version of the file and to commit that to a Jpeg. 

I have several wishes about the whole X100V line. First, I'd like to see several more models of the camera. Especially one on which the actual focal length is 35mm giving me a native 50mm equivalent lens, in full frame speak. It would be especially cool if the finder magnification was matched to that focal length. I would also like to see a version of the camera that's got a 14mm lens giving me a 21mm equivalent focal length. It would come bundled with a 21mm bright line optical finder that fits into the hot shoe. The combination of the 21mm and 50mm lensed cameras would be an amazing system for a super-light travel system for professional and addicted aficionados of quick photography. 

Also, I would love for Fuji to lose the Q menu button altogether. It's poorly placed. They might consider what Leica have done for a quick menu. With the SL2 one press of the "menu" button brings up the user customizable quick menu. A second press of the button takes you to the full menu. It's a very elegant way t  get rid of an extra button on the back of the camera which inevitably gets accidentally pushed just when you don't need or want it. 

That's pretty much my complete wish list for the camera. 

I bought a used one in chrome and always thought I'd like the black better. So when I had a little extra cash I picked up a black one as well. Now I have both and to be honest I always like shooting with the chrome one better. It's more "obviously" an amateur carry-around camera in appearance and because of that it's better ignored by most people on the street. The black looks really nice but the chrome matches my earliest perceptions of the "rightness" of cameras. I can't wait until Summer when the lighter finish of the chrome camera delivers more value by staying cooler in bright sun. Nice to have a choice. 

Here's some photos from yesterday: 

The photographer is not wearing a headlamp she is wearing a plastic face shield.

Shot next to the Austin City Limits Studio at the W Hotel. 

Brushed metal for nice reflections at night.

This book was tossed in the car to look at while having coffee at the park.

I'd forgotten how bad the writing and commentary was but how 

beautiful some of the black and white photos of famous fashion 

models being casually nude were.

Austin is a patchwork of dead plants and plants that survived all odds. 

A hardy little fellow down by the convention center. 

Crusty, old photographer with a shiny camera. Face mask is from Van Gogh's "Starry Night." 

Yes. These are intended to be "dark." I shot them after the sunset. A tour through the sidewalks with the SL2 and the 50 S-Pro. All shot at f2.2. ISOs from 1600 to 5600.