The Big Lies
Why do I fall for the big lies over and over again?
I could blame the camera industry. I could blame the camera review juggernaut. I could blame anti-social media. The truth is the I am responsible for the big lies I tell myself. I should know better. I do know better. Xanadu does not exist in a new camera system.
I mused over the all-or-nothin’ approach to photography a while ago. Targeting my ire on the system, meaning the big bulky pile of gear most of us acquire that allows us to make pictures of anything and everything imaginable. We buy into a camera system with great care and intent. Scratch that, we buy into a camera ecosystem over and above the camera system itself. Isn’t that the deal maker or breaker of why there are Canon people, Nikon people, Sony People, and now Fuji people? Isn’t that one of the usual suspects in continuous internet flame wars between the factions? Remember way back when Fuji dared to enter the market of the system camera?
We all ask the same questions. What lenses are available, what lenses will be available, what does capability exists in the range of bodies, how often do they get refreshed and made better, is there a bunch of third party support, on and on…
Fujifilm released the original X100. I was instantly on board. Remember the original X100 website? There was nothing there with any specs or detail. There was a sign-up to be updated and notified about this new camera. I didn’t hesitate, count me in. Forever and a day later, or what felt like forever, boom it was available at a steep price. I bought one. Another eternity went by until ending up on my doorstep. I loved it, I took trips with only the X100. I upgraded it to the X100s. The X System was released around that time.
The system nagged and nagged me calling from deep down where the big lies come from. “Wouldn’t you like a 50mm instead of this 35mm welded onto the front of the X100”? That voice kept it up. I couldn’t help myself, the big lie grew into more and more big lies. I hit the button, adding the X Pro-1 to the cart along with the 35mm 1.4. I became giddy with the lies flowing now. The 60mm and the 18mm were a great value. I’m going to get them anyway, why not now? This might even replace my Canon system. So much smaller and so much lighter, yep any day now I can get rid of that bulky horrible Canon system.
More XF lenses piled up, ”better” lenses shoed up. All I needed to do was just pile more system stuff into the X kit to achieve photographic nirvana. Just a few more things and I’ll give Canon the heave-ho. I’ll have a system that can do everything, any time, anywhere. This is the system I’ll love taking everywhere covering all eventualities.
The same camera bags used for my Canon system were filled with Fuji gear now. The Canon system was still here. I just had two sets of bags, the same camera bags, the same size. Nothing was replaced and I didn’t find nirvana. I didn’t love carrying the Fuji system any more than I loved carrying the Canon system. I did devise and rationalize when and why I took the Fuji system with. I didn’t enjoy it any more than the Canon stuff.
Time for another big lie. The X Pro-2 was the lie. There’s the problem, it’s the X Pro-1. That’s why I still have the Canons and all that junk. Boom, the X Pro-2 arrives. Thank goodness it fit in my camera bag with the X Pro-1 as a backup. Now I’ll just love taking the Fuji X system with me so much more than I liked taking the Canon system and I’ll get rid of it. I’ll have achieved the goal. Now I have a system that I love carrying everywhere to tackle any job anywhere.
Wait a second, my Fuji system is now joyless and I force myself to take it with me when I am not working because it’s there. It exists to have fun when I’m not working but it now can cover work stuff as well. Come to think of it, I don’t bother taking everything when I do work with the Canon but I take everything for not work with the Fuji, just in case something comes up I feel like making pictures of. WTF? What did I do? What was wrong with my Canon again? What did I love about the Fuji? In the immortal words of the Talking Heads; “You may find yourself in a large house with a beautiful wife, you may ask yourself well, how did I get here”.
You may find yourself in a large house with a beautiful wife, you may ask yourself well, how did I get here…
What a distraction, none of the photographers that inspired me covered all the bases. None of them ran to and fro swapping ultra-wide lenses for telephoto pointing their cameras at every opportunity that might bear fruit. Come to think of it, they all kept things pretty simple. Like I do when left to my own devices. When making things I’m interested in I’ve never used an ultra-wide, I do that for effect, on jobs. A 300mm equivalent, that’s for the couple of times I need to make a picture for a job that looks like this other one a client showed me. I rarely venture past 85mm. I rarely use an 85mm.
I made pictures of the X Pro-2 and all the lenses that hook on the front. I made those pictures for eBay with my Canon and a 24-105mm f4L. Sold, I realized again that I don’t want a system most of the time. The only reason I own a system is to do a variety of specific jobs. Most of those jobs I’m not interested in doing most of the time. I certainly am not interested in being prepared to do those jobs every time I walk out of the house with a camera. The big lies are that you need the capability to do those jobs all the time, everywhere, on-demand. The big lies are that jobs you’ve never done are just waiting to jump out when you’re not equipped to do them. The big lies may be fueled a tiny bit by all those that one could blame but the biggest lies are the lies you tell yourself.