W/NW The Streets of Yokohama!

The Streets of Yokohama​
U69954.1713769934.1.jpg

Sony A7III camera
Voigtländer 50mm f1.5 Heliar Classic SC VM lens
April 2024 - Yokohama, Japan​
 
OP., please forgive me for 'drifting' a bit as is usual for me, but I have a sort of 'tech' question for you.

As I see it, you seem to have quite an arsenal of cameras, Fuji, Sony and who knows what else. Ditto lenses. Your camera shelves must be bulging like mine, with interesting bits and pieces.

I reckon you are rather like me, and you tend to hang on to your gear. I buy, I use for a while (usually a long while), I see something newer I like and want, I buy it, and I use it. The previous incumbent goes on the shelf, but I make sure it gets used at least a few times every year, to keep the loose bits working. Like the photographer...

Eventually when I've floated off to (I hope) another avatar, someone will inherit either a small fortune in good cameras or a pile of mostly unsaleable junque. So far the jury is out on this one, but by the time it comes to pass I will be well beyond caring about it, ha!

Would you care to tell us about your cameras, from a user viewpoint?

A friend has offered me an XH1 at a not to be missed price, about half of what it sold new. With the battery grip, which makes it a double whammy good value. I don't really know the camera, and the few Fuji web sites I've deled into for info on it haven't really satisfied my OCD quest for useful information. She wants to sell as she finds it too heavy for travel. My XE2 satisfies this requirement perfectly for me, but it's old and it has its limitations. So I'm considering the XH1 as an upgrade. Again, your thoughts about this, please.

Should I? Or maybe blow the budge and buy the newer (and hideously more expensive here in AUS, given our US $0.63 cent kangaroo dollar and the disgusting high prices for just about everything, imported or locally produced, which is ridiculous but there you are) XH2, available as new if at a high price from a highly reputable dealer in Melbourne.

Any advice you will give on this will be greatly appreciated. Then we can get back to the basic point of your thread, which is to admire and comment on your most excellent images. Many thanks.

(Added later) Still wading thru your library of fine pix, on page 25 I noted you have an XH1. Which for me, makes your thoughts about this camera all the more worth while. Again, many thanks in advance.
 
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Hello DownUnder, I’m so happy that you’re enjoying all the Yokohama pictures.

This is what I can tell you about my Fujifilm X-H1.

I bought it after the X-H1 had already been discontinued. It was new and on the shelf at the camera store in Yokohama that I always deal with. It was significantly marked down in price from what the X-H1 originally sold for (which was way too expensive). As soon as I held it in my hand I knew I wanted it; It fit my hand like a glove!

The X-H1 is kind of big and heavy compared to most other Fujifilm cameras and that’s why I wanted it. When I use larger Fujinon lenses like the XF 35mm f1.4, 56mm f1.2, 80mm f2.8, and the 50-140mm f2.8 I want a bigger camera body with a nice size grip to balance things out. For me, the X-H1 is perfect for hand-held use with those bigger lenses.

I have zero complaints about the X-H1 but then I’m an easy going guy that probably doesn't notice a lot of small things that would probably drive other people nuts.

I should also mention that I don’t fully utilize all the X-H1’s capabilities. I don’t make videos and supposedly that’s one of the things that the X-H1 excels at.

Now for the X-E4.

My X-E4 is the first and only X-E camera I’ve owned so I can’t compare it to any others. What I will say is that the X-E4 is the most minimalistic digital camera I’ve ever owned. There are no bells and whistles with this thing. I don’t mind that it just took a little getting used to it.

When I bought my X-E4 I most certainly didn’t need it. But, it was on sale and it looked cool so I bought it! I put the Fujifilm brand leather half case on it and that makes a big difference to me. I usually pair it with one of these XF lenses: 16mm f2.8, 18mm f2, 27mm f2.8 or the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm f1.2 (X-mount) lens.

The X-E4 is not a go-to camera for me but I like it and plan to keep it.

Well that’s about it for me. If you have any specific questions about either camera, please feel free to ask.

All the best,
Mike
 
Mike, many thanks from me for your generous advice.

Like you with your XE4, my XE2 is with me to stay. It's small and portable and for an almost decade-old camera it still efficiently does what it does for me with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of satisfaction. As well, somehow it frees me emotionally to do a different sort of photography from the 'mannered' building shots I so often end up with, to a new style of more people-oriented visuals, which is a good thing.

AS for the XH1, I'm still negotiating for it, sort of. A complication has arisen, in that the friend who has offered to sell it is rather a little princess, recently she saw one on sale in a Melbourne camera shop for a higher price than what she was asking, and she promptly pushed up her price. Which I nixed, reason given that if I buy it for the same price from a shop I will get a one year warranty on it, but yet from her.

She has pulled similar stunts on others before and as a result she is increasingly being 'frozen out' of our local circle of friends, which has upset her. So for now, having spoken my piece and ticked her off for her perfidy, I am being silent and lying low. I will either get the camera at her original asked price or I won't get it. Que sera sera. Annoying as all this is, such things happen in real life.

Your reasons for using and enjoying this camera are very much similar to mine for wanting it, which I appreciated.

MayI say, your street images have stimulated me to the point that I want to do more of this genre of photography, not so much in Australia where people react badly to cameras being pointed at them, rather in Asia, notably in Indonesia where I tend to hang out. A smaller camera than the XH1 could well be more suited to my new interest in a 'looser' way of photographing. I will keep this in mind while I wait and see what happens with the our perfidious friend and her chopping and changing about her XH1.

Again, thanks for all your generous input. I greatly appreciate the time you took to write your response to my query.

I will now return to perusing the rest of this site and admiring all the marvelous images you have posted. Being me, I'm working backwards, now at page 25 and enjoying it immensely...
 
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