One Camera Is Gone, And It Is Probably Not The One You Would Expect
In 2019, I was fortunate to obtain two new cameras that were an excellent accompaniment to my Fujifilm X-Pro 1 and supplemented each other: a new Fujifilm X100F and a used Leica M4.
As I wrote, these three cameras became my Trinity.
The X-Pro 1 was going to be my exchangeable-lens camera for when I wanted to create images with wide-angle (broader than 35mm full-frame equivalent) or longer lenses.
The X100F (with its 35mm full-frame equivalent lens) and the Leica M4 (with its 35mm Summaron) would be my daily go-to cameras, depending on whether I wanted to shoot digital or analogue.
This setup worked well; I created many street and social documentary-style images and essays with these three tools.
And now I broke the Trinity up.
What happened?
Did one of the cameras break? Did I not like any of them anymore?
Fortunately, none of those.
One of my daughters went to study abroad in September of this year and wanted to take a real camera with her. Although she has the ubiquitous iPhone, she wanted a real camera (insert dad doing a happy dance).
After researching several alternatives and the cost involved, I decided that I was going to give her the X100F.
Yup, I parted with this lovely camera to give my daughter an excellent tool and a fantastic shooting experience.
It is easy to set the Fujifilm X100F up as a 'point and shoot camera, and if she wants to go manual, that is still a possibility.
So there you have it: the X100F is no longer part of my daily toolkit.
While my daughter was thrilled with this decision - and she is making great memories with the X100F in Bonny Scotland - it gave me a challenge and an opportunity.
Without the X100F and its 23mm lens (35mm full-frame equivalent), I no longer had a direct digital match to the 35mm Summaron on the Leica M4. Because the only lenses I had for the X-Pro 1 were a Fujinon 18mm/1.2, a Fujinon 35mm/1.4, a Fujinon 35mm/1.2 XF, and a TTArtisan 50mm/1.2.
All great lenses, which I still use today, but none of them are a direct match to the 35mm angle of the Summaron.
Enter the TTArtisan 23mm/1.4
After some deliberation and research, I decided on this lens for several reasons.
It is extremely reasonably priced.
It is small.
It has a nice, solid feel to it.
It balances nicely on the X-Pro 1.
It looks cool.
And most importantly, it delivers excellent image results.
Considering this, I couldn't find a lens with a better price/quality ratio.
And there is another spec to this lens, which for me is essential: it has a distance/aperture scale which allows for zone and hyperfocal focusing! Unfortunately, the only Fujinon 23mm lens with this feature (the 23mm/1.4 R) is just over seven times more expensive.
[note: I have no affiliation with TTArtisan or Pergear, and I purchased this lens myself]
So now I am back to two daily cameras: the Leica M4 with the 35mm Summaron and the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with the 23mm TTArtisan, which makes life also a bit easier because I don't have to choose between three cameras when going out on the street.
The images below are the first results of shooting with the TTArtisan 23mm (all are SOOC jpegs).
Admittedly, there is some learning curve since the lens is fully manual and does not communicate with the camera. I am finding, however, that the use of this lens is not much different from using the Summaron (all Leica devotees now probably are shaking their heads and un-friending me). And zone focusing even allows me to get great results using the X-Pro1's OVF.
