Hmm… Two years since the last post, titled ‘No year without mountains’. I guess I may have jinxed myself a bit there… I’m very much still alive though – but family-life just doesn’t leave as much time for neither photography (at least not the kind involving other things than, well, family-life) nor blog-writing, as I had gotten used to.
Even though I still do manage to take a picture here or there, this year I somewhat realized that my trusty D750 (and the 24-120mm lens on it), as amazing as it still is, was probably part of the problem. Being out with a 2-year old often requires you to have both hands available quickly, which really doesn’t match my usual habit of wrapping the camerastrap around my wrist and walking with the camera for prolonged periods. And it’s not really like the D750 fits easily in a pocket either when then having to put it away…
The solution obviously was that I needed a new, second camera! Similarly to a lot of people, I’ve been quite drawn to the retro-style Fuji cameras – and the compact, prime-lens fitted X-100 series seemed a good fit for something that would be somewhat pocketable, and thus might help me get it out more easily when out with the daughter. Wanting an X-100 is one thing though – finding one in stock is a completely different (and much harder) thing. But the idea was there…
Instead I started looking at similarly-sized / looking cameras without a fixed lens, and seeing whether there was a decent pancaky-sized lens available for any of them – without it costing half a fortune. In the end I settled on staying with Nikon (yay!), and got a Zfc with a 26mm f/2.8 pancake lens. From what I can see it’s about the same size as the X-100, roughly the same focal length, quite a bit cheaper, and actually available to buy! And – it takes great pictures, is a lot of fun to use, much easier to carry around, and just to top it off, looks pretty amazing too.
One of the first places we got to try it out was on our summer holidays in Tuscany – with trips to Pisa and Lucca in the mid-day heat, carrying around all the stuff you need for a family of three, the Zfc definitely proved its usefulness, and allowed me to get a few pictures of the charming cityscape too.
I haven’t completely forgotten about the D750 though, and got to bring that for a few hikes in the autumn and winter. First a November day hike around the Mythenregion, getting above the clouds and fog of the lowlands (quite similar to our trip to Rigi, 3 years ago), and then a long and cold December-weekend in Lenzerheide. I hope it’s easy enough to spot which pictures are from where in the gallery below ;)
Here’s to hoping that 2025 will bring more good pictures, and maybe even another post in the blog!
