Hey there,
so, how's going there, is it all right? Did you buy some new gear or did you find a cure for G.A.S.? Hey, if you found any please don't share it with me ;-)
So, about 3 years ago I uploaded this [https://www.flickr.com/photos/giovanniaprea/8348768879/stats/] and keep wondering how comes so many hits, it is responsible for most of my Flickr visits, dunno how comes but I thought I would upload an updated version.
What happened in the meantime? Not much, you would notice that I used to post more often before than I do now, I ended up being more interested into the gear than into taking pictures, dunno if it's a sign of age or what and I always promise myself to quit this trend and to go back and shoot but it always looks like something is missing, at this moment in time I miss a wide angle lens and I could have just skipped buying a new Fuji X system or an old fetish such as a D2Xs which proudly sits on my shelf, oh, no the quintuplet of Contax/Yashica lenses along the left edge of the pic were a present off of a friend who did inert them from his dad and who didn't take any care of them, it's so sad cos there is a magnificent Distagon 35/1.4 which only serves as a paper holder but, hey, they are so damn nice, nowadays pro gear feels like a toy when compared to those. There is a 135/2.8 which I paired just once to the tiny Fuji X-Pro1 whose focus peaking comes so handy and when I realized the test pic I took of my mum looks like something I have never seen before I had to admit that those who claim the Zeiss 3D effect are right, that's another planet, another league...
What about the bulky D2Xs? Ohhhh, bought it just to fulfill a fetish, it came pristine, I took it to service even though I knew it would sit on the shelf but I like things to be fully working, imagine that the strap is still bent like it came out of the box, less than 15K shutter actuations, it sure is a dinosaur compared to modern cameras but handling it gives me a kind of difficult to describe pleasure, it just seems like a natural extension of my shoulder/arm/hand, balance is perfect, viewfinder is a pleasure to look through and the burst reminds me of my months in the navy when we had the duty/honor to shoot with the MG, what was back in the war times called la Machine de Guere, 600 shots per minute, we only had like 15-20 bullets each and with a single pressure on the trigger the thrill was already gone, same with the D2Xs, well, think about this, my first serious digital camera was/is a Fuji S5Pro which so many satisfactions gave me, it's "burst", in lucky circumstances, is around 1-1.5fps and even my amazing D800 isn't really a shotgun so when hitting the D2Xs shutter makes me feel "wow" :-D
What else, oh yes, there sitting on the boxes the old lenses my dad bought before I was even born, they are pre Ai era, a 28/3.5, a 50/s, 85/1.8 and 200/4, incredible to my eyes but they carry no fungus, no scratches no stuck focus ring or diaphragm blades, they work smooth as they were brand new, I did try to use them but am not a manual focus guy, honestly they are not all something to tell home about but when I decided to sit the camera on a tripod and nailed my son's eye with the 85 and the 50 I thought that, true, cubic miles of water flew under bridges, Nano coatings, VR, VRII bla bla bla but to my unexperienced eye most of it is just marketing, maybe those simple schemes are still efficient, who knows, same goes for the C/Y ones, I thought the Planar 50/1.7 would be poor when compared to the Fujinon 18-55 I compared it to when mounted on the Fuji X-Pro1 but, hey, again, the 3D feel it renders, the smooth bokeh and color transition, damn, what a pity it can't mount on the Fuji S5Pro, it would have been an in heaven match.
Oh, I was in the quest for something longer than my 85/1.8G which I just adore but shorter than the old 300/4ED and not as heavy as the 80-200, I did chase the old but reliable 180ED but ended up on a Sigma, ok ok, wait, I only had one Sigma before and it was with my first D-SLR, a Canon 20D to which I gave a Sigma 24-70 old generation and when I sold it I went to light a candle to Saint Bresson, phew, I said myself I would never buy one anymore, I had to rethink about it, this 150/2.8 is super sharp, built like a tank and really really smooth with background, it lead me to think that some other Sigma might reach the crew there but every time I make such a thought i see the lens in a comics like cloud and nearby there is another cloud with my bank's manager with blood red eyes, horns and a big fork in his right hand...
So far I gotta say I like the petite Fuji X-Pro1 which is my to go camera for landscapes along with the 14/2.8 and casual portrait one with the mighty 35/1.4 which is sharper than a sword but whose background doesn't excite me, on the other hand I do love the D800 with the 85/1.8, it's just magic and, hey, I had the pleasure to use the old 85/1.4D which has been a fetish of mine for looooong time but it was just meh, wonderful to handle cos of its build but nothing to scream miracle especially when I think it is 3 to 4 times the cost of its poor cousin I own.
I left a little bit of room on the desk to fit a wide angle to come some day and the idea to buy a couple rolls to fill the F3 is going round and round my sick brain, if there only still was somebody developing them...
Thank you for reading and for your appreciation folks, as you can see photography is not just about collecting and shooting but it also evokes memories as well as to pull down thoughts.
Thank you all for making of this the only hobby I still carry on since almost 15 years and a special thank to my son Aldo who's the responsible, in the good and the bad, of me picking back up a camera, it was after his birth that I got that silvery Canon G2 to start to collect memories of my best friend growing and growing and still, after 15 years, he never says no when I ask him to pose for me to test some of my new toys, grazie Aldo!!!
