Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Shopping Report - Tokyo Camera Shopping a Bust...

Fujifilm XPro
Image Source: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/fujifilmxpro1

One of the things I always look forward to when I visit Japan is going to the camera store. I usually end up at BIC Camera in Hibiya, Tokyo.

This year, I was hoping to get my hands on the Panasonic Lumix DMW-GFC1 fisheye conversion lens for my 14mm f2.5. It is not available yet, even here in Japan, even though it was announced in January of this year.

I had some reserved hopes of seeing the recently-announced Olympus 75mm f1.8; that was also not in the cards.

So, what did I see that was interesting? The Canon G1X, which I handled just long enough to see that the finder is pretty small and squinty; the Olympus OM-D (a mock-up, actually), which I must say is very attractive. It really does remind you of the OM-1, which the store had displayed right next to it. Hmm. Could be a real market stealer for Panasonic. The Ricoh GXR with Leica M module, which is not a lot different than adapting Leica lenses to Micro 4/3 cameras, in my view.

But, I must say, the star of the show for me is the Fujifilm XPro. This is a full-size, well-built camera. If you didn't see the labels, you may confuse it with a Leica rangefinder. The glass, especially the 35mm f1.4, is also big, precison-mounted, fast, and beautiful. Given the quality of Fuji optics, this tempts me to take on a new lens mount. I haven't looked into it closely enough to really consider the investment, but the form factor and lenses are just, wow.

So, I walked out without buying a single thing. Still waiting on that DMW-GFC1 - Panasonic, are you listening?

DMC-365.blogspot.com


 

No comments:

Post a Comment